Can Hydrogen be extracted from water as an inexhaustible fuel source? If so how? Theoretically?

Question

Aisde and apart from the conspiracy theroies as to why there are forces at work to detain this technology and stop it any and all costs , namely the Exxon, BP, and other oil giants...is this possible?

Answer 1

Yes, no and maybe.

First a little background... I have my masters in physics and did my masters work in fusion research. I was trying to help develop a new power source.

First, yes hydrogen can easily be extracted from water. Water is composed, as you know, of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. It is fairly easy to separate the water molecule by using electricity. An electric current is passed through a salt water solution (the salt is needed to allow the electrons to flow and to lower the resistance of pure water) and at one end of the terminal oxygen is collected and at the other hydrogen is collected. This is done today by many gas bottling plants for use in welding materials as well as many other applications.

However, when using it as a fuel source, the question becomes harder to answer.

There are 3 ways to use hydrogen to produce power; burning it (combustion), using a fuel cell, and fusion. The problem is the first two consume more power than they produce and the third is still in the initial phases of research.

First, burning it. This one is pretty simple, and very powerful. When oxygen and hydrogen combine, they produce large amounts of energy. This can be used much like traditional gasoline or natural gas is today. When the energy is produced, the gas heats up, and it expands. This expanding can then be converted to work and can power. The problem is that it “costs” a lot more energy to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen than you get from burning it. (The energy will then have to come from somewhere, and that will usually be from other fossil or nuclear fuels.) The most useful application of this is if you need to transport energy, such as in a car. However, on the horizon are future possible sources of hydrogen. Many types of algae produce hydrogen when exposed to light and when they receive the proper nutrients. Current work is being done to try to harness this, however for the time being there is little progress on this front.

Second, there are fuel cells. These are devices that keep the oxygen on one side of a membrane and the hydrogen on the other. The neat thing about these is that the proton can pass through the membrane, but the electron can’t. The electron then wants to get to the proton VERY BADLY, but has to take the “long” way around. By harnessing the fact that the electron wants to get to the proton, you create a current. The current then can be used any way you want it. While this process is much more efficient at creating useful energy than burning hydrogen, it still takes more power to produce the hydrogen than you get from making it.

Third, and my favorite, there is fusion energy. Fusion is the opposite of fission. In a normal nuclear power plant, atoms of uranium are “smacked together” and break apart to form smaller atoms. This process releases VERY LARGE amounts of energy. Fusion, on the other hand, combines small atoms (heavy hydrogen … or hydrogen that has one or two neutrons attached… for example) to form larger atoms. This is the same process that happens in the sun. This process also has the potential to produce FAR MORE energy than it uses to make the hydrogen. However, like most things in life, there is a problem. The sun can achieve fusion because it has so much mass. Here on earth, we don’t have that much gravity available to us (thank god), so we must find another way to get the atoms moving fast enough to get them to combine. The only way to do this is to heat them to VERY high temperatures (oh… approximately 100 million degrees Celsius for ignition). Obviously no material known to man can handle those temperatures so we must hold and heat the atoms a different way. To do this we use magnetic fields and electromagnetic properties of the atoms to hold and to heat them. The problem is, without going into too much detail, that this like “holding jell-o with piano wire”… We are getting much closer than we have been in the past, but we are still years away from perfecting this process. (If you would like to know more about current research, look up the ITER project… a multi-national effort to build the first full scale fusion reactor.) To give you an idea of how much power is available, in the first 3 inches of lake Michigan, there is enough power to power the world for 10,000 years if you perfect fusion.

So, to answer, yes hydrogen can be extracted from water and it can be used as a fuel source. However, at the moment, we don’t have the technology to do so.

Answer 2

Yes, It's posible to extract Hydrogen from water but as you can guess, you'll need to add energy to separate them.
How? Usually it's done by simply applying a voltage to water, then you'll get Oxygen bubbles at the positive side(+) and Hydrogen at negative (-). Then just collect the bubbles.
You can try it at home if you want. You'll be surprised on how easy it is!
You need.. a 9-Volt its ok, usually 2 cables, water and see what happens. Not bubbles? ..then try adding common salt (NaCl). The salt will help the water been more conductive.

The problem is not where to extract the Hydrogen from, but to find a suitable way of storing and handling it. Exxon, BP, and other oil giants say to do research in those fields too.

You can use solar/wind/water-level to charge your batteries and extract H2.

Answer 3

it is possible to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms by passing electricity through the water. This is done on many of the space missions to provide oxygen for breathing and for hydrogen for fuel. The problem is that you have to have electicity to split the water. So the ideal way would be to use solar (or some other energy source that doesn't rely on fossil fuels) to generate the electricity to split the water and then use the hydrogen as fuel.

There are two ways to use hydrogen as fuel. One is to burn it and use the heat to generate electricity (or propulsion in space) and the other is to use the hydrogen's electrons directly as a source of electricity. The first way is much less efficient, but it is easy to do. The other way is extremely expensive and it's what people say would revolutionize the auto industry if they could ever do it cheaply.

Answer 4

Sure. Unfortunatlely you have to (as a previous answer says) extract the hydrogen from the water using energy. The energy you generate doing this is more efficient to be used directly in the form of (say) electricity.

Hydrogen is also really, really hard to store.

I don't think that the oil giants are too worried about it yet... Probably Ethanol or other form of fuel would be better. Even fuel cells, which are much cleaner, use fossil fuels as a source of hydrogen...

Answer 5

Yes, hydrogen can be extracted from water by electricity in a process called electrolysis. It is a simple method that is not secret or patented or anything. It isn't even theoretical, I have done it at home just for fun. But you have to burn fuel to run the generator to make the electricity, and you get less hydrogen fuel from the water than you burn to make the electricity.

Answer 6

Of course. You run a current of electricity through the water (aided by adding some acid to make the water more conductive), and can collect hydrogen at one electrode and oxygen at the other. There is one small gotcha: it takes lots of energy -- more, of course, than you will recover when you use the hydrogen.

Answer 7

Availability information may be found in the Availability, Publisher, Research Organization, Resource Relation and/or Author (affiliation information) fields and/or via the "Full-text Availability" link. For a journal article, please see the Resource Relation field.
Title Method and a device for analyzing water in the primary circuit of a nuclear reactor
Creator/Author Fejes, P. ; Ivars, R.
Publication Date 1987 Mar 31
OSTI Identifier OSTI ID: 6559187
Report Number(s) US 4654187
Resource Type Patent
Resource Relation Pat. File: Filed date 23 Dec 1983
Subject 220200 -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Components & Accessories; POWER REACTORS-- PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS;PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS-- FEEDWATER;PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS-- WATER CHEMISTRY; AUTOCLAVES;CHROMIUM;ELECTRIC POTENTIAL;ELECTRICAL INSULATION;ELECTROCHEMISTRY;GRAPHITE;NICKEL;PLATINUM;PRESSURE CONTROL;QUARTZ;STAINLESS STEELS;TEMPERATURE CONTROL;TEST FACILITIES;TITANIUM
Abstract A method is described of analyzing the water which flows in a primary coolant circuit of a nuclear reactor which is in operation, the method comprising: (1) feeding water from the primary coolant circuit, without any substantial reduction in pressure or temperature, past test surfaces which are electrically insulated from one another.^ The test surfaces have different electrochemical potentials relative to the water, and are made from at least two materials selected from the group consisting of nickel, chromium, platinum, graphite, quartz, titanium and stainless steel, for a period of time sufficient to cause depositions to occur on the test surfaces; and (2) examining the depositions on the test surfaces to determine the properties of water.
Country of Publication United States
Language English
Format Pages: v
Rights AB Asea-Atom, Vasteras
System Entry Date 2001 May 13

Answer 8

if hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis of water then salty water can be used from the oceans (better catalyzed) ,once added to air (oxygen) in a chamber ,the resultant combustion runs the vehicle and the water is the byproduct of the reaction which can be reused.

Answer 9

of course yes.hydrogen is presently being produced by electrolysis of water in small scale in lab.
but water is presently scarce on earth.so.it is not wise to destroy water for the sake of producing hydrogen.

Answer 10

Ballard fuel cells employ this already in production & use in B.C.