A common science experiment is to crack water back into elemental hydrogen and oxygen and, it's pretty easy to do. Of course, the problem is that it takes more energy to separate it than you get back when you re-combine the hydrogen and oxygen back to water again.
But, if you can find a "free" energy source (the sun) that's otherwise just going to waste, can it be practical to do the cracking at home?
Communist China tried the concept with poor success by having families set up small smelters to generate steel for industry. Unfortunately, the quality control was spotty and the steel output sub-standard. Hopefully, technology has advanced some since then.
Lets say that a photovoltaic solar array is used to provide the electrical power and appropriate electronic and electrical devices are used to control and monitor the process. By having the cracking be automatically taking place whenever there's sufficient sunlight, the home setup would generate the hydrogen and drive it into a relatively low-pressure tank (similar to a household type propane tank).
As the tank would approach capacity, it would report its status to the "hydrogen company" (probably a public utility like the electric, gas, water and phone company) that would have a collection truck stop, on its route, and extract the hydrogen while measuring the volume taken. The family that generated the hydrogen would be credited similar to the way a family can now generate electricity and drive it back into the electrical grid for credit. When the family hydrogen fueled car filled up, the credit would automatically be applied.
What I don't know (and hope people out there in cyberspace do) is whether sufficient hydrogen could be produced and harvested in this manner to make it worth the effort. Unlike LPG, the hydrogen would stay gaseous and would not be as efficient as propane, for the same size tank but, with millions of units operating most every day, would it be efficient enough to be practical?
Also, since propane is a hyrocarbon fuel (and I've read that the most common and efficient way to get hydrogen now is to extract it from natural gas), I wonder if the hydrogen could simply be driven into a propane tank to make a hydrogen enriched propane that would be used (by families that use propane) directly? I'm no chemitst and don't know the ramifications of all this.
But, if you can find a "free" energy source (the sun) that's otherwise just going to waste, can it be practical to do the cracking at home?
Communist China tried the concept with poor success by having families set up small smelters to generate steel for industry. Unfortunately, the quality control was spotty and the steel output sub-standard. Hopefully, technology has advanced some since then.
Lets say that a photovoltaic solar array is used to provide the electrical power and appropriate electronic and electrical devices are used to control and monitor the process. By having the cracking be automatically taking place whenever there's sufficient sunlight, the home setup would generate the hydrogen and drive it into a relatively low-pressure tank (similar to a household type propane tank).
As the tank would approach capacity, it would report its status to the "hydrogen company" (probably a public utility like the electric, gas, water and phone company) that would have a collection truck stop, on its route, and extract the hydrogen while measuring the volume taken. The family that generated the hydrogen would be credited similar to the way a family can now generate electricity and drive it back into the electrical grid for credit. When the family hydrogen fueled car filled up, the credit would automatically be applied.
What I don't know (and hope people out there in cyberspace do) is whether sufficient hydrogen could be produced and harvested in this manner to make it worth the effort. Unlike LPG, the hydrogen would stay gaseous and would not be as efficient as propane, for the same size tank but, with millions of units operating most every day, would it be efficient enough to be practical?
Also, since propane is a hyrocarbon fuel (and I've read that the most common and efficient way to get hydrogen now is to extract it from natural gas), I wonder if the hydrogen could simply be driven into a propane tank to make a hydrogen enriched propane that would be used (by families that use propane) directly? I'm no chemitst and don't know the ramifications of all this.