Chemical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new platinum-based process that produces hydrogen fuel from plants.

Writing in the journal Nature (418, 964-967 (29 Aug 2002)), research scientist Randy Cortright, graduate student Rupali Davda and professor James Dumesic describe a process by which glucose is converted to hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and gaseous alkanes with hydrogen constituting 50 per cent of the products.

'The process should be greenhouse-gas neutral,' explained Mr Cortright. 'Carbon dioxide is produced as a by-product, but the plant biomass grown for hydrogen production will fix and store the carbon dioxide released the previous year.'

The Wisconsin process occurs in a liquid phase at low reaction temperatures, which experts say removes the need to vaporise water, representing major energy savings compared to other methods for producing hydrogen.

In addition, the low reaction temperatures result in very low carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations, making it possible to generate fuel-cell-grade hydrogen in a 'single-step process'.

However, the team says that for the process to be even more cost-effective they would have to find an alternative to the platinum-based catalyst that currently drives the reaction.