How to Use Hydrogen to Make Electricity
Hydrogen, the lightest gas we know of, has potential as a fuel. Scientists are particularly interested in developing systems that can run on hydrogen because the byproduct of the hydrogen-to-electricity process is ordinary water. It isn't difficult to use hydrogen to produce electricity once you understand the process.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Making a Fuel Cell
-
1
Cut the wires of the battery lead with the wire clippers. Then trim off a bit of the insulation on the wires with the knife.
-
2
Cut the platinum wire in two and curl the wire into two coils. These will be your electrodes.
-
-
3
Connect the wires of the battery lead to one end of each of the platinum coils.
-
4
Put the free ends of the platinum coils (the ones not connected to the wire leads) into a glass of water. Don't let the lead wires touch the water.
-
5
Touch the battery to the battery lead. The bubbles show that the electricity from the battery is forming negative hydrogen ions. Take the battery off the lead. The platinum coils act as a catalyst and break apart the first hydrogen ions, and electrons from the ions are attracted to one of the coils (forming new positive hydrogen ions); they form an electrical current. Meanwhile, the other coil gives up electrons to oxygen molecules, and the hydrogen ions and oxygen come together again to form water. If you attach a second set of wires to the platinum coils to a small appliance or voltage reader, the electrons will travel through the wires as electricity and you can measure the electricity produced. There are other methods of using hydrogen to produce electricity, such as getting the hydrogen from fossil fuels, but electrolysis, the process described above, might be a better method because the electricity needed to use the hydrogen could be obtained from non-polluting wind or solar energy.
-
1
References
Resources
More Like This
Comments
-
ok
