Program for Wednesday, April 8, 7pm

Solar Water Splitting for Hydrogen Production
by Roger Davenport

As you can see from Roger Davenports tongue-in-cheek bio, we can expect a very interesting update on solar ways to produce hydrogen.

You are invited to attend and network with dozens of like souls.  Admission is free.  I hope to see you next Wednesday at the California Center for Sustainable Energy, 8690 Balboa Avenue Suite 100 (2 blocks east of Hwy 163 on the north side of Balboa.

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Roger graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in Physics, then decided he wanted to do something useful, so he got a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the U. of Arizona.   He worked for three years at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now NREL) in Golden, CO, spent a few years in Europe while Reagan was killing the solar programs, and returned in 1987 to Science Applications International Corp. here in San Diego, where he has continued to work.  In the course of his career at SERI, he studied solar industrial process heat systems, developed domestic hot water systems and components, and analyzed ocean thermal energy conversion devices.  At SAIC, he has developed and operated utility-scale dish/Stirling systems, and developed dish/PV systems, solar detoxification systems, and heliostats for central receiver systems.  He is presently researching high-temperature thermochemical water splitting cycles for production of hydrogen from solar energy and water.

Program Description:  Solar Water Splitting for Hydrogen Production

I will be giving an overview of concepts for splitting water using solar energy, ranging from PV/electrolysis systems to high-temperature thermochemical systems, with particular emphasis on the hybrid sulfur-ammonia thermochemical process that we are presently developing jointly with the Florida Solar Energy Center.  I will describe various approaches to generating hydrogen from water, and discuss the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of some systems.