Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ethanol to Hydrogen Reactor Developed

Posted by michael on from the second-law-of-thermodynamics-still-problematic dept.

guacamolefoo writes "CNN reports that researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a small (2 ft. high) hydrogen reactor that turns ethanol into hydrogen and then uses a fuel cell to turn the hydrogen into electricity. It notably does not use fossil fuels in the process. I knew that liquor would save us all some day."

1 of 839 comments (clear)

  1. Corn ain't free! by leoxx · · Score: 3, Redundant

    Unfortunately it still takes fossil fuels to grow corn. I didn't see any mention of this in the article, but it would be insteresting to find out if the total amount of fossil fuels (from things like farm equipment, fertilizers, etc) that goes into growing the corn to create the ethanol to create the hydrogen is the same, lower, or even more than that required to turn fossil fuels into hydrogen directly. If its the same as or higher than the direct route, then this "breakthrough" isn't all that great.