Cars could one day run on flower power, according to a team that has found a way to extract hydrogen from sunflower oil.
Leeds University researchers say the advance could lead to cleaner and more efficient hydrogen production to power cars, homes, factories and offices.
The research was described yesterday at the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
Fuel cells show much promise for supplying the energy needs of the future. But one drawback is that the hydrogen required to run them usually comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which generate pollutants.
"Producing hydrogen from sunflower oil could provide a more environment-friendly alternative by reducing these pollutants while offering an abundant, low-cost and renewable resource that reduces dependence on foreign oil," said the lead researcher Dr Valerie Dupont.
Her team has developed an experimental hydrogen generator that uses only sunflower oil, air and water vapour along with two catalysts - one nickel-based, the other carbon-based - that are alternatively used to store and then release oxygen or carbon dioxide while producing hydrogen intermittently.
Source: Telegraph 26/08/2004