Richard Lugar Renewable Energy Center
Earlier this month the Indiana Business Journal published a story about the Richard G. Lugar Renewable Energy Center, a lab at IUPUI in Indianapolis. At this center advanced research on hydrogen production is occurring so that future fuel cell vehicles can run on completely renewable hydrogen.
Currently hydrogen is most often derived from natural gas, a far cleaner source of automobile fuel than gasoline, but still not renewable or greenhouse gas free. At the Lugar Center researchers are finding ways to derive hydrogen from cellulosic ethanol. As the article notes “Ethanol made from cellulosic materials such as corn stalks and switchgrass is expected to be more energy-efficient than corn-based ethanol. It also doesn’t require a food source.”
However, hydrogen fuel is not the full extent of the research, as the Lugar Center is also focused on:
“non- precious-metal catalysts and more efficient membranes for fuel cell usage… production of cellulosic ethanol by using genetically engineered yeast to ferment glucose into ethanol [and] developing a lithium battery large enough to replace the costlier nickel batteries now used to power hybrid electric cars.”
Named after Senator Richard Lugar to “honor the U.S. senator’s work to put Indiana at the forefront of alternative-fuel exploration,” it appears the center is doing great work carrying out the senator’s vision. It will be interesting to see the advances that come out of this lab’s work.
