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Cheaper, Cleaner Hydrogen Without Platinum

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the fill-er-up dept.

keithww writes "Looks like the hydrogen economy may have gotten a whole lot cheaper. Wisconsin team engineers gas from biomass using common metals of tin, nickel, and aluminum instead of platinum. This looks like a good way to get rid of biowaste also." Of course, there's still a long way to go before the automotive industry is using it, but it is good news nonetheless.

7 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Never underestimate the power of a lobbyist by compwizrd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And does anyone actually believe that the fossil fuels industry will lie down and let this happen without a fight?

    1. Re:Never underestimate the power of a lobbyist by Peter_Pork · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, it will happen, since they will be the hydrogen industry. They have the money, they have the expertise, they have the distribution networks, and they do not want to depend on the third-world or war-torn nations for their supply. The way I see this, the hydrogen industry is the best thing that could happen to the oil industry (at least in the US). Guess who is now pushing for this... G.W. Bush, a guy that is the oil industry.

  2. Carbon nanorods by flend · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Work is being done on using carbon nanorods to store hydrogen (amongst others by the Renewable Energies Research Lab in Golden, CO). These would be cheap and safely disposable and probably represent the future of hydrogen fuel tech.

  3. Or you could just store it as part of a liquid by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Like methanol.

    Pure hydrogen fuel cells sound like a great idea, no pollution but water.

    Except then you come to the problem of storage and transportation and have to spend a truly massive fortune on research and development like this, and, once that's done you also have the job of upgrading the entire energy distribution infrastructure which oddly enough will also be rather expensive.

    But hey, go ahead, it's a free market, someone else will come along with much cheaper solution.

    --
    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
  4. Stop recycling! by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You're killing the planet! Recycling is bad! Landfills are good!

    No, I'm not kidding.

    Global warming may be due to humanity's CO2 emissions, or solar radiation, or something we haven't even discovered yet, but it's something detrimental to our society and it'd be nice to do something about it. Well, the best way is to stop burning stuff, obviously. On the other hand, our society runs on our burning stuff. That's not good.

    Well, the least we can do is stop burning stuff that gives us the least benefit. That, my friends, is garbage. Waste incinerators, even if they provide cogeneration, would run at a loss if they weren't paid extra by people who don't want the stuff they burn. So it's not such a big deal to NOT burn the garbage and burn something more efficient instead.

    Further, while there are some materials it may make sense to recycle, when it comes to plastics, you're better off burying it. Every bit of plastic you DON'T recycle is another quantity of oil that will never be burned, but will instead go back to sequestering carbon under the ground.

    1. Re:Stop recycling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      While your assessment is accurate for oil-based products, it doesn't apply to biomass.

      Burning things that have been produced by recently living organisms is not too bad, it's just another part of the normal carbon cycle.

      The problem with fossil fuels is that they are re-introducing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that has been removed from the natural carbon cycle...

      An interesting question is how efficient can we make energy production based on plant farming, which is an indirect way of utilizing solar energy - plants transform carbon dioxide (+ water + sunlight) into hydrocarbons, hydrocarbons are processed into non-fossil fuel and utilized - can this be more efficient than solar panels? I believe photosynthesis is a pretty efficient process, especially for fast growing plants, but this is something that hasn't (AFAIK) been tried on a large scale.

  5. Course, I fancy an air powered car by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Like this one:

    http://www.cyber-media.com/aircar/

    Even less polluting than a hydrogen powered vehicle, the only exhaust is clean air. Ironically, the air is cleaner going out than going in because it has to be filtered before reaching the engine.

    --
    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.