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Big Advance In Hydrogen Production Could Change Alternative Energy Landscape

Posted by Soulskill on from the or-we-could-keep-burning-dead-dinosaurs dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at Virginia Tech say they've had a genuine breakthrough in alternative energy production that could shake up the world's energy structure. Specifically, they've hit on a way to derive large amounts of hydrogen from any plant source. The method uses renewable natural resources, releases almost no greenhouse gasses, and needs no costly or heavy metals. The key is using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydrogen that previously was attainable only in theory."

3 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Not a replacement yet by tech.kyle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least for use in cars, I believe there's still the problem of storing enough of that hydrogen to get any decent range. Nice to hear we're making progress though. Yay humanity!

    --
    If we colonize Mars, it won't be the World Wide Web anymore. UWW?
    1. Re:Not a replacement yet by Gabrill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The goal is energy storage and mobility. Stored hydrogen is much more efficient than a solar panel at night or under ground, for example.

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      Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
  2. Re:How is this a win? by Coreigh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The majority of input energy would be solar, growing the plants. the machinery used to harvest and transport it wouild run on electriciy and fuel cells just like everything else. It is just a matter of A) generating enough plant matter, and B) getting the infrastructure to critical mass to become sel sustaining.

    Sure, it sounds far fetched. But hey, you have to start some where some time. Right?

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    "Waitress I need two more boat-drinks..."