Hydrogen car

the zinc is being reduced, not oxidized.

can you provide an equation that will show how it is being oxidized?

and if fuel is the carrier for the energy, then it is hydrogen (or the water), because according to the diagram, that is what is being put into the ICE to combust. the zinc is a catylist because it breaks the bond between H and O which doesnt really occur spontaneously.

 

From the article:
"The solid waste product of the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use by the metal industry.

Refuelling the car based on this technology will also be remarkably simple. The vehicle will contain a mechanism for rolling the metal wire into a coil during the process of fuelling and the spent metal oxide, which was produced in the previous phase, will be collected from the car by vacuum suction."

 

hrm. i wonder if i'm just full of myself. let me ask some people

 

Whether the zinc is the "fuel" or not is irrelevant I guess. The point is that they have come up with a process to capture solar energy and store it in a stable, easy to transport form. It can be stacked up in a warehouse if needed, and it doesn't need to be stored in high pressure tanks. And the storage medium is even recyclable. Once you release the energy from it, you can take it back to the solar tower and stuff more energy into it.

So now you can capture solar energy where the solar energy is most abundant, transport it to where solar energy is less abundant, and then release the energy for consumption when it's needed by adding a little heat, but still less heat than you bake cookies with.

What's even better is that they've even figured out a way to make a car engine that can directly consume this stable captured solar energy.

 

Zn + H20 => ZnO + H2

Fuel is the source of energy not the carrier.

From: http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topi...2/activate.html
"Four criteria must be satisfied in order for something to be classified as catalyst.
Catalysts increase the rate of reaction.
Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction.
A small quantity of catalyst should be able to affect the rate of reaction for a large amount of reactant.
Catalysts do not change the equilibrium constant for the reaction."

Zn + H20 => ZnO + H2
The zinc is consumed to form zinc oxide.

I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
What is your background?

 

please don't refer to degree's/credibility, i was asking a sincere question. and if fuel is considered the source then you can go all the way back to the sun and call that the fuel.

so lets see, i think i agree that it is oxidizing. but how can you show the energy is being transfered from the zinc to the hydrogen?

 

Sorry if it seemed as if I was was attacking your credentials while establishing my own.
I do appreciate your sincerity.

However, you don't load the sun into your fuel tank.
The article is quite clear that zinc is the fuel.
100% of the operating energy for the vehicle in the article, if it functions as described, would come from the oxidation of the zinc.

You could consider the creation of hydrogen by this process a conversion of the vehicle's zinc fuel into another fuel, hydrogen, for use by the vehicle's engine.
This would be analagous to a diesel locomotive burning diesel to create electricity to supply energy to its electric motors (imperfect analogy acknowleged).

 

Oops. Sorry I missed responding to this part of your question.

Presumably, the oxygen would have lower energy state when combined with the zinc than by remaining with the hydrogen.
Once separated, the hydrogen mixed with new free oxygen would strongly want to combine with it as opposed to remaining free.
The oxidation of the hydrogen releases energy in the form of heat.

 

I worked through some numbers on what solar panels on the roof and hood of the Prius could do. Solar panels are more like 15% efficient rather than 100% efficient. The numbers I come up with are that you could recover the equivalent of about 1/9 of a gallon of gas a day for a nationwide average of solar power. You could get roughly double or triple that in summer in the southwest. See this web page