Hydrogen + corncobs (with a splash of boron) = fuel of the future?

MU, MRI researchers receive $1.9M grant to create new storage device

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The next alternative fuel in a vehicle's tank might be nothing more than gas with a little help from corn. However, instead of the usual petroleum-based fuel, this gas will be hydrogen, and the corn will be in the form of corncob-charcoaled briquettes. To further develop this alternative fuel concept, researchers at the University of Missouri and Midwest Research Institute (MRI) were recently awarded a three-year, $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue studying a solution to hydrogen storage in vehicles.

"Developmental hydrogen vehicles exist today but current designs require large, bulky tanks of compressed hydrogen gas to hold the fuel," said Peter Pfeifer, professor and chair of the Department of Physics in the MU College of Arts and Science. "The tanks also have a relatively small range, only holding enough fuel to travel up to 200 miles. We will be working on reducing the size and weight of the tank and increasing the storage capacity by developing storage materials that hold hydrogen at a much lower pressure than the current high-pressure tanks. The new tanks will store hydrogen on the surface of appropriately engineered carbons."

Pfeifer will work with M. Frederick Hawthorne, professor of radiology, chemistry and physics and director of the MU International Institute for Nano and Molecular Medicine; Carlos Wexler, associate professor of physics; Galen Suppes, professor of chemical engineering; and researchers at MRI in Kansas City to develop the hydrogen storage material. The research is a continuation of previous studies during which Pfeifer and his colleagues found that corncobs, when reduced to carbon briquettes and "doped" with boron, have a unique ability to store natural gas with high capacity at low pressure, a discovery that allows for more flexible and less bulky fuel tank designs.