Hydrogen fueled vehicles are being touted by many as the vehicles of the future. Hydrogen fueled vehicles would have one emission, water. Due to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere presently due to transportation, hydrogen fuel is being considered a major weapon against global warming.
However, producing hydrogen powered vehicles is fraught with problems, including making the vehicles economical. One reason hydrogen fuel would be expensive is due to the way in which hydrogen is turned into electricity. Fuel cells are used to generate electricity with the help of a catalyst, commonly platinum. However, platinum is considered both very expensive and rare.
But now researchers have found a way in which to use nickel and iron to generate electricity from hydrogen. Nickel and iron just so happen to be much more common and inexpensive. The research findings were recently published in Science and outline how researchers used microbes to generate enzymes which turn hydrogen into electricity and water with the use of nickel and iron rather than platinum.
However, these enzymes do not fair well outside of the microbes and therefore would not be practical for use for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. But the researchers found a way to make a synthetic version of these very enzymes. In fact, the researchers believe they have created an even tougher version of the enzyme, a version that is also quicker in reaction time.
The synthetic enzyme is said to perform the chemical reaction which turns water into hydrogen gas ten times faster than the original enzyme. The synthetic enzyme is able to produce 100,000 molecules of hydrogen gas per second. However, the process was found to require too much energy to be practical for use just yet.
The generation of inexpensive hydrogen gas is one step towards economical hydrogen fueled vehicles and other products.
