A new way of producing HYDROGEN

As time moves one and technology advance, we are using more and more power for this technologies. Those new powerful devices however efficient soak up more power than zero devices would, and our main sources of energy are finite to begin with. At some point we will need to find cheap and reliable source of energy. Some of reliable source of energy is hydrogen.So far the dominant technology for direct production of hydrogen is steam reforming from hydrocarbons although there are many other methods known including electrolysis and thermolysis.

A team of Virginia Researchers have found the way to extract significant amounts of hydrogen from any plant, setting up a new source of environmentally friendly energy. The method was carefully planned and theorized for years. The team uses xylose which is an abundant sugar found in plants. This component is sometimes a part of a substance that composes over 30% of certain plants. Xylose is the second most abundant sugar in plants, and from it the team managed to generate a sizable amount of hydrogen from it. The team that proven this revolutionary idea didn’t reveal much but they said that the method is relatively safe for environment, as barely produces greenhouse gas and doesn’t require the use of expensive metals.

Before this discovery the production of hydrogen from biomass wasn’t impossible but the process was too expensive and amount of resulting oxygen was too little. What the team revealed was that for this new production of hydrogen you need: enzymes from microorganisms, mixture of these enzymes together, combine the mixture of enzymes with the xylose and a polyphosphate. Once the mixture of enzymes, xylose and polyphosphate are mixed together the team is able to extract hydrogen. The one big condition is necessary for this procedure that is low temperature. With low temperature scientists have discovered that you can increase efficiently of this hydrogen production. This procedure is so efficient because the team was able to achieve 100% net gain of energy, which means that you don’t lose any energy when you produce the hydrogen.

The team plans to make this technology commercially available whenever the method is refined enough for the open market which will be after three or more years.