The Change Mariner

Ethanol Breakthrough and The Hydrogen Economy

CentreDaily.com:

In a breakthrough outlined in the Feb. 13 issue of Science, they've discovered an efficient way to capture hydrogen from ethanol, produced in great quantities in Minnesota and other Corn Belt states. Not only does it promise to boost the state's ethanol industry, but it also could spark efforts to create a "hydrogen economy" that's less dependent on imported fuels such as gasoline and natural gas.

The most immediate applications, they said, are in places where cheap power often isn't available: Isolated homes or air-conditioning units of diesel trucks. But eventually, they said, communities could build their own power plants, and not have to rely on huge power producers located hundreds of miles away.
"Every county or town could build its own local power system rather than having to have a megaplant," said Lanny Schmidt, the project leader and a Regents professor of chemical engineering.

But how soon and where the technology would be applied, he and others say, depend on a variety of factors, including public interest, the price of the energy and existing regulatory obstacles.

Posted by Bob King at February 13, 2004 03:44 PM | TrackBack
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