Electrolysis and Cars
Roy Howe
ITT-Tech
Abstract
In an article on the Stanford University website I found an article about something that I think has a tremendous amount of potential. It is the process of electrolysis, the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen. The man problem with this process has been that you always had to put more into the process then you gained from it. I believe that has changed with this breakthrough that is written about in this article. Scientist at Stanford University have developed a low-cost, emissions free device that uses ordinary AAA batteries.

Electrolysis and Cars

Introduction Automakers have long considered the hydrogen fuel cell a promising alternative to the gasoline engine. Fuel cell technology is essentially water splitting in reverse. A fuel cell combines stored hydrogen gas with oxygen from the air to produce electricity, which powers the car. The only byproduct is water – unlike gasoline combustion, which emits carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. (SHWARTZ, 2014) The implications of this are vast, one of the areas that this will change in the next 20 years is that we will have a clean zero emissions way of producing gases that can be burn within automobiles.
The Technology
The proton exchange membrane electrolyzer also works in exactly the same way, by decomposing water with an electric current. The distinctive feature is a proton-permeable polymer membrane. An external voltage is applied to its electrodes, which are coated with noble metal. The coating acts as a catalyst and the water is therefore decomposed on the anode side. This results in the production of oxygen, free electrons, and positively charged H+ ions. (unknow, n.d.) In the experiment that was done at Stanford, they use nickel/nickel-oxide which greatly reduces the voltage required, in this case it was 1.5 volts. They have further gone on to using a single catalyst nickel-iron-oxide.

Environmental impact. “Right now, we can run the water splitting for more than 200 hours, but if [we] want to lower the cost even more, [we would have to] run the splitting for 2,000 hours,” Wang said.
“If we can mass produce clean electricity just from sunlight and solar cells to drive water-splitting process to produce hydrogen, the entire process will have zero emissions and the energy will be completely clean,” he added. (Sun, 2015) Because all elements involved are used and there are no byproducts from the interaction, this true is a zero emissions process.
Automobile impact.
This link: Toyota Mirai will show you a car that is powered by hydrogen from a creek where the oil industry started. The hydrogen in the video was produced in the normal process of electrolysis. Imagine if this whole process could be done on board the car using nothing more than a solar panel on the roof of the car and the Technology being looked at on the campus of Stanford. There are people out there that say that they can already run their cars on water.
Other uses.
One other use could be that you use this process to power them things in your home. If you had solar cells on the roof of your house and then use the process being used as Stanford to produce electricity for your home. You will be able to run your home on just water and solar and have zero emissions there also.
Conclusion
I believe that in the next 20 years we will see this technology because more and more import in society. The possibilities for this technology could change how we look at power. The draw backs to this technology are that they might not be able to produce the electricity in a way that is cost effective. But with the changes that have happened in the last 5 years in this field and with the concerns that we have about the environment, I believe that we will make great progress in this area.

References
SHWARTZ, B. M. (2014, August 22). Stanford News. Retrieved from Stanford University : http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/august/splitter-clean-fuel-082014.html
Sun, M. (2015, july 12). Stanford Daily. Retrieved from Stanford Daily News: http://www.stanforddaily.com/2015/07/12/stanford-researchers-create-a-single-catalyst-water-splitter-for-clean-energy/ unknow. (n.d.). H2O Electrolysis. Retrieved from Electrolysis: http://www.industry.siemens.com/topics/global/en/pem-electrolyzer/silyzer/discovering-pem-technology/pages/electrolysis-explained.aspx

GS1140 Unit 1 Research paper 1 Electrolysis and Cars