If we understand something, we can usually explain it: We’re aware that oil companies are committed to invading pristine land to frack, drill and extract everything their equipment can screw out of the earth.
Burning coal, oil and gas releases carbon dioxide and causes extreme weather, smog, neurological damage and dead fish. That could be going bye-bye.
Green hydrogen has claimed the nod as the cleanest fuel for airplanes and long-haul trucks but has been too expensive to be practical.
Until now. Scientists at Linköping University in Sweden have created a three-layer material composite (catalyst) to extract hydrogen – the most abundant element on Earth – from water. The process doesn’t require a power grid (solar or wind farm). It works by simply letting sunlight hit the charge recombination material. It emits water vapor, not carbon dioxide.
This isn’t splitting hairs or logs, it’s splitting water. Water is widespread and fossil free.
Few years away, sure, but an enormous breakthrough. Those who make dollars from sucking petroleum from underground and selling it as a crucial, unaffordable commodity might have to get day jobs. And take pay cuts.