“Not all deserts are alike, and so testing in the deserts of Australia or the USA cannot re-create the unique conditions here in the region.”
“Gas and oil companies have to clean the crude oil,” says Ozalp, “and the only way to do this is with hydrogen, which acts as a sort of detergent for the crude.” Today, this hydrogen is made by heating up natural gas (CH4) in high-temperature ovens, separating the hydrogen and letting the rest—oxygenated carbon, particularly carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas—into the air. The feedstock for this oven? It’s also natural gas. The process is energy intensive, says Ozalp, and “it’s dirty. Really dirty.” Because of the inefficiencies in the process, she says, “they must use hydrogen only as a commodity, not a fuel.” She wants to change this by tapping into Qatar’s other abundant energy supply: the sun. Qatar is a land swimming in energy. Underground, its gas and oil reserves are massive: it has the third largest natural gas reserves in the world and is the single largest supplier of liquefied natural gas. In 2010, the country produced 4,121 billion cubic feet of natural gas, over 70 times the amount the United States consumes. Most of Qatar basks in sun that radiates 6.5 to 7.0 kilowatt hours of
The blades of Helios create an aperture effect; when the sun is high, they retract, opening the gateway for sun to flood in and heat the mechanism.