Floating Solar To Turn Dirty Water Into Stored Clean Power

Solar-powered floating rig can harvest hydrogen from seawater

Michael Irving, December 18, 2017 (New Atlas)

"Hydrogen is a clean fuel source, but current methods of producing it, often by converting natural gas, can undo any environmental benefit. Producing hydrogen out of sunlight and water doesn't create any CO2, and recent research has improved the efficiency and lowered the cost of devices that achieve this. Now, engineers from Columbia University have developed a ‘solar fuels rig’ that floats on the ocean, captures energy through a solar cell and uses it to harvest hydrogen from the water beneath it...The rig produces hydrogen through water electrolysis, a technique where H2 and O2 gases are separated out of water by passing an electric current through the liquid...The device developed at Columbia can split water into hydrogen and oxygen without needing a membrane. That means it can be deployed on seawater [containing impurities and micro-organisms that] would normally degrade a membrane...This unique electrolysis mechanism is hooked up to a photovoltaic cell, which generates the required electric current with energy gathered from sunlight..." click here for more

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