Complete conversion of carbohydrate and water to hydrogen and carbohydrate dioxide by a synthetic enzymatic pathway

Y. H.Percival Zhang, Barbara R. Evans, Jonathan Mielenz, Mike Adams

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The evaluation of transportation fuels need to include a number of factors, such as, fuel costs, system costs, storage densities, primary energy source, energy efficiency, technological maturity, environmental concerns, and societal concerns. Hydrogen-fuel cell system is believed to eventually replace current internal combustion engine for transportation sector because the former has much higher energy conversion efficiencies and does not produce any pollutant. But there are several technical obstacles to the hydrogen economy, such as, production, storage, distribution, and safety concerns. Polymeric carbohydrates (C6H10O5) is proposed as a hydrogen carrier (14.8 H2 mass %), based on a new breakthrough - complete conversion of carbohydrate and water to hydrogen and carbon dioxide published in a new open access journal of Public Library of Science ONE, 2007, 2:e456. This new conversion is implemented by a new technology called in vitro synthetic biology. Special features, such as, safe storage of solid carbohydrates, modest reaction conditions, easy separation of the products and reactants (gas/liquid), complete conversion, high hydrogen storage capacity (14.8 mass%), no toxic by-products (e.g., CO), and no special infrastructure needed, make carbohydrate as a hydrogen carrier more appealing, as compared to other hydrogen carriers. With technology improvement, sugar-powered vehicles would come true eventually.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAmerican Chemical Society - 235th National Meeting, Abstracts of Scientific Papers
StatePublished - 2008
Event235th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, ACS 2008 - New Orleans, LA, United States
Duration: Apr 6 2008Apr 10 2008

Publication series

NameACS National Meeting Book of Abstracts
ISSN (Print)0065-7727

Conference

Conference235th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, ACS 2008
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew Orleans, LA
Period04/6/0804/10/08

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