Word: oxygenates
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...even more advanced technology, the fuel cell, is being pioneered by a small Canadian company called Ballard Power Systems. The fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity cleanly and quietly; the only waste it produces is water. Small, mass-produced and without moving parts, the devices are a spin-off of the U.S. space program, which uses them to meet the electricity needs of the shuttle fleet. Fuel cells could one day sit in millions of basements producing power and hot water without fossil fuels...
...series of recent high-visibility incidents of E. coli poisoning has heightened public concerns about contaminated beef--and inspired food producers to experiment with such alternative sterilization techniques as steam pasteurization of beef carcasses and exposure of food to ozone, a highly reactive form of oxygen. Yet while these methods are cheaper and do not require the handling of radioactive material or disposal of nuclear wastes, they fail a critical test. Aside from cooking, only irradiation is penetrating enough, say the experts, to come close to meeting new federal guidelines mandating "zero tolerance" for microbial contamination of ground beef, which...
...practice, the equation isn't so spotless. Though oxygen is plentiful in the air, pure hydrogen is much harder to come by and must be obtained artificially...
...pollution levels of fuel cells, while seemingly their raison d'etre, is also their most damning flaw. A fuel cell is a highly efficient reactor, but is notoriously picky about what it consumes--only pure hydrogen and oxygen...
...Oxygen is readily available in the atmosphere. But hydrogen only exists in trace amounts in the air, and must be produced artificially--usually from fossil fuels, and perhaps in the future from rotting biomass and solar panels...