The Daily Green recently revealed an alternative fuel scheme that may be much better than bird-brained:
Finding novel uses for chicken feathers is a pet project of Professor Richard P. Wool of the chemical engineering department of the University of Delaware. He had a very original idea: Why not use carbonized chicken feathers — which resemble highly versatile (and tiny) carbon nanotubes — to…store hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles. Picture very tiny natural sponges, which have a big weight advantage over metal hydride storage of this useful element. How great is that?
Wood enlisted Turkish-born graduate student Erman Senöz in the project, whose results were announced this morning at a conference in College Park, Maryland. “We started three years ago,” Senöz said. The pyrolysis process — very high heat without combustion in the absence of oxygen — yields fibers “that are micro-porous, very thin and hollow inside like carbon nanotubes. They start forming at 350 degrees Centigrade, and above 500 C they collapse. We’re trying to find the perfect temperature.”