[Vwdiesel] Hydrogen power

[James Hansen]

Doubtful. It would involve more than interruption of the cycle.  Remember,
it's pretty complex a reaction, much more so than the usual line drawings
demonstrating energy flow or chemical changes.   To use only a portion of
the complex structure that effects the capture of water's electrons would
render it ineffective as the system is driven by light generating an
electrical potential across the protein structure (a bit over a volt
potential).  take away part of the structure, you essentially remove the
other end of the battery. Keep the structure intact, the rest of the cycle
follows as normal. Use other stuff, (chemical) to shut off other parts of
the reaction (like certain chemicals interfere with cellular organelles) I
would speculate that the accumulation of products would shut the reaction
off as the volt potentials equalize.  The joining the carbon with hydrogen
has more steps, like a couple of energy carriers as intermediaries, some
ATPsynthase etc, etc.  It's a wonderfully complex reaction, and don't
forget, is happening in solution, not gaseous state, so you are making H+
ions, not free hydrogen.   Speculation on alternative energy capture may lie
in the harnesing of the tad over a volt potential across the pigments (1.2
IIRC...it's been a loooooong time) as a sort of organic solar battery.
Imagine this in a thin film tank over a few football fields in size hooked
to the mig welder and plasma cutter in my shop. :-)
or better yet, use it to produce biofuels to keep the stock car going. :-))
-James

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com]On
Behalf Of Libbybapa at wmconnect.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 10:37 PM
To: vwdiesel at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] Hydrogen power


In looking into photosythesis, I have had an interesting thought.  It is a
multistep process.  In the first step a photon of light hits the chlorophyl
which grabs a water molecule and seperates it into hydrogen and oxygen.  The
molecule then seperates a CO2 molecule into carbon a oxygen.  It then
combines the
carbon with the hydrogen to form hydrocarbons and releases the oxygen.  I
have
wondered if it would be possible to halt the reaction with the seperation of
water into hydrogen and oxygen, and produce hydrogen and oxygen rather than
HC's and oxygen.  Perhaps more knowlegable minds could chime in.
Andrew
PS In thinking that the NEEDS of the world would not be met without fossil
fuels is ridiculous.  The needs of the world were met for millenia without
them
and will certainly be met after they are gone.  Fossil fuels do not meet
needs, they facilitate desires, and will only do so for an extremely brief
period
of human history.  They were originally used for fuel because they were a
nuisance ruining potentil farmland.  Energy from fossil fuels has been
extremely
cheap, cheaper than any other energy source in human history.  Rudolf Diesel
stated that he thought it was an important aspect of his diesel engine that
it
could be run on various biofuels.  He said that it didn't matter at that
time,
but might be important in the future.  Incredible vision.
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