Renewable Hydrogen Carrier — Carbohydrate: Constructing the Carbon-Neutral Carbohydrate Economy

Y.-H. Percival Zhang and Jonathan R. Mielenz
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Y.-H. Percival Zhang: Biological Systems Engineering Department, 210-A Seitz Hall, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Jonathan R. Mielenz: DOE BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA

Energies, 2011, vol. 4, issue 2, 1-22

Abstract: The hydrogen economy presents an appealing energy future but its implementation must solve numerous problems ranging from low-cost sustainable production, high-density storage, costly infrastructure, to eliminating safety concern. The use of renewable carbohydrate as a high-density hydrogen carrier and energy source for hydrogen production is possible due to emerging cell-free synthetic biology technology—cell-free synthetic pathway biotransformation (SyPaB). Assembly of numerous enzymes and co-enzymes in vitro can create complicated set of biological reactions or pathways that microorganisms or catalysts cannot complete, for example, C 6 H 10 O 5 (aq) + 7 H 2 O (l) à 12 H 2 (g) + 6 CO 2 (g) (PLoS One 2007, 2:e456). Thanks to 100% selectivity of enzymes, modest reaction conditions, and high-purity of generated hydrogen, carbohydrate is a promising hydrogen carrier for end users. Gravimetric density of carbohydrate is 14.8 H 2 mass% if water can be recycled from proton exchange membrane fuel cells or 8.33% H 2 mass% without water recycling. Renewable carbohydrate can be isolated from plant biomass or would be produced from a combination of solar electricity/hydrogen and carbon dioxide fixation mediated by high-efficiency artificial photosynthesis mediated by SyPaB. The construction of this carbon-neutral carbohydrate economy would address numerous sustainability challenges, such as electricity and hydrogen storage, CO 2 fixation and long-term storage, water conservation, transportation fuel production, plus feed and food production.

Keywords: artificial photosynthesis; carbohydrate economy; carbon dioxide utilization; hydrogen carrier; hydrogen production; cell-free synthetic pathway biotransformation (SyPaB) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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