In a hot spring on the Russian volcanic island of Kunashir, there lives a particular type of microbe which consumes poisonous carbon monoxide as nourishment, and exhales hydrogen. The microbe is called
C. hydrogenoformans, and researchers at the The Institute for Genomic Research recently finished analyzing its complete genome sequence.
One day, the carbon monoxide waste from other industries may be used to feed vats of these microbes, and the resulting hydrogen could be collected and used to power the fuel cells of tomorrow.
Further reading:
Science Daily article
Written by
Alan Bellows, posted on 06 December 2005. Alan is the founder, developer, designer, and managing editor of Damn Interesting, and he likes the Oxford comma.
Hah..
Oh, but we can’t accidentally hurt them! They are living beings, leave them alone! cough
Its a potentally cheap and efficiant sin against nature!!! Jesus wont allow it! cough cough
-L.
Certain photosynthetic organisms (a few cyanobacteria, I think) will make hydrogen when illuminated. They have to be under the appropriate malnourished conditions to make it work. It’s a neat trick, as the energy for hydrolysis comes from the Sun.
Cough, cough. I have been infected with a strain of hydrogen producing bacteria. Cough. cough. KABOOM!!!
Now I am dead.
Get in the cart.
LOL to the above comments…after all we are all breathing dinosaur farts everyday, so why is this idea so far fetched?
;)