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Driving on Starch
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."
gasoline is mostly made of octanes, heptanes and similar hydrocarbons which can be degraded to hydrogen and CO2 using a similar number of enzymes. it also doesnt need so much new infrastructure that starch would except it might be a problem getting the gasoline to dissolve in water with the enzymes... detergents might be able to fix that though.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
bah, ignore me, I'm drunk...just noticed ... molecule. You are correct sir. H2. Now where is that delete key?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.