E. coli is being manipulated to produce hydrogen. Professor Thomas Wood and his research team at Texas A&M University’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering are managing to create 140 times more hydrogen with less energy than the amount it would take to process it naturally.
You can’t talk about fuel-cell technology without talking about hydrogen; and maybe someday we won’t be talking fuel-cell technology without mentioning E. coli. The use of E. coli goes beyond the association with food poisoning. In the late nineties studies of the genome sequence of E. coli identified over 4,000 genes. It was touted as “one of the most studied cells in all of science,” importantly so since the process of studying E. coli is the first stepping stone to tackling the human genome which is 25 times greater than E. coli.
So, where would one start? Professor Wood had to look at E. coli, a bacteria containing somewhere in the range of 5,000 genes today, a bit more than ten years ago, and make power? By deleting six genes in its DNA, E. coli was changed enough to produce hydrogen. The six genes that were eliminated weaken the E. coli bacteria enough to make it able to use more sugar as its power source through its own glucose-conversion process.
The impact of this discovery, outside of the obvious which is hydrogen is a great renewable source of energy, is phenomenal. Professor Wood finds that this discovery would be beneficial as it allows hydrogen to be converted on site since transporting hydrogen is risky. There is also the potential to get more from less with further scientific research.
To find out more about Professor Wood’s research there is an article in Microbial Biotechnology or you can see E. Coli Bacteria: A Future Source Of Energy?. ScienceDaily at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129170709.htm
Information regarding the National Institute of Health’s early E. coli genome research can be found at http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/sept97/nhgra-04.htm.
