A University of Colorado Boulder team has developed a
radically new technique that uses the power of sunlight to efficiently split
water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, paving the way for the broad
use of hydrogen as a clean, green fuel.
The CU-Boulder team has devised a solar-thermal system in
which sunlight could be concentrated by a vast array of mirrors onto a single
point atop a central tower up to several hundred feet tall. The tower would
gather heat generated by the mirror system to roughly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit
(1,350 Celsius), then deliver it into a reactor containing chemical compounds
known as metal oxides, said CU-Boulder Professor Alan Weimer, research group
leader.