On 23/04/17 09:19, Nightjar wrote:
On 22-Apr-17 12:47 PM, Chris Hogg wrote:
....
Splitting water only requires 1.23v in theory. If it's low energy, as
opposed to low voltage, you only get low amounts of H2 and O2. And
with the usual systematic energy losses, you'll get even lower amounts
of energy back when you recombine them. The idea that you can split
water, recombine the products, and get more energy out than you put
in, is pure fantasy, like the thinking on any other perpetual motion
machine.


As they are working on ways of reducing the cost of producing hydrogen,
they have been working on getting the same amount while using less
energy. Both claim to have made breakthroughs in doing that. As these
are processes with commercial applications, no details have been given,
but I assume that the use of catalysts implies that there is some
chemical reaction involved as well as pure electrolysis.

You can assume what you like mate, but the fact remains that the binding
energy has to be overcome, and that sets a limit on the process. You
cant magically create energy out of nothing. The energy you get be
recombining hydrogen and oxygen will never exceed what you put in to
split them in the first place.

And in fact is usually a whole lot less.

Using electricity to make hydrogen and then burning that to create
electricity is a round trip efficiency of probably less than 30% as
batteries go, that's crap.

If basic physics wer mandatory like English is supposed to be there
wouldn't be as single renewable/alternative energy company in operation.

They all survive because of grants granted by the technically illiterate.

--
Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.
But Marxism is the crack cocaine.