High Efficiency Bio-electrolytic Hydrogen Production from Biomass Using Nanostructure-Decorated Electrodes

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CBET-0828544LiuHydrogen fuel cells show great potential in energy conversion systems due to their high efficiencies in converting hydrogen to electricity. However, currently over 95% of the hydrogen supply in the US is derived from non-renewable materials, including coal, oil, and natural gas. Bio-electrolysis demonstrates a completely new avenue for sustainable hydrogen production from renewable biomass. It has great potential to become an economically feasible approach for hydrogen production due to its high hydrogen yield compared to fermentative hydrogen production and much lower energy requirement. This research combines the strengths of microbes and nanoscale materials with a focus on the development of novel electrode materials suitable for renewable hydrogen production in bio-electrolyzers to yield a high production rate with low energy consumption. The completion of this research will not only enable a breakthrough in the development of highly efficient electrode materials, but also enhance the understanding of the fundamental issues in hydrogen production from biomass. The specific issues include how nanofibrils affect bacterial adhesion, gene expression, and electron transfer at the bacteria/electrode interface, and how choice of bacterial species and environmental factors affect hydrogen production. The proposed research will allow clean and renewable energy (hydrogen) to be produced from biomass. The concomitant treatment of waste during the hydrogen generation process will strengthen the environmental sustainability and benefit human health. Generating energy from agricultural and industrial waste biomass will bring economic benefit to farmers and industries. The knowledge obtained from this research will lead to a better understanding of both the mechanisms of biological electron transfer at microbe/electrode interface and the impact nanomaterials have on the formation and physiology of biofilm, an impact that will have significant implications for many environmental, biomedical, and industrial applications, such as bioremediation and biosensors. Two graduate students will be supported by this project; one of them will be from a minority underrepresented in science. This research will also provide summer research opportunities for two REU students participating in the NSF-REU site at PSU. Additionally, the research results will be integrated into a graduate course at OSU, "BEE 694: Nanotechnology in Biological Systems".