Posted on 04/13/2008 6:36:47 AM PDT by Dane
NEW YORK: Sugar-powered cars may be in our future. Researchers have developed a "revolutionary" process for converting plant sugars into hydrogen, which they claim could be used to cheaply and efficiently run vehicles.
According to the researchers, the conversion process involves combining plant sugars, water and a cocktail of powerful enzymes to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide under mild reaction conditions.
The new system helps solve the three major technical barriers to the so-called "hydrogen economy" the roadblocks involve how to produce low-cost sustainable hydrogen, how to store hydrogen and how to distribute it efficiently, the researchers said.
"This is revolutionary work. This has opened up a whole new direction in hydrogen research. With technology improvement, sugar-powered vehicles could come true eventually," lead researcher Percival Zhang of Virginia Tech University said.
Zhang and his colleagues believe they have found the most promising hydrogen-producing system to date from plant biomass. They think they can produce hydrogen from cellulose, which has a similar chemical formula to starch but is far more difficult to break down.
And know I am not kissing al gore's ring in hopin to get the US off OPEC oil.
Quick! Quick! Plow under all that corn and plant sugar beets.
Although people already know how to turn corn into ethanol, I have discovered a truly remarkable way to turn beans into gas. It earns murmurs of attention, and it certainly turns heads! It’s worthy of the Goracle, too.
y'all might had better stand over there.
It really makes no difference if you are using non edible crops or parts of crops because you are either using land that would have been used for food crops or are depleting the soil by not plowing under the cellulose.
Oh great. The price of candy will make an Easter basket cost $500. lol
“Sorry kids, the Easter Bunny could only afford to leave you toys this year like Santa does. Now enjoy the lead poisoning.”
All right! Let’s chop down the Rain Forest for my car.......
It’s a great source of cheap plant sugars.....
I get the feeling the cures are more deadly that the affliction.
In the middle ages, the waring kingdoms would burn the others crops. This caused the people to starve. Then they discovered the potato. You could burn the tops but the potato under the ground was still good. Fuel is the same concept. If it is on the surface, it can be destroyed. Underground, it is protected.
That's why I asked the question. I know this may sound ridiculous, but wouldn't a weed like kudzu have plant sugars?
Georgia is the Saudi Arabia of kudzu. That's why when I see these pat answers by people(easter candy going to $500 a lb., etc. etc.), it can get irritating, but I guess it's the same mentality of saying the light bulb would never take off.
It would solve several problems if they could use the corn stalks and cobs (unedible) instead of the tasty seeds.
The same people who extoll the virtues of a hydrogen economy somehow forget the Hindenberg put an end to the Dirigible Economy.
Or as the computer people have said for decades- Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Best regards,
There have been great strides in hydrogen use, but if you wish to be beholden to arab shieks and hugo chavez that's your perogative.
http://susanrules.squarespace.com/journal/2-dimensional-thinking-vs-3-dimensional-thinking.html
I think this article explains one problem with trying to grow fuel, any type of fuel. There just isn’t enough land available to grow fuel crops.
Even on land that is not suitable for food crops?
I think the biggest problem is the massive amounts of energy it takes to make and isolate sugar from it’s plant form. Then take all the additional energy it takes to convert that sugar to hydrogen fuel.
The laws of physics guarantee that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
And just over 50% of a barrel of oil goes to make fuel. Our entire civilization is dependent on oil for making food, roads, clothing, medical supplies, plastics, paints, and just basic materials used to produce hydrogen fuels.
We cannot expect to be oil independent for at least another century or so. But wishful thinking is just that.......
For the sake of argument, let’s say hydrogen can be be made efficiently and economically.
I still question its practicality as a motor vehicle fuel. Without regard to distribution and storage systems, one of hydrogen’s big problems has been in-vehicle storage. It seems you have to liquify it, pressurize it or generate it on-board so to speak.
So let me get this straight. If you want to trash your cheating ex-boyfriend's soon-to-be new car you'll put gasoline in his sugar tank?
Now if you could just come up with a granulated, pure sugar plant. But how much is sugar selling for per pound? And a vehicle will use how many miles per pound? or will it be pounds per mile? Perhaps the latter, and probably not at all cheap.
I hold no brief against any form of energy development, but this perpetual search for a perfect solution in the face of a non existent threat is a little absurd.
I wish to no longer be beholden to insane DemocRats who forbid us to drill ANWAR or dig for coal or build sensible Nuclear plants.
I look forward to the day when my electric company wires deliver secure broadband and my gas company delivers pollution free electricity with a fuel cell in my back yard.
I just tire of fictitous problems with equally fictitious solutions.
Best regards,
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