New research to run cars on flower powerJune 13, 2002Will the oilfields of the future be full of sunflowers? They could be if Leeds fuel and energy researchers succeed in producing hydrogen from sunflower oil. Hydrogen is seen as the fuel of the future - able to create electricity with no harmful emissions - to power everything from cars, portable generators to flashlights and even homes and factories. But where is the hydrogen to come from, and can we mass-produce it without creating more pollution problems? Researchers Valerie Dupont (pictured above), Jenny Jones, Edward Hampartsoumian and Andy Ross are testing a novel system using only sunflower oil, air, water vapour and two special catalysts. "Most methods of producing hydrogen burn another fuel for energy, which itself creates pollution - carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and other emissions," said Dr Dupont. "Our catalyst uses oxygen from the air to heat up naturally, and this heat is used to reform the oil with steam to create hydrogen. The excess carbon dioxide is taken into the second catalyst, then released for storage or use in other chemical processes, ensuring that damaging levels of CO2 aren't just put back into the atmosphere." The researchers are working with industrial partners to identify the best catalysts, and then optimising their system for sunflower oil. But the process could be applied to other lower grade forms of renewable fuel as well, and even be used with oils made from waste. "Waste pyrolysis oil is currently burned as fuel, but this can be quite polluting," said Dr Dupont. "Our system would still make use of its energy potential, while allowing the often noxious chemicals in the oil to be more easily controlled." The research is funded by the EPSRC for three years. Leeds, University of |
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| Related Hydrogen Current Events and Hydrogen News Articles New hydrogen-storage method discovered Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found for the first time that high pressure can be used to make a unique hydrogen-storage material. WPI Researchers Take Aim at Hard-to-Treat Fungal Infections A team of researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park has developed a new model system to study fungal infections. Proton's party pals may alter its internal structure A recent experiment at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has found that a proton's nearest neighbors in the nucleus of the atom may modify the proton's internal structure. Berkeley Researchers Take the Lead Out of Piezoelectrics There is good news for the global effort to reduce the amount of lead in the environment and for the growing array of technologies that rely upon the piezoelectric effect. Vibrations key to efficiency of green fluorescent protein University of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered the secret to the success of a jellyfish protein whose green glow has made it the darling of biologists and the subject of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Earth's early ocean cooled more than a billion years earlier than thought: Stanford study The scalding-hot sea that supposedly covered the early Earth may in fact never have existed, according to a new study by Stanford University researchers who analyzed isotope ratios in 3.4 billion-year-old ocean floor rocks. UT Knoxville and ORNL researchers turn algae into high-temperature hydrogen source In the quest to make hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source, researchers have been stymied about how to create usable hydrogen that is clean and sustainable without relying on an intensive, high-energy process that outweighs the benefits of not using petroleum to power vehicles. Central Africa's tropical Congo Basin was arid, treeless in Late Jurassic The Congo Basin - with its massive, lush tropical rain forest - was far different 150 million to 200 million years ago. At that time Africa and South America were part of the single continent Gondwana. Engineers image nanostructure of a solid acid catalyst and boost its catalytic activity The catalytic processes that facilitate the production of many chemicals and fuels could become much more environmentally friendly thanks to a breakthrough achieved by researchers from Lehigh and Rice Universities. 'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787 million years post Big Bang. More Hydrogen Current Events and Hydrogen News Articles |
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