Blood Protein Used to Split Water

brian0918 writes "The Imperial College in London is reporting that genetically-engineered blood protein can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The abstract can be viewed for free from the Journal of the American Chemical Society." From the article: "Scientists have combined two molecules that occur naturally in blood to engineer a molecular complex that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This molecular complex can use energy from the sun to create hydrogen gas, providing an alternative to electrolysis, the method typically used to split water into its constituent parts. The breakthrough may pave the way for the development of novel ways of creating hydrogen gas for use as fuel in the future."

Comments

How effecient is this?

[MikeFM]

I wonder how this compares to other methods such as solar power? Do you have to refuel this? How expensive is it to produce, install, and care for compared to solar panels. Makes me think of the book Distraction - maybe it'd be a good method for people that have time to care for it but not a lot of money?

Kra S'haon

[Doc Ruby]

Can these proteins work properly in the sea?

Skimming the seas for extra oxygen and hydrogen power, and the pure water runoff, seems like the salvation of mankind from the CO2 Greenhouse and otherwise inevitable oil and water exhaustion wars. But if those pressures see us pumping these chemicals into the seas, without consuming the catalysts, then we'll be burning off the seas without limit, and destroying our ecosystem in a grand "antiflood".

Some people are already talking about seeding the seas with iron to promote massive algal blooms to sink more carbon and liberate more O2 to rebalance the atmosphere. Others are talking about massive sulphur jets into the upper atmosphere to absorb more incoming solar radiation. Some want to just burn dirty coal willy nilly to replace imported oil/gas, and damn the consequences. And most people won't believe that polluting our fresh water is the most dire threat we face to our way of life.

So I'm sure many will just want to release these chemicals into the warm, salty seas. All it takes is a few misguided governments or industrialists to do a lot of damage. I really hope we don't just overdose on stupidity, while getting high on how smart we are.