While most car manufacturers believe that hydrogen
fuel cells are the long-term solution to reducing petroleum consumption and automotive air pollution, a number of
problems remain unsolved at present. Two of the biggest are how to produce hydrogen efficiently, and how to store it in
a vehicle.A recent article in Wired points to a possible solution for hydrogen production-- bioengineered algae. Developed at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab, the green hydrogen generators use energy from photosynthesis to produce hydrogen. Now that the algae's energy efficiency has been pumped up to useful levels, researchers are working on increasing the efficiency of hydrogen production. Ultimately, algae farms in the desert could be used as hydrogen factories.
The storage problem is also a major obstacle, and one of the goals of the Department of Energy's FreedomCAR program is to develop a hydrogen storage material capable of holding six-percent of its total weight in hydrogen. (Given that hydrogen is the lightest element, this isn't as easy as it sounds.) Recently, researchers at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory have enjoyed promising results using carbon nanotubes as a storage medium, although considerable work will be required to make them practical for routine, rechargeable storage applications. Nonetheless, early experiments have already achieved five-percent hydrogen storage by weight.
Looks like we may be on the road to finding two pieces of the puzzle.
[Thanks for the tips, Keith!]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
goat @ Feb 24th 2006 7:31PM
Wouldn't it be simpler/more efficient to just produce biodiesel from the algae?
AES @ Feb 24th 2006 9:49PM
Biodiesel could be produced, but it's a half-way solution, since the goal of many companies is to convert to a hydrogen infrastructure. Biodiesel is still rather pollutive.
It's an interesting article. I work in the biotech field, so it'll be interesting to read the final paper, whenever it turns out.
FurNiT @ Feb 25th 2006 5:07AM
And what about risk of explosion? Are hydrogen engines are safe?
far jr @ Feb 25th 2006 9:17AM
Hey, between hydrogen, ethanol, biodiesel, and hybrid technology, things could become quite interesting in the auto industry in the next decade.
Doogs @ Feb 25th 2006 9:32AM
FurNit - BMW has done extensive crash testing of its H2 cars and found them just as safe as gasoline-powered cars.
HJC @ Feb 25th 2006 1:50PM
Can you image all the cars in the Los Angles basin using hydrogen and producing water vapor out its tail pipe?
It would turn L.A. into the newest rain forest.
LanaLee Nierodzinski @ Feb 26th 2006 12:41PM
Were is the engine that can be run on water? It was produced long ago, and heard the patent was bought by the oil companies, and the technology destroyed. I just wonder what they will do to bioengineering if the mass of auto companies figure this out. Maybe they (oil companies)already have the power to hold back progress.
Ed S. @ Feb 27th 2006 8:36AM
LanaLee - I think that Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB)described on http://zapatopi.net/afdb/ provides the best protection against electromagnetic psychotronic mind control carriers, including those used by the Big 3 automakers.
As for the aglea, what are the environmental consquenses of hydrogen-producing super algea getting into the regular ecosystem? Can you imaging the algea colonizing ponds, rivers, and lakes and off-gasing tons of hydrogren? Sure, the stuff quickly disperses into the atmosphere, but it can't be good for climate, right? Is hydrogen a green house gas?
Anyway, I want to see the impact studies of a release of this foreign species into the environment before I provide my approval.
Dan K. @ Mar 8th 2006 1:02PM
The use of hydrogen fuel excites my imagination as a great alternative to fossil fuels. Given some of the articles I have read on this, I have to wonder why we don't see commercial use of hydrogen fuel cells, retrofitting oil or coal fired applications. A large factory would have surplus space to accommodate the generation and storage of hydrogen.
I would also think there is an industry waiting to launch whose sole purpose is retrofitting fuel cell technology into existing steam producing devices fired by fossil fuels.
What are the obstacles keeping this technology from taking off, aside from politics?
mudassir @ Mar 12th 2006 7:44AM
I want to seek your assistance to bring out my work ,i.e 'we can produce hydrogen gas with waste material ,which is cheap and simple .'
A3K @ Apr 6th 2006 2:16PM
Ah, the water engine whose patent was bought by the Big 3 and shelved... Last time I heard that was when I picked my mother-in-law up at the airport and then had to endure her ignorant comments for the 20 minute ride home.
Since she's a greenie, I thought I'd strike up a conversation about the prospects of H2 powered vehicles in the not-that-distant future. When I mentioned the exhaust was H20, she replied that the most exciting thing she'd heard about was a car that RAN on water.
Yup.
And all it takes to get your flux capacitor to full power is a banana peel, an aluminum can and beer.
Stan S. @ Apr 27th 2006 8:24PM
@ Ed S. - Hydrogen is a dangerous green house gas...much moreso then CO2....considering it's about 1% of our atmosphere.
Guys, before you bash the "car that ran on water," there was such a thing but it didn't combust water of course, it made hydrogen from a water tank and aluminum using electrolysis, then used the hydrogen as the combustion fuel. BMW tested one in the 80's, it ran, but wasn't useful as it produces Aluminum Oxide and it's a pain to get rid of that.
And lastly this is not the application they should be looking at....like someone said what happens when this algae gets into the ecosystem? The real application is using algae to produce methane...which it does already (at least the stinky kind of algae you find in a stagnant pond), then use that methane in a Molten Carbonate or Solid Oxide Fuel Cell to produce electricity (these FC's are large and would be statinoary power). Bingo, you have a renewable power station, as long as you keep the algae alive.
Vic @ May 14th 2006 2:14AM
It's interesting to read bio-engineered algae producing hydrogen, but frankly I think hydrogen fuelled vehicles are at least a few decades away...I recenlt read a reveiw from the US department of energy web site which had concluded after much research that owing to a variety of issues - and production of hydrogen is only one of them - hydrogen fuelled vehicles is at best at the research stage...
As pointed out by another member earlier, biodiesel from algae presents a more practical solution, that requires no change in the existing infrastructure, is "green", and most important quite possible today
A page that provides some inputs on algae based biodiesel is : Biodiesel from Algae - Information, Resources
Vic, Castor Oil
Vic @ May 14th 2006 2:18AM
And here's the US Dept of Energy's Aquatic Species Program that did a decade long research into the production of biodiesel from algae - http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy98/24190.pdf (pdf format)
Vic, http://www.castoroil.in
Kerry Blocker @ Jun 7th 2006 4:21PM
One of the biggest headaches with hydrogen will
be in distribution. Right now, the pumps at gas stations
would apparently be exorbitantly expensive. Hydrogen is just not very friendly when it comes to containing it
or moving it around. Fuelcells aren't here yet, and it's not clear when an inexpensive and long lasting one will be found, if ever. Biodiesel from algae looks to be far and away the most promising solution - the algae consumes about the same amount of CO2 that it produces when burned (for any of you out there that actually believe the CO2 hysteria these days) and can be created using zero cost wastes. A New Zealand
company just started producing biodiesel from algae
on a commercial basis, at a waste treament plant.
Nevazhno @ Jul 4th 2006 6:58PM
yeah...
kundan @ Sep 12th 2006 2:58AM
why we can not use hydrogen for generating electricity
to give power to trains and big mills and factories for less pollution and there u do not need to transport hydrogen.
Ian @ Oct 18th 2006 7:30AM
About the moving it around, if special canisters are used, so hydrogen is stored in these canisters which would be able to be plugged into cars themselves, then when its empty bring it back to a "station" and trade it in for a full one and pay for the hydrogen. The "station could then send the canisters back to the hydrogen production plant, where they would be refilled.
B Pant @ Jan 8th 2007 7:19PM
The question now is not of driving car with hydrogen or methane powered car, it is of longterm survival from global warming and fuel management. If we do not develop this type of technologies soon we may have to spend our resources to capture carbondioxide from atmosphere. All including young generation should explore, develop, rectify and popularize these technologies rather than criticizing it and continue to indulge in the witchcrafts and wars.