Boffins reckon algae could drive hydrogen highway

Several firms are investigating how algae could be used to produce biofuels, but now boffins at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) reckon the unicellular plant could instead be harnessed to produce usable hydrogen capable of powering fuel cells.

Some varieties of algae contain a naturally occurring enzyme called hydrogenase that can create small amounts of hydrogen gas and researchers reckon the process could be harnessed to generate usable quantities of hydrogen.

Led by senior chemist David Tiede, the researchers at ANL are investigating chemically manipulating the algae to graft the part of the enzyme that creates the hydrogen into the photosynthesis process. It is hoped that such a move would result in a far larger amount of hydrogen gas being emitted by the algae, possibly on par with the amount of oxygen created through photosynthesis.

"Biology can do it, but it's making it do it at five to 10 per cent yield that's the problem," said Tiede in a statement on the Laboratory's website. " What we would like to do is take that catalyst out of hydrogenase and put into the photosynthetic protein framework."

If successful the research could remove one of the major barriers hampering the adoption of fuel cell technologies, particularly within the automotive industry.

Hydrogen fuel cell powered concept cars have consistently boasted similar levels of performance to conventional vehicles, but developing the infrastructure required to generate and distribute hydrogen on a commercial scale has hampered adoption of the technology. Meanwhile, environmentalists have argued that the energy intensive nature of conventional hydrogen production processes has also undermined fuel cells' low carbon credentials.

Researchers now hope that harnessing a natural process to generate hydrogen would help resolve both these problems.

Tiede argued that hydrogen generated from algae would also boast considerable advantages over conventional biofuels, which eat into the amount of agricultural land available for food production.

"If you have terrestrial plants like corn, you are restricted to where you could grow them," Tiede said. "There is a problem now with biofuel crops competing with food crops because they are both using the same space. Algae provides an alternative, which can be grown in a closed photobioreactor analogous to a microbial fermentor that you could move any place."