Hydrogen Could Be Produced from Sewage and Dough
Hydrogen fuel cells have long been hailed as the next big thing to replace petroleum in cars, but there is one major problem: hydrogen is usually produced from fossil fuels. Fortunately, a multitude of companies are looking at alternative hydrogen sources— including sewage and dough.
- » See also: Nike’s Lorrie Vogel on Closing the Loop. Part 2- The Human Impact
- » Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
A Japanese company called Kajima has been looking into the sewage idea in conjunction with Tokyo University. The company’s research shows that microbes can create hydrogen from human waste and run-off water from rice fields.
Kajima’s prototype fuel cell can generate 130W from a cubic meter of waste. While this isn’t efficient enough to take to market quite yet, the company expects a commercial product by 2020.
Sapporo Breweries, on the other hand, has a product much closer to commercial launch. The popular beer maker has been working on a plan to decompose waste dough at factory bakeries for hydrogen production since 2005. As of right now, the company is able to produce 25,000 liters of hydrogen from 125kg of waste food— a big enough number that Sapporo’s technology will be on the market for food-processing plants starting next year.
Who knows— if this technology takes off, maybe the often-ridiculed hydrogen economy will become a reality.
Photo Credit: Digital World Tokyo
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could use the stuff in our landfills to make fuel and/or energy? Perhaps someday…
Once again the solution to our problems is solved by a beer company
On a serious note, what’s the advantage of producing hydrogen rather than biogas from sewage?
Well, if your are one of the 5 people who purchased the Honda FCX Clarity, you can power your vehicle.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/01/05/toyota-honda-hybrid-sales-drop-in-2008-5-fcx-clarity-models-so/
Fuel Cells like pure hydrogen, rather than methane. The main drawback with Hydrogen is that it’s extremely energy wasteful. Just converting solar power to Hydrogen yields about 10% efficiency (say 20% solar to electricity, and 50% to Hydrogen from electricity by hydrolysis). If there’s a free way to generate Hydrogen, it would go a long way to making it a viable energy transport.