platinum Archives – The Green Optimistic

Dutch University Discovers How to Reduce Platinum Use in Fuel Cells

Annika Tostengard — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 05:21:58 +0000

Researchers from Tufts University have discovered a way to make fuel cells cheaper by using less platinum. Platinum is used as a catalyst in fuel cells, inducing the chemical reactions that make green technology like electric vehicle batteries work. Platinum, however, is extremely scarce and so using it in any technologies generally prohibits them from being very […]

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New Fuel Cell With Five Times Less Platinum Developed in Copenhagen

Benji Jerew — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:07:06 +0000

Hydrogen fuel cells, which could find applications from vehicles to backup power supplies, suffer from one important drawback – expense. Current mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell catalysts employ a small amount of platinum to sustain the reaction necessary to generate electricity from hydrogen. Most importantly, platinum is non-corroding, which helps the fuel cell last a long […]

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Iodine Fuel Cell Catalyst More Efficient [and Cheaper!] than Platinum

Benji Jerew — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:58:20 +0000

If hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are ever going to make it mainstream, one thing that’s definitely going to be needed is a cheaper fuel cell. The problem, of course, is the balance between price and longevity. Cheaper fuel cells can be made, but then they don’t last very long. Platinum doesn’t corrode in a fuel […]

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New Hydrogen Generator is More Efficient and Less Expensive

Benji Jerew — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:56:20 +0000

The basics of a fully functional hydrogen economy have to include both efficient and inexpensive hydrogen generators and fuel cells. Electrolytic cells generate hydrogen and oxygen gas from water using an electric current. They are not particularly efficient however, as the energy in the resulting hydrogen and oxygen is less than that which was used […]

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Biofactories Clean the Environment and Manufacture Platinum

Benji Jerew — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 20:23:59 +0000

Platinum is one of the rarest metals on earth. Only a few hundred tons of it are produced annually, which makes items such as catalytic converters and jewelry expensive. Its desirability as a metal is mostly because of its anti-corrosive properties, but what makes it undesirable is that, in an atomic state, can be toxic. […]

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Reducing Platinum and Adding Gold: Three Inventions That Increase Fuel Cell Efficiency and Decrease Price

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:05:05 +0000

Fuel cells are indispensable for hydrogen powered cars, and it looks like hydrogen may be the ultimate energy storage that meets all the demands of a clean "fuel" (though it's only a carrier, not a fuel). Fuel cells, are expensive, though, and their price is due to platinum, which is a rare metal.

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New Discovery Could Make Platinum Fuel Cells Much More Durable

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:31:04 +0000

Engineering assistant prof. Dane Morgan and Ph.D. student Edward (Ted) Holby, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that making the fuel cells from very small platinum nanoparticles decreases their lifetime. Making them bigger is, though, better.

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Cheaper Hydrogen Obtained with Stainless-Steel Brush Cathode

Cristi — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:30:48 +0000

Scientists seem to have found a way to obtain hydrogen from organic matter without the us of the expensive platinum metal. They developed a stainless-steel brush that can help in the microbial electrolysis process reducing the costs in this way up to 80 %.

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New Catalyst Makes Ethanol Fuel Cells Feasible at Room Temperatures

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:28:22 +0000

I don't know the solution to the perfect energy equation, but as long as we're producing CO2 it's not the final one. Anyway, until a new and better method is found to be feasible enough, this is a good one, too.

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Trametes Versicolor Fungi Could Make Fuel Cells Cheaper

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:29:43 +0000

Fungi grown on rotten wood could one day be harvested and genetically engineered for providing future fuel cells with an alternative to the platinum that they nowadays have inside, playing the role of a catalyst.

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