Using eggshells is a new discovery that could take the idea of hydrogen powered vehicles to a new level. And if developed and used, it could spare landfills of this material in the process.
Statistics
The United States went through almost 91 million eggs last year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. And that amounts to about 455,000 tons of eggshells.
It costs about $40 per ton for companies to dump the waste into landfills. An amazing decrease in landfill trash could be observed if scientists can fine tune this better way of using eggshells.
Who Came Up With This?
L.S. Fan, an Ohio State University Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and former Ohio State doctoral student, Mahesh Iyer, worked out this theory, along with several colleagues. While trying to find a better way to develop hydrogen production by taking carbon dioxide out of the hydrogen mix to create pure hydrogen, they fell upon this idea.
L.S. Fan explained, “The key to making pure hydrogen is separating out the carbon dioxide. In order to do it very economically, we needed a new way of thinking, a new process scheme.”
Why Eggshells?
Eggshells are mainly made out of calcium carbonate. And calcium carbonate is actually very absorbent. So why does this make eggshells important? Because it turns out that with eggshells, 78% of the carbon dioxide can be absorbed from the hydrogen mix, making it the best and most effective tool that has been tested for this purpose.
Since hydrogen is believed to become a very important resource in the future, such as producing fuel cells to run cars, the experiments to eliminate its harmful byproducts is definitely one of the first important steps in bringing this technology to consumers.
Other Uses
Before using the eggshells, they have found a way to remove the membrane from the inside of the shell by using an organic acid. This membrane contains 10% collagen, which is used in medical procedures, medications, cosmetic surgeries, and also helps burn victims regenerate skin. With all these amazing uses, no wonder collagen holds a price tag of $1000 per gram. It is surprising that anyone would let another eggshell get away from them again after hearing that!
More Than One Reason
As L.S. Fan puts it, “ Eggshell alone may not be adequate to produce hydrogen for the whole country, but at least we can use eggshell in a better way compared to dumping it as organic waste in landfills.”
It looks like Ohio State has more than one positive reason for this finding.
