Chemical Engineering March 2018 - 3

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A plug for 'big science'
O
ne of the first experiments I ever conducted in my basement
chemistry lab was to split water into hydrogen and oxygen,
using the transformer from my train set as the power supply
and platinum ribbon strips as electrodes. Although most
CE readers have at least seen this demonstrated in their elementary
school days, for me, the excitement was not the mini " explosion " that
occurs when you light the H2 with a match, or the just-extinguished
match bursting into flame in the O2, but the observation that the volume
ratio of H2 to O2 was two. Perhaps this elegant demonstration of water's
composition was a spark that led me to go into science in the first place.
At that period in my life, I was also glued to the black-and-white
television screen watching the Apollo space missions. So enthralled
was I with these endeavors, that I had pictures of the moon launches
and landings on my bedroom wall. Last month, some of this child-like
enthusiasm returned, for two reasons. First, the February 6 launch of
the Falcon Heavy in itself was awe inspiring, but when the two rocket
boosters returned to earth and landed almost simultaneously in an
upright position, I was astonished at that engineering achievement. It
reminded me of science-fiction movies from the 1950s.
Secondly, working on this month's Newsfront on solar chemistry
(pp. 12-16) reminded me of the thrill of watching bubbles of H2 and
O2 form on the electrodes of my basement electrolyzer. Yes, this process
is so simple, that even a child can do it - but as a child, I was
ignorant about the engineering and economic factors that are necessary
to make this process feasible on a large scale.
Nevertheless, these two events - the Falcon Heavy Test Flight and
writing about the " big science " projects related to solar chemistry that
are going on at government research institutes, universities and industry
- bring home important observations I made.
To do some really exciting science requires three things: a vision,
educated people and money. In the space race of the 1960s, everything
was paid for by the governments involved (ultimately, the tax
payers), whereas much of the Falcon Heavy launch was a private
venture of a man with a vision - Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and
Tesla. In both cases, thousands of talented scientists and engineers
were employed.
With regards to the big-science projects mentioned in this month's
Newsfront article, the same three requirements seem to be present:
countries (and industrial partners) with the vision to plan for the future;
funding necessary to carry out the research and development that is
needed; and thousands of talented scientists, materials chemists and
engineers, who are being employed in some very exciting projects.
Imagine the enthusiasm that is inspiring the next generation of engineers
when their school trips take them to Sandia National Laboratories
in Albuquerque, or the German Aerospace Center in Cologne
to see water being split at temperatures up to 1,400°C using just
concentrated sunlight and some minerals (a gross oversimplification).
So, I applaud those governments (and in some cases, at least individual
states and cities) that continue to fund industry-academic
" big science " projects for conducting
basic research that eventually will lead to commercial
applications - in this case, producing fuels and
chemicals without coal, petroleum or gas. Judging
from the progress being made in solar chemistry,
Musk's vision of sending human colonies to Mars
may be an option, but not a necessity.
n
Gerald Ondrey, Senior Editor
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
MARCH 2018
3
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Chemical Engineering March 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering March 2018
