MagneGas Corp., which developed and patented a process called Plasma Arc Flow^™ to gasify liquid waste into a “clean burning fuel,” reports it is able now to separate commercial-grade hydrogen from its MagneGas^™ fuel, using common wastewater as the process feedstock. “This represents a potentially significant milestone on the road to a true hydrogen economy,” according to the announcement.

Furthermore, the Tampa-based company indicates it expects to be a commercial supplier of hydrogen within 2011.

MagneGas commercialized its waste-to-fuel conversion process about two years ago, and recently it has been granting regional licenses to producers/distributors who offer the product as a natural-gas alternative for metalworking or other applications. The developer indicates the alternative fuel can be used for cooking, heating, and powering hybrid cars, among other applications.

Previously, it was understood that MagneGas^™ fuel could be sourced from industrial, municipal, agricultural, and military liquid wastes, with appropriate governmental permits. Now, sourcing hydrogen from the fuel allows the developer to boast it can produce the gas from a “100% renewable source.”

“While itself a clean fuel, hydrogen is primarily produced from fossil fuels in a high-emission process,” explained the company’s CEO and chief scientist, Dr. Ruggero Santilli, “Little headway has been made to date in producing hydrogen from renewable sources in an economically viable manner.”

Santilli called hydrogen separation “a natural extension of our existing fuel production: it leverages our proven technology and a readily-available feedstock to create hydrogen of competitive quality, and likely at reduced cost -- while also helping to clean the environment of harmful liquid waste."