[Terrapreta] Organic Matter To Hydrogen Fuel

[lou gold]

Wow, the technologies seem to be multiplying so fast that a lay person like
myself has a hard time following it all. I'm looking forward to more
discussion from the folks who understand it better than I do.

Meanwhile, I would like to offer a note of caution about integrating the use
of organic wastes in the form of wood chips. There can be unforseen
consequences. The large modern sawmills in the Pacific Northwest achieved
new levels of efficiency through technological integration that relyied
heavily on employing three (maybe more) uses of wood chips that previously
were sawmill waste: 1) new products such as chip board; 2) cogeneration and
3) pulp for paper products. In this fashion waste became resource! But it
also created a waste dependent system. Even when the demand for lumber was
low (as during a home building slump), it was necessary to keep cranking out
2x4s, etc to maintain the waste/resource. Because prices for paper were
stable or increasing, lumber from big trees was produced and sold at way
below value in order to keep a stable supply of sawdust and chips.

I think that we will need to find a value more basic than efficiency defined
as greatest bank for the buck. I am hoping for a way to value economy,
defined as least waste or most renewal, instead. I believe that placing
emphasis on restoration of the soil through pyrolysis of waste for char
returned to the earth may help shift our systems from efficiencies of
production toward economies of renewal and retention (water moisture and
nutrients).

I would like to hear your thoughts about this.



On Nov 14, 2007 12:33 AM, David Yarrow <dyarrow at nycap.rr.com> wrote:

>  *New Method Converts Organic Matter
> To Hydrogen Fuel Easily And Efficiently
> *http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071112172203.htm
>
> ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2007) — Hydrogen as an everyday, environmentally
> friendly fuel source may be closer than we think, according to Penn State
> researchers.
> "The energy focus is currently on ethanol as a fuel, but economical
> ethanol from cellulose is 10 years down the road," says Bruce E. Logan, the
> Kappe professor of environmental engineering. "First you need to break
> cellulose down to sugars and then bacteria can convert them to ethanol."
> Logan and Shaoan Cheng, research associate, suggest a method based on
> microbial fuel cells to convert cellulose and other biodegradable organic
> materials directly into hydrogen.
> The researchers used naturally occurring bacteria in a microbial
> electrolysis cell with acetic acid -- the acid found in vinegar. Acetic acid
> is also the predominant acid produced by fermentation of glucose or
> cellulose. The anode was granulated graphite, the cathode was carbon with a
> platinum catalyst, and they used an off-the-shelf anion exchange membrane.
> The bacteria consume the acetic acid and release electrons and protons
> creating up to 0.3 volts. When more than 0.2 volts are added from an
> outside source, hydrogen gas bubbles up from the liquid.
> "This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the
> electrical energy that is added to the process," says Logan.
> Water hydrolysis, a standard method for producing hydrogen, is only 50 to
> 70 percent efficient. Even if the microbial electrolysis cell process is set
> up to bleed off some of the hydrogen to produce the added energy boost
> needed to sustain hydrogen production, the process still creates 144 percent
> more available energy than the electrical energy used to produce it.
> For those who think that a hydrogen economy is far in the future, Logan
> suggests that hydrogen produced from cellulose and other renewable organic
> materials could be blended with natural gas for use in natural gas vehicles.
>
> "We drive a lot of vehicles on natural gas already. Natural gas is
> essentially methane," says Logan. "Methane burns fairly cleanly, but if we
> add hydrogen, it burns even more cleanly and works fine in existing natural
> gas combustion vehicles."
> The range of efficiencies of hydrogen production based on electrical
> energy and energy in a variety of organic substances is between 63 and 82
> percent. Both lactic acid and acetic acid achieve 82 percent, while
> unpretreated cellulose is 63 percent efficient. Glucose is 64 percent
> efficient.
> Another potential use for microbial-electrolysis-cell produced hydrogen is
> in fertilizer manufacture. Currently fertilizer is produced in large
> factories and trucked to farms. With microbial electrolysis cells, very
> large farms or farm cooperatives could produce hydrogen from wood chips and
> then through a common process, use the nitrogen in the air to produce
> ammonia or nitric acid. Both of these are used directly as fertilizer or the
> ammonia could be used to make ammonium nitrate, sulfate or phosphate.
> This research is published in the Nov. 12 issue of the Proceedings of the
> National Academy of Sciences online.
> The researchers have filed for a patent on this work. Air Products and
> Chemicals, Inc. and the National Science Foundation supported this work.
> Adapted from materials provided by Penn State.
> David Yarrow
> "If yer not forest, yer against us."
> Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary
> 44 Gilligan Road, East Greenbush, NY 12061
> dyarrow at nycap.rr.com
> www.championtrees.org
> www.OnondagaLakePeaceFestival.org
> www.citizenre.com/dyarrow/
> www.farmandfood.org
> www.SeaAgri.com
>
> "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times,
> if one only remembers to turn on the light."
> -Albus Dumbledore
>
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-- 
http://lougold.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/sets/
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