Monday, December 04, 2006

Genetically Engineered Proteins Generate Hydrogen from Sunlight

Here's a very exciting scientific development:
Professors Tsuchida and Komatsu from Waseda University, Japan, in collaboration with Imperial College London, 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, says research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

From ScienceDaily

This could potentially lead to a boom for hydrogen-based fuel. Hydrogen is the perfect fuel in many ways, because burning it produces only water. No greenhouse gases, no pollution. Unfortunately, the only way to get hydrogen is to use electrolysis, which requires large amounts of electricity, which is often produced by fossil fuels. This biological alternative to electrolysis promises completely carbon-free energy.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't forget that hydrogen can also be made from wind turbines or solar cells. So it isn't necessary to use fosil energy forms ...

But you are right this is a great invention.

Please be welcome at my blog:
http://energy2come.blogspot.com .

4:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Porphyrin with magnesium in the center is the important part of chlorophyll, so it seems like a logical thing for them to have tried.

If this does work practically, another use would be for Moon missions, as a way to generate oxygen out of local water deposits for human settlement and for industrial uses. I like the idea of lunar colonists having a work detail including oxygen farming.

11:39 AM  
Blogger RichM said...

That magnesium comment marked "Anonymous" by Blogger beta was mine!

6:12 AM  
Blogger Daryl McCullough said...

That's weird. I'm sure I saw your name attached to it earlier. It seems to have switched to anonymous.

6:40 PM  

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