Will Algae Fuel The Hydrogen Economy?

Will Algae Fuel The Hydrogen Economy?

Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by Ross in New Technologies

The potential of harvested algae in the fight against global warming is a step closer to yet another massive contribution.

Whilst algae biofuels are starting to garner massive amounts of venture capitalism, and other potential applications such as algae batteries start to emerge from the depths of science fiction to become viable low-tech contenders to lithium batteries, a research collaboration between British and German universities have brought science a step closer to using algae farms to create hydrogen gas, publishing their findings in this week’s Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Cheaper, less energy-intensive production of hydrogen gas is one of the main hurdles in the way of realising the creation of a hydrogen economy - a system where hydrogen fuel cells are the primary source of energy most of the applications currently powered by oil, such as replacing combustion engines to create hydrogen-powered cars.

Algae produce small amounts of hydrogen as a by-product of photosynthesis (the process whereby algae and plants harness sunlight to create food). The hopes of the researchers is to boost the photosynthetic process of specific species of algae such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii so that the organisms produce more hydrogen gas.

By using electrochemical kinetic experiments, the researchers analysed how the structure of the specific enzyme which was responsible for the algae’s production of hydrogen lost it’s potency in the presence of oxygen, isolating the mechanism of the attack. Speaking about the research, Professor Fraser Armstrong from Oxford University

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  3. Why The Hydrogen Future Needs Electric Cars
  4. Algae Biofuels Need Sewage And Coal To Be Green
  5. What are Algae Biofuels?

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