On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 17:28:56 EST, you wrote: >"Researchers at the University of Minnesota, Twin cities, have come up with >an efficient method of converting ethanol, the alcohol produced by the >fermentation of corn, into hydrogen fuel....The scientists calculate that >their >hydrogen-generating system could capture more than 50 percent of the energy >that >plants store in the form of sugar. Approximately two shot glasses of ethanol >could yeild enough hydrogen to generate 350 watt-hours of electricity." It's >done with catalysts at about 140 C. "The scientists describe their reactor in >the Feb. 13 SCIENCE."
Ok. So one of my next questions would be to evaluate how much energy the ethanol could generate if not converted into hydrogen, but simply used to generate either electrical energy in some sort of fuel cell or generator (which would allow for a straight-forward comparison) or other energy such as heat or mechanical energy. Then we could ask what the point is, and under what circumstances we might want to make use of this process, and under what circumstances leave the ethanol alone. Ideally I'd like to see highly efficient fuel cells that can use ethanol almost directly as a fuel, rather than using H2, and that they could be scaled to vehicle-sized-power. This would allow, among other things, farmers to use ethanol-powered tractors more readily, and this would in turn close some of the "loop" and provide further undeniable invalidation of Pimentel's theories. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
