On Nov 25, 2009, at 12:00 PM, Jones Beene wrote:
This is more Nocera "no-sera" nonsense ...
He now admits: "It may not be anywhere near as efficient as some of
the best
hardware on the market" Nocera said, " it's off by about a factor
of 10, in
fact - but it's something that could be deployed even in countries
without
much in the way of a GDP." (due to low cost presumably?)
I hate to break it to him, but cobalt is not that cheap ($40 a
pound) ...
and "off by a factor of 10" must means 2 % efficiency, since
silicon is
about 20% efficient, on average.
BTW - it is true that Silicon "was" in short supply back in 2007, when
Nocera made this over-hyped discovery, but recently it has dropped
to about
$18 pound ... and that seems to be a huge improvement over cobalt - so
where's the beef?
Somebody forgot to inform the professor that his entire cost
rationale has
disappeared. This guy Nocera, geeze ... he acts more like a
publicity hound
than scientist - and at any other place than MIT, wouldn't he be
labeled as
a scam artist ?
I think you misunderstand. The inefficient thing at this point is
the direct to hydrogen cell, which is under initial development. When
developed it should be cheap and effective and appropriate for
developing country use because it has the potential to create
hydrogen using no electronics or ordinary photovoltaic cells at all.
Cobalt is cheap compared to many photovoltaic cell (e.g. CIGS)
ingredients, and its use is purely catalytic. High purity silicon
semiconductor production is also non-essential, as is vacuum
deposition, etc. Cobalt is not used up in the process and can be
readily recycled.
What is interesting about this article is it gives a hint at the
direction in which the technology is being developed.
Despite the hype, there are a lot of people involved, both at MIT and
in private companies. It is preposterous to think a fraud could be
covered up at this point.
-----Original Message-----
From: Horace Heffner
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/11/making-a-simple-hydrogen-
production-system-even-simpler.ars
http://tinyurl.com/yft53y6
" ... one potential route to simplifying things down: it might be
possible to get rid of the photovoltaics entirely", " ... the cobalt
phosphate catalyst can be made to form directly on the surface of a
photovoltaic material, where it harvests the charge differences
directly, rather than requiring that they be piped in as current from
an external source."
"The research was done with a rather unusual photovoltaic material:
zinc oxide, better known as a component of some sunblocks."
" ... the whole process of harvesting the charge separation, with its
associated equipment and cost, could be done without-if the cobalt
catalyst was placed in close enough proximity to the zinc oxide, it
could directly harvest the charge differential from the surface to
split water."
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
