Hydrogen

Yellowstone microbes fueled by hydrogen, according to U. of Colorado study

Microbes living in the brilliantly coloredhot springs of Yellowstone National Park use primarily hydrogen forfuel, a discovery University of Colorado at Boulder researchers saybodes well for life in extreme environments on other planets and couldadd to understanding of bacteria inside the human body.A team of CU-Boulder biologists led by Professor Norman Pace, one ofthe world's leading expe...

Microbial fuel cell: High yield hydrogen source and wastewater cleaner

Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone. Dr. Bruce Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineeri...

Hydrogen and methane provide raw energy for life at 'Lost City'

The hydrothermal vents were miles from where anyone could have imagined. One massive seafloor vent was an unheard of 18 stories tall. And all were creamy white and gray, suggesting a very different composition than vent systems studied since the 1970s. Scientists who named the spot Lost City knew they were looking at something never seen before when the field was serendipitously discovere...

Poison + water = hydrogen. New microbial genome shows how

Take a pot of scalding water, remove all the oxygen, mix in a bit of poisonous carbon monoxide, and add a pinch of hydrogen gas. It sounds like a recipe for a witch's brew. It may be, but it is also the preferred environment for a microbe known as In a paper published in the November 27th issue of PLoS Genetics, a research team led by scientis...

Genetically engineered blood protein can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen

Scientists 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 today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. This molecular complex can use energy from the sun to create hydrogen gas, providing an alternative to electrolysis, the method typically used to s...

U of M researchers invent 'flashy' new process to turn soy oil, glucose into hydrogen

Anyone who's overheated vegetable oil or sweet syrup knows that neither oil nor sugar evaporates--oil smokes and turns brown, sugar turns black, and both leave a nasty film of carbon on the cookware. Now, a University of Minnesota team has invented a "reactive flash volatilization process" that heats oil and sugar about a million times faster than you can in your kitchen and produces hydrogen and...