I know that Penn State is a member of the Big 10 but in my memory there is always an asterisk by its name. I suppose it has to do with being the eleventh of ten. Still I understand the difference between athletics and academics and kudos to the learning side for their work on An Electrically Assisted Microbial Fuel Cell in conjunction with the private business firm Ion Power, Inc.
The importance of this work derives from the role that Fuel Cells are expected to play in saving the planet from the "Oil Economy". It is a tenet of faith in the environmental movement that the use of any carbon based energy is bad for the survival of life on Earth. Burning wood is not good, nor is natural gas and oil is by far the worse carbon based energy source of all. The Green Movement is realistic enough to understand they need to propose some sort of energy to maintain society and a large part of their hope is in the ability of hydrogen to become a clean fuel.
The work at Penn State is an advance because their process increases the hydrogen output from organic material, or the preferred term biomass. The historical problem is that bacteria can only ferment carbohydrates, and then only to the point where waste products accumulate enough to stop the process. The breakthrough is the discovery that if you zap the microbes with a current of electricity, they “leap the fermentation barrier” and proceed to digest the former waste products, thus increasing the hydrogen production.
The importance of this work derives from the role that Fuel Cells are expected to play in saving the planet from the "Oil Economy". It is a tenet of faith in the environmental movement that the use of any carbon based energy is bad for the survival of life on Earth. Burning wood is not good, nor is natural gas and oil is by far the worse carbon based energy source of all. The Green Movement is realistic enough to understand they need to propose some sort of energy to maintain society and a large part of their hope is in the ability of hydrogen to become a clean fuel.
The work at Penn State is an advance because their process increases the hydrogen output from organic material, or the preferred term biomass. The historical problem is that bacteria can only ferment carbohydrates, and then only to the point where waste products accumulate enough to stop the process. The breakthrough is the discovery that if you zap the microbes with a current of electricity, they “leap the fermentation barrier” and proceed to digest the former waste products, thus increasing the hydrogen production.
“Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) … enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone.” … “giving the bacteria a small assist with a tiny amount of electricity -- about 0.25 volts or a small fraction of the voltage needed to run a typical 6 volt cell phone -- they can leap over the fermentation barrier and convert a "dead end" fermentation product, acetic acid, into carbon dioxide and hydrogen.”
Wait, stop, halt! To get more hydrogen to use as fuel for the environmentally clean energy hydrogen machine, one of the by products of the increased production becomes carbon dioxide? Maybe this process isn’t the Holy Grail for the leftists. Besides, if you look at their private sector partner, Ion Power, Inc., it turns out they exist as a tool of an oppressive, polluting global corporation.
“Ion Power Inc was founded in 1999 by Stephen Grot Ph.D to promote the use of NAFION®. As experts in NAFION ®, Ion Power will develop, manufacture, and distribute value-added products containing DuPont™ NAFION ® PFSA materials.”
