2009 28
Zero CO2: The world’s first hydrogen-powered boat
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Micro with No Comments
Jordi from Fon alerted me to this project. As a sailor with an equal passion for alternative energies I loved it.
The Zero CO2 project‘s objective is to sail around the Mediterranean using clean energy. The yacht is powered by an electric motor driven by a hydrogen fuel cell. It also uses renewable energies (solar, wind and hydro) for on-board power.
The boat is equipped with a fully integrated laboratory and will capture important scientific data on man-made pollution throughout the 10 month expedition. It will travel around the Mediterranean coast as far as Turkey on a journey that will commence in March, 2010.
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George on June 29, 2009 ·
I love when people are concerned about the environment… and actually DO something about it. Even in this case when they use a sailboat which does not uses much fuel anyway…. maybe they should have done it with a motor yacht but as said, at least they are doing something. It is a brilliant idea indeed to use electric engines in saiboats since they can be recharged very easily during wind sailing and uses rather little energy to move the boat since it would mainly be for mooring. Buenos vientos!
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GILLES Amsallem on June 28, 2009 ·
The future hydrogen economy offers a compelling energy vision but with Solar , wind or nuclear hydrogen there are four main obstacles: hydrogen production, storage, and distribution, as well as fuel cells.Current techniques suffer from low hydrogen yields and severe reaction conditions.
Virginia Tech and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a new technology that can produce high yields of hydrogen from carbohydrates (sugar) from biomass and water via a synthetic enzymatic pathway at 30oC and atmospheric pressure. The global patent disclosure was filed and licensed to my company Biomethodes. we currently work to optimize the speed of the reaction for transport applications ( airjet , car truck ), it should be a very good idea to apply for boat
About the invention: The invention is based on a synthetic enzymatic pathway consisting of 13 enzymes for producing hydrogen from starch and water. The stoichiometric reaction is C6H10O5 (l) + 7 H2O (l) –> 12 H2 (g) + 6 CO2 (g). The overall process is spontaneous and unidirectional. Enzymatic hydrogen production from starch and water mediated by 13 enzymes occurred at 30o C. as expected, and the hydrogen yields were much higher than the theoretical limit (4 H2/glucose) of anaerobic fermentations. The unique features, such as mild reaction conditions (30o C. and atmospheric pressure), high hydrogen yields, likely low production costs ($~2/kg H2), and a high energy-density carrier starch (14.8 H2-based mass %), provide great potential for mobile applications. With technology improvements and integration with fuel cells, this technology also solves the challenges associated with hydrogen storage, distribution, and infrastructure in the hydrogen economy.