Posted on 06/09/2022 3:38:58 AM PDT by dennisw
This medium releases 99.99 percent pure hydrogen, which could power electrical grids, hydrogen fuel cells, cars, or hydrogen-injected diesel trucks.
Former computer-chip manufacturing engineer Paul Smith founded Plasma Kinetics in 2008. The Arizona-based startup has developed “solid-state” hydrogen storage, essentially transferring the gas onto a proprietary film wound in many layers inside a canister. He says the tech could challenge batteries in both efficiency and environmental friendliness.
When unspooled and run past a laser—the film moves from one reel to another, like movie film through a projector—the solid-state storage medium releases 99.99 percent pure hydrogen, which could power electrical grids, hydrogen fuel cells, cars, or hydrogen-injected diesel trucks. Plasma Kinetics asserts that its storage system is 30 percent lighter, 7 percent smaller, and 17 percent less expensive than a lithium-ion battery per kilowatt-hour. Those claims have reportedly attracted capital from the likes of Toyota, though Smith declined to confirm any investments.
Due to these successes, Plasma Kinetics had to put its plans (and patents) on hold for nearly a decade because the Department of Defense wanted to gain a lead in applying Smith’s methodology to missile tech and other military applications. Now, the startup’s hydrogen storage tech may have the chance to challenge the battery business and the trillions of dollars sunk into it worldwide.
Hydrogen (H2) is most often produced by natural gas steam reformation and electrolysis of water. “Green” hydrogen is produced when wind and solar power provide electricity for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. The hydrogen produced by these processes must be compressed or liquefied to achieve a small enough size for practical storage.
10 Questions With the Solid-State Battery Guru Hydrogen gas is commonly compressed to more than 2,000 psi, and in the case of fuel-cell cars like the Toyota Mirai, to as much as 10,000 psi. Multiple stages of compression and cooling are required to achieve these high pressures. Plasma Kinetics claims its process provides the same storage density as 5,000 psi compressed hydrogen gas but without compression—eliminating pumps, compressors, and chillers.
The company uses a light-sensitive, film-like “nano-photonic” material to absorb hydrogen, wound in thousands of layers inside a large canister. Each extremely thin layer has a lattice structure that binds hydrogen and prevents other elements from interfering with its absorption. The company’s process begins by connecting a hydrogen production “buffer tank” (into which electrolyzed or steam-reformed gas initially goes) to a hood with input and output pipes sitting atop a 20-foot container, which holds 70 canisters of its nano-photonic film.
On command, H2 is released from the buffer tank through the hood into the main container holding the 70 canisters. When a canister recognizes the presence of hydrogen gas, a valve inside opens, allowing gas to flow inside. The negatively charged nano-photonic film has a strong affinity for positively charged H2, absorbing it in minutes at simple atmospheric pressure.
“If you can provide 10 kilotons of hydrogen per hour to a Plasma Kinetics system, it can absorb all 10 kilotons,” Smith says. “It’s just a matter of how much you want to scale.”
Regardless of the source, the result is H2 stored in a solid state, according to Smith. The company anticipates 28 kg of H2 per cubic meter in 2023 without the need for pressure or energy to store the hydrogen. That could be useful in challenging batteries, a relatively dirty technology: Plasma Kinetics claims that its storage film and housings require no rare-earth elements. ---SNIP
What if we run out of hydrogen?
Remember when paper bags were killing forests and therefore killing the earth - so we had to switch to plastic bags?
Now they’re bringing back paper.
They create crisis after crisis after crisis.
Someone is making money... it aint us.
It looks kind of like the carts we used to use in Radio.
Solar and wind are great at producing hydrogen via electrolysis. Hydrogen as a storage medium for use in automobiles and much more.
I assume you’re being sarcastic, but that would mean using up all the water in the world. Also, the main byproduct of using hydrogen tends to be water, so..
Peak hydrogen...
Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, constituting roughly 75% of all normal matter.
Question....since hydrogen is highly flammable, how is that concern dealt with using this fuel source?
NASA can make supply and refueling runs with the Sun. There's lots there. Little warm though.
I think in hydrogen fuel cells, the hydrogen is in a substrate, not just a big tank of gas waiting to go hindenburg.
It is an interesting concept, but it still brings us back to Problem #1.
We need to separate hydrogen from water or natural gas before we can even start.
From memory - it still takes more energy to separate the hydrogen than hydrogen fuel can actually produce.
Curiously, just yesterday I read an article about solid state batteries being developed by automotive companies.
No technical discussion, but this may be of interest to you:
Hydrogen is just an energy transport. Creating hydrogen is a net energy loss.
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Thereafter the sun enters the 'red giant' phase.
Is that when it swells and destroys the Earth?
I expect the theory is that it is a lesser net loss than batteries and could replace them as a storage medium.
That's OK.
Just go at night.
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