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A MIT researcher has demonstrated a reaction which resembles the photosynthesis process that plants make each day which means that from now on solar power could be deployed at world scale. Using catalysts developed by the chemist, he showed a video where oxygen was generated from water, just like plants do it in photosynthesis.
“I’m going to show you something I haven’t showed anybody yet,” said Daniel Nocera, the MIT chemist. After the lights were tuned off, he pointed to the video and asked - “Can you see that?” Then he explained - “Oxygen is pouring off of this electrode. This is the future. We’ve got the leaf.” This means that the most difficult obstacle was overcame as from now on we efficiently produce hydrogen gas by splitting water thanks to his catalysts.
This is very important as solar power could be deployed at worldwide and it could remove our dependence on fossil fuels. Solar power cannot replace oil with solar panels as solar cells are not very efficient and the sun doesn’t shine all day long. All this can change now, and we could use the catalysts and light to split water to generate hydrogen fuel which could power our cars. Also, according to Nocera, the catalysts could split seawater and if the hydrogen will be processed in a fuel cell then it will produce fresh water.
During recent history many scientists tried to get energy from the sun by resembling photosynthesis and their attempts were successful. The problem is that this process requires high temperatures, expensive catalysts, and harsh alkaline solutions, so it cannot be deployed at world-scale. Well, this will change as Nocera’s catalysts are cheap and they split water in oxygen and hydrogen at room temperature.
According to Nocera, this process could be used in two ways - one would use solar panels to capture the light coming from the sun and the electricity that will be generated will power an electrolyzer which will split water thanks to these new and cheap catalysts. The other way would require a system that resembles a leaf as the catalysts will be positioned near dye molecules. How will this work? Well, the dye molecules will capture the sunlight and then the catalysts will do their job and split the water to get hydrogen for a later use.
Although there were many scientists and chemists who questioned Nocera’s catalysts, he is very confident of the success of his system.
“With this discovery, I totally change the dialogue. All of the old arguments go out the window,” explained Nocera.
For the moment, solar power provides only 1 percent of the energy demand in the US and if the demand will grow up to 10 percent then utility companies will have to do something when the sun doesn’t shine. According to Ryan Wiser, scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA, utilities could invest a lot of money in energy storage, however, the companies also have a cheaper option in developing natural gas plants that will replace solar power when it’s not available.
“Electrical storage is just too expensive,” concluded Wiser.
The situation changes when we talk about 20 percent of the energy demand as then solar power will contribute to the base load power which is the amount of power required for the minimum energy demand. For the moment, the base load power is supplied by coal power plants. In order to replace coal, solar power needs to be harnessed 24/7 even if the weather is cloudy. As the sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day, solar power cannot become the most important source of energy in the country.
Another problem is that the solar power-generated electricity cannot be stored efficiently. A good comparison was made by Nathan Lewis from Caltech who said that one kilogram of water pumped uphill, then sent through a turbine would store one kilojoule of energy, meanwhile one kilogram of oil stores 45,000 kilojoules. Lewis added that batteries are also expensive and very inefficient as they store 300 watts per kilogram, meanwhile oil stores 13,000 watts per kilogram.
“The numbers make it obvious that chemical fuels are the only energy-dense way to obtain massive energy storage,” concluded Lewis.
Nocera began studying the process of photosynthesis as of 1984, however, he didn’t start to mimic the process right away. This happened in 2004 when chemists from the Imperial College London discovered a very important protein which was responsible for the release of oxygen from water.
“As soon as we saw this, we could start designing systems,” said Nocera.
In order to fully understand the process, Nocera tried a very different approach - he reversed the reaction and combined oxygen with electrons and protons to get water and he noticed that cobalt-based compounds were the best catalysts so he used them to also split water. When these catalysts failed, he said “let’s forget all the elaborate stuff and just use cobalt directly.”
Nocera was surprised to see that the cobalt worked so good and the success of the experiment made him realize how lucky he was.
“There was no reason for us to expect that just plain cobalt with phosphate, versus cobalt being tied up in one of our complexes, would work this well. I couldn’t have predicted it. The stuff that was falling out of the compounds turned out to be what we needed,” admitted the chemist.
However, Nocera was intrigued by the fact that cobalt worked so well and he wanted to understand why.
“I want to know why the hell cobalt in this thin film is so active. I may be able to improve it or use a different metal that’s better. We were really interested in the basic science. Can we make a catalyst that works efficiently under the conditions of photosynthesis? The answer now is yes, we can do that. Now we’ve really got to get to the technology of designing a cell.”
Despite Nocera’s scientific proof, many scientists questioned his discovery and they said it’s overrated. Even Nocera’s mentor, Thomas Meyer said that “the claim that this is the answer for artificial photosynthesis is crazy” because there is “no guarantee that it can be scaled up or even made practical” and he also added that this is only a “research finding” rather than a breakthrough.
Nocera was also chaffed by John Turner, a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO who said that “at least what he’s published so far would never work for a commercial electrolyzer, where the current density is 800 times to 2,000 times greater.” Another fellow researcher who questioned Nocera’s finding, was Ryan Wise who said that “electrolysis is inefficient, so why would you do it?”
One of the scientists who believed in Nocera’s discovery was Michael Grätzel, chemistry and chemical engineering professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland. Grätzel said that Nocera was very excited and that “he took me to a restaurant and bought a tremendously expensive bottle of wine.”
Grätzel says that he has a way to make Nocera’s discovery practical as in 1991 he developed a futuristic solar cell where the electrons were collected by a titanium-oxide film to generate electricity, instead of setting them off during the electrolysis. Using his cell and Nocera’s catalysts, Grätzel believes that he develop an artificial leaf that would capture sunlight and split water in a process that resembles photosynthesis.
Nocera is very confident that soon we will “make fuels from a glass of water.” Although most of the scientists today don’t agree with Nocera, from where I’m looking this could be possible. Hopefully, the MIT chemist will manage to find a practical use for his catalysts and solar power will replace fossil fuels.
I am confused. What distinguishes this methodology from the battery and test-tube electrolysis I used to do when I was a kid? Dragos, could you email me?
Seth Crosby
Washington University
scrosby at wustl.edu
nice science used here
[...] alternative energy source. [...]
Yeah, it’s great to break our dependence on fossil fuels, until we get to the point where we’ve evaporated all the water on planet earth for fuel.
Notwithstanding humanity’s existence, I think this is similar to what happened on Mars; it had a liquid past, so where did the water go? It was stripped off over millions of years by the movement of our solar system throughout our galaxy. This would explain why global warming is a real issue, because Earth is now on the brink of what happened to dry Mars out.
Photosynthesis turns water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbohydrates. Separating water into hydrogen and oxygen would be electrolysis.
Au contraire, using hydrogen for fuel generates water instead of exhaust like hydrocarbon fuels. Ideally, a continuous cycle of breaking water apart for hydrogen fuel and subsequent regeneration of water as a by-product.
With the introduction of more hydrogen powered cars, giving out no waste products, I have always wondered why we simply don’t split the practically unlimited supply of water for fuel and oxygen. Seems this discovery might make it happen.
There are missing the carbohydrate storage tank. Just think, less of need to buy groceries too. You just walk on up to the carbo-dispenser, and wala liquid candy bar. mmmmm. plus the house is powered and your car gets recharged. And you can use the water from your cars exhaust to wash down that lovely carbo-sludge you just ate. mmm mmmm.
The point here is that this guy has found a catalyst efficient enough to split water (by electrolysis)using only solar power. This development is being compared to artificial photosynthesis because early in the light dependent reactions (of photosynthesis) water is split similarly to provide electrons and protons to power the rest of the process. In photosynthesis, the splitting of water is called “photolysis”, pretty much the same thing.
I keep wondering why scientists keep saying that Solar Energy is not efficient and they simply pass on by, leaving it at that. The next move, it seems to me, is to find out how to make solar power more and more efficient until it is highly efficient. There are people working on this very prospect and they are making breakthroughs every day.
One team, for example, has developed a way to make black even more black, a deeper black than exists in nature, so that it absorbs huge amounts of light which is then turned into energy. That seems like a promising avenue.
im 13 and ive done this on a larger scale for the science fair. it is very facinating how it works and how it could be used as a battery. thats the equivilant of hydrogen, a battery
Using this method would there be future problems of us running out of water? Wouldn’t that be ironic that our planet that has a 3 to 1 ratio of water to land that we use up every ounce of water to use this system? We can live without oil, we can live without coal and we can live without natural gas, but we cannot live without water.
Find another fuel alternative.
Unless there is something I have missed here.
In other words, No…
There’s something you’ve missed, don’t worry.
i have to thank MIT Researcher Mimics Photosynthesis because he did green work. it will be definitely used in automobile industry as a fuel. in future we don’t want to bother about environmental friendly and green environment.
Now if there would be a breakthrough in grammar, THAT would be exciting. This has fraud written all over it, folks.
such a simple idea, I’m surprised someone did not develop it sooner.
[...] MIT Researcher Mimics Photosynthesis To Turn Water Into Hydrogen … [...]
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we were all aliens on mars….did this already…..forgot….moved to earth…..started here as monkeys…..evolved…..renaisance…….now
I would like to wish Dr. Daniel Nocera and his family a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year . Please do not let the idiotes that think you can destroy an element get you down just ignore them like any body would ignore some body that has never read a book past the first grade of school . I quit school in my my first year of high school and that was the biggest mistake I have made but I have tryed very hard to make up for it in the past years and that was in 1950 so I am not a spring chicken . Having said this when I woke up and started reading I guess you might say I have read a lot of books on the subject I love so much physics . I think my God every day for people like you … Homer Bailey
Water is recycled, it has been for millions of years. This process will not make us lose our water.
Cobalt…. mimic leaves…. say what?
And Cobalt isn’t very ‘green’ to produce, is it?
I say this: almost anything can be labeled ‘green’, if we narrow our focus enough (narrowed such that we exclude vital pertinent informations explaining how we arrived at the ‘green’ deduction). Narrowing a perspectives focus is a marketing ploy, rarely has marketing offered relevant uncluttered truth to the target audience. Every inventor, each backyard physicist, all the creative high school chem students, they all want the opportunity to become the saviour. While I can’t say I’m much different in the ‘wanting to save’ bit, I’ll keep wearing the humility hat, thanks.
Burning hydrogen gas in atmosphere produces NOX’s the precursors to smog; so , while burning hydrogen is clean, it is only clean when burned with pure O2. And O2 is dangerous to store. I’m happy about the discovery, let’s hope it is used intelligently.
This is a great article. People have been trying to make electrolysis more efficient for some time now and now that we have a better catalyst things can really change.
Unfortunately, scientist get the resources to research and experiment if they have money from donations, government funds, and corporate grants. Since money is needed scientist have to find a way to make their findings profitable to companies or a company may be willing to pay to hold the IP to their competition. This is why we’ll see Mercedes or Exxon buying patents that they have no intention of implementing.
Hopefully, we’ll see more privately funded research for the benefit of humanity instead of to the bottom line to companies.
I’m 13 and this discovery gives me a boner. Hell just about anything will give me a boner lately.
Fuel for the “American Dream” - Scientists are locked into an impossible paradigm. The world needs a paradigm shift away from the “American Dream Model” of living to a new lifestyle! New discoveries should form the new paradigm, not the reverse! Do we still want the ancient “crapper” toilet system from 18th Century England in our space-stations? I think not! So, why in our 21st Century homes? Will we bring great green lawns, showing envy of 17th Century aristocracy to Mars? Doubt it! Why this tremendous American Scientific effort to maintain an unsustainable “American Dream” status quo from their recent history? Outside America it appears asinine and hegemonic, xenophobia related and nonsensical! Europeans, with their 40 % more efficient, clean running, turbo diesel engined cars look at Yankee Doodle “spark ignition” 1930’s style sheet-metal and grease-pit technology automobiles and snicker out loud when oil shortages and high gas prices plague Yankee Doodle! If MIT can develop a system using solar energy to store H2 and O2, for me so I can run a small carbon-fiber bodied two seater commuter car and heat my home at night, maybe, just maybe, I should give up my 630 H..P., 230 M.P.H. two tonne Corvette, and my McMansion and live within my means! No matter what the advertisers may have sold the fairer sex out to believe, about themselves and me! Time for the “Big Con” to end, America? I think so!
Well, see the problem with the process would be that we would have to develop a place for the salt to go - from changing sea water to Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Minerals. The minerals of course, could be put back into the ocean, but would make for an even denser, heavier and toxic seawater, affecting millions of fragile niches.
Sure, cars will eventually bring the hydrogen fuel back to water, being released back onto the concrete – BUT, that means more water being evaporated into the sky – and the most harmful and effective atmospheric gas (yes, global warming) is… water vapor. Water vapor has a much higher potential of retaining heat and releasing it slowly into the atmosphere (and there’s obviously been much discussion of what global warming does to the earth)
However, in any case, I’m really excited to see this technology to be put into motion, as for right now, we only have the ability to slow global warming by stopping the use of fossil fuels. We should eventually change the asphalt we use to create our roads too, so that it doesn’t cause further earth-heating, water-vapor creating impact on the earth. More water vapor in the sky would mean more clouds, meaning it wouldn’t be too pretty, and nor would it be too good for the solar panels either…
Also… where does the power come from? The power used to separate the water by electrolysis? Eh? That’s something to think about.
Every great scientist deserves a good beating when he discovers something so magnificent.
Some people here are afraid of using up water. Others say it is recycled naturally. When hydrogen is burned with oxygen, water is reproduced. However, any hydrogen that is released into the atmosphere may be lost. That is to say that hydrogen atoms are so small and light that through collisions with heavier atoms and molecules, hydrogen atoms can reach escape velocity and leave the earth’s orbit. That is why hydrogen gas is not found in large quantities in the atmosphere.
People keep saying, “I can’t believe it!” or “I wish someone had developed this sooner!”.
Are you serious? This has been around forever! There have even been stupid YouTube videos of people doing this same thing for years and years and years. People have been running their generators, mowers, etc. off of straight hydrogen for a long time now. People have been supplementing their gasoline with HHO for a long time now. This isn’t NEW. This is OLD.
You’re just way behind on technology.
The only thing this guy did that a few people haven’t caught onto yet is what many people HAVE done around the world, and that is splitting the Hydrogen atoms and Oxygen atoms into separate lines so that you can not have more oxygen added to your air intake, and instead only get the hydrogen, that way you don’t need one of those stupid computers to make sure your o2 sensor doesn’t tell your cars computer to put more gas in.
Still, for this guy to act like he came up with it, that’s a big fat lie, and anyone that can use YouTube can find that out for themselves. Just go on Google Video and look up “Hydrogen Separation” or “HHO separation” or any sort of variation of those search terms.
This is a very important discovery, to know that cobalt works, more effectively, for making hydrogen.
I have made a hydrogen cell, and installed it in my car, it is making hydrogen, which is used as fuel.
Since a long time i was thinking about, any good metal which can be used in electrolysis to make hydrogen, thanks for your discovery, i will try to use cobalt in my new cell.