Originally published August 15 2005
Solar technology to help create non-polluting hydrogen fuel
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In an attempt to create non-polluting hydrogen fuel, scientists have turned to solar power.
The production of nonpolluting hydrogen fuel could be facilitated by innovative solar technology successfully tested on a large scale at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
Scientists say it also promises to expedite the storage and transportation of hydrogen.
The chemical process behind the technology was originally developed at Weizmann on a scale of several kilowatts.
It was then scaled up to 300 kilowatts in collaboration with scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, Institut de Science et de Genie des Materiaux et Procedes -- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, and the ScanArc Plasma Technologies AB in Sweden.
Hydrogen, the most plentiful element in the universe, is an attractive candidate for becoming a pollution-free fuel of the future.
The new solar technology tackles these problems by creating an easily storable intermediate energy source form from metal ore, such as zinc oxide.
The process splits the ore, releasing oxygen and creating gaseous zinc, which is then condensed to a powder.
In recent experiments, the 300-kilowatt installation produced 45 kilograms of zinc powder from zinc oxide in one hour, exceeding projected goals.
The process generates no pollution, and the resultant zinc can be easily stored and transported and converted to hydrogen on demand.
The zinc can also be used directly, for example, in zinc-air batteries, which serve as efficient converters of chemical to electrical energy.
The concept of splitting metal ores with the help of sunlight has been under development over the course of several years at the Rehovot institute's Canadian Institute for the Energies and Applied Research, one of the most sophisticated solar research facilities in the world, which has a solar tower, a field of 64 mirrors and unique beam-down optics.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml