Posted on 05/23/2007 11:46:25 AM PDT by Red Badger
Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia have developed a novel method using multiple enzymes as a catalyst for the direct, low-cost production of hydrogen from biomass.
Applying the principles of synthetic biology, the researchers use a combination of 13 enzymes to form an unnatural enzymatic pathway to completely convert polysaccharides—e.g., starch and cellulose—and water into hydrogen at a yield higher than the theoretical yield of biological hydrogen fermentations. Their work is described in the 23 May issue of PLoS ONE, the online, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science.
he synthetic metabolic pathway for conversion of polysaccharides and water to hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Hydrogen production from either 2 mM G-6-P or 2 mM starch (glucose equivalent) using the new method.
Starch is a high energy-density carrier, with 14.8 H2-based mass%. (The DOE long-term target for hydrogen storage is 12 mass%.) The enzymes, when added to the biomass solution, use the energy in the polysaccharides to break the water up into carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
A membrane bleeds off the carbon dioxide and the hydrogen is used by a fuel cell to create electricity. The water byproduct is recycled for the starch-water reactor. Laboratory tests confirm that it all takes place at low temperature—30° C—and atmospheric pressure. The researchers estimated the cost of hydrogen production using their method of approximately $2/kg.
The stoichiometric reaction is:
C6H10O5 (l) + 7 H2O (l) → 12 H2 (g)+6 CO2 (g)
The overall process is spontaneous and unidirectional because of a negative Gibbs free energy and separation of the gaseous products with the aqueous reactants.
The vision is for the ingredients to be mixed in the fuel tank of a car. A car with an approximately 12-gallon tank could hold 27 kg of starch, which is the equivalent of 4 kg of hydrogen. One kg of starch will produce the same energy output as 1.12 kg (0.38 gallons) of gasoline.
The research was based on earlier work by Y.H. Percival Zhang, assistant professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech pertaining to cellulosic ethanol production (earlier post) and the ORNL and University of Georgia researchers' work with enzymatic hydrogen production.
One of the team, Michael W.W. Adams of the University of Georgia UGA, is co-author of the first enzymatic hydrogen paper in Nature Biotechnology in 1996. The researchers were certain they could combine the processes.
In nature, most hydrogen is produced from anaerobic fermentation. But hydrogen, along with acetic acid, is a co-product and the hydrogen yield is pretty low—only four molecules per molecule of glucose. In our process, hydrogen is the main product and hydrogen yields are three-times higher, and the likely production costs are low—about $1 per pound of hydrogen.
What is more important, the energy conversion efficiency from the sugar-hydrogen-fuel cell system is extremely high—greater than three times higher than a sugar-ethanol-internal combustion engine. It means that if about 30 percent of transportation fuel can be replaced by ethanol from biomass as the DOE proposed, the same amount of biomass will be sufficient to provide 100 percent of vehicle transportation fuel through this technology. —Y.H. Percival Zhang
The next step for the team is to increase reaction rates and reduce enzyme costs.
Resources:
*
“High-Yield Hydrogen Production from Starch and Water by a Synthetic Enzymatic Pathway”; Y.H. Percival Zhang, Barbara R. Evans, Jonathan R. Mielenz, Robert C. Hopkins, Michael W.W. Adams; PLoS ONE 2(5): e456. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000456
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.......
If you want on or off the DIESEL "KnOcK" LIST just FReepmail me........
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days......
MAYBE THEY CAN TWEAK IT TO MAKE BIODIESEL?.......
Hydrogen from Biomass PING!.......
So, we’ll be really skinny people driving hydrogen powered SUV’S!..............
We don’t eat every source of biomass.
Yeah. Screw the people who starve. They deserve it.
But if you look at the redox reaction, it yields 6 parts CO2 - oh no!
The enviro-wankers will be all up in arms!
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Maybe they could even create a proton gradient across a membrane that would power fast-rotating proteins that produce energetic molecules to be used in cellular respiration.
Every source of biomass is grown on land and by methods that are used to grow food.
Devote more of that land to fuel production, and less of it is devoted to food production.
Econ 101.
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
Do you know how much land could be growing something like switch grass without any change in tilled land at all?
If my math's right, this is the equivalent of 1.5 gallons of gas?
Yeah, forests and prairies are worthless. Let's plow up everything.
0.38 gge (gallon of gasoline equivalent) per kg of starch. 27 kg would be 10.26 gge.
I’d be better than putting condos on it.
Don’t hold your breath........
Sounds right...........
The CO2 comes out of the air when the plant is grown, then returns to the air when the plant is burned or digested.
No net increase in CO2.
The problem, if such it is, arises when fossil fuels are burned, as they add net CO2 to the air.
And waste products aren’t necessarily useless or even lower value. See what mash from the ethanol production process does for cattle.
Our County Board of Supervisors declared our local National Forests a public nuisance due to fire and forest health dangers from heavy overgrowth and lack of forest management. We have miles of forests with small diameter trees as far as the eye can see that need serious thining. The costs of fuel reduction/thining without an offset are tremendous. The alternative is the costs of fighting rampant wildland fires, which is also tremendous.
Idea- lets use that biomass to produce much needed energy and offset the cost of thining. Wow - and it wouldn’t even affect our food supply. We could even use some of it to fuel heating and electrical costs of public facilities like schools and courthouses. There are even systems that are enclosed and have zero emissions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.