The News
New sugar-to-hydrogen technology proposed
BLACKSBURG, Va., May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists, declaring a hydrogen economy is not a futuristic concept, have proposed using carbohydrates from biomass to produce low-cost hydrogen.
Researchers at Virginia Tech, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Georgia are suggesting the use of polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, to directly produce hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy.
The researchers note most industrial hydrogen comes from natural gas, which is costly to store and move, as well as being cumbersome and dangerous.
"We need a simple way to store and carry hydrogen energy and a simple process to produce hydrogen," said Y.H. Percival Zhang, assistant professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech.
Using synthetic biology approaches, Zhang and colleagues use 13 enzymes never found together in nature to convert polysaccharides and water into hydrogen.

The Research
Read the research behind this story in the journal PLoS One.