Project, sweet, and hydrogen. Let’s talk about hydrogen first.
How can hydrogen be obtained chemically?
- Heat fossil fuel : Environmentally unsound
- Split water: Environmentally very sound but expensive
- Hydrogen from sugar (xylose to be precise, aka wood sugar)
The third one is the highlight of this article. Sweet hydrogen. In this project, hydrogen is obtained from abundant natural sugar in the form of every kind of agricultural waste, from cornstalk to wood chips.
To achieve this, the scientists sprinkled into the project some ingenuity of biotechnology. Ta-da! Delicious hydrogen ready at 50C.
Read more: Sweet hydrogen: how sugar could help satisfy the world’s energy needs