German scientists have created "the world's largest artificial sun" - a source of intense light, with which it is planned to produce environmentally friendly fuel. Reported by The Guardian.
The "searchlight" experiment is being carried out at the German Aerospace Center 50 kilometers from Cologne. There, scientists have placed an installation of 149 floodlights, which is capable of generating light whose intensity is 10 thousand times greater than natural light. If you direct all the lamps to one point, the temperature there will reach 3.5 thousand degrees Celsius.
“If you walked into the room when the lamp was on, you would be burnt,” comments one of the center's directors, Bernard Hoffschmidt.
The main goal of the experiment is to develop an optimal way to obtain large amounts of solar energy, sufficient to obtain hydrogen fuel. With the help of lamps, scientists want to extract hydrogen from water vapor, which can later be used as fuel for aircraft and cars.
As the authors of the project explain, at the moment humanity is looking for alternative fuels that will not emit carbon dioxide and pollute the air. Hydrogen is one of the possible options for such a fuel. However, in order to provide all of humanity with them, it is necessary to process billions of tons of water, which will require huge energy consumption. To obtain such energy in the future, "artificial suns" will be used, scientists believe.
These units consume as much electricity in four hours of operation as four average people a year. However, on their basis, German researchers expect to create a scheme that will allow the use of sunlight for the production of hydrogen.
