New Process Harvests Hydrogen from Plant Waste at Record Speeds

Hydrogen Makes for an Excellent Energy Source for Both Combustion and Fuel Cells but, Figuring Out Where to Get it, is an Unexpectedly Complicated Question. Hydrogen is Literally the Most Common Element in the Known Universe, Yet Most of the Pure Hydrogen we Have, Comes from Fossil Fuels. A Team of Scientists at Virginia Tech Think, they’ve Come Up with a Better Way — by Processing Plant Waste in an Innovative Fashion. Traditionally, it you Need a Lot of Hydrogen, you just Go Where the Hydrogen is. Fossil Fuels (like Natural Gas) are Hydrocarbons and that Means, you Can Harvest Hydrogen Atoms by Stripping Them Off the Carbon Backbone. That Rather Defeats the Idea of Clean Energy from Hydrogen, though. What about Water ? That’s Oxygen and Hydrogen but, it Takes a Lot of Energy to Break the Hydrogen Atoms Free. Solar Power Can be Used to Split Water but, it’s Very Slow.


Electrolysis of Water is Faster but, it’s Inefficient — it Consumes More Power than you Get from the Hydrogen, in fact. The Virginia Tech Process Uses an Enzymatic Process that Pulls Hydrogen Out of Leftover Stalks, Cobs and Husks of Corn. These Inedible Parts of the Corn Plant are Collectively Referred to as Stover. After we Take the Tasty Bits Off of a Plant like Corn, there’s still a Lot of Material Left. One of the Main Structural Components of a Plant is Cellulose, which is a Polysaccharide Consisting of Hundreds or Thousands of Linked Glucose Molecules. There’s a Lot of Energy in that Molecule and Plenty of Hydrogen Atoms to be Harvested (10 of them per Glucose Molecule). The Process also Converts Another Sugar in Plants Called, Xylose, for Even Faster Hydrogen Production. The Team Used a Genetic Algorithm and a Lot of Math to Come Up with the Precise Enzymatic Process that Could Efficiently Pull the Hydrogen Out of this Waste Material.


This is What Sets the Virginia Tech Process Apart, in Fact. Enzymatic Processes Have been Used to Generate Hydrogen from Sugars before but, they Only Worked with Refined and Processed Materials. This One Works on the Junk Left Over from Corn Farming and the Overall Reaction Rate is 3 Times Faster than Old Enzymatic Methods and More than 10 Times Faster than Solar-Powered Hydrogen Production from Water. The Only Issue with this Process is that, it Results in the Release of Carbon Dioxide in Addition to Hydrogen. Since this is Plant Biomass, that still Counts as Carbon Neutral. Still, it Might be Nice to Capture that Gas for Sequestration, Rather than Add to the Problem. The Study was Performed on Small Volumes of Biomass but, the Team Thinks the Same Process Can be Scaled Up with a Little Work. They Say it Might Even be Able to Help Hydrogen Displace Fossil Fuels. That Might Take a While but, it’s Not Like we’re Going to Run Out of Leftover Plant Matter in the Meantime.




Info Source:

http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2015/04/040715-cals-hydrogen.html