Wednesday, May 12, 2010

RT #Yale #Solar Group aims to run cars off water #Energy

The Yale Solar Group is a team of chemists harnessing sunlight to split water into its elementary components: hydrogen (a green fuel) and oxygen--which it says could enable fuel-cell equipped cars to essentially run off water. Look for supercharged electrolysis systems that convert water into fuel from several vendors by 2012. R.C.J.

Here what the Yale Solar Group says about itself: When people at cocktail parties used to ask Charles Schmuttenmaer what he did, he would say he was a chemistry professor who worked on transient-photo conductivity in gallium arsenide. "At that point they would generally ask me to pass the chips," the Yale chemist says with a laugh. Now Schmuttenmaer tells them he's working on a way to harness the power of the sun to produce carbon-neutral fuel. "And then the response is, ‘Oh, that's wonderful. Way to go!'" he says. A few years ago, Schmuttenmaer never imagined he'd be working to solve the world's energy problem. But that's exactly what he now does as one of the four founding members of the Yale Solar Group...
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