A rare organism found in the remains of volcanic eruptions could be the key to a future hydrogen-based economy. Researchers from around the world joined together in one team to reveal the process carried out in ancient bacteria (scientific name: Archaea) from billions of years ago. The US Department of Energy in conjunction with the Genome Institute is accelerating research by sequencing this hydrogen-producing bacterium to examine its genome
When members of the Russian Academy of Sciences isolated a rare ancient bacterium capable of breaking down cellulose and producing hydrogen, Professor Biswarup Mukhopadhyay, of the Virginia Institute of Bioinformatics, recognized an opportunity to open the door to the development of a high-temperature cellulose-based hydrogen production process. "Hydrogen can be easily converted into electrical and mechanical energy without getting carbon dioxide," says the researcher, whose laboratory specializes in bacteria that survive at high temperatures or those known as hyperthermophilic and in energy production.
Researcher Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya and her colleagues at the Institute of Microbiology at the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered the rare bacteria capable of "digesting" cellulose and releasing hydrogen. They found Desulfurococcus fermentations on the Kamchatka Peninsula, an isolated headland in eastern Siberia, filled with volcanoes and remnants of their eruptions. The bacteria break down the cellulose of tall plants that fall to the ground. Like other bacteria in this family, they recycle sulfur into hydrogen sulfide (the substance that gives scrambled eggs their characteristic smell).
"Since hydrogen prevents the growth of many of these ancient bacteria, they barely produce hydrogen," says Mokopadhyay. "In contrast, this particular strain (Desulfurococcus) is not disturbed by the presence of hydrogen. We wanted to understand why. One way would be by comparing the genome of this bacterium to the genome of bacteria close to it that lack this ability."
This new ancient bacterium grows optimally at temperatures of 80-82 degrees Celsius, close to the boiling temperature of water. "The ability to operate at high temperatures provides advantages - the process is faster and the vessel in which the hydrogen is obtained will not be contaminated with normal harmful bacteria, which are destroyed at such temperatures," says the researcher. The laboratory began conducting physiological experiments with the new strain in the hope of obtaining information regarding the growth of the bacteria and the kinetics of hydrogen production from a substrate of cellulose or starch. With these findings, the researcher submitted a request to sequence the genomes of the new bacterium and two of its "relatives" to the Joint Genome Institute, which sequences the genomes of organisms related to the tasks of the Ministry of Energy free of charge. The organisms nominated for the floor are selected from research proposals based on scientific excellence and the degree of interest they arouse in the scientific community.
The researchers then have six months before the information is transferred to the gene bank for use by the entire scientific community. In mid-June, the institute approved the proposal entitled: "Comparative genome examination of hydrogen production from cellulose-based materials and starch by hyperthermophilic archaeons."
The institute has already focused on another "relative" of this sulfur-recycling bacterium to fill the gaps in the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea (GEBA). "Consequently, we will receive the genomic information of the bacterium that breaks down cellulose and produces hydrogen and similar information for those that lack this feature. In the next step we will perform subtraction attempts of these two genomes in order to understand which genes contribute to this important trait. This information will lead to more research that will focus on bacteria capable of breaking down cellulose to create hydrogen," says the lead researcher. "This is just the beginning of a journey to discover hitherto unknown processes capable of promoting more efficient energy production."
The article is on the website of the Virginia Tech Institute
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To the anonymous user:
You have to see and see.
And if someone manages to improve - they will improve.
In my opinion, it is possible to eventually reach a situation where all the energy comes from the sun and all the materials used are recycled (when the energy needed for recycling also comes from the sun).
I also think the motivation is there as well as the lack of choice so it will happen eventually (if we don't destroy ourselves)
Michael,
The question is whether the amount of energy that comes from the sun can be sufficient for human requirements, and if so, at what price? The construction of voltaic cells also uses dangerous and polluting materials that are also biodegradable. Even in order to produce green energy, you have to pollute, and you have to see if the lifespan of the cell justifies the amount of pollution emitted in its creation.
"We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."
It is very heartwarming to find such an invested website nowadays that contributes to human knowledge.
The cool commenter:
Life is funny so laugh.
I said my words about the sun to explain why its use is "green" in the sense that it does not cause any waste of resources, in contrast to other methods of producing energy.
In general, the ambition today is to develop such a "sustainable" culture that will ensure that the earth we left to our children is no less good than the one we received, at least in all the variables that were under our control.
In this sense, the sun is an excellent source of energy.
Of course, in order to become a useful source of energy, it has to pass a few more hurdles, but as things currently look (and actually as they have looked since time immemorial because since time immemorial life has been based only on solar energy) it does not seem that these are insurmountable hurdles.
Therefore, the sun seems, on the whole, promising, while other sources meanwhile seem to promise disaster.
The reactor in Karkur will solve all the world's energy problems.
Michael: "It is true that the sun will eventually wear out, but it will happen anyway - whether we use the energy it emits or not."
I have to point out that this sounds like a really funny reason why you should use solar energy
True, but in the meantime they have not yet found a way to produce nuclear energy in a completely safe way (and by definition, this energy is not green because it also uses a depleting resource).
It is true that the sun will eventually wear out, but it will happen anyway - whether we use the energy it emits or not.
To Michael, of course it will work. But it will always be negligible compared to the energies that can be obtained from the strong force.
point:
Although the energy is created in the sun by a nuclear process, the earth has always managed without it and most of the energy necessary for all life on it was created by converting the energy of sunlight into available energy.
What makes you think it won't work in the future?
tipo:
You're right. Of course, these are physiological experiments.
"Conduct physiological experiments with the new strain"…. 🙂
Solving the energy problems = nuclear energy. Everything else is just confusion.