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US Army Pursues Hydrogen Fuel Concepts
securitas writes "According to GlobeTechnology/AP, the US Army is excited about the potential of hydrogen-powered tanks. The interest is the result of a technology demonstration that took place at Auburn University in December. Scientists have invented a process that removes the carbon and sulfur from hydrocarbon fuels like oil and gasoline. Hydrogen-powered vehicles could go three times farther than diesel-powered counterparts. DoD officials say 'it costs about $40 to move one gallon of diesel fuel from Kuwait to Baghdad.' The new process could let them take advantage of the existing oil industry infrastructure. Auburn University scientists 'realized there is already a lot of hydrogen in hydrocarbon fuel' and 'took jet fuel, which is very similar to diesel, and catalytically converted it, separating out the sulfur, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and the fuel cell ran.' The Auburn team is now pursuing military funding."
Lets hope the tanks are not covered in iron oxide and aluminum paint as well ;)
Cheers,
rob.
remove the carbon from hydrocarbons - does the C in ordinary gasoline combustion contribute any energy or is it just a greenhouse gas pollutant? This way they can please the greens and Shell/Exxon/BP etc at the same time.
Hey, I have another NEATER idea : remove the C *and* the H from hydrocarbons, and you have vaccuum, so you can run a piston engine out of that vaccuum, and you keep your original hydrocarbon stuff at the same time, to start the process all over again.
FREE ENERGY!
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"Auburn University scientists 'realized there is already a lot of hydrogen in hydrocarbon fuel'"
Wow, theres no fooling with these guys. Those sharp megawatt intelligences are really on the ball, I mean its only been over a hundred years since
most chemists realised the very same thing and even put "hydro" in the name of hydrocarbon as clue.
> the Bush fueled military
Ah, now there's a fuel solution they hadn't considered. Did you have some sort of hot-air solution in mind, or are we talking about extracting all of his hydrogen?
Finally! A cheap, abundant source of sulfur and carbon as an industrial byproduct. Soon, I'll be able to take all that waste carbon and sulfur to make my... uh... (a little help here, please?)...
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
Fantastic - now we have tanks that don't harm the environment...
When it comes down to it, the more Dubya plays with his tanks, the more money could be saved by converting them to hydrogen.
Wow! If we just had a trillion tanks, we could save enough to pay off the national debt!
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips