The use of hydrogen gas to fuel cars has become an alternative fuel whose use is increasing, this is caused by use traditional hydrogen gas produced by the exhaust gas does not pollute lingkuangan due out only water vapor. However, one of the obstacles encountered is the lack of hydrogen gas source that is cheap and easily updated. Gerardine Botte of Ohio University may have found the answer to these problems, using an approach electrolysis process he managed to produce hydrogen gas from urine, one of the waste that is very abundant in the earth and of course the urine is a source for free so it can cut the cost of hydrogen gas production.
Botte says the idea came to him several years ago when he attended a conference of fuel, when he was discussing how to change water resources into clean energy resources. "I hope we can turn water into environmentally friendly energy sources," he said. He began thinking about the search for sources of waste that can be used as a source to generate hydrogen gas.
The content of urine is primarily urea, which urea has four hydrogen atoms per molecule, hydrogen iktan with an iron atom in the urea N is weaker than hydrogen bonds with O atoms in water. Botte then decided to use electrolysis to break down the urea molecule by using nickel-based electrodes that are selective and efficient to oxidize urea. To break the urea molecule is necessary voltage at 0.37 volts which is still lower voltage than required for electrolyzing water is about 1.23 volts.
During the process that occurs urea adsorbed on the nickel electrode, which then drain the electrons which then decompose urea molecules. Pure hydrogen gas is formed at the cathode, nitrogen gas and a bit of oxygen and hydrogen gas is formed at the anode. Carbon dioxide gas is also produced during the electrolysis, but this gas will not mix with the gas produced at the anode and cathode due to this gas reacts with KOH to form potassium carbonate. "It takes time for us to use the Marine humans as experiments so that we can mempubilkasikan our research," says Botte.
According to Botte, existing processes for separating urine from the water current is very expensive and inefficient. Urine is generally hydrolyzed to amonik before detaching keudara as ammonia gas. The formation of this gas will form ammonium sulfate and nitral particles in the air, where both these substances can cause various health problems for humans such as asthma, bronchitis, and premature death.
The group of researchers has spent countless hours studying the electrolysis system will be used including studying the reaction mechanism is computational. Botte believes that this technology will be able to be made in a large scale to produce hydrogen gas. "One of the obstacles that hinder the process is the amount of salt present in the source of urine," says Botte.
Bruce Logan, an expert on energy from waste and director of the Pennsylvania State University's H2E Center & Engineering Environmental Institute give applause at Botte who have contributed over alternative hydrogen production without breaking the water molecules. However he gave suatau statement that urea is more quickly converted into ammonia by bacteria, it is of course a limitation of the study conducted by Botte. But Logan felt that Botte very good idea to figure out how to process the waste urine us not only to produce hydrogen but also to generate other sources such as sources of fertilizer phosphorus menginggat in the future as well as phosphorus crude oil could become a thing of rare and we should figuring out how to mericycle phosphorus for the future.
from:www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/July/02070902.asp