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I’m Jim Parks and this is Today’s Green Minute. The great state of Missouri is doing
its part to move automobile fuel technology forward…with corncobs! Missouri, which is
known for all the corn it produces, presents…from the University of Missouri (and nine other
institutes) the all-natural “Missouri Hockey Puck.
Here’s how it works: methane is the main ingredient in natural gas…and burning natural
gas as fuel for your car is more desirable than petroleum for several reasons, but there’s
a problem: the tanks necessary to hold natural gas are big and bulky.
But the hockey puck, being made from waste corncobs, is a solution to the problem…because
in its nanopores you can store large amounts of natural gas at low pressure. The result
is smaller fuel tanks.
Now, if you recover methane that’s escaped from landfills, and place it into hockey pucks
nanopores, then the Missouri Hockey Puck can deliver an eco-friendly triple play:
One cars burn cleaner… Two old corncobs are used productively…
and three methane (that would otherwise be out there polluting the atmosphere) is burned
instead of petroleum.
Nice play.