The sparkling green hydrogen economy of the future is a long way off, but meanwhile scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel are hot on the trail of a hydrogen-based energy storage system that could resolve at least two significant obstacles: safety and cost.
Before we dive in the usual caveat applies: hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles are lagging far behind their battery-powered cousins in terms of mass market appeal, but hydrogen has innumerable other uses as a fuel and industrial chemical. The global race is on to produce, store, and transport renewable H2 at scale.
Mother Nature’s Energy Storage System
The next time you walk past your house plant, give it a thumbs-up for its ability to effortlessly store energy in the form of hydrogen without setting itself on fire or blowing itself up.
Here’s an explainer from our friends over at Science Daily:
…In biological cells, finely adjusted chemical compounds bind and release hydrogen to build up the chemical compounds needed by the cells. All these biological processes are catalyzed by enzymes.
The tricky part comes in where scientists try to replicate 700 million years of evolution within a few years of lab work, and translate that into an artificial system that can be scaled up to massive proportions.
Here Comes The Hydrogen Economy…
One interesting breakthrough occurred back in 2013 a research team at Virginia Tech developed an enzyme-based formula for extracting H2 from biomass, using the common plant sugar xylose as a springboard.
Our friends over at Wikipedia note that xylose comes in several forms. Here’s one that explains why researchers have been eyeballing plants for H2 production and energy storage: HOCH2(CH(OH))3CHO.
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