Self-sustaining solar reactor creates clean hydrogen fuel

Re:Self-sustaining solar reactor creates clean hydrogen fuel by gizzardguts on Wednesday April 04, 2012 @03:04PM (#3799255)

The part that is missing is the energy costs of reprocessing the zinc. I didn't pay attention in chemistry 30 years ago, but I assume the zinc is reacting with the water and isn't just a catalyst. Hmm, a little googling shows:

Zn + 2 H2O → Zn(OH)2 + H2

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Re:Self-sustaining solar reactor creates clean hydrogen fuel by sliverstorm on Wednesday April 04, 2012 @06:42PM (#3800243)

It's supposed to be zinc oxide going in, so it probably looks more like this:

ZnO + energy → Zn + O Zn + 2 H2O → Zn(OH)2 + H2

(I know that's not balanced, but yours isn't either)

Maybe you can then get the zinc hydroxide back into oxide without too much trouble. It disassociates in water, leaving you with hydroxide and zinc ions.

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Re:Self-sustaining solar reactor creates clean hydrogen fuel by sliverstorm on Thursday April 05, 2012 @03:59PM (#3804334)

Correction, there needs to be a newline there.

ZnO + energy → Zn + O

Zn + 2 H2O → Zn(OH)2 + H2

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