[weebob (OP)]

Hello There,

I was searching the other day and I came across this site

newbielink:http://my.voyager.net/~jrrandall/BublGen.htm [nonactive]

and desalination by high pressure on the BBC

newbielink:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3631964.stm [nonactive]

My question: Is Electrolysis of water hindered at high pressure ?







Bob

[Ylide]

Any chemical reaction resulting in the formation of a gas will be hindered at high pressures.  Electrolysis of water shouldn't be an exception, especially considering the reverse reaction is favored at higher pressures.  

By the way, that first website is a pipe dream.  A brief study of thermodynamics will show that you can never get back more energy from a closed system than you put into it.  There IS the fact that he's counting on gravity and solar energy to replish deficits in the system, but I don't think this will work.  The sun won't be able to heat the water fast enough to replenish the temperature differential.  Second, the temperature difference isn't enough to make a very effective heat engine.  You generally need a different of several hundred degrees C to even get a start.  He's proposing a scenario where not only is he violating the 2nd law of thermodynamics, he's doing with a heat engine with a temperature gradient of 50 degrees.  Whatever.  



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