I suppose I might be pushing it, but it's just too much fun.
Urine requires 1/3 the power input to produce hydrogen (because of the chemical makeup of urea) than water. And it's human-produced!
Urea (the betterthanwater™ electrolyte) could be grand. What about feedlot output? Isn't that a urea goldmine?
New Technology Produces Hydrogen from Urine
From EnergyBoom.com, via Huffington Post:
Until now, producing, storing and transporting hydrogen has been a costly process. Urea, a major component of urine, contains four hydrogen atoms per molecule, which are bonded to two atoms of nitrogen. The new technology uses electrolysis to break down the molecule using 0.37 volts which is applied across the cell. In comparison, extracting hydrogen from water uses large amounts of electricity; specifically, 1.23V is needed to split H20 molecules. Botte's method uses less energy than it takes to extract hydrogen from water. Simply put: by placing the inexpensive electrode into urine and applying current, hydrogen is released. Tests were performed using both synthetic urine, made from dissolved urea, and human urine. The device is also small enough to be used in vehicles. Botte estimates a fuel cell urine-powered vehicle could potentially travel up to 90 miles per gallon. The current prototype, which measures about 3 x 3 x 1 inches, can produce up to 500 milliwatts of power. The team is working on creating larger scale versions of the electrolyzer. The report was published in the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Communications.
Punchlines at http://apocadocs.com/...
Honestly -- wouldn't it be great to have your car capture your household's pee, and electrolyse it into hydrogen that you use in your daily commute? What a watershed moment!
Naturally, there is some squeamishness out there: "Urinsane" texted one absurdist. "U Rea lly think that makes sense?" texted another wag.
But what a marvel, if something so simple can be three times more energy efficient than before?
U rea lize that all options need to be open.
Ok, just so I can hold my head up: truly, all options need to be open. The status quo is no longer tenable. Carbon-free energy is a must, because we will discover, in 2012, that we have to go carbon negative, and fast, because of ocean acidification and climate chaos.