Not nearly tribal enough but I like science so I'll drop it in here First, a new way to coat aluminum (albeit with an expensive substance) allow for hydrogen to be produced at room temperature by running water over aluminum Scientists Find a Simple Way to Produce Hydrogen From Water at Room Temperature : ScienceAlert A new study provides us with another promising step in that direction, provided you can make use of existing supplies of post-consumer aluminum and gallium. In the new research, scientists describe a relatively simple method involving aluminum nanoparticles that are able to strip the oxygen from water molecules and leave hydrogen gas. The process yields large amounts of hydrogen, and it all works at room temperature. That removes one of the big barriers to hydrogen fuel production: the large amounts of power required to produce it using existing methods. This technique works with any kind of water, too, including wastewater and ocean water. "We don't need any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen like crazy," says materials scientist Scott Oliver from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Next, hydrogen generation using electricity is more effective at hotter temperatures. Combine excess heat from nuclear power plants with off peak production capability of the same plants and generate hydrogen cheaper. Forget Green Hydrogen, Pink Hydrogen is Heating Up - TheStreet Hydrogen can be manufactured in numerous ways. The most referenced process is electrolysis, which uses electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Electrolysis is the process used to manufacture green hydrogen, where electrolyzers are supplied by companies such as Plug Power (PLUG) and electricity is supplied by a wind or solar farm. Pink hydrogen can also be manufactured via electrolysis, but with the electricity supplied by nuclear power plants. However, the manufacturing process would be tweaked slightly due to low efficiency and poor economics. The chemical reactions needed to manufacture hydrogen require significant amounts of energy. Whereas methods to produce green hydrogen must rely primarily on energy in the form of electricity ("cold electrolysis"), nuclear power plants can leverage waste energy from the heat they produce. That opens a whole new economic reality for pink hydrogen. Processes that use heat benefit from higher efficiencies and potentially lower production costs, although they can be limited by materials science. That's because the membranes used in HTSE can be quickly degraded by the high temperatures. Similarly, existing nuclear reactors aren't optimized for high-temperature thermochemical production, which would be the Holy Grail of low-cost hydrogen production. Next-generation nuclear technology now in development could provide viable manufacturing pathways in the 2030s.
