What would you say about using “cooked” chicken feathers to store hydrogen very efficiently?  How about using chicken feathers as carbon fiber reinforcement in things like wind turbine blades?

The answer to both questions is — yes you can!

Science Friday: “Hydrogen Storage in Chicken Feathers?”

Researchers say they’ve come up with a new material for storing hydrogen fuel — carbonized chicken feathers. Speaking this week at at the 13th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in College Park, MD, researchers said that carbonized chicken feathers could absorb as much or perhaps more hydrogen than other materials for hydrogen storage, including carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides, at a much lower cost.

Link to podcast

Here’s another source:  Happy News

While I’m on the subject of Science Friday, the second segment in today’s show was also very interesting; talking about the enormous potential for wind power to far exceed all our needs.

Science Friday: Wind Energy Potential

Link to podcast

Image source: Just chaos

Here’s a new one on me; the Riversimple open source hydrogen fuel cell car.

Not too many details are available yet: it has a 1kg tank of hydrogen and a whopping 6kW (8HP) fuel cell that give it a range of 240 miles, and a top speed of 50mph.  It weighs just 350kg (~771 pounds), owing mostly to the carbon fiber chassis.  They are looking to produce 10 next year, and ~50 the year after that, with leases available in 2012, for £200 ($315) per month, including the hydrogen fuel.  Key to their design is efficient regenerative braking (50% returned energy) using some ultracapacitors.

It looks like they are using hub motors in each wheel, and carbon fiber for the chassis.  It does not appear to be on their web page (yet), but they plan to release their plans so that anybody can build one.  I really like this idea of sharing the design information.  The aerodynamics seem to be worked out pretty well — the range of the car with just 1kg of hydrogen is proof of this!  The one (possible) snag is whether or not the side windows are operable — I guess toll roads can be handled with a wireless unit, though.  There is an intake grill, which may be used for ventilating the car.

I have my concerns with hydrogen — you can either get it from processing natural gas (which is obviously not very “green”) — or you need to use renewable energy (electricity from solar/wind/tidal/wave/biomass, etc.) to make the hydrogen.  There is no infrastructure for hydrogen, and this is a nontrivial hurdle.  But with this Riversimple car, they provide the hydrogen as part of the lease.  So this design concept works if you are located close to where they will have service.

Sources: ABG, Autoblitz, Riversimple

This morning at the New York International Auto show, the Honda FCX Clarity was awarded the prestigious World Car of the Year Award. The award was decided by a panel of jurors from around the world, who picked the Honda FCX Clarity from three finalists.

The three finalists for 2009 were the Toyota iQ, Honda FCX Clarity, and Mitsubishi i MiEV. To win the award the car needs to be all new and have been released for fleet or consumer sales during 2008.

Also weighing in on the decision were three green panelists, one each from North America, Europe, and Japan. The FCX Clarity was selected for its prominence as a pioneer in new technology as well as a leader in bringing that car to market.

For the last couple of years, hydrogen cars have been the talk of the town. Unlike electrics, they’re so far in the future and so new that all the news about them revolves around giant advances in technology and the simple mystifying fact that someone was able to drive one around the block withot a. blowing up or b. running out of gas.

A few years ago, Honda came out with the first EPA-certified hydrogen vehicle, the FCX Clarity, and promised that hydrogen vehicles would be on sale to the public in limited quantities by 2018 (for an unannounced but likely extraordinary price). Since then Honda has begun leasing the vehicles to consumers for testing and GM has rolled out 100 test leases of their own hydrogen SUV.

However, it seems like Toyota is going to try to beat everyone to the punch by being the first to the market with their hydrogen cars. So far, Toyota only has a hydrogen version of their Highlander SUV, a relic of the SUV age to be sure, but hopefully they will be able to put their hydrogen system in a more manageable and less socially stigmatized vehicle before sale in 2015.

Is this a good step for Toyota? Being on the frontlines offering new technology to consumers is definitely something most major car manufacturers want to do, but will Toyota be wrapping up too much of its name in the success of hydrogen by investing so heavily in them? They already have plans for a purely electric vehicle based on the iQ and I can just imagine the efficiency comparisons that will abound between Toyota’s electric and hydrogen options. Now that electric is more viable in consumer opinion, shouldn’t we cut out the middle man (hydrogen)? Your thoughts are welcome in the comments

You hear a lot of hype about hydrogen fuel cell cars from manufacturers like GM and BMW, but the fact of the matter is that the Honda FCX Clarity was the first hydrogen-powered car to become “official,” whatever that means anyway.

For $600 a month, if you live in either Torrance, Santa Monica, or Irvine, California, you will be able to lease Honda’s FCX Clarity. In starting this program this summer, Honda will become the first major manufacturer to lease their hydrogen fuel cell cars. GM is currently just giving its it people to use. Financially, these things all cost millions to build, so for Honda the lease money is really more of a symbolic thing than anything. But I’m sure there will be people knocking down the doors to cough up that money.

The lease will last for three years, meaning that Honda is planning on giving people a decent amount of time with the cars, but after which they’ll probably yank them up in order to pave the way for newer and better hydrogen technology. Let’s just hope that, unlike in the electric vehicle case, there is a better and newer model instead of every manufacturer cancelling their programs.

Also, Honda has said that in the near future they plan on building a hybrid based on the FCX body style, so those of you who liked the look but not the hydrogen or the 20 year wait may still have a shot!

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