More and more applications are being found for hydrogen, especially in its use as a CO2-free fuel. In this case, a team of researchers has discovered a way to solve an important problem thanks to the discovery of this mysterious hydrogen-producing plant that could solve the problem of hydrogen production.
What is the mysterious hydrogen-producing plant?
Hydrogen is the fuel of the future. It has an incredible energy capacity, is light, abundant and is the cleanest fuel available so far. In addition, it is very easy to use in internal combustion engines, thus facilitating the process of switching to sustainable vehicles and reducing the adaptation costs associated with this process.
The problem, on the one hand, is that hydrogen production generally relies on fossil fuels that are highly polluting to the environment, and on the other, the difficulty of transporting this high-pressure, highly reactive gas safely. For transportation, the Japanese may have found a good alternative in ammonia combustion.
As for hydrogen production, a team of engineers and researchers from the UTPL (Technical University from Loja) seems to have come up with the perfect solution: water hyacinth. This plant serves as food for bacteria of the clostridium genus, which consume simple sugars and release hydrogen as part of their digestive process.
How hydrogen is obtained: no massive generators, but in-lab plants
The bacteria are kept in vacuum chambers to prevent the hydrogen from coming into contact with oxygen and generating a chain explosion. Water hyacinths are decomposed and introduced into the chambers and the clostridium start to work. These bacteria feed on simple sugars that can be obtained from organic waste, reducing pollution from other industries.
The bacteria synthesis process also generates other types of substances as by-products that can be used in the pharmaceutical, biomedical and biotechnological industries. In addition, they can be used to clean large bodies of polluted water in a completely clean and natural process, without the use of chemicals.
It is hoped that investors can be found quickly because of the obvious advantages it has for powering a wide variety of industries from the same clean, renewable fuel.
How efficient is this plant? You can have it at home, and there’s no more space for solar panels
The first tests carried out with this hydrogen-producing plant yielded an astonishing 66% efficiency in energy production from sugars provided as feed. This represents an excellent hydrogen production capacity in a clean and safe process that also cleans the environment of waste and CO2 emissions.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that lactic acid can also be obtained, which is used as a raw material in the manufacture of biodegradable plastics, very important nowadays for the production of products free of plastic waste. With all these uses and applications, we can understand that this is a real feat of circular economy.
So far, it is estimated that the total cost per kilogram of hydrogen will be about $2.50, a price that could be reduced after implementing improvements in the production process. With all this, the hydrogen production plant could become the key to decarbonize all current vehicles and transportation systems.
The project is still in the early stages of research. It is necessary to move to the testing phase in real environments to test the data against reality. Undoubtedly, this could be a new sustainable alternative perfectly complementary to the recent solar panel with algae that is capable of producing hydrogen while cleaning the air of pollution.
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