A Feather (not a Tiger) in your Tank?

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One day France may be not the only place where you see people driving around with chickens in the back of their vehicles.

Scientists in Delaware, USA, have discovered a remarkable, unexpected and inexpensive way to store hydrogen fuel– using carbonized chicken feather fibres.

The question of storing hydrogen as fuel has traditionally been a enigmatic and expensive dilema. For example, a car with a 75 litre hydrogen storage tank made from carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides– currently two of the best ideas – would add $5.5 million or $30k respectively to the cost of that vehicle.

A storage tank made from carbonized chicken feathers, however, would only increase the cost by a mere $200. The green bio-material would also help to resolve the problem on how to dispose the 2.7 billion kilograms of chicken feathers generated each year by commercial poultry production.

One of the major reasons hydrogen-powered vehicles aren’t commonplace on our roads is the immensely irksome problem of how to store enough of the fuel onboard to give those vehicles a cruising range that approaches that of petrol or diesel fuel. Up to now storing sufficient quantities requires placing hydrogen under high pressure, which can add considerable weight to the vehicle and increase the potential for a dangerous explosion.

Those problems have led scientists to look toward structures like carbon nanotubes for an answer, since they can squeeze large quantities of hydrogen at normal pressure within a relatively small space. The problem is that manufacturing carbon nanotubes is very expensive and ultimately impractical.

Scientists at the University of Delware, whilst researching the potential of keratin derived from chicken feathers to improve the performance of microcircuits, surprisingly discovered that by heating the keratin fibres they could strengthen its structure significantly, comparable to the strength of nanotubes. That is to say, the hydrogen storage capacity of the strengthened keratin is almost equivalent to that of carbon nanotubes, but using nothing more than chicken feathers as the basic material.

In addition to hydrogen storage, the new process could turn chicken feather fibres into a number of other eco-products, like storm resistant roofing, lightweight car parts, as well as the bio-based computer circuit boards.

Furthermore, this technology would be recycling at its best. Previously, there has been no significant industrial use for all the feathers left over from chickens in the poultry industry.