Seriously, there’s been some really important discoveries.
Researchers at MIT have discovered a catalyst which thet claim facilitates electrolysis at almost 100% efficiency.
This is a really big deal!
Current solar energy harvesting technologies are notoriously inefficient… using the suns energy to break water down to hydrogen and oxygen is clearly the best approach (just ask the plants). Until now the catalyst currently used to boost electrolysis efficiency was Nickel oxide which is really toxic. That makes it difficult and expensive to work with so the associated technologies became far more expensive too.
The researchers discovered that Cobalt phosphate could be used as a catalyst with amazing efficency, also its non toxic so the equipment will be much cheaper.
“Solar cell makers can add super-cheap electrolyzers to their system so that they work 24/7 — during the day making hydrogen and oxygen, then at night recombining it in fuel cells to generate electricity,” said MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera.
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209900956&cid=NL_eet
Congratulations, it’s a brilliant breakthrough, now hopefully we can sidestep the millions of years it takes between plants recieveing solar energy and us combusting them… I always suspected there was a quicker way.
Also, NASA confirmed that the Phoenix Lander has found water on Mars.
If you are new to the planet, there’s some cool aerial views of irrigation systems at…