Originally published February 22 2005
New research finds natural enzymes that make hydrogen power less expensive to produce
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers at the John Inness Center (JIC) in Norwich, UK are working with iron-sulfur catalysts that will speed up power production in hydrogen. Today, platinum is normally used as a catalyst for these reactions, but it is a very expensive metal. Thus, these iron-sulfur compounds would allow much cheaper power production and would permit larger use of hydrogen as a fuel.
"This is an exciting early step in developing a sustainable system for producing electricity from hydrogen" said Professor Chris Pickett (Associate Head of the Biological Chemistry Department at JIC).
"In Nature iron--sulphur enzymes catalyse a range of important chemical reactions that industry can only do by using precious metal catalysts and/or high temperatures and pressures.
Based on Nature's blueprint we are a step closer to building an iron-sulfur catalyst for reactions fundamental to a sustainable hydrogen economy".
As a blueprint for their syntheses the JIC team used the known molecular structures of the catalytic centre - 'the H-cluster'- found in the iron--only hydrogenase enzyme from two bacteria (Desulfovibrio desulfuricans and Clostridium pasteurianum).
JIC carries out high quality fundamental, strategic and applied research to understand how plants and microbes work at the molecular, cellular and genetic levels.
The JIC also trains scientists and students, collaborates with many other research laboratories and communicates its science to end-users and the general public.
The JIC is grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
The US Department of Energy Report 'Basic Research Needs for the Hydrogen Economy' (May 2003) recognised long term strategic issues with respect to supply/demand for platinum, including security of supply.
The September 2003 UK Department for Transport report 'Platinum and Hydrogen for Fuel Cell Vehicles' documented the need for both a dramatic decrease in platinum loading in fuel cells and 5% year on year growth of South African platinum production to meet modest scenarios for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles over the next three decades.
Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milan-Biocca, Milan, Italy, Department of Physics, Washington State University and WR Wiley Environmental Science Laboratory and Chemical Science Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington, USA.
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