Could E.coli be used as a future energy source?

US scientist converts bacteria into hydrogen.

A professor at the A&M University in Texas, USA, has altered the food-borne bacteria so it can produce a substantial amount of hydrogen. Although in its early stage, this new approach to creating hydrogen could become a key ingredient in fuel cell technology, an environmentally alternative fuel source used in portable electronics, cars and perhaps even future power plants.
 
Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, began by selecting six specific genes in E.coli’s DNA and transformed the bacterium into a ‘mini hydrogen-producing factory’ that is generated by the addition of sugar – this massively enhanced E.coli’s glucose-conversion rate.
 
“These bacteria have 5,000 genes that enable them to survive environmental changes,” Wood explained. “When we knock things out, the bacteria become less competitive. We haven’t given them an ability to do something. They don’t gain anything here; they lose. The bacteria that we’re making are less competitive and less harmful because of what’s been removed.”
 
Boosted by sugar as its main power source, this strain of E.coli can now take advantage of existing and ever-expanding scientific processes aimed at producing sugar from certain crops, such as corn, added Wood.
 
“A lot of people are working on converting something that you grow into some kind of sugar,” Wood explained. “We want to take that sugar and make it into hydrogen. We’re going to get sugar from some crop somewhere. We’re going to get some form of sugar-like molecule and use the bacteria to convert that into hydrogen.”

Biological hydrogen production

Biological methods such as this (E.coli produce hydrogen through a fermentative process) are likely to reduce energy costs since these processes don’t require extensive heating or electricity,” he added.
 
“One of the most difficult things about chemical engineering is how you get the product,” Wood explained. “In this case, it’s very easy because the hydrogen is a gas, and it just bubbles out of the solution. You just catch the gas as it comes out of the glass. That’s it. You have pure hydrogen.”
 
This strain of E.coli can produce 140 times more hydrogen than is created in naturally occurring processes. Most hydrogen, today, is sourced by ‘cracking water’ – the technique of separating hydrogen from oxygen in water, but this method has proven too costly and requires vast amounts of energy to work.

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