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Can Chicken Feathers Fuel Hydrogen Cars in the Future?

inhabitat.com — Chickens may start losing sleep over more than Americans’ love of McNuggets. Chicken consumption in the US creates over six billion pounds of feathers each year. Previously discarded as waste, researchers at the University of Delaware are developing an innovative way to put all that wasted plumage to use — as fuel to power hydrogen fuel cell cars.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 30, 2009

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37 Comments

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  • Gumphlumph, on 06/30/2009, -1/+10This article is a) covering an article that was just posted the other day, and b) full of *****.

    These guys are talking out of their asses and can't even get a simple story like this right. The feathers don't "produce" fuel - they provide a means to "store" it.

    0 out of 10 for accuracy.
  • wheelfoot, on 06/30/2009, -0/+4Terribly misleading title. The feathers are used as a storage medium for the hydrogen. When carbonized, they have fractal properties that allow the hydrogen to be pushed into them at relatively low pressure.
  • StigNordas, on 06/29/2009, -0/+4I wonder how many cubic inches 1 pound of chicken feathers make (x 6,000,000,000)
  • superkendall, on 06/30/2009, -1/+4You do realize that many tons of feathers are disposed of every day from chicken processing plants, right? At that until now, there was absolutely zero use for them all and they just went into a landfill?

    Actually I guess you didn't.
  • bombula, on 06/30/2009, -0/+3Doesn't matter how you store hydrogen. It's using it that's the problem. Sure, it burns nicely if you combust it and it works OK with fuel cells, but it's phenomenally corrosive and since it's pure protons it can leak through most materials like water through a sponge. Even ultra-high-tech pipes and valves coated with platinum and rubidium and stuff like that leak and corrode. Anyone think it's feasible to replace the fuel system in 500 million cars and hundreds of thousands of fuelling stations with things that have to be coated in the world's most expensive metals just so they can work for a few months before wearing out? Any guesses how carbon-intensive mining and electroplating with platinum-group metals is?

    And this leaves out the whole issue that you have to _make_ hydrogen using another energy source. It's therefore just another kind of battery, and a crappy, inconvenient, inefficient and stupidly expensive one whose supporting machinery wears out in weeks or months instead of years.

    Hydrogen is DOA, pure and simple. As a scientist I normally don't like to point fingers at my colleagues, but everyone who's doing hydrogen fuel research knows it'll never be economically viable - they really are just doing it for the grant money and experience.
  • askantik, on 06/30/2009, -1/+3It is somewhat counter-productive to use the products of factory farms to power "environmentally-friendly" transportation...
  • kdalnation, on 06/30/2009, -1/+3Interesting and resourceful use of waste. I'm curious as to whether other meat byproducts and waste could kick in to tip the scales in favor of a tech like this. Also, I wonder if this type of fuel is interchangeable with others. Multiple fuel options would be nice. Exclusivity doesn't drive mass adoption.
  • pegothejerk, on 06/30/2009, -0/+2It's "en masse", and perhaps you should consider more masturbation, as I would hate to dirty up our gene pool with genes that, when expressed, fail to develop into a human capable of understanding the steps required for scientific progress.
  • JinnRikki, on 06/30/2009, -0/+2Thank you, I was about to say the same thing. Big difference between "used for storage" and "used as fuel".
    Bury this stupidity.
  • rwbrinso, on 06/29/2009, -2/+4Does this mean we can use the word "*****" without fear of being scorned for profanity?
  • snagglefoof, on 06/30/2009, -0/+2Quite a misleading title, but still pretty interesting.
  • sk2134, on 06/30/2009, -0/+2NO! THE ANSWER IS NO!
  • jmkiii, on 06/30/2009, -0/+2Why? It's not a product , but a byproduct.
  • ARTLUKM, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Thank goodness someone on here actually knows what the hell they are talking about.
  • raza7370, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Chickens may start losing sleep over more.
    it is ameans to "store" it. .............................
  • sockpuppets, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1I think a chicken killed his family.
  • MacParrot, on 06/30/2009, -1/+2eet mor chikn
  • jmkiii, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1Bury
  • mr138, on 06/30/2009, -1/+2No.
    No they cannot.
  • jeffwmartin, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1Will PETA people start throwing paint on hydrogen cars?
  • cygnus2112, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1What a little pecker. Can he take his comments bock?
  • askantik, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Even more beneficial to the factory farms-- they now get to make money off of something that they were previously throwing away.
  • hasslinthehoff, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1The Colonel is a friggin' genius.
  • pinchduck, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1So recycling is bad if you don't agree with the original use or intent of the product? How silly. I don't particularly like the vapid local newspapers, but I fully support the recycling of their pages.
  • morepowerr, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Dear god lets just make hemp legal to grow and make in to stuff already. I mean They have ***** us so bad already. Where the hell doe's it end?
  • sgvprelude, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Exhausts fumes will smell like KFC
  • rizzo2008, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1This isn't a particularly new concept

    Anything into oil
    http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=18 ...
  • zip000, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1I've grown to enjoy the moments when I come across one of GaltShrugged comments as just the tiny little blips of inconsequential, unthoughtful rage that they are.

    The fact that he's an Ayn Rand tool only makes the enjoyment that much sweeter.
  • analogkid01, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Sticking feathers in your gas tank does not make you a chicken!
  • borez, on 06/30/2009, -1/+1They tried this with goose feathers, but the cars kept breaking down.
  • Remmiz, on 06/30/2009, -1/+1Everyone knows McNuggets aren't made from real chicken.
  • diggwut, on 06/30/2009, -1/+1Bunch of hooey. Chicken feathers isn't waste that gets discared. It's been used to make pet food and other products for years.
  • digjam, on 06/30/2009, -1/+1first we eat their eggs, then we eat them.. then we use their feathers to run our cars......NOOOOOOOO
    LEAVE THE CHICKENS ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • lews001, on 06/30/2009, -1/+0Sounds like we are going to need our MR. Fusions to get up to the required 1.21 gigawatts.
  • repaul20, on 06/30/2009, -3/+1I could have never imagined this even being a possibility.
  • darkslayer13, on 06/30/2009, -3/+0You know what else we have a lot of that can fuel hydrogen cars?......Hydrogen
  • GaltShrugged, on 06/29/2009, -10/+3There's not enough chicken feathers, so who the ***** cares. Waste of *****' money researching researching this. At least research something that we could actually use in mass.

    Nothing more than intellectual masturbation.

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