In Germany created a light system that shines like 10 million suns
10-thousand suns — the light gives a light system, created by German scientists to separate hydrogen from water and create clean fuel.
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However, for a few hours the system consumes as much electricity as a normal house for a year, so she herself to be called organic.
Scientists from the German center for air and space has created a powerful new lighting system, which can in one place to focus the energy equivalent to the emission of 10 thousand suns. They hope that this “artificial sun” can be used for the production of environmentally friendly fuel. On Thursday she passed the first test. On the experimental system according to the website Gizmodo.
A light system called Synlight and is located in the German town of jülich, about 15 km West of Cologne.
It consists of 149 korotkodnevnyh xenon lamps — the same used in larger projectors to create lighting that would give 10 thousand suns a lovely day.
During startup, the researchers focused the radiation of a 350-kilowatt cell array on a single metal sheet of size 20×20 cm says the centre’s Director, Bernard Hoffschmidt, the system is capable of temperatures up to 3000 °C. the Dimensions of the structure are 14 m high and 16 m wide.
The researchers collected the system in search of new ways to create fuel cells, namely hydrogen. Unlike many fuels, hydrogen does not emit when burning carbon emissions and therefore not contributing to global warming. But hydrogen fuel does not appear naturally. To create it required to split water into the two components — hydrogen and oxygen. But this requires conditions similar to stellar.
When the system is focused at one point, it heats the metal up to 800 °C, and then it sprayed water vapor. The metal reacts with the oxygen in the water, and hydrogen remains. Upon further heating, the oxygen is again separated from the metal.
Inside the building where the system works, of course, cannot be — one second exposure reflected from the walls of the radiation enough to fry the person.
Hydrogen is very volatile, so that hydrogen fuel has to be treated with caution. However, it can be used in cars and airplanes — there are high strength of the sealed cylinders, which in the case of damage to the contents instantly dissipate in the atmosphere. Alternatively, you can add to a mixture of carbon monoxide and to obtain ecologically pure kerosene fuel, which can be used in aircraft and rocket industry.
In the future renewable energy will become the backbone of the global energy supply. Fuels produced using solar energy have great potential for long-term storage, synthesis, chemical raw materials and reducing CO2 emissions.Karsten Lamella Department of the Agency for energy and transport
Now the system Synlight limited to the amount of electricity required for the work.
For four hours she spends as much electricity as the average house in the course of the year.
System requiring a lot of energy for the production of clean fuel itself is environmentally friendly can not be considered. But in the future, you may be able to direct the work from sunlight.
While the system is in the testing stage, but once you are able to achieve significant results, its size will be increased 10 times. Researchers estimate that it will be possible for several years.
A similar system is now being tested by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of technology in Lausanne. Their apparatus consists of 18 light sources arranged in a pair of concentric circles. Researchers use it to explore and develop ways of converting and storing solar energy testing equipment to obtain changes in heat transfer between the materials under stressful conditions.