Hydrogen fuel comes a step closer

Written By: rearguard
Date: 2007-11-14 16:14:57
<a href="/article/154917386-hydrogen-fuel-comes-a-step-closer">Article Link</a>

Dr Shaoan Cheng and Prof Bruce Logan of Penn State University, Pennsylvania, devised a method of hydrogen production that relies on combining electron-generating bacteria and a small electrical charge in a "microbial electrolysis cell" to belch out hydrogen gas.

Full story here:
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/12/scihydro112.xml">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/12/scihydro112.xml</a>

A very interesting discovery I thought, but I imagine that this latest biofuel concept will suffer from the same problems that plague other biofuel concepts, e.g., low or negative energy in vs out ratios, requirement for large amounts of land that is otherwise used to grow food, use of petroleum based fertilizers, limited production capacity, etc.

One of the more difficult problems to solve, is how to store and use hydrogen safely.

It would appear waste water and soil would be used to create the bacteria. Perhaps sewage treatment plants could be used.

Storage is the same problem as with LPG.
If propane or Natural gas could be condensed enough, they would have been a far better alternative to gas & oil for fuel. The main reason commercial vehicles don't us them is the volume required for range and weight of the containers. Hydrogen appears to have the same problems.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

No one has ever satisfactorily 'splained to me why this can't possibly work: 
<a href="http://www.harbay.net/biomass.html">http://www.harbay.net/biomass.html</a>--- "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." 
-Max Planck

A few years back the call for Hemp growers was out. I did some research to see if I would qualify. The requirement was for twenty acres minimum, in field. Over 6 Kms from the nearest school and on and on. Most interesting was the requirement to be under satellite observation and also to permit officers to keep tabs on the crop/property. A peace officer was to monitor traffic in and out and I assume the satellite to keep a distant veiw. Presently, Google zooms close enough to see the colour of my dogs eyes and I get helicopters close enough, to see the colour of the piolets eyes. I never did go through with the application. Growing Hemp on private property is liking having to register what toilet paper you use. No thanks!

Hemp as a biomass would work, as would many other plants.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

piolet should be pilot. Damn glass are brand new from the dollar store.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

"It would appear waste water and soil would be used to create the bacteria. Perhaps sewage treatment plants could be used."

Yes, after reading through the whole thing it seems like it could be a more viable solution than other biofuels such as ethanol. The neat thing is that the gas can be collected without much energy going into the system. Ethanol on the other hand requires a distillation process that's very costly.

"Storage is the same problem as with LPG."

Storing hydrogen is a lot more difficult. LPG can be liquefied through pressurization alone, while hydrogen requires very high pressure and very low temperatures to liquefy making it difficult and expensive to transport. It also takes up 4 times as much volume in a liquid state to get the same amount of energy from 1 unit of gasoline. One interesting advantage of hydrogen is that it's a very light fuel, 1 liter of liquid hydrogen weighs only 70g, unfortunately the storage system weighs a lot and is very bulky. Supposedly there may be better methods of storing hydrogen using special crystalline materials, but I don't know anything about it.

It looks to me like hydrogen as a viable fuel alternative is a long way off (decades) and will require a major technological breakthrough in storage and in production.

That should have been "glasses" not "glass".

"Storing hydrogen is a lot more difficult." 
 
In addition you your points; Hydrogen, being the smallest of atoms, escapes very easily. It is also the most corrosive of substances, so the storage tanks don't last as long as with LPG. 
 
Hydrogen gas needs to be cooled to -138C or something before it will liquefy. 
 
incidentally - Students at the U of A recently won an award at the MIT biofuels contest, for using e-coli to extract hydrogen. 
 
"E-Coli, it's not just for Spinach anymore!" 
 
And: 
<a href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110648&org=NSF&from=news">http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110648&org=NSF&from=news</a> 
 
Similar results from Penn State. The big trouble with all this bacteria action though, is that it inevitably produces CO2 as a byproduct. Which, I suppose could be used in the Hydrogen gas liquefication. --- The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.