Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: How to turn water into rocket fuel - scientists unlock power of the sun

Scientists have devised a cheap and simple method of turning water into
rocket fuel using solar power in a development that could generate a new
source of green energy for the home and workplace.
The researchers used electricity from solar panels to split water into
oxygen and hydrogen - the constituents of rocket fuel - with a technology
that scientists believe could solve many of the problems that have hampered
the development of solar energy.
With the help of a simple and yet highly efficient "chemistry set" made out
of commonly available materials, the scientists have found a way of storing
solar energy as a chemical fuel that can be used to power pollution-free
electricity generators known as hydrogen fuel cells.
Until now the concept has stagnated because it has been too costly and
difficult to use solar-generated electricity to split water into oxygen and
hydrogen in a domestic setting, but the new method relies on the discovery
of a catalyst that speeds up the conversion of water into high-energy fuel.
Daniel Nocera of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, said
the discovery could remove one of the major obstacles that has prevented
solar power from being taken up widely as a viable alternative to fossil
fuels such as oil and gas.
"The discovery has enormous implications for the large-scale deployment of
solar since it puts us on the doorstep of a cheap and easily manufactured
storage mechanism. The ease of implementation means that this discovery will
have legs," Dr Nocera said.
Being able to use solar panels to build up a store of chemical energy that
is easily transported would revolutionise the way solar energy can be used.
It not only means that it could power a building at night, it also means it
could be carried around to power electric vehicles running on hydrogen fuel
cells.
The secret of the breakthrough, published in the journal Science, lies in
the type of electrodes used to generate oxygen and hydrogen when they are
inserted into water. The scientists made them from a cobalt-phosphate
mixture which acted as a catalyst that speeds up the splitting of water
molecules into their components - oxygen and hydrogen.
"The simplicity of this process is amazing. Using common and affordable
elements, and a glass of water, these chemists may have given us a future
way to efficiently obtain oxygen by splitting water," said Luis Echegoyen,
director of the chemical division of the US National Science Foundation,
which funded the work.
Dr Nocera said that sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source
to solve the world's energy problems given that in one hour enough energy
from the Sun strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs
for a year.
The technique of using sunlight to split water lies at the basis of
photosynthesis, the way plants convert the energy of sunlight into a
chemical store that can be used for growth, but emulating the biological
process has not been easy. Existing methods of splitting water using
electrolysis are used in industry but are not suited for artificial
photosynthesis as they are expensive and cumbersome to use on the sort of
small scales needed for homes and offices.
Within a decade, Dr Nocera predicts that people will be powering their homes
in the daytime from photovoltaic solar panels, and using the spare energy to
generate that hydrogen that will power fuel cells at night with little or no
pollution. "This is just the beginning. The scientific community is really
going to run with this," Dr Nocera said.
How the new electrodes work
* Sunlight hits the photovoltaic cells of a solar panel and is converted
into electricity. Spare capacity is sent to electrodes placed in a tank of
water.
* As electricity runs through each electrode, a chemical catalyst made of a
cobalt-phosphate mixture lining their surfaces speeds up the rate at which
water is split into oxygen and hydrogen.
* The two gases bubble up to the surface and are collected separately and
stored in safety canisters. The catalyst covering the electrodes renews
itself spontaneously.
* Hydrogen is used as a fuel to drive a generator known as a hydrogen fuel
cell, which can power a vehicle or the home at night. Oxygen can be combined
with hydrogen to produce energy-rich fuel.
* Scientists are trying to work out exactly how the catalyst works and hope
to refine the technique further. They plan to experiment with other
catalysts, such as platinum, which is know to speed up the rate at which
hydrogen can be made when electrodes are placed in water.
* The system should also be able to work with electricity generated by wind
turbines, which also suffer the problem of variable power caused by
differences in wind speed. The energy of the wind can be stored for when it
is calm.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-to-turn-water-into-rocket-fuel-ndash-scientists-unlock-power-of-the-sun-882613.html
-- 
Give us back our countries: Stop the criminal multiculturalism ideology
enforced upon the white world against the will of its peoples, leading to
mass immigration from the third-world: Mul-cul + pol-corr = lethal mixture
for the white world. And give us back our freedom: Dismantle all
surveillance technology.

 rocket fuel
invece mio nonno ha inventato la macchina per tagliare il brodo!
-- 
Pugnettisher=lo prende ar colon


Perché un rapporto sull'una invenzione possibilemente rivoluzioare è brodo?
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---snip---
Ma va?
Non mi dire che gli scientists hanno reinventato l'idrolisi!
Giovanni Cesaretti
-- 
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
Working Class Hero, John Lennon

 Non mi dire che gli scientists hanno reinventato l'idrolisi!
Hanno inventato un catalisatore che accelera il processo conosciuto, se l'ho 
capito bene. E questo sembra di essere la cosa decisiva.
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