That includes the microplasmatron, a joint project of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. But gas prices are at some of their lowest levels, so there is no driver for people to use hydrogen. The microplasmatron technology should work with both, reducing smog-producing emissions from conventional engines in the near term. As car manufacturers move away from fossil fuel, the microplasmatron could convert substances usually used as food, such as corn or canola oil, into a practical fuel. The device would convert the oil into hydrogen for fuel cell systems.
Fuel cells use hydrogen to make electrical energy.
Of course, cars could just carry tanks of pressurized hydrogen, but they'd be about four times larger than typical gasoline tanks. That makes producing the hydrogen quickly on board the car an attractive option. Virden and Jeffrey Surma, a former lab scientist who's now with the spin-off company Integrated Environmental Technologies of Richland, have worked using the technology with traditional gasoline engines. Engineers have known for years that adding hydrogen to the fuel mix can make an automobile engine run much cleaner. The problem has been figuring out a way to create the hydrogen on board as it is needed.