Treehugger TV thinks it's done a nice segment on Who Killed the Electric Car?, and indeed it has: In addition to long swaths of footage from the film itself, there's a short interview with the guy who directed the documentary, Chris Paine. The only problem is that I'm hearing everywhere I turn about the Electric Car movie (and that's a good thing -- I'm just saying, you know), and Treehugger has some less-circulated news today on the same segment . . . really. Amazing.
Ready?
Chocolate-covered caramels + E. Coli = HYDROGEN.
It's true. "British scientists fed Escherichia coli bacteria a diluted mix of waste caramel and nougat," reads the initial news report last month. "The germs tucked into the sugar and in the process produced hydrogen, using their own enzyme, called hydrogenase. The hydrogen was used to power a fuel cell, generating enough electricity to drive a small fan."
So waste chocolate, which generally goes in the trash, could be combined with bacteria and sold as energy.
GM, get busy. When our governor in California starts using candy and poop to run his Hummer, now that's when I'll be impressed.
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Wow! Thats really gross, but interesting. Can't wait to see what happens!
Posted on June 28, 2006 12:06 PM by Chocoholic
Belay that order, GM.
They would be better advised, although in my opinion still not well advised, to get busy on an electric drive/external combustion engine hybrid that could burn anything biological -- chocolate, switchgrass, whatever. There's a lot more energy left before bacteria take their cut; hugely more if the bacterial product is hydrogen.
The hydrogen car timeline: a lot of prototypes and a lot of years for zero (0) sales, including zero to the governor of California.
--- G. R. L. Cowan, former hydrogen fan
Boron: internal combustion without exhaust gas
Posted on June 28, 2006 1:06 PM by G. R. L. Cowan
jack-ass
Posted on June 28, 2006 3:06 PM by gabby
Thanks for the visit and the link, G.R.L. Enlightening as always.
Posted on June 28, 2006 11:06 PM by Judith Lewis
Judith:
The problem in my house would be that there is no waste chocolate. We eat all we buy and then buy some more.
Rod
Posted on July 14, 2006 5:07 PM by Rod Adams
Rod, you've just hit on the big nagging problem of environmentalism: the limits of individual action.
We can't do this ourselves. We need the big chocolate factories to act.
Posted on July 14, 2006 6:07 PM by Judith Lewis