Because the reaction starts off fast and then slows down to a crawl over a couple of weeks depending on the relative proportions of the starting materials, the hydrogen produced has little utility in "hydrogen on demand" power systems.
I have been thinking about other possible uses for the hydrogen gas. For example, can you load up water with hydrogen like you can carbon and oxygen gas?
If so, might the H2 saturated water have antioxidant properties useful for medical and agricultural purposes? For example, consider the 2007 Nature Medicine paper:
Abstract:
Hydrogen acts as a therapeutic antioxidant by selectively reducing cytotoxic oxygen radicals
Ikuroh Ohsawa1, Masahiro Ishikawa1, Kumiko Takahashi1, Megumi Watanabe1,2, Kiyomi Nishimaki1,
Kumi Yamagata1, Ken-ichiro Katsura2, Yasuo Katayama2, Sadamitsu Asoh1 & Shigeo Ohta1
Acute oxidative stress induced by ischemia-reperfusion or inflammation causes serious damage to tissues, and persistent oxidative stress is accepted as one of the causes of many common diseases including cancer. We show here that hydrogen (H2) has potential as an antioxidant in preventive and therapeutic applications. We induced acute oxidative stress in cultured cells by three independent methods. H2 selectively reduced the hydroxyl radical, the most cytotoxic of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and
effectively protected cells; however, H2 did not react with other ROS, which possess physiological roles. We used an acute rat model in which oxidative stress damage was induced in the brain by focal ischemia and reperfusion. The inhalation of H2 gas markedly suppressed brain injury by buffering the effects of oxidative stress. Thus H2 can be used as an effective antioxidant
therapy; owing to its ability to rapidly diffuse across membranes, it can reach and react with cytotoxic ROS and thus protect against oxidative damage.
Has this topic been discussed by others here previously or does anyone know of any unique uses that could have large utility if the hydrogen was available over slow steady production?Statistics: Posted by sparkgap — Sat Mar 07, 2009 9:21 pm
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