Hawaii
Energy Policy Forum > 2002
Articles
Fermenting Hydrogen Fuel?
ArcaMax Science News
June 3, 2002
Automobiles powered by hydrogen
fuel cells could eventually be pulling up to wastewater treatment
plants for fill-ups,
say Penn State University researchers, who have boosted
hydrogen production 43 percent by using a continuous hydrogen
release fermentation process. By using certain industrial
wastewater as feedstock, the technique offers an abundant, "green," local
source for hydrogen and potentially makes it a cheaper
fuel than gasoline. "Continuous fermentation is not
hard to do and the high volumes of gas produced make it
a potential source of supply for a wide variety of fuel
cell applications besides cars and buses," researchers
said. These include home power generation and the micro-fuel
cells being developed for consumer products such as laptops,
cell phones, smoke alarms and calculators. The fermentation
was conducted with bacteria from ordinary garden soil collected
from local farmland. The soil was heat-treated to kill
hydrogen-consuming bacteria. Although the heat treatment
also kills non-hydrogen producing soil bacteria, it leaves
hydrogen-producing bacteria in a dormant spore form that
revives as soon as it is put in suitable conditions.
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