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By John O'Dell, Senior Editor


It's pretty clear by now that one of the main obstacles to commercializing fuel-cell electric vehicles is the lack of a hydrogen fueling infrastructure.


A little more range from a tank of the hydrogen gas that fuel cells require to produce electricity also would be nice.


How to store the gas, which has an extremely low density, is one of the stumbling blocks, but researchers at the University of Delaware think they're on the way to developing a solution.


The secret is chicken feathers.  Carbonized chicken feathers to be exact.


Seems the fluffy stuff is made of keratin, a protein that forms microscopic tubes riddled with pores when heated just right - tubes that are the optimum size for storing hydrogen gas.


A 20 gallon tank filled with hydrogen gas pumped in at the ambient temperature and pressure would hold enough of the stuff to propel a car about one mile, said Richard Wool, a chemical engineering professor at the university.


It's that low-density problem: at room temperature the volume of hydrogen containing the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline is 40 times that of the gas.


Most fuel-cell electric cars being tested today are getting the equivalent of 50 to 80 miles a gallon (a kilogram of hydrogen gas has the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline) but carry their fuel in pressured tanks to avoid having to tow around box-car sized external tanks of unpressurized fuel.
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Tags: Fuel Cell, Hydrogen, Fuel Cell Electric Cars, Hydrogen Fuel, Hydrogen Storage

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Researchers' Hydrogen Storage Solution Is No Feather-Brained Idea was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.