Energy researchers find hydrogen a clean and
renewable source of energy. The search has been so far is to find a way to
use the energy available in volumes at a cheap cost.
The question arises is can solar panels convert
sunlight into clean-burning zero-emissions hydrogen to keep us all warm both at
home and work?
The answer is yes! It is very near to reality, as
Bioscience engineers at KU Leuven,
located in Flanders, Belgium, announced that they created a solar panel that
uses sunlight to make hydrogen from the moisture in the air. The device can
produce up to 250 litres of hydrogen gas per day and this is a world record.
The team led by Professor Johan Martens from the
Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, part of the bio-engineering faculty
of KU Leuven, are working on this for a decade. They have developed a device
that can turn sunlight and water vapor into hydrogen gas in a sustainable way.
The device looks like an ordinary solar panel. The engineers attached a flask
with water to the device so that they could see the hydrogen bubbles escape.
Initially, the hydrogen produced was quite little. Recently, a demonstration on
a cloudy day, observers saw a large quantity of hydrogen bubbles appeared as
soon as the demonstration panel moved into the sunlight.
Martens stated that it was a mix of chemistry and physics.
He also added that they initially had a 0.1 percent yield, but after ten years
of work, they could see the hydrogen molecules coming up in bubbles. Researcher
Jan Rongés said that over an entire year the panel could produce an average of
250 litres (66 gals) per day. An array of twenty such panels can produce sufficient
heat and electricity to get through the winter in a very well insulated house
and still have excess electricity.
Meanwhile, the panels are a long way from commercial
production. However, a new prototype was installed at the nearby home of Leen
Peeters, an engineer who has turned her home into a living lab. If the
prototype solar panels work well on the house as they do in the lab, they would
be ground-mounted in her neighborhood.
Rongé states that with hydrogen gas, the risks of
accidents is equal to natural gas. Professor Martens is reportedly excited to
see the prototype panels get a full real-world trial. He stated that they want
to develop something sustainable that would be affordable and used anywhere in
the world. He and his team are quite optimistic and they reiterate that ‘the
sky’s the limit’.
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