Then you need another tank to convert cellulose into glucose and things will really be good - organic cars powered by termites and bacteria.
Polysaccharides like starch and cellulose are used by plants for energy storage and building blocks and are very stable until exposed to enzymes. Just add enzymes to a mixture of starch and water and “the enzymes use the energy in the starch to break up water into only carbon dioxide and hydrogen,” Zhang said.A membrane bleeds off the carbon dioxide and the hydrogen is used by the fuel cell to create electricity. Water, a product of that fuel cell process, will be recycled for the starch-water reactor. Laboratory tests confirm that it all takes place at low temperature--about 86 degrees F--and atmospheric pressure.
. . . The research was based on Zhang’s previous work pertaining to cellulosic ethanol production and the ORNL and University of Georgia researchers’ work with enzymatic hydrogen production.
In their winning team project, Linking Supercomputing and Systems Biology for Efficient Bioethanol Production, Scott Molony, Steven Arcangeli and Scott Horton contribute to a growing body of research on creating microrganisms that can produce alternative fuels. “This team used supercomputers to analyze biological networks, looking at tens of thousands of genes and their biological pathways to discover clues for engineering direct biofuel production by microorganisms,” said competition judge Dr. Gary Benson, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Department of Biology, Director of Graduate Studies Program in Bioinformatics, Boston University. “Through a real team effort and a sophisticated, interdisciplinary approach, they developed a promising method that takes us a step closer to engineering biofuel.” Based partly on the team’s work, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory received a major grant to continue this research. The team’s mentors were Dr. Nagiza Samatova, Mr. Chris Symons, Dr. ByungHoony Park, and Dr. Tatiana Karpinets, all with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The winning Science project with the Siemens Foundation competition was precisely on the subject, with meaningful results.