Yesterday
at To Infinity And…In Theory we talked about Fuel Cells and their background
story starting with the first man to dream them up (William Grove) and
concluding with the man who sent them into space (Francis Bacon). If you missed
yesterday’s entry don’t fret, you can catch up here. [Green Energy (Part 1): Four Score AndTwenty Years Ago Fuel Cells Were Born! …(ish)] Today we’re going to see how these pioneers who laid
the very important groundwork for Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology are pushing the
energy crisis out of the way.
After
NASA witnessed the hidden potential of these tiny molecular powered batteries
firsthand they were ecstatic to say the least. They jumped onboard the Green
Tech train and launched some 200 projects using Fuel Cell research as the
backbone. Sometimes it only takes one huge influence to boost innovation to
invention. Since the 1960’s, laboratories all over the world have delved into
these powerful technological marvels of science.
We’re
going to talk just a little bit more about their history today (not much, we
covered the history pretty well I think yesterday) starting from the bulky
models used on Apollo to the silicon sheets half a nanometer thick today. We’ll
also talk about how they work, how they charge them up, and a new harvesting
technique that could make Fuel Cells the most cost effective energy option on
the market to date.
Think
you know Green Technology in and out? Well then, let’s put that knowledge to
the test shall we.
It’s Not Easy Being
Green
When
Grove conceptualized the Fuel Cell in the late 1800s I doubt he had space
travel in mind. Heck, at that point they barely had a grasp on it. But Francis
Bacon’s Hydrox Fuel Cell blew everyone away in the middle of the 20th
century. Yet the technology didn’t catch on, Ford still had a monopoly on
propulsion, no one was interested in a product that had not been tested. After
all, who in their right mind would want to be a guinea pig?
But
NASA saw the promise. (Oh NASA, how I love you. For real.) It launched 200
projects into Fuel Cell technology and sure enough in the late 60s, Bacon’s
Fuel Cells, with some slight modifications, made their journey into space a
reality. They were also used again in a little project you might have heard of.
Apollo, perhaps? Ring any bells? I really hope so because the Apollo program
accomplished one of the greatest feats of all time.
Apollo
11 put a man on the moon.
Yep,
Apollo 11 was far more important than just the prequel to Apollo 13, (no Tom
Hanks here, sorry folks!) it was the mission where Neil Armstrong planted the
American flag on the lunar surface. (We really have to stop claiming things
that technically don’t belong to us…) But how did this happen? Well there were
millions of parts in motion, but an important aspect of the mission was a Fuel
Cell.
More
importantly, not only was the Fuel Cell capable of splitting Hydrogen and
Oxygen in order to produce energy, it could reassemble the molecules to turn
them back into water. I’m sure it was filtered, but this is what the Astronauts
drank. Hydro Fuel Cell H2O.
So
how does it do this? It’s pretty cool actually; I’ll break it down for you.
The
Bacon Cell is essentially an Alkaline Fuel Cell, and boy are they efficient.
What’s happening is called a Redox reaction. (Red = Reduction, Ox = Oxidation).
This can be as simple as oxidation of carbon to yield Carbon Dioxide, or as
complex as producing glucose inside the human body, both are forms of a Redox
reaction.
Well
this concept is happening inside the battery. (A stack of fuel cells). At the
anode hydrogen is being oxidized. When this happens it enters its liquid state,
water. It then re-enters the module and returns to the cathode where the water
is then turned back to hydroxide ions. The cycle keeps repeating itself, thus
creating a regenerative supply of energy. The best part of all you ask?
Electricity
and heat are the byproducts. That means powering the ship, according to a
molecule, is just their waste.
The
electrodes are separated by an aqueous alkaline solution. It’s the catalyst for
the reaction to produce water and electricity. There’s only one slight problem.
If Carbon Dioxide gets into the Fuel Cell it can “poison” the entire system,
compromising everyone onboard the ship. (Seen the new Sandra Bullock flick?
Being compromised in space is scary stuff!) Because of this both pure oxygen is
used and a scrubber is incorporated into the system so as to filter it after
each pass. So why don’t we use this for the general public?
The
poisoning effect we just talked about is one of the reasons. It can happen
fairly easy, and if it does, it’s pretty much irreversible. Considering we
expel carbon dioxide as waste from our lungs, we could potentially destroy the
vehicle ourselves by just driving it. Ford would love it, but we’d be in the
poor house. Pretty much, technology just wasn’t there yet for small,
affordable, consumer models, after all, it was only the late 60’s, we didn’t
even have Internet yet! (Or Google. What did we do before Google? I think it
was like a library or like, something about Dewey…oh well.)
However
that reality may not be so far away. In 1999 a transport boat that ran on AFC’s
was put into commission. It was called the HYDRA. (Run Captain America!) Before
they took it out of the water and decommissioned him he transported some 2,000
passengers and even won a few energy related competitions.
But
now Fuel Cells, once again, have come out of the world of obscurity and are
back in the spotlight. Yet now they aren’t just being looked at as a
replacement technology because we might
run out of gas. Now we need them because soon, we might kill the Earth if we
keep it up, and running out of a planet is far
more treacherous of a prospect then no more driving. At least to me, I
don’t know how you feel about it.
So
what are we doing to stop this bleak future from occurring? Researchers in Tennessee
came up with a clever answer to that question. Let’s see what Popeye has to say
about Science.
Eat Your Spinach,
Sailor…
If
you’re old enough to remember the man pictured above, then your childhood was
most likely AWESOME! If not, I’m sorry…anyway. Do you know how Spinach makes
the food it consumes? A little process called photosynthesis. Did you also know
this produces chemical energy? Huh? Did ya!?
Well
this chemical energy can be converted into another kind of energy, something of
a kinetic variety. Mechanical energy to be exact, and at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee, that’s exactly what scientists are looking to exploit.
It
takes light 8 minutes to reach the leaves of the Spinach. In five trillionths
of a second the plant is already converting that sunlight into energy. Where
Alkaline Fuel Cells were efficient and their obvious replacement Silicon Fuel
Cells was more so, the environment’s natural processes have billions of years
ahead of us. While we’ve been trying to manufacture artificial versions of Mother
Nature, Mother Nature has already created the perfect practice.
So
how are they achieving this goal? Turns out you can infuse the leaves of
spinach with platinum. Because chloroplast is already a conductor for the plant
to make energy with, this platinum just enhances its natural abilities and
suits it toward technology we can
use. The best part of it all, it’s 100% green.
The
platinum turns the spinach leaf into an electrical switch. Biometric scientists
are looking toward this technology for use in the blind. It has the potential
to be very effective for biotic eyes. Speed-of-light computers are also a
potential for the same reason. The human retina registers light faster than
anything we can currently build, but by using these platinum chloroplasts, it
could provide the building block to make something that not only matches the
speed at which the eye operates, but surpasses it as well.
Time
will tell but I’m looking forward to this technology in the future. Want to
know more about Spinach powered super computers? You can by clicking here.
So
by now you’re probably asking yourself, “yeah that’s cool and all, but I
thought this was about Fuel Cells.” Well…not that part in particular. But I
just wanted you to understand the potential for plant based biotechnology,
before I blew your mind. While they had one bionic eye on supercomputers when
they were working with University of South Carolina to extract Spinach
proteins, they had their other one trained on the future of sustainable energy.
Standing Fern on Green
Energy
That
complex tangle of green, yellow, and blue is actually fairly important to all
of this. It’s called the Light Harvesting Complex, or LHC-II for short. It’s
the protein that they pulled from the spinach responsible for the function of
photosynthesis. The guys over at Clean Technica break it down the best:
Oak Ridge writer Bill Cabage describes the latest
breakthrough as a biohybrid photoconversion system. The researchers were able
to confirm that a particular light-harvesting protein derived from plain old
supermarket spinach can be induced to assemble itself into a membrane, by
putting it into a liquid solution containing synthetic polymers. The protein,
called LHC-II (LHC stands for Light
Harvesting Complex) interacts with the polymers to form a membrane, which in
turn produces hydrogen. In other words the membrane acts as a kind of
photovoltaic cell, but instead of generating electricity it generates-hydrogen.
Read more at Clean Technica
Read more at Clean Technica
In
short, clean, renewable, affordable, sustainable, and literally green as you can
get energy. There is a catch though. This technology doesn’t come cheap.
Platinum is incredibly expensive. But researchers at MIT may have an idea that
could reduce that cost significantly.
“Leafing” It All
Behind…
As
I mentioned before, Platinum is super expensive stuff. Not to mention, it’s fairly
uncommon as far as rare Earth elements go. Another problem with Fuel Cells was
the ability to keep them self-contained and contaminate free. But that could
theoretically be a thing of the past thanks the brilliant mind of Daniel
Nocera. Toiling hard night and day in the bowels of MIT, he finally seemed to
figure it all out.
He
would grow trees that produced hydrogen instead of oxygen.
…
HA!
Nope, but I had you going for a second there didn’t I? It might as well be that
though considering the principle they operate on is exactly the same as a leaf.
No
not the leaf, the thing on the leaf.
And no, you don’t have to attach them to a leaf, they are self-contained and
operational. No planting required. But the million dollar question is how do
they work? It’s not a mystery, it’s just science.
When
sunlight hits a leaf it begins to cause a chain reaction. The sunlight begins
to convert chemicals within the leaf into free oxygen by breaking down water.
That oxygen is then released back into the environment for us to breathe. This
is basically how photosynthesis works though there are much more complex things
happening, (HowStuffWorks.com will tell you all about it here.)
But we should quickly clarify what we mean by “leaf”.
The
artificial leaf may be a bit misleading; it’s actually called a
Photoelectrocell. Photoelectrocells differ from Photovoltaic cells significantly.
Voltaic cells generate voltage when light hits them, while Photoelectric cells
generate electricity from light. Voltage determines the electric potential,
meaning how much power there is going to be. (i.e 9V batter, 12V battery etc.)
A Photoelectric cell converts it into electricity, like a solar panel, and its
power is determinative of its capacity and how much energy is available. But
anyhow, back to fake leaves.
By
using the same basic principles of photosynthesis with only a few slight
adjustments, Nocera created the little wafer pictured above to basically do
just that. Except instead of producing free oxygen for us to breathe, it breaks
down water into oxygen and hydrogen for us to use to power our cell phones,
cars, laptops, and robotics. By placing it in a tankard of water (refilled
daily) the Photoelectrocell can make all sorts of things happen.
And
it’s fairly cheap.
Instead
of running mostly on Platinum it uses
very little of the precious element. It’s mainly comprised of Cobalt, Zinc, and
other fairly inexpensive metals and minerals. The wafer is then coated in a
sheet of silicon that is thick enough to better protect the metals from
oxidation (rusting is a form of oxidation. Oxidation is what destroys the
electrodes.) Yet thin enough to allow the reaction to take place effectively.
But
in order for everything to work proper, clean
water is the essential ingredient. Testing is currently underway to make one
that can survive in slightly more contaminated environments but after a while
it still clogs the chip and the process stops working. They also discovered
another unique property of this, to a degree the silicon area of the chip will
repair itself. Nocera and his team noticed this when they roughed up the
surface in an attempt to discourage grime and biofilm from building up on the
artificial leaf.
Unfortunately
keeping contaminants out continues to be a problem. While a closed cell is
possible, water is still needed for the initial catalyst. Clean water at that
to avoid degrading the material faster than necessary. Not all parts of the
world that could certainly benefit from this technology have ready access to
clean water. Plus, in order to keep it cost effective, an open cell where water
can continually be refilled is preferable as it wouldn’t have many special
requirements that quickly add up to total wallet devastation over time.
A Green Future
(Literally)
As
the price of solar technology continues to drop and the mass production of
artificial leaves becomes a priority, Dr. Nocera claims we may see this
technology in every household worldwide in as little as five years. But if
there is one thing I know about the world it’s that the people with money don’t
like to let go of it, and major power companies are not going to like this tech
one bit.
Because
of its potential to be extremely cheap to produce, it would be reasonably
priced for the Consumer. If two panels cost $60, and two full size panels
(we’re speculating here only) could potentially run a two story house, then
pretty much anyone in the world could afford them, even in the most
impoverished areas. Let’s face it; it would put Consumer’s Energy out of
business and all other power countries worldwide.
Right
now it’s estimated that the current cells cost around $6.50 USD to produce.
While fossil fuels are sitting pretty at the height of popularity still, Fuel
Cells are back. And just like when Grove powered the telegraph and truly became
the definition of Avante Garde, they’re in line to change the way we live in
this ever developing world.
-
Ryan
Sanders
Thanks for reading! And as always if
you want to know more about solar powered spinach, wireless Fuel Cells, or the
artificial leaf and its creator follow any of the links below. Share it around,
after all, everyone loves science! Happy
learning!
*Correction: In yesterday’s article I said the technology
to turn Spinach into electrical switches was patented in the 1990’s. That was a
typo. I meant 1980’s; the actual patent was issued in 1985. Sorry about that
folks but mistakes do happen. - Ryan Sanders
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