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Submitted to Reddit by DisConform and to Digg by kdobo 8/1/2008
There were several stories submitted to social media sites about the MIT breakthrough with a cheaper catalyst for hydrogen as an energy source. Strangely, none of them hit the front page of Digg, despite this being potentially huge news on a huge topic.
The problem with hydrogen as an energy source is in the catalyst necessary to start the electrical production: platinum. At nearly $2,000 per ounce, it hasn’t been practical with cheaper solar and wind energy offering the same bang for less bucks. But Chemist Daniel Nocera and postdoctoral fellow Matthew Kanan discovered they could separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water by adding cobalt and phosphate to water and running a current through it.
Cobalt and phosphate cost roughly $2.25 an ounce and $.05 an ounce, respectively.
If all goes well, expect a dramatic shift towards hydrogen as an electrical energy source in the near future.
Original Description:
Cool new research eliminating platinum from the Hydrogen generating equation.
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