Potato Waste Used In New Hydrogen Production Research In P.E.I.
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
This is the sub-heading.
UPEI researchers are looking for new ways to produce hydrogen.
These are the first three paragraphs.
University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) researchers have cooked up new hydrogen production recipes that include waste products like potato peelings, sawdust and tunicate.
An assistant professor in the Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering at UPEI, Yulin Hu is one of a group of researchers seeking novel ways to generate hydrogen to replace fossil fuels and combat the effects of climate change.
One hydrogen production research project is focused on extracting H2 from potato peelings. The potato waste idea is especially notable due to Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) being the Canadian province known for its potatoes.
Note.
Do the Canadians get their King Edwards from Prince Edward Island?
The potato is named after Edward VII according to its Wikipedia entry.
Tunicates are marine invertebrates.
This paragraph summarises some of the research.
The project involving sawdust is looking at utilizing sawdust to capture carbon dioxide. As for the one focused on tunicate, the idea behind that project is to synthesize tunicate waste, taking the waste and converting it into bio fertilizer.
The Canadian government must be impressed as they have given a six-figure grant for the research.
Conclusion
There’s some wacky research out there and some of it might be worth pursuing.
The Anonymous Widower 
There’s an interesting article in the Xmas edition of the Economist about people drilling for hydrogen. We are always told that H doesn’t occur in nature, but some people are convinced there are pockets of the stuff down there just like oil and gas. The Geological Society in London apparently held a conference last summer, and 200 people showed up. Bill Gates has invested in one of these companies, in Denver, and is quoted as saying “It could be gigantic or it could be a bust, but if it’s really there… wow!”
Manufacturing the stuff, using whatever feedstuff, is always going to be costly. But if you can get it out of the ground, then it becomes a commodity like oil or gas, for which there are well-established processes.
The article’s well worth a read.
Comment by Peter Robins | January 4, 2024 |
Peter, a fascinating article. For those of us who are currently too mean to subscribe to the Economist magazine, assuming you have a LinkedIn account you can access the article free via the website
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-economist_meet-the-boffins-and-buccaneers-drilling-activity-7144801457068797952-RiCd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Here you can sign up to read two free Economist articles rather than get caught up in subscribing to the 1 month trial package without using a debit or credit card.
The link to the article is
https://econ.st/48aHETJ
Comment by fammorris | January 4, 2024 |
or you can do it the old-fashioned way: stand in the aisles of WH Smith 🙂
Comment by Peter Robins | January 4, 2024
More on this naturally occurring H at https://theconversation.com/gold-hydrogen-natural-deposits-are-turning-up-all-over-the-world-but-how-useful-is-it-in-our-move-away-from-fossil-fuels-220230 If you don’t know The Conversation, it’s a forum publishing academic/research articles. The author of this article is professor of geophysics at Royal Holloway, to he ought to know what he’s talking about 🙂
Comment by Peter Robins | January 12, 2024
There’s an authoritative article on what it seems is now being called “white hydrogen” in Science from a year ago https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-hydrogen-earth-may-hold-vast-stores-renewable-carbon-free-fuel Since then, another potential resource has been found in Lorraine, which they estimate could be as large as 46 million tons of the stuff. Watch this space, I think!
Comment by Peter Robins | March 8, 2024 |
What about splitting hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide after all there’s plenty of it occurring naturally in sewers, manure pits, well water, oil and gas wells, and volcanoes.
Comment by fammorris | January 4, 2024 |
And use the potato peelings to make poteen the way nature(And the Irish) intended 🥃🤣🤣
Comment by MauriceGReed | January 4, 2024 |