Clean Energy Breakthrough: Scientists Extract Hydrogen Gas From Plants

Y.H. Percival Zhang and other researchers have discovered a method to extract large amounts of hydrogen using enzymes. This could change the world IMO. I look forward to seeing where this discovery goes in the future Finding a cheap way to extract Hydrogen has long eluded scientist this may be the break through they need to push Hydrogen mainstream.

Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a breakthrough in hydrogen energy, something that has always been known to challenge fossil fuel dominance. They have developed a process that extracts large quantities of hydrogen gas from plants in an eco-friendly and renewable way. This is yet another alternative we are now aware of that could end our dependence on fossil fuels.

Previous hydrogen production techniques have usually been costly and create greenhouse gasses. The discovery is a feature in an online version of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, International Edition.

This is huge but will probably be stiffled by big OIL like every other great tech that could threaten there profits

Link to Story

If this has been posted before I'm sorry I did a search and did'nt find it and thought it very interesting and a possible game changer.

This is huge but will probably be stiffled by big OIL like every other great tech that could threaten there profits

Why do you people feel the need to throw this in on every lame story that pops up on some alternative energy process. On things that either become useful techs, or even the ones that had no chance of getting off the drawing board.

Did you think hydrogen manufacture, distribution and supply is done for free these days? Is the chemical industry an altruistic volunteer group based around trading profits for charity donations?

What is it?

I get confused. Du Pont, Praxair, et al... They don't make money do they? All just a bunch of volunteer groups getting thwarted by "big oil" constantly?

Here's a tip, try to stay away from any articles that end off coverage on University subjects with "Zero point energy" and nods to Stanley Meyer...

Here is the original article from Virginia Tech

www.vtnews.vt.edu...

You won't see this tech lift off most likely though, and it doesn't need suppression. Ethanol is made from biomass just the same. And while ethanol can be run in most of the technology we currently use for petrol (or with minor retrofits) it is not used because the numbers don't add up.

They do however in Brazil and some other places in the world, where easy growing sugar cane have the perfect conditions to be mass produced. State-side, there are a number of issues that arise.

Hydrogen has a slim chance of taking over as a common, daily used fuel. This probably still has a great potential to replace current production of hydrogen, or perhaps see hydrogen be used for more commercial processes than it is now.

Revolutionize the way we live, I highly doubt it.

The Government will bury this.
Gas tax revenue is desperately needed by the Government.

This is why hydrocarbon fuels will never go away.

reply to post by boncho


Thank you for posting the original story

reply to post by grey580

Thats what I was thinking also government funded research is usually the first to get shafted.

I made a very simple hydrogen fuel cell that ran from my battery. Solar charged batteries can run one of these babies I never got around to setting up the gas trapping valve but it blew up well enough. I got around the plate fouling by using an antistatic mat for the electrodes. The process works and does not require fossil fuels after the initial setup...

In this process.

The high-purity hydrogen is developed under reaction conditions at 122 degrees Fahrenheit and normal atmospheric pressure. A group of enzymes that are artificially isolated from different micro-organisms that thrive at extreme temperatures are used as biocatalysts that can thrive and grow at around the boiling point of water. To liberate the hydrogen from the planet, scientists separated multiple enzymes from their native micro-organisms to make an enzyme mix that does not occur in nature. When the enzymes are combined with xylose (sugar from plant) and a polyphosphate they liberate the high volume of hydrogen from the xylose. This process results in the production of three times as much hydrogen as other hydrogen-producing microorganisms. The energy stored in xylose splits water molecules, yielding high purity hydrogen that can be directly utilized by proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Even more appealing, this reaction occurs at low temperatures, generating hydrogen energy that is greater than the chemical energy stored in xylose and the polyphosphate. This results in an energy efficiency of more than 100 percent- a net energy gain. That means that low temperature waste heat can be used to produce high quality chemical energy hydrogen for the first time. (1) Our new process could help end our dependence on fossil forever. Hydrogen is one of the most important biofuels of the future – Professor Zhang

One could initiate the boiling temperatures also using solar. Would love to get my hands on some of these enzymes and play.

I can imagine this tech being used like the MR Fusion device from back to the future only its a digestor in the trunk of ur car and u throw ur yard clipping into it to boost fuel economy in gas powered cars.

reply to post by Shirak

I have converted a portable generator to run on hydrogen or propane and would love to have some of these enzemes in a large digester to produce enough hydrogen in my garage to power my house that would be so awesome

Originally posted by pez1975
reply to post by boncho

 

Thank you for posting the original story

edit on 9-4-2013 by pez1975 because: (no reason given)

Your welcome. Also, here is a good article on why "Big oil doesn't hate hydrogen."

Linked here.

It helps scrape away some of the oddly misrepresented 'facts' that get tossed around internet forums and shed some reason on the matter.

reply to post by Shirak


What kind of anti-static mat did you use for the electrodes? I have a couple of old lawnmowers I've been thinking of tinkering with hydrogen-wise, but didnt like the idea of having to clean my electrodes constantly. We have rather hard water here (lots of calcium and lime deposits) so I'm interested in other ideas.

Per the story, it's always nice to see advancements, but it is hard to get around established infrastructures. Oil's foothold will be difficult to remove without drastic improvements from either metamaterials, genetic engineering (of microbes etc.) or superconductor tech imho.

Originally posted by pez1975
reply to post by Shirak

 

I have converted a portable generator to run on hydrogen or propane and would love to has some of these enzemes in a large digester to produce enough hydrogen in my garage to power my house that would be so awesome

Sugarcane is relatively easy to grow in warmer climates perhaps future homes could replace the lawn with Sugar cane for their fuel cells. Really got to collectively get out of the consumer mindset and start producing for ourselves if we want to be free from rising energy prices.

extremely simplistic solution there... so you know that to grow any reasonable amount of sugarcane you need a large area right? 1 square meter can make about 15kg of cane, the ratio of cane to extracted sugar is about 100:1...so you are looking at needing a 6 square meter lawn for every 1 potential kg of sugar... now, correct me if i am wrong but the chemical energy in that 1kg of sugar is not exactly alot.

Now say we ferment that sugar and make alcohol... sorry but you are still looking at not being able to produce your personal energy needs at all, it would actually be not worth it from an energy stand point to do that.

Just my take on it.

There are ways of doing things like this but, sometimes the realities are harsher than what people want to see when giving a 'better solution'