Fuel From Water?

A new project, which has recieved $22 million in funding from congress, is trying to develop a process to create hydrogen fuels, methane, and possibly gasoline using a process similar to photosynthesis. Although its future funding is not certain, any results it develops will be very important in the future. It could result in more economically-friendly fuels that don't depend on oil reserves, cutting down on both pollution and foreign oil dependance. We can already make hydrogen fuel using solar power, but the process is inefficient, and takes a lot of solar panels to make very little fuel. Instead of researching better solar panels, the goal of the project is to develop catalysts that will reduce the energy cost of creating hydrogen fuel. If they can find one, we already have the rest of the process to make hydrogen fuel, and a hydrogen economy may not be far away.

It would be great if something came out of the project, but it seems like a long shot to me, especially since it's only now starting out. Its funding in the future is uncertain, especially since congress is considering cutting national science budgets across the board. A startup project like this is likely to be abandoned in favor of long-term projects that have already produced valuable research. Even if the group manages to stay afloat, there is no guarantee thay it will produce anything. Given the rising oil costs and dropping reserves, however, congress may decide to fund the project after all. The decision to initially fund it was only made on september, so the project hasn't had time to produce any results yet. Still, I'll definitely be hoping that it will find a better source of fuel for us.