Quote:
Originally Posted by Yamhill John
Don't want to break anyone's rice bowl here, but if I remember
my physics this doesn't seem very plausible. Consider that you have to put energy into water, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, to break it down into hydrogen and oxygen. With energy loss because of system thermodynamic inefficiency and Newton's old physical principle of conservation of energy, the amount of energy produced in burning the hydrogen would be less than that expended to generate it. When hydrogen is burned (a low tech word for oxidation), each hydrogen atom combines with two oxygen atoms to make water again.
If we ever get to a hydrogen energy system, we will be using a lot more energy to disassociate hydrogen from water than we will get back from burning the hydrogen.
No, I'm not a physicist, just a dumb engineer (the kind who applies physics to make things work) who took physics and thermodynamics a long time ago.
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The chemistry faculty where I work agree. Its going to take yet to be developed technology to extract the hydrogen with less energy than the hydrogen will provide. Same applies for fuel cell vehicles.
You want to be the next Bill Gates, start working on a solution.