Wired News: Ethanol Grows as Gas Alternative

This article --

Wired News: Ethanol Grows as Gas Alternative

-- raises a few questions. It describes a process by which ethanol can be converted to hydrogen; and, separately, the current use of ethanol as a gasoline additive.

The most obvious question: what, if any, relationship exists between the conversion processes described in the article, and this research by Penn State researchers?

Is the hydrogen conversion technology being considered for use in cars, e.g. in fuel-cell vehicles? Or is it only for use in hydrogen "refineries"?

How does the carbon-dioxide by-product of the process affect the total environmental cost of hydrogen as a fuel?

Ethanol is made from grain crops, and the existence of the "corn belt" in which those crops is grown depends on certain climate conditions. Ongoing changes in global climate mean that the corn belt may move or disappear altogether.

It's easy to imagine a world in which we've become dependent on grain crops for both fuel and food (directly and indirectly, through consumption of meat and poultry). And it's slightly amusing to imagine a world in which, due to climate change, the "corn belt" has moved to Canada.

Much less amusing is a world in which that belt has disappeared.

Not to dismiss ethanol/hydrogen for the sake of an unlikely eventuality, but how likely is it that a drastic change in the grain supply will happen?

How likely is it to happen within the next 100 years? After all, you don't need to solve your problems once, for all. You need to solve them just long enough to buy time to find a better solution.

How long is long enough? Gasoline-powered vehicles have solved so many problems of transportation that we now have trouble replacing the extensive infrastructure which has grown up around them.

Ethanol/hydrogen is interesting as a possible fuel source. It's maybe more interesting for the questions it raises about climate and politics.