'Major Discovery' on Solar Energy?

This looks quite promising. Has anyone else read of it?

Hype from MIT?

 

he was on Glen Beck the other night pumping it up

 

Sounds good so far...but sounds very expensive with platinum as a catalyst. How viable will it be for the average homeowner?

 

Isn't platinum the catalyst in many catalytic converters in cars? I have several of those on pretty short money...? I'm not being rhetorical, I'm actually asking. I think I've heard that about car cats before but I don't know it to be fact.

 

I've heard that too but I don't know if it's true either.

 

Yes Cadillac converters have platnium in the core...

As far as this new solar idea, it is no longer needed, I added air pressure to the low tires on my truck and the energy crisis is over...

 

Only the Cadillac ones have the platinum?

 

There are many metals that can be used in a converter. Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium, Cerium, Iron, Manganese and nickel. They can't use nickel in the European Union because of it's tendency to produce more carbon monoxide. Copper can also be used except in the US because of the production of another toxic substance of which I don't remember at present. (Serium or something like that)

 

Cobalt is currently $25 +/- per pound, platinum is near $1500/oz. Sounds interesting, but.... we shall see.

 

Not much platinum to be had

"Platinum market fundamentals are very tight. While demand is continuously increasing, supply is extremely limited. Sources of platinum production are quite scarce. In fact, more than 90% of world platinum production is concentrated in just two areas in South Africa and Russia. Additionally, there are not more than ten significant platinum mining companies in the world."

http://www.unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/platinum/chain.htm

Why is this a viable option? It won't be ready for ten years as the dems would say.

 

Because it has the potential to add much more than the two or three percent to the energy supply that offshore drilling will, and OPEC can't tighten the tap and cancel out the savings.

 

Hmmm. But a couple of the large mining companies could, if in fact they haven't already...takes a lot of coin to go mining.

 

And if Hitler hadn't opened a second front we might be writing our posts in German. What's your point?

 

Seems to be some other work in this direction that doesn't require expensive platinum:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/321/5889/671

 

Its friggin' electrolysis! I remember doing that in high school chemistry 20 years ago. WTF???

I guess only when there is grant and Federal "green energy" money to be had...

 

The trick is the catalyst for the reaction.

 

The amount of catalyst required will determine if the process is viable in anything other than a lab setting. This may not be the answer, but folks seem to be looking in the right direction.

Cost will be an issue, and from an economic standpoint, those that would benefit the most from lower energy costs will be the least able to afford it.

 

A few more details from Scientific American..

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hydrogen-power-on-the-cheap

 

Sweet. Why do I keep getting this recurring mental image of the explosion in Chain Reaction?

 

I'm picturing a crashed transport rig full of hydrogen fuel cell-powered cellphones with a mushroom cloud rising overtop.

That's probably not possible, right?