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!]