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Experts make astounding discovery about next-gen fuel production: 'A crucial step forward'

The future of hydrogen as a fuel is still in flux, but it holds the promise of edging out more polluting dirty fuels.

The future of hydrogen as a fuel is still in flux, but it holds the promise of edging out more polluting dirty fuels.

Photo Credit: iStock

Researchers have created a roadmap for scaling up the production of biohydrogen through microbial fermentation which can turn waste materials into a valuable energy resource.

The review was published in the Chinese Journal of Electrical Engineering and provides insight into the various hydrogen production methods that use microbes, such as cyanobacteria and green algae, to produce the greener fuel, as Tech Xplore reported.

They found that a combination of photobiological and dark fermentation processes is the most effective route toward lower costs and greater efficiency, paving the way for industrializing the process.

As the study detailed, global energy consumption is on the rise, and with dirty fuel sources representing 82% of that production, something needs to change.

"Our research represents a crucial step forward in biohydrogen production, particularly in utilizing waste materials for microbial fermentation," according to Tongming Li, a leading expert in biohydrogen production technology and a contributor to the study, per the report.

"The insights we have gained will not only deepen our understanding of the complex interactions between microbial processes but also pave the way for optimizing hydrogen production on an industrial scale. This optimization is key to accelerating the global transition to sustainable energy, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and minimizing environmental impacts."

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Other methods of creating hydrogen, such as electrolysis and steam reforming, are often costly due to the high energy requirements. Biological methods are more cost-efficient, and utilizing domestic and industrial wastewater for hydrogen production provides a low-cost energy source while simultaneously offering waste treatment.

One of the major hurdles for hydrogen fuel adoption is infrastructure. It lacks the pipelines that more polluting fuels have, but more efficient means of production could jumpstart the sector.

Startups like Ecolectro are looking at ways to produce the fuel on a more regional scale through small shipping container production plants. However, those methods generally rely on chemical processes, whereas biohydrogen methods are more eco-friendly.

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The future of hydrogen as a fuel is still in flux, but it holds the promise of edging out more polluting dirty fuels and could be a bulwark for the U.S. energy industry, as the Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy claims.

It can be produced domestically and through sustainable means such as solar energy, wind, and biomass. Microbial hydrogen production offers a way forward that supports a more circular economy, as Tech Xplore noted, where waste can be used to power the future.

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