Thermolysis: Water decomposition at high temperatures to extract hydrogen

[si-fi]

As wiki states under Thermolysis water heated to around 2500 C will break the bonds of H20 into H2 and O2.

 

If you reached this temperature instantly would the H2O just change into a gas (that would look like thin air) and could the H2 be extracted and cooled out to some storage unit, like a compressor if you were using something like tungsten pipes and tanks?

 

What would happen to H2 at such temperatures?

 

After some more reading I found an Israel team The Weizmann team already started to achieve this back in 1995 (read here). Now they have a brochure claiming a two-step H2O-splitting thermochemical cycle based, in which they have patented it already so hope they are not to greedy.

 

This video of a team in Arizona, which is what got me wondering about this subject in the first place, showing a solar furnace melting steel shows that this team is not far off either.

 

btw I have posted this on another forum already, but reading their rules since it covers highly explosive material, I may not be there for long.

Edited December 5, 2011 by si-fi

[John Cuthber]

How do you propose to separate the O2 and the H2?

[si-fi]

Potentialy you do not separate them as hydrogen is combustible in O2?

 

 

 

or would they just bond back to H2O under cooling?

 

 

Edited December 5, 2011 by si-fi

[John Cuthber]

"or would they just bond back to H2O under cooling?"

yes. And you would be back where you started.

[si-fi]

Could you do something with the difference in properies, ie density, melting points, electronegativity?

Edited December 6, 2011 by si-fi

[Enthalpy]

That mere heat separates H2 from O2 is perfectly true. Solar heat is enough for it, and our best materials would suffice.

It's so true that you'll advance human technology by proposing a solution to the separation of H2 and O2. The question you ask was already around... Sorry for the disappointment.

 

In the Pdf you link, they use two steps. Mg decomposes H2O, producing H2 there; and Sunlight heat decomposes MgO, producing O2 there.

Elegant, probably workable. Some energy is lost at the Mg+H2O reaction, leaving theoretical room for improvement.

 

By the way, I'm not sure we shall produce hydrogen first. It's nice for fuel cells but nasty for everything else.

If you can produce a hydrocarbon, or ethanol, or something similar, you'll find a market sooner.

[si-fi]

No disappointment, I just couldnt find any new information on this topic.

And after watching guys melt steel using the suns heat with what looks like "relatively cheap" equipment I was interested in whats making the next step so hard.

As my dad said (who is in the oil industry) there are alot of road blocks for new techs that compete with them, ie smart guys making lots of money to keep quiet.

 

I am interested to know why H2 is nasty for direct combustion in cars? Surely with our technology we should be able to make safe tanks on cars so they do not blow up.