Could coconuts be the key to cleaner CARS? Fruit could store hydrogen to power next-generation vehicles
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Coconuts could play a key role in making non-polluting cars that only emit water, a reality.
For years, scientists have been working out how to develop fuel cell cars powered by pure hydrogen, but are unsure how to store the substance effectively.
Now, they may be close to solving this problem using the unlikely candidate.
Researchers from India's Benaras Hindu University have used coconut kernels (pictured) to store hydrogen. They say the material is plentiful, cheap and easily be converted into carbon
Researchers from India's Benaras Hindu University used coconut kernels to store hydrogen in gas form,Quartz India reported.
Storing liquid hydrogen is notoriously difficult as it must be held at extremely low temperatures, which is expensive and tricky in the confines of a car.
To store it in its gaseous state, would mean that vehicles would have to be fitted with large, pressurised tanks, which is not practical.
So instead, experts have focused on finding materials, such as carbon, which can absorb hydrogen and release it on demand.
Scientists have been working on developing hydrogen-powered cars for two decades. They only emit water and heat, instead of pollutants. Nissan-Renault, Daimler and Ford have joined forces with the ambitious aim of bringing an affordable car to market in four years' time and Hyundai's Tucson (pictured) is being trialled
Professor Viney Dixit and his team, at the university's Hydrogen Energy Centre created carbon from coconut kernels, which contain fatty and organic acids as well as potassium, magnesium and sodium.
He says that the kernels, which are easily found, are cheap and can easily be converted into carbon.
'Unlike graphene, Carbon nano tubes (CNTs) and other type of carbons, the production of carbon from solid endosperm is not time taking, he wrote in a research paper.
'Therefore, its cost-effectiveness, good adsorption capacity and easy availability are its advantageous factors in regard to hydrogen storage.'
The researchers found that the carbon produced from the kernels could store a 'considerable' amount of hydrogen.
The US Department of Energy predicts that hydrogen storage systems will need a capacity of at least 5.5 weight per cent to be commercially viable and it could be a while until this is demonstrated on a large scale.
Scientists have been working on developing hydrogen-powered cars for two decades.
Toyota is developing a $69,000 (£43,350) car using the technology, called the Mirai and Nissan-Renault, Daimler and Ford have joined forces with the ambitious aim of bringing an affordable car to market in four years' time.
...AND A ZERO-EMISSION FUSION REACTOR PROMISES CHEAP ENERGY
This week, engineers have designed a concept for a fusion reactor which, when scaled up to the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new coal-fired plant with similar electrical output.
Until now no-one has come up with a fusion power plant design – dubbed the 'holy grail' of energy generation by many - that would produce fuel cheap enough to outperform systems that use fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
'Right now, this design has the greatest potential of producing economical fusion power of any current concept,' said Thomas Jarboe, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the University of Washington.
Engineers have designed a concept for a fusion reactor (pictured) that, when scaled up to the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new coal-fired plant with similar electrical output
The design builds on existing technology and creates a magnetic field within a closed space to hold plasma in place long enough for fusion to occur - allowing the hot plasma to react and burn.
The reactor itself would be largely self-sustaining, meaning it would continuously heat the plasma to maintain thermonuclear conditions.
Heat generated from the reactor would heat up a coolant that is used to spin a turbine and generate electricity, similar to how a typical power reactor works.
Mr Sutherland said: 'This is a much more elegant solution because the medium in which you generate fusion is the medium in which you're also driving all the current required to confine it.'
There are several ways to create a magnetic field, which is crucial for keeping a fusion reactor going.
The new design is known as a spheromak, meaning it generates the majority of magnetic fields by driving electrical currents into the plasma itself.
This reduces the amount of required materials and allows researchers to shrink the overall size of the reactor.
The researchers estimated the cost of building a fusion reactor power plant using their design compared to building a coal power plant.
They explained that building a fusion power plant producing 1 gigawatt (1 billion watts) of power would cost $2.7 billion (£1.7 billion), while a coal plant of the same output would cost $2.8 billion (£1.8 billion), according to their analysis.
Mr Sutherland said: 'If we do invest in this type of fusion, we could be rewarded because the commercial reactor unit already looks economical. It's very exciting.'
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