Renewable Hydrogen Carrier — Carbohydrate: Constructing the Carbon-Neutral Carbohydrate Economy

Energies

Y.-H. Percival Zhang¹ 

[1] Biological Systems Engineering Department, 210-A Seitz Hall, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

关键词: artificial photosynthesis;    carbohydrate economy;    carbon dioxide utilization;    hydrogen carrier;    hydrogen production;    cell-free synthetic pathway biotransformation (SyPaB);   

DOI  :  10.3390/en4020254

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The hydrogen economy presents an appealing energy future but its implementation must solve numerous problems ranging from low-cost sustainable production, high-density storage, costly infrastructure, to eliminating safety concern. The use of renewable carbohydrate as a high-density hydrogen carrier and energy source for hydrogen production is possible due to emerging cell-free synthetic biology technology—cell-free synthetic pathway biotransformation (SyPaB). Assembly of numerous enzymes and co-enzymes in vitro can create complicated set of biological reactions or pathways that microorganisms or catalysts cannot complete, for example, C₆H₁₀O₅ (aq) + 7 H₂O (l)12 H₂ (g) + 6 CO₂ (g) (PLoS One 2007, 2:e456). Thanks to 100% selectivity of enzymes, modest reaction conditions, and high-purity of generated hydrogen, carbohydrate is a promising hydrogen carrier for end users. Gravimetric density of carbohydrate is 14.8 H₂ mass% if water can be recycled from proton exchange membrane fuel cells or 8.33% H₂ mass% without water recycling. Renewable carbohydrate can be isolated from plant biomass or would be produced from a combination of solar electricity/hydrogen and carbon dioxide fixation mediated by high-efficiency artificial photosynthesis mediated by SyPaB. The construction of this carbon-neutral carbohydrate economy would address numerous sustainability challenges, such as electricity and hydrogen storage, CO₂ fixation and long-term storage, water conservation, transportation fuel production, plus feed and food production.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.