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Green motoring: Numerous public transportation systems are moving toward hydrogen-powered engines as an alternative to gasoline, but most hydrogen today is generated from non-renewable fossil fuels such as natural gas. Credit: iStockphoto CHICAGO: A new method of producing hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material has been developed, potentially providing an abundant source of clean-burning fuel. The technology offers a way to cheaply and efficiently generate hydrogen from readily available and renewable biomass such as cellulose or glucose, and could be used for powering vehicles, making fertiliser and treating drinking water. Public transport systems Numerous public transportation systems are moving toward hydrogen-powered engines as an alternative to gasoline, but most hydrogen today is generated from non-renewable fossil fuels such as natural gas. The new method developed by engineers at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, U.S., 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 environmental engineers Shaoan Cheng and Bruce Logan were able to get around these problems by chemically modifying elements of the reactor. Economically viable now Their study appears in the U.S. journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In laboratory experiments, their reactor generated hydrogen gas at nearly 99 per cent of the theoretical maximum yield using aetic acid, a common dead-end product of glucose fermentation. "This process produces 288 per cent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added in the process," said Logan. The technology is economically viable now, which gives hydrogen an edge over another alternative biofuel, which is grabbing more headlines. "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 fuel for electric fuel cell vehicles – but it could also be used to convert wood chips into hydrogen to create fertiliser, said the researchers. Readers' comments
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Wakey, wakey, Aussie pollies!
This is the exact kind of innovative research our so-called leaders should be encouraging in Australia rather than politically motivated dead-beat ideas like "clean" coal and ethanol.
Wakey, wakey, EcoFreaks !
Ya, so where is it ?
These claims are a dime a dozen.
Where is it ?
You don't get it. It's filler.
Where's YOUR UNpolitically motivated solution ?
anonymous trolls
"Where's YOUR UNpolitically motivated solution ?"
Where? In the same place your unpolitically motivated questions come from.
Grow up ferchrissakes.
My contributions
OK, let me tell you what I am doing for the environment. I run a company making electronics controls for, among others:
I don't consider myself a greenie. I don't hug trees. However, I have grandchildren and I want them and their children to inherit a world that is not suffocating in the filthy industrial byproducts of political cynicism. I am proud and pleased that some of my work is producing real outcomes in that direction.
And you?
Wakey, wakey, EcoFreaks - reply
What a fool!!!!
Someone advocates a viable alternative fuel source that had potential economies of scale and you put them down. You ask wheres their solution in further comments but all you can offer in return is personal citicism. Its well know once you revert to personal attacks you have lost the argument. As I expect you will only try to attack me which will only reinforce the absurdity of your position.
Thank god people like you are a dying breed otherwise we would still be looking out of the cave entrance wondering if it is safe to go out.
well since you didn't
well since you didn't address my position, attacked me instead, in your original reply an again now ... I'm guessing you really meant to apologize or have conceeded you have no argument.
"advocates" and then whines that TPTB aren't doing enough. No, "revert(s) to personal attacks" of "so-called leaders" Gee, did you really mean to confirm one of my points ? By your own reasoning he has no argument.
I'm saying if it's so damn easy and he and you are such an authority that you can UNpoliticaly (ya, right) condemn others then put up. These stories come out, AT LEAST, two or three times a month. Big breakthough, changing the world, all problems solved. Either you don't read much, or such a sap you fall for it everytime. Really though I'd bet the only reason YOU are outside the cave is your still suckling your mother's teat when she goes out.
well since you didn't - Reply
I am not the person who you originally commented on, but rather someone who read your original critic and found it absurd.
It was great to read the reply of the person who you originally commented on. This person has lot more credibility to advocate our leaders act. He is actually doing something for the environment and yes it is the same person (read the response). I also "practice what I preach". All electricity I consume is produced from green sources, my vehicle is run on LPG and to top it off emissions from the vehicle are offset via Greenfleet. All this and I don't vote green. I am not extreme in my views or political but rather wish to see a world that future generations can enjoy.
I am not going to waste anymore time arguing with someone who cannot articulate a coherent point of view. I would rather ask all those who read this blog to lodge a reply to my counterparts blog and express your own views on his comments.
Adapted diesel engines, can they run on water?
Many years ago, a friend of mine suggested to me running a kind of diesel engine on water.
Diesel engines compress diesel fuel until, due to the increased pressure caused by the piston recycling, the fuel explodes. The idea my friend had was that water too would explode as steam if sufficently compressed.
The idea is likely somewhat viable with some adaption and a sparking microwave-exciter. The reason it is viable is because water is a substance that exists here on our planet in a state of flux, balanced as it were, in between liquid and gaseous states, sometimes liquid, sometimes gaseous.
A flywheel would be enough to carry over the energy required to move liquid water to a gaseous state, and if not, a microwave exciter would get it over the hump, were it even necessary at lower rpms.
My friend's name was Roy Moody. (1917-2006)
Don Robertson, The American Philosopher
What a crock
The notion is a total crock. It violates just about every known law of physics.
can they run on water? Definately not
As any secondary school science student would tell you, you need to add energy to convert liquid water into a gaseous state. By compressing it, you make it harder to convert to gas (higher temp needed).
This is just another crack-pot idea by someone who probably never studied chemistry or physics. Go back and play with your cold fusion reactor, or your perpetual motion machine :-P