A breakthrough by chemists at the University of California-Berkeley could have a profound impact on the growing market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In an article appearing this week in the journal Science, UC Berkeley chemists show how to construct a catalyst composed only of edges and demonstrate that it can catalyze the production of hydrogen from water as readily as the edges and defects in regular catalysts.
“This is a conceptual advance in the way we think about generating hydrogen, a clean burning fuel, from water, a sustainable source,” said Christopher Chang, associate professor of chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at UC Berkeley. “Our new catalyst is just first generation, but the research gives us and the community a path forward to thinking about how to increase the density of functional active sites so that molecules and materials can be more effective catalysts.”
At the moment, creating these catalysts in the lab is not cheaper than using traditional catalysts, but efforts by Chang and others to simplify the process and create materials with billions of active sites on a ridged wafer much like a Ruffles potato chip could allow cheaper, commercially viable fuel cell catalysts.
“The market for ethanol has grown exponentially over the past decade, thus utilizing an abundance of corn to meet the already-present need for a renewable, domestic biofuel,” said Chad Willis, a Minnesota corn grower who serves as chairman of the committee. “Now, we face a myriad of challenges and opportunities as those in the industry continue to innovate while some outside of it continue attempts to deny ethanol’s incredible value to our nation.”
The committee of farmer leaders from around the Corn Belt also had the opportunity to meet the NCGA’s new Director of Biofuel Programs and Business Development Pam Keck, who is a scientist and educator with more than 20 years of experience in the agricultural and biofuels industry, academia and not-for-profit research.
RFA’s Bob Dinneen says the legislation sponsored by Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) injects “parochial politics into the scientifically established process of approving new fuels.”
First, the Repowering Assistance Program provides approximately $25 million in funding to biorefineries that have been in existence on or before June 18, 2008. The purpose of the program is to provide a financial incentive to biorefineries to use renewable biomass in place of fossil fuels used to produce heat or power. By providing this assistance, USDA is helping these facilities install new systems that use renewable biomass.
The South Dakota-based ethanol producer notes that research indicates its new 
