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Driving on Starch

Posted by Zonk on from the oh-mr.-fusion-you're-so-efficient dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Using sugar contained in corn or potatoes to build hydrogen-powered fuel cells has already been done. But now, a team of U.S. researchers has developed a new sugar-to-hydrogen technology. Why not put the starch inside the tank of your car? With the help of 13 specific enzymes, 'a car with an approximately 12-gallon tank could hold 27 kilograms (kg) of starch, which is the equivalent of 4 kg of hydrogen. The range would be more than 300 miles, estimates one of the researchers. One kg of starch will produce the same energy output as 1.12 kg (0.38 gallons) of gasoline.' The beauty behind this idea is that no special infrastructure would be needed. Starch could be distributed by your local grocery store."

3 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Question by VanHalensing · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wouldn't that be a lot of starch? I mean, wouldn't we then have a shortage of it? I know it's more renewable than gas, but could they even produce enough? They're having a hard enough time with 10% corn for gas. 12 gallons of starch is like, 110 or so bags of starch at the store...

    1. Re:Question by gad_zuki! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >The beauty behind this idea is that no special infrastructure would be needed. Starch could be distributed by your local grocery store.

      Yeah, someone isnt thinking energy alternatives through again. 1,000 people a day probably visit my grocery store. How are they going to pull 13 gallons of starch each? Where will by store put 13,000 gallons a day. In the cereal aisle?

        You will need a gas station like place to move this much product.

      Secondly, where is this stuff coming from? etc etc etc

  2. Roland the Plogger again by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's Roland the Plogger again, wrong as usual.

    It's been possible to convert cellulose to ethanol using enzymes for a while now. The problem is that making the enzymes is still too expensive for this to be useful as a fuel process. This Wikipedia article provides some background on that. It's a good idea. If the cost of making the enzymes can be brought down, there's plenty of agricultural waste (straw, bagasse, corn cobs, wood chips) available at low or even negative (it costs money to dispose of it) cost. Venture capital is going into developing cost-effective processes.

    But it's not likely to be done in a car's fuel tank. Something more like a brewery scaled up to oil refinery size is more like it.