It’s not quite as simple as plugging your laptop into a can of soda, but a team of BYU researchers is hoping to give the world a sweeter, cheaper source of power through the abundant glucose molecule.
“We’re always searching for better sources of electrical power,” said Dean Wheeler, a chemical engineering professor in BYU’s Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. “We’ve been saying for 20 years that fuel cells were just around the corner. But it’s a very tough challenge to get the cost down.”
Normal hydrogen fuel cells — like little batteries with gas tanks — require costly platinum in order to convert the hydrogen into electrical energy.
So, Wheeler and recently retired chemistry professor Gerald Watt began experimenting with two cheaper, easier-to-obtain sources: glucose and a common herbicide.
The professors and their student team tapped into the energy produced in plants by the sun during photosynthesis by reacting the glucose with common weed killer as the catalyst.
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