Posted on 11/12/2007 10:45:42 PM PST by Rick_Michael
CHICAGO (AFP) - US researchers have developed a method of producing hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material, potentially providing an abundant source of this clean-burning fuel, according to a study released Monday.
The technology offers a way to cheaply and efficiently generate hydrogen gas from readily available and renewable biomass such as cellulose or glucose, and could be used for powering vehicles, making fertilizer and treating drinking water.
Numerous public transportation systems are moving toward hydrogen-powered engines as an alternative to gasoline, but most hydrogen today is generated from nonrenewable fossil fuels such as natural gas.
The method used by engineers at Pennsylvania State University however combines electron-generating bacteria and a small electrical charge in a microbial fuel cell to produce hydrogen gas.
Microbial fuel cells work through the action of bacteria which can pass electrons to an anode. The electrons flow from the anode through a wire to the cathode producing an electric current. In the process, the bacteria consume organic matter in the biomass material.
An external jolt of electricity helps generate hydrogen gas at the cathode.
In the past, the process, which is known as electrohydrogenesis, has had poor efficiency rates and low hydrogen yields.
But the researchers at Pennsylvania State University were able to get around these problems by chemically modifying elements of the reactor.
In laboratory experiments, their reactor generated hydrogen gas at nearly 99 percent of the theoretical maximum yield using aetic acid, a common dead-end product of glucose fermentation.
"This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added in the process," said Bruce Logan, a professor of environmental engineering at Penn State.
The technology is economically viable now, which gives hydrogen an edge over another alternative biofuel which is grabbing more headlines, Logan said.
"The energy focus is currently on ethanol as a fuel, but economical ethanol from cellulose is 10 years down the road," said Logan.
"First you need to break cellulose down to sugars and then bacteria can convert them to ethanol."
One of the immediate applications for this technology is to supply the hydrogen that is used in fuel cell cars to generate the electricity that drives the motor, but it could also can be used to convert wood chips into hydrogen to be used as fertilizer.
The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
More grand plans, theories, and futurism. I’m full, thanks.
Sounds good!
Add this info to this posted study and it seems to be moving along better and better.
University of Virginia Scientists Discover Record-Breaking Hydrogen Storage Materials for Use in Fuel Cells
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=3273
Ping to you, sir.
Cellulouse ?
Why not use sewage? Compost heaps?
Wetlands?
Dead liberals? 8<)
Kudzu! I keep saying, kudzu will save the world.
heheh we are arranging transport now.
Kudzu grows too fast for anybody to keep up - no matter HOW they try to dispose of it.
It is the plant that ate the planet!
On the other hand, imagine a Japanese immigrant bringing a single sprig of kudzu in from Japan to the first trail across the Cumberland - following innocently along behind ole Danial Boone as he hacks his way across virgin woodlands and trackless forests.....
They reach the end of the trail.
Turn around, intending to make their slow way home using the blazes cut in tree bark on the way west.
And find ......
Billions of kudzu vines, covering tens of thousands of square miles of (former) forest lands .... Trackless and overhung. With tons of green drooping vines that will burn in the winter in unstoppable Forest fires - yielding only more spaces to cultivate more kudzu vines the next season.
America would have never been settled.
That's rather unsettling.
Maybe you should start a ping list, CrzyShrnk. I was just going to comment that storage (and accessing of Hydrogen by an engine in as it is needed) is the other hurdle. Then I read your post. Finally some experimental results from institutions I have more faith in (than, say guests on Art Bell or that other guy’s radio program). Step by step . . .
You try clearing a field to grow corn, beans, potatoes, maize, or cotton with only axes and hoes ...
When every vine around the edge of every field is growing longer and longer: 12 to 36 inches.
Per day.
Every day........ 8<)
That's the kind of talk that got Imus in trouble, if you axe me.
Thanks for the suggestion. I believe there is already an alternative fuels pinglist. I posted the hydrogen storage study around noon and someone did the “ping list thing”.
Is that related to lysergic acid diethylamide?
Aetic Acid. Never heard of it.
Maybe the article means Acetic Acid?
Just use the LSD, and then you can have a trip without getting in the freekin electric car.
LOL
Sounds like somebody’s thinking on this thread.
An acid that is produced through cellulose fermentation is acetic acid. It runs about 65 cents a pound. If this is the acid the article is talking about, then it is fairly cheap and abundant. The Chinese have been inflating the cost over the last several years due to its use of acetic acid in manufacturing.
That’s pretty expensive as I have to guess the energy density is lower than oil. Crude oil weighs about 302 lbs a barrel. At $100 a barrel that is about $0.33 a pound.
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