Hello limitless power from air — scientists discover enzyme that can turn hydrogen into electricity
Scientists from the Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute in Australia have extracted an enzyme that can turn hydrogen into electricity, paving the way for a possible source of unlimited clean energy.
Their discovery was recently published in the Nature journal and reported by Phys.org.
The team’s study was based on the established science that many types of bacteria consumed hydrogen from the atmosphere where other nutrients were scarce.
“We’ve known for some time that bacteria can use the trace hydrogen in the air as a source of energy to help them grow and survive, including in Antarctic soils, volcanic craters, and the deep ocean,” said professor Chris Greening, one of the research team members.
“But we didn’t know how they did this, until now.”
The researchers found that an enzyme in the Mycobacterium smegmatis, found in certain types of soil, was one of the components responsible for turning the hydrogen into energy and creating electrons as a byproduct.
A second team member, Dr Rhys Grinter, said that the enzyme — which they have dubbed Huc — was “extraordinarily” efficient at consuming the hydrogen and converting it into electricity, including below atmospheric levels, where hydrogen’s concentration is only at 0.00005%.
Laboratory testing by a third team member — PhD student Ashleigh Kropp — confirmed it was possible to store the purified Huc over long periods.
“It is astonishingly stable. It is possible to freeze the enzyme or heat it to 80°C, and it retains its power to generate energy,” said Kropp.
“This reflects that this enzyme helps bacteria to survive in the most extreme environments. ”
Huc can theoretically function as a natural battery to generate sustained electrical current using only the air or by adding hydrogen to increase its output.
Furthermore, the bacterium that makes the enzyme is common and can be grown in large quantities.
“Once we produce Huc in sufficient quantities, the sky is quite literally the limit for using it to produce clean energy,” said Dr Grinter.
Hydrogen is one of the byproducts of various industrial processes, the reforming of fossil fuels, and water electrolysis.
It is currently being researched and tested as a possible alternative fuel in industrial applications and large transport vehicles like commercial airplanes and freight trucks, in cases where renewables and electric battery storage are unfeasible.
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