Originally published April 11 2004
Fuel Cells Running on Corn Could Replace 40% of National Petroleum
Consumption
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The advances in fuel cell technology and hydrogen souces keep
accelerating. The latest is a fuel cell that runs on ethanol produced
from corn. This is significant because there's a glut of corn in the
world, and the majority of it us produced in the United States. This
ethanol-powered fuel cell is inexpensive to operate and reportedly
highly efficient. Corn is a renewable fuel source, of course, as long as
the sun keeps shining, and that makes it an ideal fuel source. It is
also abundant, with enough supply to replace more than a third of our
national consumption of petroleum. So far, we've seen fuel cells
running on residential sewage, we've seen gas hydrates on the ocean
floor turned into usable hydrogen, and we've seen advances in hybrid
vehicles that set the perfect stage for hydrogen powered cars. The
hydrogen economy is approaching quickly, it seems, and the sources of
fuel appear to be abundant.
What do you get when you cross a fuel cell, an ear of a corn and a
fuel injector from a stray jalopy?
A University of Minnesota research team presented the first reactor to
generate hydrogen energy from a clean-burning, renewable resource:
ethanol.
Shaped and sized like an ear of corn -- coincidentally, the source of
ethanol -- the reactor is both economical and efficient.
Schmidt, along with collaborating chemical engineers Gregg Deluga and
James Salge, foresees the invention used early on in remote areas, where
installation of new power lines is unfeasible.
Consumers also could buy ethanol to power small hydrogen fuel cells in
their basements.
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