Tomorrow our vehicles may derive power by enzymes. These enzymes may originate from the cellulose of woodchips or grass and instead of emitting poisonous gases they will exhale hydrogen. We know that when hydrogen is burned, the only emission it makes is water vapor, so a key benefit of hydrogen fuel is that when burned, carbon dioxide (CO2) is not produced. Clearly, hydrogen is less of a pollutant in the air because it omits little tail pipe pollution. Hydrogen also has the potential to run a fuel-cell engine with better effectiveness over an internal combustion engine.A team of scientists from Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Georgia says it has successfully generated hydrogen gas. Normally these kinds of fuels are derived from starch. Jonathan Mielenz, who is the leader of the Bioconversion Science and Technology Group at ORNL, says, “It is exciting because using cellulose instead of starch expands the renewable resource for producing hydrogen to include biomass.”
This hydrogen gas is clean enough to power a fuel cell by combining 14 enzymes, one coenzyme, cellulosic materials from non-eatable sources, and water heated to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C). The researchers utilized cellulosic materials which is isolated from wood chips. But researches also claim that crop waste or switchgrass could also be used for this purpose. These research outcomes are being published in ChemSusChem. The research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; Zhang’s DuPont Young Professor Award, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
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