Hydrogen bugs
"So, We Need $50,000...." :: AO
Tom Byers continues his discussion with MIT's Alice Gast and Stanford's Jim Plummer, who provide a fascinating glimpse into a real-world research project that could satisfy our need for energy.
Jim Plummer [Stanford University] POSTED: 02.03.06 @07:00
Jim Plummer: So here is another example. About three years ago, two faculty walked into my office. One of them was actually Jim Swartz, this guy in chemical engineering again. And the other one was Alfred Spormann, who is in civil engineering. They said to me, "So, we need $50,000," which is something faculty say to me all the time. And so my next question is, "Why?" And they said, "Well, we've got this idea that's going to solve the energy crisis or energy problem." And I said, "Really, that's interesting. So, what is it?" And they said, "Well, a lot of people are thinking about the hydrogen in the economy and the ability to run cars on fuel cells and hydrogen and things like that. But one of the fundamental issues, here, is where are we going to get the hydrogen to do this? You can flip water, but it takes energy to do that. You can reform methane, which is a little bit better, but doesn't solve the CO2 problem." So Alfred said, "You know, what I do in my day job is study micro bugs in the soil." He studies some of these bugs that eat oil spills and things like that. And he said, "You know, we've found a particular one of these naturally occurring bugs that has the ability to take photons, light, as its energy source and use that energy, rather than growing, which is what bugs normally do, to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. I said, "Boy, that's pretty interesting, a naturally occurring microbe that can do this." And I said, "So what do you need $50,000 for?" And he said, "Well the problem is that this little bug is an anaerobic bug, which means that it's very sensitive to oxygen. It ends up killing itself when it does this. So, it seems like it is a no-win situation."So, he said, "We have this idea that if we work on this and use some of the techniques against scaling, techniques from chemical engineering, and so on, that will allow us..." I mean—I'll explain this in my simple electrical-engineering perspective; I'm sure a chemical engineer can do a better job: You take a population of these bugs that reproduce every few minutes, and you expose the population to a low concentration of oxygen. The tail on the distribution survives. Then, you use that tail as the parents of the next generation, and so on. You do this multiple times, and you eventually mutate it into a form of this bug that is much less oxygen sensitive. So they said, "We think we can do this and create a version of this microbe that actually could scale up and create hydrogen efficiently from simply sunlight." So, the division is sunlight shining on these big bio reactor beds; these bugs are sitting there enough, and you pump in water and out comes hydrogen and oxygen." So this is pretty interesting, and I said, "What do you need the $50,000 for?" They said, "Well, we want to hire a postdoc to begin doing some experiments." And so, we did. And that turned into a project that is looking actually very interesting. And it has since become funded by major agencies, and you know, it just started as a crazy idea. And it may not ever scale up to the state where it can have a huge impact on the world's energy problem, but then again, it might. And it's the kind of thing that university labs try and experiment with; we just explore crazy ideas.Tom Byers: Wow! Do you have another one off the top of your head?
Tom Byers continues his discussion with MIT's Alice Gast and Stanford's Jim Plummer, who provide a fascinating glimpse into a real-world research project that could satisfy our need for energy.
Jim Plummer [Stanford University] POSTED: 02.03.06 @07:00
Jim Plummer: So here is another example. About three years ago, two faculty walked into my office. One of them was actually Jim Swartz, this guy in chemical engineering again. And the other one was Alfred Spormann, who is in civil engineering. They said to me, "So, we need $50,000," which is something faculty say to me all the time. And so my next question is, "Why?" And they said, "Well, we've got this idea that's going to solve the energy crisis or energy problem." And I said, "Really, that's interesting. So, what is it?" And they said, "Well, a lot of people are thinking about the hydrogen in the economy and the ability to run cars on fuel cells and hydrogen and things like that. But one of the fundamental issues, here, is where are we going to get the hydrogen to do this? You can flip water, but it takes energy to do that. You can reform methane, which is a little bit better, but doesn't solve the CO2 problem." So Alfred said, "You know, what I do in my day job is study micro bugs in the soil." He studies some of these bugs that eat oil spills and things like that. And he said, "You know, we've found a particular one of these naturally occurring bugs that has the ability to take photons, light, as its energy source and use that energy, rather than growing, which is what bugs normally do, to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. I said, "Boy, that's pretty interesting, a naturally occurring microbe that can do this." And I said, "So what do you need $50,000 for?" And he said, "Well the problem is that this little bug is an anaerobic bug, which means that it's very sensitive to oxygen. It ends up killing itself when it does this. So, it seems like it is a no-win situation."So, he said, "We have this idea that if we work on this and use some of the techniques against scaling, techniques from chemical engineering, and so on, that will allow us..." I mean—I'll explain this in my simple electrical-engineering perspective; I'm sure a chemical engineer can do a better job: You take a population of these bugs that reproduce every few minutes, and you expose the population to a low concentration of oxygen. The tail on the distribution survives. Then, you use that tail as the parents of the next generation, and so on. You do this multiple times, and you eventually mutate it into a form of this bug that is much less oxygen sensitive. So they said, "We think we can do this and create a version of this microbe that actually could scale up and create hydrogen efficiently from simply sunlight." So, the division is sunlight shining on these big bio reactor beds; these bugs are sitting there enough, and you pump in water and out comes hydrogen and oxygen." So this is pretty interesting, and I said, "What do you need the $50,000 for?" They said, "Well, we want to hire a postdoc to begin doing some experiments." And so, we did. And that turned into a project that is looking actually very interesting. And it has since become funded by major agencies, and you know, it just started as a crazy idea. And it may not ever scale up to the state where it can have a huge impact on the world's energy problem, but then again, it might. And it's the kind of thing that university labs try and experiment with; we just explore crazy ideas.Tom Byers: Wow! Do you have another one off the top of your head?
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