Archive for the ‘Biofuels’ Category

New Record Set for Storing Hydrogen in Material for Fuel Cells

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

adam phillips uva

Though we’re likely still a long ways off that vaunted hydrogen economy, it’s been encouraging to witness the string of breakthroughs in storage and production technology that have taken place over the last few months. Now a team of scientists from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, have created a new class of hydrogen storage materials that could make the development of high-performance fuel cells a possibility in the near future.

Physicists Adam Phillips and Bellave Shivaram took up a proposal originally made by Taner Yildirim of the National Institute of Standards and Technology - who had calculated that a material made out titanium and…

1934: Henry Ford on Biofuels and Bioplastics

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

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Henry Ford tells Modern Mechanix about his vision of a future made of biofuels and bioplastics, in 1934:

“I foresee the time when industry shall no longer denude the forests which require generations to mature, nor use up the mines which were ages in the making, but shall draw its raw material largely from the annual products of the fields,” he declared.

“I am convinced that we shall be able to get out of the yearly crops most of the basic materials which we now get from forest and mine. We shall grow annually many if not most of the substances needed in manufacturing.

“When that day comes, and it is surely on the way, the farmer will not lack a market and the …