DARPA looking to harness water's power potential

Bringing power to military units in far-flung places has always been a major problem for armies, and the quest for limitless energy has thus preoccupied military researchers. DARPA, as is its habit, has often led the way.

Katie Drummond writes that now the agency is looking for yet another method to harness cheap and environmentally friendly energy that would be as simple as turning on the tap.

Sort of. DARPA is soliciting proposals for using seawater to create liquid fuel. The agency’s hope is to harvest the abundance of carbon and hydrogen in ocean water, and somehow convert the molecules, via chemical reaction, into usable energy. Since fuel is mostly made up of hydrocarbons, the right interplay between water molecules and the carbon dioxide lurking among them would — in theory — yield fuel compounds.

Drummond writes that DARPA, though, is not entirely sure what reaction needs to take place, or how to make it happen. This is the first step for researchers: coming up with an efficient, effective catalyst, and one that will not be affected by water pollutants, pH levels, or the carbon dioxide concentrations of different water samples.

This is not the only push-the-envelope energy proposal the military has researchers working on. In July, the Air Force started investigating purple bacteria whose pigment could power flying drones (13 July 2009 HSNW). DARPA is already funding another water-based energy source: last year, the agency spent $20 million dollars on converting algae into jet fuel. No word yet on how that worked out.