Converting organic matter to hydrogen fuel with microbial electrolysis cell

Hydrogen fuel from microbial idrolysis cell With energy sources depleting by the second, researchers are always on the lookout for new and renewable sources of energy to meet the energy needs of the future.

One of the types of energy that is currently in demand is using ethanol as a fuel. However this is not that feasible as a renewable source of energy as producing economical ethanol from cellulose is expected to take a minimum of 10 more years.

This is because according to environmental engineering researchers, first cellulose has to be broken into sugars so that it is possible for bacteria to converts them into ethanol.
This is why an alternative method has been suggested where microbial fuel cells are converted into cellulose while other biodegradable organic materials are then released into hydrogen.

To prove this, researchers used naturally occurring bacteria in a microbial electrolysis cell with acetic acid, which is the dominant acid found in the fermentation of glucose and cellulose.
In this electrolysis you find that the anode is granulated graphite while the cathode is a platinum catalyst where electrolysis is conducted with the help of an off-the-shelf anion exchange membrane.
On consuming acetic acid, the bacteria release both electrons and protons to create a maximum of 0.3 volts of energy. Once more than 0.2 volts are added from outside sources, you find hydrogen gas bubbling from the liquid.

With this process, you find a production of more than 288% of energy in hydrogen than in electrical energy that is added to the process.
This is in contrast to the standard process of producing hydrogen is water hydrolysis that is only 50-70% efficient. In fact, even if the microbial electrolysis cell bleeds off some hydrogen so that the required energy boost is created to sustain hydrogen production, you find 144% more available energy here than electrical energy used for its production.

It is thus suggested that the hydrogen that is produced from cellulose and other renewable organic material be blended with natural gas so that it can be used in natural gas vehicles using methane.
The reason for this suggestion is though methane burns cleanly, on adding hydrogen; it tends to burn more cleanly and can be used in existing natural gas combustion vehicles.

The efficiency of production of hydrogen is based on both electrical energy and energy in organic substances and ranges between 63 to 82%. Though both lactic acid and acetic acid achieve 82% efficiency, untreated cellulose is only 63% while glucose is 64% efficient.

This hydrogen that is produced by microbial-electrolysis-cell can also be used in manufacture of fertilizers. Instead of having fertilizers produced in factories and trucked to farms, with this method, large farms or farm cooperatives can produce hydrogen from wood chips and then use nitrogen found in the air to produce ammonia or nitric acid.

This is used directly as the fertilizer or ammonia may be used to make ammonium nitrate, sulfate or phosphate.