If this technology is the real deal (and not the latest version of 'cold fusion') this would solve a whole boatload of problems. Of course, there would likely be a new boatload of problems coming in to shore, but still ...
The latest edition of EETimes Online has the article, Nanotubes promise fuel from water.
More below ...
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Sandia National Laboratories recently demonstrated that hollow organic nanotubes, married to an inorganic catalyst, can harness sunlight to turn water into pure hydrogen and oxygen. By 2006, Sandia researchers hope to have prototypes from which a new kind of solar cell could be made that would convert water into fuel.
Such cells might replace fossil fuels in automobiles and thus reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil.
Here's how they describe the mechanism. (It could be a routine by Groucho or Monty Python for all I understand of it.)
Organic nanotubes are used throughout nature to transport electrons and to convert light into energy. In humans, for example, porphyrin nanotubes provide the power by which hemoglobin forms new proteins. The Sandia researchers believe they can harness the same mechanism to power automobiles with water.
"Porphyrins serve in any function where energy has to be harvested," said Shelnutt. "The porphyrins themselves are well-understood, and there is even a chlorosomal rod [in nature that is closely related to porphyrin nanotubes]. It's a nanorod that acts as a light-harvesting agent in photosynthetic bacteria. So our device mimics that."
So how about it all you science types. Sound promising?