One of the most interesting talks at AAAS is about a discovery that may ultimately give the much-vaunted hydrogen economy an opportunity. Daniel Nocera, Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at MIT delivered a plenary lecture on a new catalyst produced in his research lab, one that gets inspiration from the photosynthetic pathways inside plant cells to break up body of water into H2 and O2, giving up the H2 to be utilized as fuel.
Fulfilling the human’s future energy need is going to require the sun, said by Nocera, and that is only going to occur if we can stock that energy for utilization when it is not beaming. Plants developed to take advantage of high-power chemical bonds, and the oil, gas, and coal we presently utilize is just stored sunlight (thru plants), even though concentrated. Hydrogen is the single practicable solution compared to batteries, capacitors, or mechanical storage systems like pumped-up water or compressed air when you consider energy density and the work from his research laboratory may help do that possible.
