Aug 23, 2005

Hydrogen Fuel from Ethanol?

We're sure you're aware that hydrogen fuel cell technology's potentially strong future as a new method to power automobiles is likely to be weakened by issues regarding hydrogen's availability and the expenses involved in its storage. After all, as a gas, hydrogen is very explosive when it mixes with oxygen.  Now some say bio-based products such as ethanol can open up new areas for research into the vexing problem of keeping stored hydrogen from going ka-boom.

Hydrogen fuel cells reduce pollution by emitting water vapor in place of carbon dioxide during the power production process. However, the prevalent method of producing hydrogen from hydrocarbons, though economical, creates pollutants at the manufacturing site.

"Biomass material-based fuel cells are a better solution than power fuel cells since hydrogen is expensive and dangerous to handle," said Al Hester, an analyst with Frost and Sullivan's Technical Insights unit. "More research should be devoted to ethanol since it is environmentally friendly and based on renewable resources."
 
Conversion of biomass materials such as ethanol into hydrogen is a more cost-efficient method to power fuel cells, some say. Electrolysis of water using hydroelectric or nuclear, wind, or solar power also produces hydrogen. However, some researchers predict these methods may not prove to be cost effective.

The need for cheaper and more efficient means to power fuel cells has resulted in investment in extensive research. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for instance, awarded Cornell University $2.25 million over three years, to devote research efforts to cells based on other fuels, including ethanol. Technical Insights also says research should be extended to resolve technical problems so that systems that can handle the explosive gas are developed, but safety is a non-issue when considering ethanol in fuel cells. The challenge will be to reduce the cost of producing ethanol from corn and increase tax advantages in order to enable it to compete with fossil fuels.

"Current production processes, such as partial combustion of natural gas or electrolysis of water require cheap fossil fuels or electrical power," noted Hester. "In such a scenario, light-induced biological hydrogen production is a potentially cost-effective system."
 
The "light-induced" process uses enzyme systems present in photosynthetic bacteria, cyanobacteria, and green algae such as Chlamydomonas Reinhardt to produce hydrogen. Now if we could only spin gold from straw.