U.S. researchers have used a combination of enzymes that consume cellulose from non-food products to produce a high-quality hydrogen gas, a potential breakthrough in efforts to use biofuels to power hydrogen fuel cells. Scientists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Georgia combined 14 enzymes, a coenzyme, materials from nonfood sources, and heated water to produce a hydrogen gas pure enough to power a fuel cell. The researchers say the process generates the highest hydrogen yield reported from cellulosic materials.

While researchers used wood chips in their experiments, they say agricultural waste or switchgrass could also be employed. “Using cellulose instead of starch expands the renewable resource for producing hydrogen to include biomass,” said Jonathan Mielenz at the Oak Ridge Laboratory. Meanwhile, the Australian airline Qantas this month is expected to announce plans to build the world’s second commercial-scale power plant to produce green jet fuel using food and household waste.

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A U.S. company has come up with a new way of producing biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks, such as agricultural waste: Using enzymes from the guts of termites to more efficiently produce ethanol.

The startup company, ZeaChem, says using the enzymes from the wood-eating insects has achieved ethanol yields in the laboratory 35 percent higher than other producers of cellulosic ethanol, according to MIT Technology Review.

ZeaChem uses acid to break the cellulose into sugars, but instead of fermenting the sugars into ethanol using yeast — as is customarily done — the company feeds the sugars to an acetogen bacteria found in termites. The bacteria turns the sugars into acetic acid, which produces ethanol when combined with hydrogen.

“It’s not the obvious, direct route, but there is a high yield potential,” said an official from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado.

ZeaChem’s CEO said the company has produced 135 gallons of ethanol per ton of cellulosic feedstock.

Article appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360

[photo credit: ZeaChem]

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