Saturday, February 01, 2003

Another way to generate hydrogen?

Paul Georgia contributed this to NRO today about the problems with hydrogen energy supplies. The root of it is that hydrogen is simply a conduit of energy - you have to make it from something else, and the energy you deliver in the form of hydrogen will always be less than what you put into making the hydrogen. But.....

What if you had a source of energy that was essentially free?

Yeah, right. And just what would that be? Check out this link and see.

There is a phenomenon called radiolytic electrolysis, in which radiation causes water to separate into hydrogen and oxygen. We have lots of "free" radiation from radwaste. Hmm...could this generate hydrogen economically?

Oh sure, if it is practical at all it will cost some money to implement. But we have to deal with radwaste anyway, which puts a floor on our costs in any case. Maybe for a few bucks more we can design radwaste facilities to generate hydrogen as a byproduct.

Just asking...

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