Freeing Hydrogen From Glucose

tarawa writes: "This story at CNN reports that researchers have developed a new and easy way to extract hydrogen from a glucose solution that could provide a clean, environmentally safe fuel for our cars in the future." Stay calm, though -- ""We are not talking about spooning glucose into your car to make it go. That is 'Back to the Future' stuff."

Comments

Re:Two inaccuracies in the story

[famebait]

This statement, which I suppose is technically true, is absolutely ludacris

Nope, nor is it ludicrous; it is common sense, as long as the fuel is produced from cultivated plants. And the article did say renewable sources.

It would be like saying that burning down the rainforest wouldn't produce any extra carbon dioxide

No, that would contribute extra CO2 until the areas grew back with an equivalent amount of biomass. After that the balance would be restored (as long as we're talking only about CO2), but it would take a long time and there's no guarantee it would happen at all. Rainforests are not generally considerd a renewable resource in practice. Normal farmland is usually renewed all the time.

it will produce it a hell of a lot faster and there will be higher concentrations of it in the atmosphere.

The speed of the carbon cycle is irrelevant, the important part is how much carbon is bound up in plants and elsewhere and thus kept out of the atmosphere at any given time. I can't see how this fuel scheme would be different from any other cultivation on the same land in that respect.

Another question is whether it is ethical or viable in the long term to use land for growing fuel in stead of food, but that is a very different matter.