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Posted on 05/25/2007 9:24:25 AM PDT by HangnJudge
snip. Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia propose using polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, from biomass to directly produce low-cost hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy.
snip. Using synthetic biology approaches, Zhang and colleagues Barbara R. Evans and Jonathan R. Mielenz of ORNL, and Robert C. Hopkins and Michael W.W. Adams of the University of Georgia, are using a combination of 13 enzymes never found together in nature to completely convert polysaccharides (C6H10O5) and water into hydrogen when and where that form of energy is needed. This “synthetic enzymatic pathway” research appears in the May 23 issue of PLoS ONE, the online, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science.
snip. The vision is for the ingredients to be mixed in the fuel tank of your car, for instance. A car with an approximately 12-gallon tank could hold 27 kilograms (kg) of starch, which is the equivalent of 4 kg of hydrogen. The range would be more than 300 miles, Zhang estimates. One kg of starch will produce the same energy output as 1.12 kg (0.38 gallons) of gasoline
snip. So it is environmentally friendly, energy efficient, requires no special infrastructure, and is extremely safe. We have killed three birds with one stone,” he said. “We have hydrogen production with a mild reaction and low cost. We have hydrogen storage and transport in the form of starch or syrups. And no special infrastructure is needed
(Excerpt) Read more at vtnews.vt.edu ...
Then you need another tank to convert cellulose into glucose and things will really be good - organic cars powered by termites and bacteria.
Polysaccharides like starch and cellulose are used by plants for energy storage and building blocks and are very stable until exposed to enzymes. Just add enzymes to a mixture of starch and water and “the enzymes use the energy in the starch to break up water into only carbon dioxide and hydrogen,” Zhang said.A membrane bleeds off the carbon dioxide and the hydrogen is used by the fuel cell to create electricity. Water, a product of that fuel cell process, will be recycled for the starch-water reactor. Laboratory tests confirm that it all takes place at low temperature--about 86 degrees F--and atmospheric pressure.
. . . The research was based on Zhang’s previous work pertaining to cellulosic ethanol production and the ORNL and University of Georgia researchers’ work with enzymatic hydrogen production.
I couldnt have said it better myself, and I tried:
"I'm not a global warming nut, but I think this country needs a major initiative to eliminate our dependance on fossil fuels. A manhattan project for our generation. If we succeed, the oil money will be cut off and the arab nations will, within a generation, go back to being irrelevant." http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821957/posts?page=33#33
and there was much rejoicing from the tortilla markets!
These nuts have gotta stop coming up with ways to convert food into gasoline substitutes. This is an environmentalists “feel good” approach to a non-existant problem. The only thing this accomplishes is a reduction in the food supply and an increase in the price we pay for the ingredients in our foods. If the greenies would get out of the way of progress, we could drill new wells and build new refineries and the price of fuel would go down.
Seems suitable for your renewable energy ping list. I’ll bump this for later reading.
That’s why I’m curious about a comparison in terms of energy output per dollar. I’m betting that the stuff ain’t cheap; that a dollar’s worth of hydrogen from starch won’t take you anywhere near as far down the road as a dollar’s worth of gas.
In their winning team project, Linking Supercomputing and Systems Biology for Efficient Bioethanol Production, Scott Molony, Steven Arcangeli and Scott Horton contribute to a growing body of research on creating microrganisms that can produce alternative fuels. “This team used supercomputers to analyze biological networks, looking at tens of thousands of genes and their biological pathways to discover clues for engineering direct biofuel production by microorganisms,” said competition judge Dr. Gary Benson, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Department of Biology, Director of Graduate Studies Program in Bioinformatics, Boston University. “Through a real team effort and a sophisticated, interdisciplinary approach, they developed a promising method that takes us a step closer to engineering biofuel.” Based partly on the team’s work, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory received a major grant to continue this research. The team’s mentors were Dr. Nagiza Samatova, Mr. Chris Symons, Dr. ByungHoony Park, and Dr. Tatiana Karpinets, all with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The winning Science project with the Siemens Foundation competition was precisely on the subject, with meaningful results.
Have a Blizzard and think about that a bit before making a rash move.
I’m concerned about my car becoming diabetic.....
Very promising. One question though, how does it do in sub freezing temperatures?
After reading this article, I would say we are MUCH closer than we were ten years ago.
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Uh oh...
If this works out, GA Tech will be hatin’ life!
Don’t worry. We’ll just have the cars poop on the road.
So is Michigan where sugar is made from sugar beets.
Actually we make more sugar from beets than we do from cane.
The last figures I could find say the US produced 3.45 million tons of cane sugar and 3.75 million tons of beet sugar.
Since there is no difference between the two, when you buy a bag of sugar there is no way to tell if it came from sugar cane or sugar beets. Their chemical make-up is identical.
If you want a real olfactory treat (sarcasm) drive by a sugar processing plant - smells worse than a pig farm. You might think sugar production smells good. Believe me, it doesn't.
Ouch!
Fortunately, Ga,. Tech has a large presence at ORNL so maybe they would be involved too.
If I could stop using oil however, even I would saw nice words about UGA (maybe 1 or 2)
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