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UNIVERSITY of Delaware scientists have found a cost-effective way to store large amounts of hydrogen in fibres made from carbonised chicken feathers.

Richard Wool, a professor of chemical engineering, and Erman Senoz, a graduate student in his department have been working on several chicken feather projects, including hurricane-resistant roofing and bio-based computer circuit boards.

Chicken feather fibres are composed of keratin, a protein which forms tubes. When heated, the keratin cross-links, strengthening the structure and increasing the porosity. Wool says that the efficiency is similar to and possibly better than that of carbon nanofibres and metal hydrides. He and Senoz estimate that it would require a 75 gallon (284 L) tank containing carbonised chicken feather fibres to travel 482 kilometres , but improvements to this figure are expected.

There are also significant cost advantages. Wool and Senoz say a chicken feather fibre tank would cost around $200, with a nanotube-filled tank costing aroung $5.5m and a tank using metal hydride around $30,000.

”The problem with hydrogen as a gas or liquid is its density is too low,” Wool says. “Using currently available technology, if you had a 20-gallon tank and filled it with hydrogen at typical room temperature and pressure, you could drive about a mile. When we started we didn't know how well carbonized chicken feathers would work for hydrogen storage, but we certainly suspected we could do a lot better than that.”

The research was presented on 23 June at the Technologies for a hydrogen economy symposium, part of the 13^th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference, held by the American Chemical Society (ACS) at the University of Maryland University College.