New Biofuels Breakthroughs - Online Report - March 14, 2007

[ellis gibb]

A new process of creating biofuels could lead to the US becoming an
exporter of oil, instead of an importer, according to Purdue
University Scientists, in an online report released on March 14, 2007.
The new process is called H2CAR for "hybrid hydrogen-carbon process."
"We could use H2CAR to provide a sustainable fuel supply to meet the
needs of the entire U.S. transportation sector - all cars, trucks,
trains and airplanes," said Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone
Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.
"Hybrid hydrogen-carbon process," or H2CAR, will enable us to use our
current fuel delivery system and internal combustion engines, a huge
economic advantage. The method can also be used to produce liquid gas
from coal without the production of Carbon Dioxide, eliminating the
need for proposed dangerous carbon dioxide "sequestering," storing it
in expensive environmentally 'safe' deposits. A development that
environmentalists should take note.
According to the Purdue News Release, the professors involved were
enthusiastically contemplating the dawning of a "hydrogen-carbon
economy," with enormous potential benefits for the US economy.
"This is the first concept for creating a sustainable system that
derives all of our transportation fuels from biomass," according to
Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue Professor of Chemical Engineering.
Take note, when you see biomass, biofuel, think renewable resource.
The process, at least three times more efficient than present fuel
conversion methods, uses many kinds of biomass, such as fuel crops,
wastes, manure, wood scraps, thus reducing the total stress on the
environment, with less land needed, less pesticides and fertilizers
used and less CO-2 released. This more efficient fuel process could
potentially produce more fuel than even future needs for
transportation.
The gassification process uses hydrogen, now expensive to produce. To
make the concept economically competitive with gasoline and diesel
fuel, we need ways to produce cheap hydrogen from carbon-free sources
and a new type of gasifier for the process. Advances in more
economical production and use of hydrogen are under research and
development by the Universities of Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin-
Madison, among others around the world. Updates on these projects can
be found on the Science Daily website, listed below.
Benefits include three major points.

No carbon dioxide is produced while making the fuel or using it.
Conversion techniques are designed to use more energy efficient power,
like solar, further reducing costs.
H2CAR can be used by conventional engines: autos, trains and planes,
without expensive modifications.

Take heart, Global Warming freaks. Help is on its way.
But. It would behoove us all to keep a sharp eye on developments, lest
certain corporations or foreign entities try to derail these projects,
or deep six
them.
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