Bio Hydrogen production breakthrough - Understanding the power of enzymes
December 11 2008 / by Garry Golden
Category: Energy Year: 2018 Rating: 2
- Editor's Note -
We cannot ignore, or dismiss hydrogen energy storage
Let's put Hydrogen (e.g. energy storage for electricity) into perspective. Hydrogen was all the hype in the late 90s as Techies rallied behind Ballard Fuel Cell stocks, and buying into the 'hype'. Then as hydrogen startups failed to live up to short term expectations, many of those same people started slamming hydrogen as a waste of time and resources. Too 'inefficient and wasteful - and hard to store.' Early believers had wanted startups to change the world, but really they needed to pay attention to science. Researchers were waving their hands- 'we're not ready yet!'
The hydrogen skeptics' new strategy?
Replace the hype of hydrogen, with hype of lithium ion batteries and capacitors. That's the 'new answer'. Meanwhile hydrogen researchers continue to evolve systems for low cost, high efficiency production, and solid-state storage.
My forecast? Batteries will disappoints us, hydrogen will surprise us.
What happened?
Nanowerk is reporting that researchers at the University of Oxford have advanced a technique that taps the of biology. Enzymes known as hydrogenase can be used as a cheap, clean and efficient way of producing hydrogen from water using sunlight (artificial photosynthesis).
Hydrogenases are biocatalysts that produce or oxidize hydrogen using clusters of iron ([FeFe]) or nickel and iron ([NiFe]) to facilitate reactions. Enyzmes transport electrons and positively charged molecules through complex chains that are largely unknown to scientists. Now we are trying to overcome challenges of tapping the power of hydrogenase (H2 enyzmes) like keeping oxygen from stopping or slowing down reactions.
Nanowerk reports that Armstrong's group has 'demonstrated a rational photochemical hydrogen cell that produces hydrogen under visible light irradiation without resort to rigorous anaerobicity.'
Why is this important to the future of energy?
