Yep. Technically, wind and/or solar voltaic energy harvesting, followed by electrolysis, hydrogen capture and compression. But it's not economic.

Why not use storage batteries instead of the electrolysis for hydrogen hydrogen production, given that both techniques are energy storage media, and cut out the energy-hungry compression step that has a negative impact on commercial viability?

They are planning on storing the excess capacity in fuel cells and drawing from them as needed. I've talked to a few people trying to develop and manufacture a system for homes. I just want to know if this could be manufactured and sold at an economical cost for either new construction or existing homes.

With existing technology, no. That's the reason why so much money has been pumped into researching this area: to find a cheaper way to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen to be recombined into a fuel cell.

Check out "united nuclear" they make a hydrogen generator. Paladium will absorb quite a lot of hydrgen , but its a little bit exspensive.

oilcan13

Hi PWSlack,

Please see the video in You Tube " Solar Hydrogen Home" The house of

Michacl Strzke at Hopewell N J USA . His total requirement of electricity for the house is derived from solar energy .The electricity obtained from solar energy is used to operate the electroliser to generate Hydrogen and Oxygen from purified tap water .The hydrogen gas thus obtained is stored in the tanks.

Here's a pretty good synopsis of hydrogen production on Wikipedia.

Thanks Everyone,

I needed some more expert advice as to whether or not to invest with these people. Interesting idea thou. Any other comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I needed some more expert advice as to whether or not to invest with these people.

In that case, I believe I would find out how much they know about hydrogen production, do a little research on any method they propose as to its feasibility/viability, and then form an opinion about investing.

It's hard for me to believe that existing methods of hydrogen production can be beat by a start-up company, unless they have made a break-through in their own research. To wit: Economic Efficiency (also from our friends at Wikipedia).

Thanks Bill, These guys are entrepreneurs and not engineers so I am going through my due dilligence with them, and this is part of that process.

Hey, explain the process to us. We are always interested in new stuff. This is a hot topic these days. If they are scammers, we will know. If it will work, we want to know.

I don't think they're scammers, but are really trying to put something together. I'm not PhD but basically, they seperate the Oxygen & Hydrogen, store the hydrogen in a metal canister with some type of material used to contain the hydrogen. Then use those canisters and through some process, recharge fuel cells that are used to store the electricity that the house uses. You get oxygen from the first process and heat which could be used to heat water etc. I'm sure I left a good deal out, but this is what I understand the overall process to be. I'm sure others out there are a lot more familiar with what this is.

Most likely they are using one of the metal hydride processes. This has been demonstrated to be a viable way of storing hydrogen, provided one does not have to transport it far. However, I believe there are not yet any commercial versions of this available. Further, keep in mind that this process will deliver to the end-user only around 60% of the energy required to produce that energy. (USDOE)

This has been studied for a long time. You have to keep in mind that it takes considerable energy to seperate the Hydrogen from the Oxygen; in and ideal situation it would take the exact amount of energy you get back when you react the hydrogen with the oxgen. In reality you can expect 60% efficiency at best. So if you have a 60% efficient system you ned to supply about about 160% of the energy you need to get back from the system to operate the system. Where is that energy comming from?

There's another way to generate hydrogen to fuel a fuel cell: dunk bars of aluminum in water. The aluminum reacts with the water to form aluminum oxide, which results in hydrogen being formed (the aluminum breaks down the water, the oxygen oxidizes the aluminum, and the hydrogen freed can then be used to fuel a fuel cell).

The catch: the surface of aluminum bars in contact with water gets oxidized ... but then the oxide layer 'protects' the aluminum inside from contacting and itself getting oxidized.

The trick: use bars that are something like 20% gallium and 80% aluminum instead. The oxide on the bars flakes off, so 'new' aluminum keeps getting exposed to water, so the hydrogen-producing reaction is maintained. After a while, the bars wear out and get replaced, and (I presume) the aluminum oxide flakes that accumulate somewhere can be recycled.

The technology's been patented (at Purdue University, I think) and is being developed for commercial use.

For more info, have a look at this article: http://www.physorg.com/news107446364.html

Cheers!

DZ

P.S. And I agree with the comments from others ... the thing you've described sounds like a scam or the dream of guys who don't know what they're talking about.

Here is Blink's blue ribbon reply to a similar question

Not much help but may be worth some googling.

About 2-3 years ago there was several H/O methods being lauded
by innovators. One was a helical coil inside a container powered by
a voltage of unusual frequencies; another was a circular drum of holes
which when spun at a critical speed broke down the water, seemingly
by a shear force. etc. All these were widely shown on UK TV (as sliced bread)
and, as they were from the US (mid-west I think) should be easy to look up.

Because nothing more has been heard of them, I suspect they were all
unfounded. (they may have been impounded by the military) however;
this does illustrate the many and varied "systems" available for your money!

Take care.

jt.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV
will be fought with sticks and stones."

There is an exothermic steam reaction to produce hydrogen cheaply. It can even work on demand (estimated 5 second time lag for a cold start) that produces H2 suitable for a fuel cell.

The feed stock is 103 proof ethanol in otherwise pure water. The reaction becomes self sustaining at 500 deg C and runs at 700deg C. The Catalyst is used to get 160% of the H2 from the ethanol. Science publication wording. Mine is the H2 output is equivalent to 100% of the ethanol and additional 60% from the water.

This was published in Science magazine 2002? for peer review but was never commented on again. I still have the article.

I did some math at the time and the BTU equivalent to an American gallon of gasoline was about 16 cents using free waste feed stock to make the ethanol from.

The reason it is so much cheaper than fuel ethanol production is most of the cost for ethanol fuel is removing that last 5% of the water. At 103 proof or 51.5% ethanol some single pass stills can achieve this fairly economically.

Hi, see this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind-hydrogen_hybrid_power_system

regards, moe

Thanks to all of you that replied. I did some of my own homework and was skeptical. All of your comments reinforced that. It's great to be able to get advice from people far smarter than I am. My wallet thanks you. The divorce lawyer who isn't going to represent my wife now that I'm not going to invest in this isn't so happy.

It's called electrolysis what you are describing. The most viable (cleanest) technology takes advantage of a solid polymer electrolyte. Unfortunately, hydrogen is a tertiary form of energy storage and is expensive to produce.... stick to the grid