Biological convertor of hydrogen to electricity for integration of renewable power to the grid

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

According to the Nobel laureate Richard Smalley, "energy is the single greatest challenge facing humanity". The energy problem has two main aspects: (1) Environmental aspect. Greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutant emissions are of great concern. (2) The availability of conventional energy sources and energy security. Among the most promising ways to solve these problems is the use of renewable energy sources. Among the biggest problems of the latter, especially wind and solar, is the significant variability in time. One of the most promising ways to smooth and store electrical energy is by using hydrogen as an energy storage medium. After producing and storing hydrogen, unfortunately there is currently no developed technology to convert it back to electrical power. A fundamentally new technology for the conversion of hydrogen to electricity, developed and patented in the laboratory of the PI, allows to eliminate that bottlenecks in the hydrogen-based energy storage and smoothing of renewable power generation. The proposed novel technology named Biogenerator, is the first viable bio-technology for electrical power generation. It is based on the use of chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms as an electro-bio-catalyst for the bioelectrochemical electricity production. The microorganism used, Leptospirillum ferriphilum, was isolated from natural source - an abandoned gold and copper mine. The Biogenerator is one of the most environmentally-friendly power generation technologies, which has very low, and under certain conditions, even negative carbon dioxide emissions.*The proposed project is related to the significant improvement of both the energy efficiency and the capital cost of the Biogenerator. The energy efficiency will be increased by developing a new microbial consortium for the conversion of hydrogen to electricity. The microorganisms will work at low temperature and high level of acidity. They will be obtained from acidic water streams originating from active volcanic sites. We are expecting to obtain unique microbiological characteristics of the consortium because of the original source of microorganisms, which has never been exploited before for electrical power generation. The microorganisms will be obtained from two volcanic sites: the Copahue volcano in Patagonia, Argentina and Kusatsu-Shirane volcano in Japan.*The decrease in the capital cost of the Biogenerator will be achieved by synthesizing a anodic electrocatalysts for the hydrogen oxidation which will contain no noble-metal catalyst. Currently, the platinum-based electrocatalyst is one of the most expensive components of the Biogenerator. The non-noble electrocatalyst will allow not only to decrease the capital cost of the Biogenerator, but also will allow the use of "dirty" hydrogen, containing various pollutants, as a fuel.*As a result of the successful completion of this project, the commercial potential of the Biogenerator will be increased significantly.