Today, scientists announced that they have turned ethanol into hydrogen in a two foot tall reactor. Newspapers everywhere look confused.


Seriously. This is a HUGE story! Why aren't the newspapers covering this more? This is getting almost as little attention as Bush's hydrogen power initiative ($1.2 Billion) a few weeks ago. Why isn't hydrogen power a big deal to the media? They think its too complex for us to understand, I guess....

Mike is right. This *IS* a big deal, because we can use the existing petroleum/ethanol/gasohol infrastructure. One of the big sticking points on going to a hydrogen economy is the lack of infrastructure.

Now, why is converting ethanol to hydrogen big? Not because of fusion power, but because of Fuel Cell technology. This uses the hydrogen/oxygen reaction to create electricity (essentially the reverse of cracking H₂O into hydrogen and oxygen. It burns clean with only water (and electricity) as the outputs.

Mike,

The Hydrogen story lacks a wardrobe malfunction. (Hey, Dad, a naked proton!)

(Yes, humorless ones, I made that quote up, and yes, it is absurd.)

"'This points to a way to make renewable hydrogen that may be economical and available,' said Lanny Schmidt, a chemical engineer who led the study. The work was outlined in Friday's issue of the journal Science." Quote from CNN.com

I'm not quite sure I understand the "renewable" part. Could one of the better scientists here explain it for me?


Incidently, I posted that. I accidently used my nickname from another site.

Oh. Wait. Duh. The hydrogen won't be reusable, but we can always plant more corn. Sorry, brain cramp there. :p

Well, it certainly sounds like good news. Any guesses on how long it could take to get these cells to the marketplace?

Precisely 28 months after the last oil corporation goes bankrupt.

Daimler-Chrysler are considering releasing a methanol-derived hydrogen fuel-cell powered car in the near future.
Apparently, it will be a version of the "Next Generation" Mercedes A-Class, as the existing model's engine, is partially under the passenger floorpan.
The reason for choosing Methanol, as a hydrogen source,is mainly it can be stored
non-cryogenically, unlike other existing fuel cells, which use liquid hydrogen.
As a result, existing fuel storage systems can be used, eliminating the complexity that a purely liquid hydrogen system would bring.(i.e insulation, venting systems etc)

The biggest headache I can see with a purely hydrogen system is the cage that will need to go around the hydrogen cylinder to protect it in case of collisions. This may get around it, but
1) the amount of power to crack the methanol has to be less than you're obtaining by recombining to water.
2) you're still pumping CO2 into the atmosphere - or you've got to shovel lumps of graphite out of the cracking cylinder every 1000 miles


Merat, the reusable part is
Hydrogen + Oxygen = water + electicity to power elecrtic motors.
Water + electricity (solar/ wind power, fission or fusion, or even burning fossil fuels)= hydrogen and oxygen.

Seriously folks, if we stop burning fossil fuels then in twenty - thirty years time we won't be grubbing around landfill sites trying to reclaim plastic for recycling.
Although that much water vapour going into the air may have interesting effects on the environment.

Hey, NASA seems to think there's oil on Titan now (well, methane and ethane in liquid oily form because of the v. low temperatures) so I guess the U.S. space programme might get a boost pretty soon!

Actually, there's ANOTHER reason that hydrogen is being delayed. Existing vehicles can easily be converted to use either hydrogen or gasoline; if we just go to a hydrogen economy (or a hydrogen-AND-hydrocarbon economy) NOW, we won't have to buy all-new vehicles. THAT, IMO, is why we aren't going to a hydrogen economy now.

What they need to do is get a sexy celebrity involved...

There's an excellent Discovery Channel video on alternate automotive propulsion methods (vegetable oil, hydrogen, electricity, solar, air) that you can see on this guy's MySpace page right here.

First hydrogen plane flight.

Einstein's green fridge makes comeback.

Moderator? I didn't know if I should start a new board called "Green Technology", or put it here, in case you wanted to change this board's title to that more inclusive one.

I would just like to point out that Water Vapor (gaseous H₂0) is a greenhouse gas.

Fuel from turkeys? The article, which someone on Peter David's blog posted there, claims to be the key to reducing global warning, solving the oil crisis, and solving the problem of global waste.

This sounds promising.

Metal Alloy Could Make Hydrogen Storage in Cars 60% Lighter Than Batteries

Ice that burns could be a green fossil fuel.

Carbon Negative Hemp Walls are 7x Stronger than Concrete.

Sounds amazing. One of the people who posted one of the first comments, however, asserted that the claims made about it are untrue or exaggerated.

Could thorium be a new, green nuclear fuel?

New hydrogen fuel from a...er...um,...an unusual source.

Not so unusual. You need a weak acid, base or salt dissolved in water. Urea fits the bill perfectly, and it doesn't cost much -- just a couple of beers (My father used to say "you can't buy beer, you can only rent it.")

Or as Pawtucket Pat sang, "Though the beer may be free, you're just renting it from me..."

A Machine That Turns Plastic Back Into Oil.

I have to wonder. Is it just a simple still with water acting as a filter, or is there a part of the process that he left out for the sake of preserving his patent? I would be concerned in the latter case about copycats producing simple stills and releasing toxins into the room.

These are SO COOL!!!

The Speed Camera Lottery wouldn't work because government sees fines as their income.

The World's Deepest Bin would probably lead kids to throw in things that shouldn't be thrown in, i.e. sticks, rocks, kittens, younger siblings, etc.

The Piano Staircase would get real annoying, real fast. I'd hate to have to work within earshot of that thing.

The Bottle Bank Arcade Machine would also probably be abused. Kids snatching someone else's bottles, dumping the contents, putting them in the machine for points.

Interesting efforts, but mostly just novelties.

The record-scratch doormat was actually counter-productive, even in the video. There were a couple of people (especially the one girl) who blocked the door, forcing other people to squeeze around missing the mat altogether.

The Speed Camera Lottery wouldn't work because government sees fines as their income._KAM

They see lotteries as their income, too, but only because they take in so much more than they pay out. So either they will double or more on the fines (half for the old fine revenue, half for the income on the lottery with the prize money being a small percentage of that half of the fine) or as Keith says, they will reject it out of hand. Notice that the others all had working prototypes/test models. Only the Speed Camera was presented as proposal only.

Yesterday I attended the Wikipedia Meetup at the Tisch School of the Arts. When I walked into the men's room, I was greeted with a sight that was rather strange, yet cool. I could've taken photos, since I had my camera with me, but I neglected to do so. Luckily, there were flyers present that people could take to learn more about it. Here is is.

Glass roads made of solar panels?

I really would've liked to see an actual demonstration of them driving of them, especially since the inventors' assertion that they can have the same traction as asphalt seemed to beg for a demo, or at least a closeup of the surface texture of the panels to illustrate this. Why did they never even show so much as an concept illustration of what that texture would be? Can you imagine walking on a glass road that's wet from the rain?

I gather that the two panels seen in the video are all they have at the moment; that the project is barely out of the concept stage. Presumably the video is intended to be distributed among potential sponsors to get them the additional funding they need to take the next step and build a full-size prototype road that will allow the king of demonstration you are asking for.

What about snow on these glass roads? That would be fun to drive on. (And very profitable for people who fix damaged cars.)

We're all thinking about smooth polished glass surfaces that we are used to experiencing, even that takes a lot of work to manufacture and be made so smooth. If they can make a gritty rough surface that is more like asphalt, than who knows?

Well, I would've like to have seen what such a surface would look like and how it would be manufactured and work properly, even if it were only a diagram or computer model.

We're all thinking about smooth polished glass surfaces that we are used to experiencing, even that takes a lot of work to manufacture and be made so smooth. If they can make a gritty rough surface that is more like asphalt, than who knows?

Many asphalt roads near me have recycled glass beads embedded in the asphalt. It makes the road surface easier to see at night and does not adversely affect traction. If the asphalt is replaced by recycled tires and other, similar materials, it is possible to achieve similar traction. It may even be possible to use a lot more glass "filler" and less asphalt, or asphalt substitute.

I'm more concerned with the windows for the LED lights. It would be difficult to have them be so transparent and no be too smooth for proper traction.