Scientists Working on Sugar-to-Hydrogen Fuel

Researchers in three different locations are working on a process to convert sugar into hydrogen in order to move toward fuel independence. According to the Virginia Tech News, work is underway at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Georgia to make the process a reality by 2012 with a goal of a choice of hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2020.

The experiments at the three sites involve using polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, to produce hydrogen. For hydrogen fuel to be available in the amounts needed to make the United States energy-independent, there are four issues that need to be resolved, according to the Department of Energy and listed on the VT News. They are production, storage, distribution, and fuel cells. As VT News notes, "Storing and moving the gas, whatever its source, is costly and cumbersome, and even dangerous." In addition, there are very few places for hydrogen-powered cars to "gas up."

"Simple" seems to be the order of the day and the goal of the research. "We need a simple way to store and carry hydrogen energy and a simple process to produce hydrogen," said Y. H. Percival Zhang, a professor at Virginia Tech, and quoted in the VT News. A promising technique is the use of enzymes to break down the polysaccharides into their component parts of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The hydrogen is then used in fuel cells to produce electricity.

A car using the hydrogen fuel would have a tank in which the polysaccharides in the form of a starch are mixed with the enzymes needed to break them down. A 12-gallon tank could hold enough of the starch to travel approximately 300 miles, according to Zhang.

Not only would hydrogen fuel release the United States from dependence on foreign oil supply; it is also, Zhang tells the VT News, "Environmentally friendly, energy efficient, requires no special infrastructure, and is extremely safe. We have killed three birds [production, storage and transportation, no special infrastructure] with one stone."