Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Can Urine Rescue Hydrogen-Powered Cars?

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 08, @02:43PM
from the use-every-part-of-the-animal dept.
thecarchik writes with this interesting excerpt:"It takes a lot of energy to split hydrogen out from the other atoms to which it binds, either in natural gas or water. Which means energy analysts are skeptical about the overall energy balance of cars fueled by hydrogen. Ohio University researcher Geraldine Botte has come up with a nickel-based electrode to oxidize (NH2)2CO, otherwise known as urea, the major component of animal urine. Because urea's four hydrogen atoms are less tightly bound to nitrogen than the hydrogen bound to oxygen in water molecules, it takes less energy to break them apart."

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