RideCamp@endurance.net
Re: [Enduranceriders] OPEC victims no more! [long]
The article on hydrogen from algae as a fuel
source was very interesting. Thanks Lif. I enjoyed it. It's kind of
nice to know that there are folks out there that are working to find
alternative, nonpolluting fuel souces. I cant wait to give OPEC the
finger!!! hahahahah! gesa n clovis n skye
From: Lif
Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>
There is a real and ecological
alternative to fossil fuel! OPEC can be bypassed!
Algae May Be
Key to Hydrogen Fuel
By PAUL RECER=
AP Science
Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Hydrogen may be an ideal fuel when the supply of oil and
natural gas runs out, but the problem has been finding a way to produce it
cheaply. Scientists now say the answer may be an ordinary pond
scum.
Green algae, a simple plant that grows all over the world, has the unique
ability to convert water and sunlight into hydrogen gas, researchers said
Monday at the national meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of
Science.
Now scientists have found a new way to force the algae to make hydrogen gas
on demand, a process that could lead to an almost limitless supply of fuel
that burns without pollution and produces only water as a waste
product.
Tasios Melis of the University of California, Berkeley, said that the algae,
one of the most ancient plants known, evolved the ability to live in two
radically different environments.
When living in ordinary air and sunlight, it uses photosynthesis like other
plants. This process converts sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into waste
oxygen and the life-sustaining chemicals the plant
needs.
But when the algae is deprived of a key nutrient, sulfur, and forced to live
in an anaerobic, or oxygen-free, environment, the plant reverts to an
alternate life style in order to survive. Under these conditions, the algae
makes hydrogen, said
Melis.
``It is sort of a metabolic switch,'' said Melis. ``It is an alternative way
of breathing'' that the plant developed over millions of years to survive
where there is no oxygen or sulfur. Those same conditions would kill
other
plants.
In experiments, Melis said his laboratory first grows algae cells in the
ordinary way, giving the plant sunlight, nutrients and water. The plant
happily reproduces, growing millions upon millions of new
cells.
Then, the researchers cut off the supply of sulfur and oxygen to the algae,
forcing it to click the metabolic switch to its hydrogen-producing life
style.
``Within 20 hours, the algae turns on its switch, converting from oxygen
production to hydrogen production,'' said Melis. ``We have to seal the
culture to prevent exposure to oxygen. Then we collect the hydrogen as it
bubbles out of the
culture.''
The gas comes out as pure, pollution-free hydrogen, he said.
Melis said the hydrogen-making process has operated experimentally for up to
four days, the time it takes for the algae to exhaust its internal
resources. The researchers then converted back to normal photosynthesis and
the plant revives itself, ready to start another
cycle.
``This has the promise of generating fuel from some of nature's most
plentiful resources _ sunlight and water,'' said Melis.
One liter of algae culture, a little over a quarter of a gallon, produces
three milliliters of hydrogen, about a tenth of a fluid ounce, per hour,
said Melis. Researchers believe this efficiency can be increased at least
100 fold, but that has yet to be
demonstrated.
Algae growing in a small pond, he said, may eventually be enough to power 10
cars, although Melis admitted, ``I'm not saying how big the pond would have
to
be.''
The algae's alternate life style uses an enzyme, along with sunlight, to
extract hydrogen from water. The enzyme, hydrogenase, is not found in higher
plants. Some researchers are looking at ways to transfer the gene for this
enzyme into other plants and, possibly, to force the enzyme to work in the
presence of
oxygen.
Hydrogen has long been promoted as a fuel to replace fossil energy sources.
In the space program, hydrogen and oxygen are combined to make a rocket
propellant, such as in the main engines of the space
shuttle.
Oxygen and hydrogen are an explosive mixture, but they can be combined in a
fuel cell to produce electricity and water. Fuel cells electrify the space
shuttle and were used successfully in the Apollo
program.
Margaret K. Mann of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal
facility in Golden, Colo., said that auto makers are already developing fuel
cells to drive automobiles. Other researchers, she said, are studying ways
of changing the nation's
energy infrastructure _ pipelines, fuel
transports and service stations _ to make use of hydrogen.
She said it will be at least 20 years before hydrogen becomes a major part
of the energy picture, but the gas could eventually power the nation,
providing a renewable fuel source for both transportation and electrical
generation.
Right now, hydrogen is most commonly separated from natural gas. This makes
hydrogen a negative in the energy equation, since natural gas is a cheaper,
more efficient fuel.
Hydrogen may come into its own for environmental reasons, said
Mann.
Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of
global warming, many believe. The only waste generated from hydrogen fuel is
pure water, a resource that theoretically can be recycled to produce more
hydrogen.
______________________________________________________
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& Paul Strand STRAND
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