Green Options

The latest installment of Knight Rider was greened up for NBC’s Green is Universal week. The eco-friendly run involves select NBC shows — like the current version of Knight Rider — getting a fresh coat of green paint. Low VOC, of course!

Hydrogen cars may be feasible sooner than previously thought thanks to the efforts of a research team at the University of Crete in Greece. The scientists have developed a hydrogen storage model that can store up to 41 grams of hydrogen per liter— almost matching the US Department of Energy’s target of 45 grams per liter.

This week is turning out to be a good one for the discovery of new catalysts. First we had catalysts to clean up toxic pollutants, and now researchers at Ohio State University say that they have developed a catalyst to make hydrogen from ethanol at 90% efficiency at only 350 C (a low temperature in biofuel industry standards). The low temperature will bring both cost and energy savings.

Ohio State University professor Umit Ozkan says that the catalyst is significantly less expensive than others being developed because it does not contain precious metals. Instead, it contains cerium oxide (a common ingredient in ceramics) and calcium.

Mazda’s newest hydrogen rotary engine will take to public roads in Japan for testing this year.  The company says the vehicle is the world’s first hydrogen hybrid car with a dual-fuel system, enabling the use of either hydrogen or gasoline.

The Japanese government has given Mazda Motor Corporation permission to test the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid minivan on public roads in that country.  The next step will be commercial leasing in Japan during this fiscal year.