This site claims to reprint a report by Reuters that researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found a way to store hydrogen in a glucose solution and can easily split the hydrogen from the glucose for use in fuel cells. I haven’t heard anything else about this, anyone have any input? Is it a legit story? And how likely does this sound?
Tuckerfan,
This is not something new. This is surely a great way to make hydrogen in the lab but in the lab only. What people don’t realize is that catalysts are very easily poisoned. If you have a good catalyst and a pure glucose solution, this works great for sometime.
But the problem is that even if you have pure gluscose, it will form soot (or worse here, caramel) and plug the catalyst surface in no time. And if you have any impurities in the glucose the problem will be worse. Admittedly, biofuels don’t suffer from the presense of sulfur or arsenic, but the soot is still the problem.
In an laboratory setup, pass flue gases over TiO2 (or Pt) and some ultraviolet light and LO all the Nitrogen Oxides get converted to Nitric Acid and removed from the flue. Try to do it in any industry and LOL.
So don’t hold your breath on this sweet deal.