Re: A new development in renewable fuels

My gut reaction is that growing corn to produce ethanol to produce
hydrogen seems like too many steps where energy can be lost in the
transitions. This seems like a fairly ridiculous idea. When fossil fuels
are depleted I think the bottlenecks are going to be growing enough food
and getting enough energy for transportation. I do not think farmers
are going to have to worry about overproducing corn so that it can be
used to make ethanol when the price of gasoline, fertilizers, and
pesticides skyrockets. To go further as the article proposes and
generate electricity from such a process seems really questionable. I
suspect we will be able to find better ways than that of getting
electricity.

Al

>>> William Hamilton <whamilton51@comcast.net> 02/13/04 7:20 PM >>>
The following article details a new reactor developed at the University
of MN that converts ethyl alchohol into hydrogen. It's much smaller
than previous such devices -- small enough that it could be installed
in a home. I haven't read it thoroughly, so I can't tell how pure the
feedstock has to be. And that's important, since it takes energy to
isolate alcohol. Also, of course it takes fertilizer to raise the corn
from which the alcohol is made. But perhaps this is a small part of an
eventual solution.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-02/uom-nrp020904.php

Bill Hamilton Rochester, MI 248 652 4148
Received on Sat Feb 14 21:51:22 2004