ANY LIST OF ALTERNATIVE FUELS PROMISING TO have a major impact is bound to include biodiesel and hydrogen.Production of biodiesel certainly is increasing but so too are concerns over what to do with by-product glycerol (see p.7 and www.ChemicalProcessmg.com/arti cles/2007/099.html and www.ChemicalProcessing.com/in dustrynews/2007/020.html).Meanwhile,the potential of hydrogen,either for use in fuel cells or for direct combustion,is blunted to some extent because more than half of the world's supply comes from natural gas.Now,however,researchers in Britain have come up with a way to tackle both issues - using a sorption-enhanced steam reforming process to convert glycerol into hydrogen.It should permit production of a high purity hydrogen stream that doesn't need downstream purification steps,hopes Valerie Dupont,a senior lecturer in the Energy & Resources Research Institute at the University of Leeds,Leeds,U.K.
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