Modified Algae Produce Clean, Easy Hydrogen
Simple organisms pave the way to the hydrogen-fueled future Algae get a lot of airtime as a possible future source of biofuels to wean us from dirty fossil fuels, but even biofuels don't go so far as to eliminate hydrocarbons (and their constituent carbon emissions) from our energy diet. But a different use for algae could prove a better solution to the future of fuel. A new process that produces clean, sustainable hydrogen from photosynthesis in algae could change all that. The means of manufacturing clean, usable hydrogen has heretofore required a high-energy process that drastically dilutes the upside. Researchers at the U. of Tennessee Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Labs found that in certain algae, the cellular workings that carry out photosynthesis can be coaxed into producing a clean, steady supply of hydrogen when exposed to light and a platinum catalyst. As far as bang-for-buck is concerned, the novel process could be...