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Cheap Hydrogen from Scraps

It sounds almost too good to be true: add a few bugs to food scraps and waste water to generate clean hydrogen fuel. But over the past few years, researchers have been gradually working toward this promising scheme for producing hydrogen.

Hydrogen is an appealing, environmentally friendly fuel because burning it creates only water as a waste product. MECs harness the electrons produced by certain bacteria as those bacteria feed on biodegradable material. The bacteria sit on an electrode--the anode--as they metabolize organic matter in an oxygen-devoid chamber. Not being able to react with oxygen, the electrons travel from the anode to the counter-electrode--the cathode--where they combine with protons to form hydrogen.

Compared with platinum, which acts as an effective catalyst when applied in a thin layer to a flat piece of carbon cloth, a simple piece of stainless steel is two-thirds less effective. But when Logan's team increased the surface area of the stainless-steel cathode by arranging the material in the form of a high-density bristle brush, hydrogen production rates increased to values that matched or even exceeded those of the platinum cathode. While the platinum cathode costs around 15 cents, the stainless-steel brush only set the researchers back 3 cents.