Harvesting Hydrogen with Sun and Mirrors

Aug-04-13 Using a series of mirrors and sunlight, a team from CU-Boulder has developed a more cost-efficient way of harvesting hydrogen, which could help make hydrogen more attractive as an eco-friendly fuel.

The solar-thermal system was designed to concentrate sunlight onto a single point atop a tower using a huge array of mirrors. As the tower gathered the heat, which would reach about 2500 degree F, the heat would be transferred to a reactor containing metal oxides. Heating the metal oxides to such a high degree causes the release of oxygen atoms, and, when steam is added to the system, the oxides would attract the oxygen atoms and leave the hydrogen behind to be gathered.

The new technique improves upon current methods by allowing the two chemical reactions to take place at the same temperature.

More Info about this Invention:

[DVICE.COM]
[CU-BOULDER]

---