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Scientists find enzyme that can make electricity out of tiny amounts of hydrogen
- congoe 3y agoEnzymes are much too unstable and expensive to ever make sense in electricity production, especially when compared to inorganic solutions like PV. The other way around is more sensible though, using electricity to produce hydrogen (Enzymatic electrolysis cells, EFCs), for example from distillery wastewater.
- gmt2027 3y agoIf the enzyme is produced by genetically altered microbes like bacteria or yeast, wouldn't that make it practically useful on some scale?
- messe 3y agoNot necessarily. Where do they get the energy to produce that enzyme? Is it more efficient than having them convert sugars to alcohol and burning it?
- congoe 3y agoYes, that drives cost down but even on the biggest scale, like insulin, enzymes are still orders of magnitude more expensive than inorganic catalysts (e.g. platinum for hydrogen fuel cells)
- burnished 3y agoWhy one way but not the other - just that pouring power onto the grid requires cooperation but producing hydrogen doesn't, or is there something more fundamental at play?
- congoe 3y agoThe fundamental principle would be that enzymes have an comparative advantage when utilising and producing complex organic molecules as fuel for hydrogen production (such as glucose in wastewater) while inorganic catalysts are cheaper, more stable but limited to simple reactions
- burnished 3y agoThank you!
- ianai 3y agoThink ways to create incredibly small amounts of energy just about anywhere. Useful for a smart tag on a box of milk (their example). But they did say they would love if it were possible to scale up and point out that being a big reach. But then plenty of big reaches have been made so I would suggest not considering that impossible. Also, this is created by a soil bacteria.
- throwway120385 3y agoThis is the first of these articles that I've seen where the reporter actually bothered to interview an industry expert who pointed out an obvious issue -- there's probably not that much hydrogen in the air. The explanation for this from statistical mechanics is that at the temperatures commonly observed in the atmosphere molecular hydrogen has a speed distribution that encompasses the escape velocity of the Earth.