Chemist Matthew Kanan of Stanford
University says he can make ethanol from methane, using electrodes immersed in
water.
But it will be two years until he
can build a prototype to test what he says has worked in the laboratory. His
work is published in the scientific journal Nature.
If it works and isn’t too costly,
it could replace corn and biomass distilleries making ethanol.
The Canadian and U.S. governments
force the gasoline industry to blend at least five per cent ethanol into
gasoline.
The government mandates are built
on the belief that ethanol from corn or biomass contributes less greenhouse
gases to warm the climate.
That belief has been challenged by
some who say growing and marketing corn requires a lot of energy that is
polluting.
Kanan’s discovery could prove to be
far more beneficial in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
