Solar Thermal System Splits Water for Hydrogen Fuel

A laboratory model of a multi-tube solar reactor at the University of Colorado Boulder that can be used to split water in order to produce clean hydrogen fuel (Credits: University of Colorado Boulder).

Researchers from the University of Colorado have designed a novel water splitting solar-thermal system to produce hydrogen fuel. This research is being funded by the National Science Foundation and by the U.S. Department of Energy and it will lay the foundations for the use of hydrogen as a green fuel. The simplified reaction sequence may also provide new opportunities to produce hydrogen fuel in space. The system uses an array of mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto single point on a huge tower. This generates temperatures as high as 1,350 Celsius, which is then transferred to a reactor containing metal oxides. Due to the high temperature, the metal oxides release oxygen, forming a new compound which seeks out oxygen atoms. When steam is introduced to this compound, the oxygen from the steam adheres to the surface of the metal oxide, and freeing up the hydrogen from steam. “We have designed something here that is very different from other methods and frankly something that nobody thought was possible before,” said Alan Weimer a Professor from the University of Colorado Chemical and Biological Engineering department, Executive Director of the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2), and research group leader. He added that, “Splitting water with sunlight is the Holy Grail of a sustainable hydrogen economy.”
See rest of original article