http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/v33_2_00/micropower.htm
In the summer of 1998, CTD's Jonathan Woodward and researchers John Getty and Mark Orr tried a new way to make hydrogen from sugar, which involved the deposition of the metal platinum on a glucose-digesting enzyme. The experiment worked.
"After several different experiments," Woodward says, "we then observed that mixing iron powder with water also produced hydrogen at ambient temperatures, but the production was not sustained. Then we discovered that if we add gluconic acid as well as iron powder to the water, we obtained sustained hydrogen production under certain conditions."
Gluconic acid is an organic acid consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (C6H11O7) that is produced from glucose sugar, an abundant and renewable carbon source. Woodward noted that the sustained hydrogen-production reaction works well under three conditions: a temperature of 80°C, neutral pH, and the absence of oxygen.
There are many such approaches being currently explored. To say that Hydrogen cannot become a viable fuel resource and technology is just plain shortsighted and foolish.
Wow. A renewable source of clean-burning hydrogen. I can hardly wait.
I know... while I'm waiting I'll see if I can balance this equation:
2( C6H1107 ) => 11H2 + 7( CO2 ) + 5C
No, that can't be right. CO2 is that nasty greenhouse stuff that causes all the global warming. Perhaps this reaction results in the release of large masses of free oxygen and neatly stacked bags of charcoal briquettes.
If fossil fuels are 'exhaustible', as the lefty dingbats would have it, then platinum is some hundreds of thousands of times more exhaustible. There just ain't that much of it in the earth's mantle.
Costs? Lessee here, platinum is about $690/TrOz spot right now. Raw sugar is about 7 cents/lb., 17.5 cents/kg. Avg grade of crude is $33.00 spot, implying roughly $0.94/gal gasoline at wholesale. One gallon gasoline weighs 5.9-6.5 lbs, call it 6.2 lbs., implying 14.9 cents/lb or 0.93 CENTS per oz. The chem energy in a gallon is between 33-44 KwH electricity-equivalent (let's use the low figure), so we have a fig of 2.84 cents/KwH. Assume a typical gasoline engine is only 20% efficient, bringing the price up to 14.2 cents/KwH.
Now, and very generously, let's triple that figure in order to allow for the amortised costs of exploration, transportation, and refining. This nets out to 42.6 cents per EFFECTIVE KwH for gasoline, under very negative cost assumptions.
Now, the other side. Hydrogen comprises 6.4% of sugar by weight. One kg of H2 has just a scosh less chem energy than 1 gallon gasoline (and more than 30% of that comes frm the carbon, let's say (laughably) that H represents 70% of the chem energy in sugar). If 1 oz of platinum can process 1000 kg of sugar (very dubious assumption) at 100% efficiency (ridiculous, of course)and there are ZERO development costs whatever, and an H2 engine runs at 80% efficiency (dream on, but, what the heck), then: raw cost = $690 + $175 + $200 (est cost of whatever intermediate chemicals are required -- you can't just place an oz. of PL in a pile of sugar and get energy, after all), or $1065. Hydrogen produced, @5% of weight = 50 kg. KwH produced, @ 33KwH/kg * .70 (too generous) = 1155, effective KwH, @ 80% = 924...or, $1.15 per effective KwH, under completely Pollyannesque assumptions.
Under more realistic assumptions (chem energy fr/H in sugar @ 50%, process 70% efficient, engine 50% efficient, development cost = 3 (conservatively) times material cost over 20 years), the effective per-KwH figure becomes $19.71, or just 46.93 TIMES as expensive! Good grief, can't these folks ADD?
Someone's snorting something, and it's not sugar.