Energy of the future: Photosynthetic hydrogen from bacteria

The transition from fossil fuels to a renewable energy supply is one of the most important global challenges of the 21st century. In order to achieve the internationally-agreed target of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees, the international community must drastically reduce global CO2 emissions. Although Germany was long considered a pioneer in this energy transition, a wide-ranging switch to renewable energies in the energy sector still remains a future scenario here. In this regard, hydrogen could play an important role in the future as a promising, potentially climate-neutral energy source. Used in fuel cells, it provides energy for various applications, and only produces water as a waste product. At the moment, hydrogen is primarily obtained from the electrolysis of water—and this process initially requires energy input, which has so far mostly come from fossil fuels. A climate-neutral hydrogen economy, i.e. the use of so-called green hydrogen, requires that hydrogen production is based exclusively on renewable energy. Researchers are trying to exploit such a sustainable energy source, for example by means of photosynthesis. Ever since, photosynthesis has provided mankind with energy from sunlight, either in the form of food or as fossil fuels. In both cases, solar energy is initially stored in carbon compounds, such as sugar. If these carbon compounds are exploited, CO2 is liberated. Photosynthetic CO2 fixation is essentially reversed in order to recover the solar energy from the carbon compounds.

from Energy & Green Tech News - Energy Sciences News, Green Tech, Energy, Energy Science https://ift.tt/35G1N4U

SHARE SHARE SHARE