Hydrogen fuel still a massive, dangerous pipe-dream

Rich · 2005-11-11T04:30:58+00:00

A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis hopes to find theright stuff to put the element hydrogen in a sticky situation.Lev Gelb, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor ofchemistry, prepares theoretical models of molecules that may be usedto store and transport hydrogen gas.Image: Storing hydrogen is problematic. A WUSTL chemist and hiscolleagues are exploring different approaches to help make hydrogenfuel more practical.Gaseous at room temperature, hydrogen is even lighter and less densethan natural gas and thus harder to store. So, while hydrogen has ahigh energy-per-weight, it has a low energy-per-volume."If you had a kilogram of hydrogen at atmospheric pressure, you'd haveto store it in about 100 big balloons, if you can picture that," saidGelb. "A kilogram of gasoline, on the other hand ? that would be asmall container."Gelb works on one possible solution to this storage problem, a processcalled gas physical adsorption."The idea here is to create materials composed of molecules hydrogenlikes to stick to," said Gelb. "If hydrogen stuck to these particlesyou could carry around the substance, along with the hydrogen."Such a substance would have to be relatively light-weight and veryporous, having a high surface area, in order to adsorb as muchhydrogen as possible. Then it is hoped that the hydrogen can beremoved at the site of combustion by applying some low-energy forcesuch as a vacuum."The problem is that as far as we know, nothing is sticky enoughwithout being too heavy," said Gelb.But this doesn't stop him: his theoretical chemistry work aims atcalculating what the properties of such a material would be ? what thematerial should be made of, what it should look like. Currently, Gelband some of his post-doctoral researchers are looking at a class ofmaterials called coordination polymers, recently synthesized, highlyporous materials that have shown some promise in hydrogen gasadsorption.Building molecular modelsBy focusing on building molecular...

Nov 11, 2005 27 Replies

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Jim Warman 20 years ago

Nice to see that you are still offering valuable input to the thread....

Are you man enough to tell me whatever it is I said to jerk your chain so hard? Obviously, something I said is bothering you.... the only way to solve it is to discuss it... here or in private doesn't matter.... You can PM me since I don't hide behind some fake address....

Your turn... can you step up to the plate and swing the bat? Or will we be treated to another "shut up, warman?".

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cprice 20 years ago

Shut up Warman.

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cprice 20 years ago

Shut up Warman.

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cprice 20 years ago

Shut up Warman.

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Jim Warman 20 years ago

Well.... I guess that answers that question... and, sadly, shows you for what you are....

Have a good day, chum...

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Jim Warman 20 years ago

Ummm.... I'm Warman... he's Windsor Fox.... Did you mean "shut up, WF"????

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WindsorFox 20 years ago

Dude, you're like, breaking my filter!

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cprice 20 years ago

Shut up Warmans/

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