Hydrogen-Emitting Microbe Examined

Concerned Onlooker wrote to mention an article at Science Daily discussing a microbe that lives in volcanic environments, which emits Hydrogen gas as a waste product. "As the world increasingly considers hydrogen as a potential biofuel, technology could benefit from having the genomes of such microbes. 'C. hydrogenoformans is one of the fastest-growing microbes that can convert water and carbon monoxide to hydrogen," remarks TIGR evolutionary biologist Jonathan Eisen, senior author of the PLoS Genetics study. "So if you're interested in making clean fuels, this microbe makes an excellent starting point.'"

Comments

If it could only convery CO2 as well

[kaptink]

If it could only convery CO2 as well it could save the planet and end the use of existing fuels. woohoo!

get a (*#&$%$ grip

[puzzled]

  George Bush, he is in favor of this so called 'hydrogen economy'. There is your first tip off that its bunk.

  Conservation (insulation, hybrids, etc)
  Biodiesel.
  Biodiesel & ethanol from waste materials.
  New nuclear plants.

  Those four things, in exactly that order, might make a difference. Most everything else is an oil company wookie. Hydrogen is produced most often from ... fossil fuel powered sources! It requires the existing gas station infrastructure.

  Foreign Policy magazine recently had an article on what feels good versus what is doable in alternative energy. Everyone needs some hard facts on these matters and later today would not be too soon.

  Oil companies, politicians, and easily confused environmentalists are not good sources of information - this is fast becoming a problem for engineers and economists ...

Re:Quick question

[gurps_npc]

I thinkyou are speculating quite a bit. You are making a lot of assumptions that are not neccessarily valid, and basing your information on biased data.

First, we have FAR more information about carbon compounds because we are made of carbon compounds. We simply don't know anywhere near as much about non-carbon compounds to really make the statement you are making.

Secondly, we continue to know very little about any compounds, carbonor otherwise, outside of a fairly narrow range of pressure and heat that is found on earth. Go to Jupiter and boom, that pressure and heat create conditions that we know little about and where carbon compounds are useless.

I am not saying you are definitely wrong, just that no one on earth really knows enough to make definitive statements like the ones you made.