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Enzymes Make Electricity From Jet Fuel Without Ignition
An anonymous reader writes University of Utah engineers say they've developed the first room-temperature fuel cell that uses enzymes to help jet fuel produce electricity without needing to ignite the fuel. These new fuel cells can be used to power portable electronics, off-grid power and sensors. A study of the new cells appears online today in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Catalysis. "The major advance in this research is the ability to use Jet Propellant-8 directly in a fuel cell without having to remove sulfur impurities or operate at very high temperature," says the study's senior author. "This work shows that JP-8 and probably others can be used as fuels for low-temperature fuel cells with the right catalysts."
they'd better hurry up
When RV-ing, fuel cells (EFOY, VeGA [1]) are already on the market. They may not be powerful enough to run an A/C, but good enough to a few months from a liter or two of fuuel.. This keeps the batteries topped off and allows one to use 12 volt items and 120/240 volt items (with an inverter) without the noise of a generator when dry camping.
A fuel cell running on diesel would be very useful. It would have more energy per volume than methanol or propane, and would go far in supplementing solar.
For non-RV uses, having a diesel fuel cell to supplement a battery bank if the solar charging system isn't cutting it would be useful. A good set of batteries, and one can have a circuit in their house just for small electrical items that are always on, such as battery chargers. It also makes for a decent UPS.
[1]: Ironic that Truma, named after a US president, doesn't sell anything other than a propane gauge on this side of the pond, when they have the absolute best RV furnaces, water heaters (water heaters that will auto-dump their tanks rather than allow the water to burst if the tank is about to freeze), fuel cells, and many other niceties.