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Hydrogen-Producing Bacteria Could Provide Clean Energy

Posted by timothy on from the for-my-motorhome-of-the-future dept.

Iddo Genuth writes "Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and North Carolina State University (NC State) have developed cooperatively a new 'green' technology which could lead to clean production of hydrogen from nitrogen-fixing bacteria."

8 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Still need sugars by draco664 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Sure, their waste product is hydrogen, but they still need 'food', in this case, certain sugars.

    Creating these sugars is the energy intensive bit.

    Of course, if TFA says, they can find/discover/developa organisms that can break cellulose down to these sugars, then things are going to get *very* interesting.

    1. Re:Still need sugars by Danny+Rathjens · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, that's what this guy got the grant for; to research both this sugar-eating,hydrogen-producing bacteria and the cellulose-eating, sugar-producing bacteria. Although using the sugars to make ethanol may be more efficient than feeding it to the hydrogen-producing bacteria. :)

    2. Re:Still need sugars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Cows can break down cellulose into sugars. So can horses.

      Through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in their digestive systems. Most herbivores can digest cellulistic material far better then humans who have neither the same digestive tract setup nor the same set of symbiotic bacterias. Which suits me just fine, the cows can graze all day and I can have steak. Sure beats chewing grass all day. Hopefully scientists will be very careful and chose not to genetically engineer the bacteria necessary to aid the digestion of ruminants, don't need high levels of hydrogenated fats in my steak. Prefer they stick to risking their mistakes to similar bacteria elsewhere in nature or better yet, find a bacteria they don't have to change to do the job. The methane itself could be very useful if captured.

    3. Re:Still need sugars by Anachragnome · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "Using a selecting agent to grow only these trolls, the teams identified a gene that inactivates the Troll's hydrogen uptake system so that all of the hydrogen produced is released. Because the troll's cells cannot recycle the hydrogen, the hydrogen they produce can be captured and used as a fuel whose byproduct is water and heat"

      But the real question is whether or not feeding the trolls legumes will offset the drawbacks of using trolls, via the "Peanut Butter Effect".

  2. Re:Clean? by Chris+Rhodes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And bread, of the sourdough and refined yeast types. It is only biscuits for you from now on!

  3. Energy issues in general were clearly in mind. by RustinHWright · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seeing as how the lead investigator is the Alcoa Professor of..., I think that it's a safe bet that broader concerns about more energy-thrifty processes were in mind. Aluminum manufacture being, after all, one of the most energy-hungry processes in the world. Also I can't help but notice that yet again I'm seeing state of the art biofuels work from North Carolina, source of the best biodiesel book done yet, source of some of the best and earliest work on switchgrass as fuel, source of no small amount of work on biomass (as in lumber waste) conversion to fuel, and so on. Afaict, North Carolina has, without much of anybody noticing it, already become the Silicon Valley of biofuels.

    At this point, given what I've seen in these fields, I'm ready to proclaim Rustin's Corrollary to Moore's Law, that computer-based research and development on microorganisms will typically yield even faster increases in productivity than are experienced in silicon-based systems themselves. In some cases it may even be valid to dump the "computer-based" though I doubt it. In other words, if you think that Moore's Law has improved things fast, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

    --
    It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
  4. Re:Clean? by Doug+Neal · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How about cat shit coffee?

  5. penn state does it better by mikeru22 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.engr.psu.edu/ce/enve/mfc-Logan_files/mfc-Logan.htm it's pretty legit. They can use wastewater as fuel that will ultimately be enough to power the water purification process itself. This could save 5% of all energy consumed in the U.S., which is pretty substantial in the broad scheme of things

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