Water Droplet Sized Microreactors Produce Hydrogen

Many people would love to use hydrogen to produce energy. But we still lack a good way to make industrial quantities of it. Maybe the new technology of water droplet sized microreactors filled with living algae and bacteria could be the solution.

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Hydrogen might have some explosive problems but it is still one of the most promising sources of energy for carbon-neutral economies. But the main obstacle currently is the production of hydrogen itself as it tends to require a lot of energy and thus also money. Thus, any green alternatives that could change are heavily sought after.

A team of British and Chinese experts created an incredible technology that uses water droplet sized microreactors full of microorganism. When these drops are in sunlight they produce hydrogen instead of oxygen. The droplets are made from dextran-in-PEG.

Each of the droplets with an average size of 170 micrometers contains roughly ten-thousand single-celled algae called Chlorella that is kept closely together using osmotic compression.

Under normal circumstances, Chlorella performs regular photosynthesis that creates oxygen. But if they find themselves in places with a low amount of oxygen they will start the hydrogenase process. Using their enzymes they are capable of getting hydrogen out of their photosynthetic metabolic processes.

The droplet microreactors work because the Chlorella algae in the center of the droplet switch to producing hydrogen. And to further increase their production of hydrogen they covered the surface of the droplets in a layer of E.coli bacteria. The E.coli eats up oxygen forcing more of the Chlorella to switch towards producing hydrogen.

The development of living droplet microreactors is still in its very beginnings. Yet, it could be an important step towards photosynthetic green energy that can be used under normal circumstances. The scientists are convinced that their simple droplets paired up with nifty photosynthetic organisms are going to be an interesting platform for the production of hydrogen that will be ecologically friendly.

Sources:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19823-5

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