There was some news today about ethanol in Minnesota. Some researchers at the U got a paper published in the journal Science that talks about a new reactor they made that takes in ethanol and outputs hydrogen (which is in turn used to power a fuel cell). I've read about fuel cells before, and I'd actually heard that some fuel cells have been made to process gasoline and ethanol directly, so I'm kind of curious why there's all this work going into an intermediate procedure rather than getting everything done in one shot. Still, I guess it might be more efficient overall—hybrid vehicles like diesel-electric trains and the Toyota Prius are more efficient even though they are pretty complex systems.
Also, I heard a blurb on the radio about a new ethanol plant going up somewhere in the state. I guess they're all over, so that's not really new. Still, the news got me motivated to write a letter to Governor Pawlenty. I just requested that he look into whether corn is actually the best source of ethanol around here or not. I've mentioned before that the energy economics of it seem pretty awful in some studies—luckily, more energy gets out than goes in, but in some cases it's just a hair's width… I just asked him to look into sugar beets and other things, which seem like they might be better sources of energy (though it's hard to say for certain).
Once I get back, I'll have to send notes off to people about supporting instant runoff voting (see my previous entry). I listened to a discussion on MPR today where it seemed everyone supported it except for the Secretary of State of Minnesota… Kind of odd.
Posted by mike at February 13, 2004 10:17 AM | Politics | TrackBack