• Question: how would you make clean energy

    Asked by dylanb773 to Aoife on 7 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Aoife Lucid

      Aoife Lucid answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      Hi!
      There are many technologies and ways that clean energy can be produced (solar cells, wind energy, tidal energy etc.) but the devices that I focus on are called solid oxide fuel cells (here is a link to the wikipedia page in case you are interested! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_oxide_fuel_cell). These devices work kind of like a battery, except they do not store energy but they convert chemical energy to electrical energy on an ongoing basis. The coolest best thing about these devices is that they can be used with lots of different fuels, even hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen fuel is the cleanest and most abundant fuel there is as it is produced directly from the electrochemical splitting of water! Solid oxide fuel cells are very efficient devices and if they are used with hydrogen fuel then these are one of the cleanest ways of producing energy. Of course, like any device they have some problems (like the fact that they need very high temperatures to run!) and so I work on materials which will hopefully solve these problems to make these devices more viable for day-to-day use.

Comments

  • Photo: Louise

    Louise commented on :

    Hey Dylanb773!

    Well as Aoife said there are plenty of clean energy sources available (http://www.eia.gov/Kids/energy.cfm?page=about_home-basics), however sometimes these energy sources can be difficult to obtain. There are problems with each energy source (some may only work when windy, so what happens when it’s calm outside?), so maybe if they were combined we could get a lot more energy! I am working on batteries which help store this clean energy (as chemical energy) and then release it when needed (as electrical energy). Here is a quick video to help explain how batteries work (http://mocomi.com/how-do-batteries-work/)
    I think combining solar cells (or other energy sources) with batteries (or even fuel cells like what Aoife is working on), is a good way to go! We must look after our planet after all!

    I hope this answers your question, if not then let me know and I will give you a better answer.