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Scientists at the University of Delaware have come up with a new hydrogen storage solution: chicken feathers. Well, carbonized chicken feather fibers to be exact. What's more, their discovery meets the ambitious hydrogen storage targets set by the DOE for 2010 and 2015, which call for great storage capacity at a low cost.
Chicken feather fibers are made of keratin, a protein that forms strong, hollow tubes. The scientists heated the chicken feathers until hollow carbon microtubes formed with nanoporous walls and the fibers' surface area increased. The resulting carbonized chicken feather fibers allow the storage of as much, or more, hydrogen than carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides, other materials that have been found to store hydrogen well.
The big success here is that making carbonized chicken feather storage tanks is far less costly than producing storage tanks made of the other materials. A 20-gallon carbon nanotube tank would cost $5.5 million to produce, while the same size tank made with metal hydrides would cost $30,000. Comparitively, a carbonized chicken feather tank would run about $200.
The scientists estimate that a car would require a 75-gallon tank using this material in order to have a range of 300 miles. They are working now to increase that range.
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written by Matthew McDonough, June 26, 2009
And to the point of looselycoupled, this is so primitive it can hardly be considered technology. It should be able to jump market quickly (keyword on should).
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written by Green Technology, June 26, 2009
Chicken feathers? I almost don't believe this one.
It would be amazing if they could find a way to make it work long-term. I feel like chicken tonight.
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written by LizR, June 26, 2009
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written by Fred, June 26, 2009
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written by Andrew6, June 26, 2009
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written by Patrick, June 30, 2009
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written by Bud Rinker, July 01, 2009
And on the last item on the newsletter: I am a pilot and have flown over the reflective tower electric generation plants for years and never had a 'blinding' problem. The light is directed towards the tower, Duh!
Unless one flys BETWEEN the mirrors and the tower and
anyone flying that low deserve to be blinded.
Bud Rinker
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written by chicken house plans, July 01, 2009
Stevie
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written by Jack Tidwell, July 02, 2009
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written by David, July 03, 2009
Of course it makes no sense to use electricity from dirty coal burning plants to make hydrogen. We just move the pollution from the vehicle to the power plant. Cheap clean electricity production is needed to make hydrogen a viable fuel. Solar, Wind and Geothermal get cheaper every day. In particular, thin film solar cells, large wind turbines, and low temperature geothermal are all close to reaching the cost of power from coal plants today. Many conservative projections show these power sources being economical without subsidies as early as 2011. We may even be able to make clean coal economical in that timeframe, but I don't know the costs associated with clean coal technology, just that it is technically possible with carbon sequestration and coal to liquids.
The key to making a hydrogen economy happen is making a national commitment to do so and sticking with it. Our biggest obstacle is not technical or economic but political.
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But I wonder if anything like this is actually being commercialized. I understand the long time from lab to feasible product, and how many things are never able to scale up to industrial scale, but It always seems like we have all of this technology for replacing oil with renewable energy, but nothing ever comes to fruition on the market.
Where is the hydrogen deployment? Plug-in hybrids? etc.