University of Delaware scientists say chicken feathers might provide what's needed to help make hydrogen a mainstream transportation fuel.

That's right. Chicken feathers.

Chicken-feather fibers are made of keratin, a natural protein that forms strong, hollow tubes and can store more hydrogen cheaply than other materials being studied for their hydrogen-storage potential, doctoral candidate Erman Senöz told a Washington-area chemistry conference yesterday.

"The problem with hydrogen as a gas or liquid is its density is too low," said Richard Wool, a Delaware chemical engineering professor. "Using currently available technology, if you had a 20-gallon tank and filled it with hydrogen at typical room temperature and pressure, you could drive about a mile."

Scientists have long promoted hydrogen, which comprises roughly three-fourths of the universe, as a clean alternative to fossil fuels in transportation. But it is difficult to transport and store. As a pressurized gas, it takes up about 40 times as much space as gasoline. And as a liquid, it must be kept at extremely low temperatures.

"When we started, we didn't know how well carbonized chicken feathers would work for hydrogen storage, but we certainly suspected we could do a lot better than that," Wool added.

So far, the researchers have estimated that using feather fibers to store hydrogen would require a 75-gallon tank to carry enough fuel to go 300 miles, the Energy Department's gold standard for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

"For automotive applications, our goal is really to enable a greater-than-300-mile range on all types of vehicles: subcompact cars to SUVs to light-duty pickup trucks," Carole Read of DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Laboratory said.

In addition to having a greater storage potential than other materials, chicken feathers are cheap, Senöz said. They would add about $200 to the price of a car -- a bargain compared to price tags on two other materials being tested for hydrogen storage, carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides. A 20-gallon hydrogen fuel tank using carbon nanotubes could cost $5.5 million, one using metal hydrides could cost up to $30,000.

Moreover, chicken feathers are abundant. Senöz said the U.S. poultry industry produces 6 billion pounds of feathers a year. Currently, they are either recycled as animal feed or incinerated, he said.

"It would be nice to use these fibers for another application," Senöz said.

Wool's research team is also studying ways to recycle chicken feather fibers into hurricane-resistant roofing, lightweight car parts, computer circuit boards and other products.

But using feathers for hydrogen storage is not without drawbacks. The feathers must be heated to strengthen the structure of their fibers and increase their porosity and storage area -- a process that smells very bad.

"It was unpleasant," Senöz said. "We'll have to find a way to avoid that."