What’s brewing in Caye Drapcho’s bioreactor may well be a fuel of the future. Drapcho, a biosystems engineer at Clemson University, is investigating a bacterium that produces hydrogen. The microbe is called Thermotoga neapolitana. And it has a taste for peaches, especially rotten ones (a bacterium that can produce hydrogen from rotten peaches).The research can help provide the means to make the earth’s most abundant gas into an abundant fuel. Hydrogen has the potential to help replace oil, while nearly zeroing out carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. Hydrogen-powered fuel cells create electricity, leaving water as the only byproduct.
This microbe produces gas byproducts that can contain as much as 80 percent hydrogen, though typically it produces hydrogen in the 25 percent to 30 percent range, which is still impressive. This could make peaches economically feasible as a biofuel, since peaches contain a high percentage of the sugars that can be converted to hydrogen.
Via: NextEnergyNews
