> POND SCUM PRODUCES LIMITLESS HYDROGEN SUPPLY
> --------------------------------------------
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hydrogen may be an ideal fuel when the supply of oil
> and natural gas runs out, but the problem has been finding a way to
> produce it cheaply. Scientists now say the answer may be an ordinary
> pond scum. Green algae, a simple plant that grows all over the world,
> has the unique ability to convert water and sunlight into hydrogen gas,
> researchers said Monday at the national meeting of the American
> Association for the Advancement of Science.
>
> Now scientists have found a new way to force the algae to make hydrogen
> gas on demand, a process that could lead to an almost limitless supply
> of fuel that burns without pollution and produces only water as a waste
> product. Tasios Melis of the University of California, Berkeley, said
> that the algae, one of the most ancient plants known, evolved the
> ability to live in two radically different environments.
>
> When living in ordinary air and sunlight, it uses photosynthesis like
> other plants. This process converts sunlight, water and carbon dioxide
> into waste oxygen and the life-sustaining chemicals the plant needs.
> But when the algae is deprived of a key nutrient, sulfur, and forced to
> live in an anaerobic, or oxygen-free, environment, the plant reverts to
> an alternate life style in order to survive. Under these conditions, the
> algae makes hydrogen, said Melis.
>
> ``It is sort of a metabolic switch,'' said Melis. ``It is an alternative
> way of breathing'' that the plant developed over millions of years to
> survive where there is no oxygen or sulfur. Those same conditions would
> kill other plants.
>
> In experiments, Melis said his laboratory first grows algae cells in the
> ordinary way, giving the plant sunlight, nutrients and water. The plant
> happily reproduces, growing millions upon millions of new cells. Then,
> the researchers cut off the supply of sulfur and oxygen to the algae,
> forcing it to click the metabolic switch to its hydrogen-producing life
style.
>
> ``Within 20 hours, the algae turns on its switch, converting from oxygen
> production to hydrogen production,'' said Melis. ``We have to seal the
> culture to prevent exposure to oxygen. Then we collect the hydrogen as
> it bubbles out of the culture.''
>
> The gas comes out as pure, pollution-free hydrogen, he said. Melis said
> the hydrogen-making process has operated experimentally for up to four
> days, the time it takes for the algae to exhaust its internal resources.
> The researchers then converted back to normal photosynthesis and the
> plant revives itself, ready to start another cycle.
>
> ``This has the promise of generating fuel from some of nature's most
> plentiful resources -- sunlight and water,'' said Melis. One liter of
> algae culture, a little over a quarter of a gallon, produces three
> milliliters of hydrogen, about a tenth of a fluid ounce, per hour, said
> Melis. Researchers believe this efficiency can be increased at least 100
> fold, but that has yet to be demonstrated.
>
> Algae growing in a small pond, he said, may eventually be enough to
> power 10 cars, although Melis admitted, ``I'm not saying how big the
> pond would have to be.''
>
> The algae's alternate life style uses an enzyme, along with sunlight, to
> extract hydrogen from water. The enzyme, hydrogenase, is not found in
> higher plants. Some researchers are looking at ways to transfer the gene
> for this enzyme into other plants and, possibly, to force the enzyme to
> work in the presence of oxygen.
>
> Hydrogen has long been promoted as a fuel to replace fossil energy
> sources. In the space program, hydrogen and oxygen are combined to make
> a rocket propellant, such as in the main engines of the space shuttle.
> Oxygen and hydrogen are an explosive mixture, but they can be combined
> in a fuel cell to produce electricity and water. Fuel cells electrify
> the space shuttle and were used successfully in the Apollo program.
>
> Margaret K. Mann of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal
> facility in Golden, Colo., said that auto makers are already developing
> fuel cells to drive automobiles. Other researchers, she said, are
> studying ways of changing the nation's energy infrastructure --
> pipelines, fuel transports and service stations -- to make use of
hydrogen.
>
> She said it will be at least 20 years before hydrogen becomes a major
> part of the energy picture, but the gas could eventually power the
> nation, providing a renewable fuel source for both transportation and
> electrical generation.
>
> Right now, hydrogen is most commonly separated from natural gas. This
> makes hydrogen a negative in the energy equation, since natural gas is a
> cheaper, more efficient fuel.
>
> Hydrogen may come into its own for environmental reasons, said Mann.
> Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of
> global warming, many believe. The only waste generated from hydrogen
> fuel is pure water, a resource that theoretically can be recycled to
> produce more hydrogen.
> --
> Regards,
> Dale Pond
> Delta Spectrum Research
> http://www.SVPvril.com
> Sympathetic Vibratory Physics
> Sacred Science - Sacred Life
> SVP Discussion Forum:
> http://www.egroups.com/list/svpvril/
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