Pitch
Hydrogen production and use system via desalination of water using solar, wind, biochem for at "point of use" in existing combustion engines
Description
Summary
Water is life.
Hydrogen is mobility.
SunHydro Container System (Concept)
Our proposal is for leveraging the massive amounts of internal combustion engines – from generators to transportation to furnaces – to repurposed or retooled via an ignition system allow dual fuel capabilities. Specially the main fuel would be clean hydrogen delivered via natural gas infrastructure in conjunction with novel “at point of use” clean hydrogen generation. Generation of clean hydrogen via a method similar to the holy grail – “artificial leaf” – in a storage container that acts as both the apparatus for productions as well as storage tank with adaptable connectors to traditional fuel intake mechanism is the key point of success.
Taking components of devices from Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP’s) solar fuel initiative IBM’s micro fuel cell (lab-on-a-chip) and ALSET GMBH hybrid H2 engine the proposed solution relies existing technologies to allow for the conversion of “polluting engine” across the spectrum to run clean.
What actions do you propose?
As with the push for electric vehicles that has occurred over several political efforts only to fail at the point of the consumer (or external conditions) the efforts of converting to a clean hydrogen economy would be to start with water sources / distribution and existing fuel systems combined with initial economic incentives to allow for conversion cost on the user side and allow global scale of clean hydrogen production to be market competitive.
Who will take these actions?
The combination of creating the Apple equivalent of the iPhone – a consumer packaged “energy device” iPack that cleans water as well – would allow for traditional retail distribution networks for building a mass market.
Where will these actions be taken?
Globally
How will these actions have a high impact in addressing climate change?
Clean hydrogen as replacement of fossil fuels at the transportation and living / work space points in existing systems would allow for both legacy and future states to be "emissions free" simultaneously.
What are other key benefits?
Clean water at source point via a "consumer good" versus a large infrastructure system would go a long way in water conservation and sustainable consumption.
What are the proposal’s costs?
Negative side effects are just like the smartphone industry - when a solution is consumer driven at global scale the lifecycle design (end of life or obsolesce) has to be considered from device design.
Time line
All proposed actions would occur in the "short term" horizon
Related proposals
References
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/03/microfluidic-fuel-cells-paper
http://watercrunch.com/2007/09/warning-solar-bottle-will-clean-water/
HyperSolar has developed a breakthrough technology to make renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water. Renewable hydrogen, the cleanest and greenest of all fuels, can be used as direct replacement for traditional hydrogen, which is usually produced by reforming CO2 emitting natural gas.
http://hypersolar.com/technology.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XXKgMf0SuEE
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