This is the blog of the Cowbridge Comprehensive School Chemistry department. It's purpose is to provide material which will be of direct help in studying Chemistry and will also provide interesting links to all things chemical.
Any images/video clips used are strictly for educational (non-profit making) purposes, if you feel there are any copyright infringements or do not wish for the images to be used, please contact us and we will remove them.
Year 10 pupils, an exciting opportunity has been made available by Warwick University for you to take part in a 4 day (3 nights) residential course looking at problems of modern society and how Chemistry can be used to develop solutions.
You will have the opportunity to:
Learn about new and exciting chemical principles.
Carry out investigations and experiments using state of the art research equipment.
Work as a team to improve problem solving and communication skills.
Click on the images below for more details.
Scan the QR code on the second picture or click here to link to the website.
With oil reserves being depleted, there is a real need to find an alternative fuel source to power vehicles. Could hydrogen be that source?
Hydrogen when burnt in oxygen produces a highly exothermic reaction, producing water as its only product:
hydrogen + oxygen -------> water
H2(g) + O2(g) -------> H2O(g)
We can see the dangers of hydrogen with the impact of the Hindenburg disaster:
The idea of using hydrogen in a fuel cell, whilst being discussed in the news now (January 2015) with Toyota making their patents freely available to companies to help develop technologies, is not a new one. The idea was first developed by Swansea scientist Sir William Grove in 1842! He is now being recognised with a blue plaque, click on the picture for the BBC News article:
Hydrogen is an abundant element with it forming part of water, it is also a major constituent of fossil fuels. It just needs to be separated to make it useful. The following clip discusses how hydrogen could be obtained and why it might be useful, you might have to sign into YouTube to watch it:
The theories of Sir William Grove have been developed over the last century and in 2014 Toyota announced at CES (Consumer Electronics Show - global consumer electronics and consumer technology tradeshow) their developments in hydrogen fuel cell technology:
In the space of a year Toyota have developed their first hydrogen fuelled concept car:
Some exciting times ahead in the use of fuel cells for many applications! Check out the new Toyota Mirai here.
Since originally posting in this 2015 (it is now 2020) the development of hydrogen as a fuel seems to have stalled and gone out of the media spotlight with electric cars and hybrids taking centre stage. It appears that Toyota are still pushing on with hydrogen fuel cell technology, but the infrastructure is limited. The pictures below illustrate how limited it is, with the green marks active fuel stations and the red as stations in development.
