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Scientists find new ways to convert ethanol into hydrogen
Chicago News.Net
Thursday 21st August, 2008
Scientists have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently, by using a new catalyst that makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients.
According to Umit Ozkan, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University in the US, the new catalyst is much less expensive than others being developed around the world, because it does not contain precious metals, such as platinum or rhodium.
'Rhodium is used most often for this kind of catalyst, and it costs around 9,000 dollars an ounce,' said Ozkan. 'Our catalyst costs around 9 dollars a kilogram,' she added.
The Ohio State catalyst could help make the use of hydrogen-powered cars more practical in the future, said Ozkan.
'There are many practical issues that need to be resolved before we can use hydrogen as fuel -- how to make it, how to transport it, how to create the infrastructure for people to fill their cars with it,' she explained.
'Our research lends itself to what's called a 'distributed production' strategy. Instead of making hydrogen from biofuel at a centralized facility and transporting it to gas stations, we could use our catalyst inside reactors that are actually located at the gas stations,' said Ozkan.
'So we wouldn't have to transport or store the hydrogen - we could store the biofuel, and make hydrogen on the spot,' she added.
The catalyst is inexpensive to make and to use compared to others under investigation worldwide. Those others are often made from precious metals, or only work at very high temperatures.
Precious metals have high catalytic activity and - in most cases - high stability, but they're also very expensive.
'So our goal from the outset was to come up with a precious-metal-free catalyst, one that was based on metals that are readily available and inexpensive, but still highly active and stable. So that sets us apart from most of the other groups in the world,' said Ozkan.
The new dark gray powder is made from tiny granules of cerium oxide - a common ingredient in ceramics - and calcium, covered with even smaller particles of cobalt.
It produces hydrogen with 90 percent efficiency at 660 degrees Fahrenheit (around 350 degrees Celsius) - a low temperature by industrial standards.
According to Ozkan, whenever a process works at a lower temperature, that brings energy savings and cost savings.
'Also, if the catalyst is highly active and can achieve high hydrogen yields, we don't need as much of it. That will bring down the size of the reactor, and its cost,' he said.
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Comments on this story
Anonymous
08-21-08, 12:44 PM |
Scientists find new ways to convert ethanol into hydrogen
Professor Umit Ozkan, are you talking about liquidized hydrogen ? If so, we recommend the Pentagon under 2009 McCAIN administration will federal-grant funding to Ohio State University to work on the project to produce hydrogen aviation fuel for the fighter-jet engines.
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Kumar Sapre
08-22-08, 06:56 AM |
Best Wishes
Please accept our hearty congratulations and best wishes for thinking differently. Very few people follow/ tread a difficult path 'cause easier path is already there to follow!!
Try and think in a way a common man is benefitted, as is reflected in your article.
If there is a research going on to run cars on compressed air, then we feel Hydrogen is also a very good begining.
Our best wishes for your success, FAST!!!
Kumar Sapre
India
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Anonymous
08-22-08, 02:16 PM |
hydro hype
This is just someone trying to create a market for ethanol in the coming hydrogen economy. All of the things this does has already been done with no ethanol, just water. All of teh obstacles mentioned have already been crossed. Ask Honda.
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waltky
09-04-08, 11:42 PM |
Ethanol not all its cracked up to be...
:confused:
Ethanol, once darling, is losing some luster
4 Sept.`08 - GOP drops subsides from platform as it’s widely blamed for food prices
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Ethanol’s wild ride has brought it quickly from political golden child to scapegoat for everything from soaring food prices and world hunger to pork-barrel spending. This week, the Republican Party in its national platform called for an end to ethanol mandates in just the latest shot at a fuel alternative that, in some circles, has grown more targeted than treasured.
High ranking politicians, including presidential candidate John McCain, have publicly opposed ethanol subsidies before, but the platform approved during the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., marks the first time a major U.S. party has taken an official stance against publicly funded ethanol incentives. It was just four years earlier that the Republican platform called for “efforts to expand the use of biodiesel and ethanol, which can reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil while increasing revenues to farmers."
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said his party “got it wrong” on this issue, and he doesn’t see how cutting the mandate fits with reducing the country’s dependence on foreign fossil fuels. “That’s a big mistake," Thune said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting, and right now we’re 70 percent dependent on foreign oil."
David King, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said party platforms in many cases reflect the presidential nominee’s interests, but the documents are not followed or paid attention to by party regulars. “You would be hard pressed to find any Republican in Iowa, for example, who would in any way embrace this as something in their party’s platform," King said. “It wouldn’t change their behavior." But whatever maneuvering landed that paragraph on the Republican platform may spill out in other venues, King said.
More [url:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26549813/[/url]
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