Blood Protein Used to Split Water 230
brian0918 writes "The Imperial College in London is reporting that genetically-engineered blood protein can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The abstract can be viewed for free from the Journal of the American Chemical Society." From the article: "Scientists have combined two molecules that occur naturally in blood to engineer a molecular complex that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This molecular complex can use energy from the sun to create hydrogen gas, providing an alternative to electrolysis, the method typically used to split water into its constituent parts. The breakthrough may pave the way for the development of novel ways of creating hydrogen gas for use as fuel in the future."
efficiency (Score:5, Informative)
So, a quick calculation of efficiency:
FTA
Light in:
6 hours, 450 W light = 2.7 kWh
H energy out:
0.044 mL H
= 5.7 e -5 kWh
Disclaimer:
This probably has an error, please help me correct it.
It has been a really long time since I did physics or dimensional analysis.
I could not find in the paper the pressure for the 0.044 ml of generated hydrogen, nor it's weight, so I made a gross assumption the energy density listed in Wikipedia (at 700 bar) was close enough.
Regardless, if you put in 2.7 units of energy and get out 0.000057 units... that seems really (s)low.
Re:We really don't want to do that. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:We really don't want to do that. (Score:3, Informative)
Net loss of 1 H2O molecule in the Krebs Cycle. And plenty of other places as well, I assume.
It's impossible, one presumes, for any standard cellular organism to destroy all water in its environment, because then no biochemical processes could occur and it would be dead.
I presume the way this works is that they isolate the protein, rather than adding the organism to the water. And proteins don't self-replicate.
Re:Energy output = input? (Score:3, Informative)
They say nothing of the kind. Quote from the abstract, "The efficiency of the photoproduction of H2 was greater than that of the system using the well-known organic chromophore, tetrakis(1-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphinatozinc(I
Note the complete lack of superlatives.
Re:We really don't want to do that. (Score:4, Informative)
Who said anything about reproduction, let alone unchecked reproduction? The article says it is a molecular complex, not a living organism capable of reproduction. I expect it is just an enzyme to catalyse the reaction, so I wouldn't worry about this any more than you would be inclined to worry about naturally occuring cellulase [wikipedia.org] suddenly going rampant and destroying all plant life on earth in a matter of hours. Generally being somewhat informed is a prerequisite critical analysis of risks and any ensuing scaremongering (okay, that's not true, i just think it should be a prerequisite!).
Re:Energy output = input? (Score:4, Informative)
That said, proteins don't usually last forever and how long they last largely depends on how hostile their environment is, and what constitutes a hostile environment for a protein varies from protein to protein.
Re:Problem with large scale use? (Score:2, Informative)
It is a neat use of HSA to solubilize Zn protoporphyrin IX and prevent collisional self-quenching of the excited triplet state, though. And, they achieved a greater efficiency in this non-water-splitting reaction than another known catalyst, so that's worth knowing too, I suppose.
Re:Energy output = input? (Score:4, Informative)
As a sidenote, to quote the artilce: "Dr Stephen Curry Opens in new window, a structural biologist from Imperial College London's Division of Cell and Molecular Biology who participated in the research explains: "This work has shown that it is possible to manipulate molecules and proteins that occur naturally in the human body by changing one small detail of their make-up, such as the type of metal at the heart of a porphyrin molecule, as we did in this study.
Naturally occur in a human? I was hoping they'd be talking about cow-derived materials, unless they are interested in genetically engineering photosynthetic human beings? Maybe one of our great great grand children will be engineered enough to be vacuum resistant and fully photosynthetic, then he can fly around in outer space while living off of sunshine.
Re:We really don't want to do that. (Score:3, Informative)
This [google.com] might be of interest to you.
Re:Energy output = input? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How effecient is this? (Score:3, Informative)
I would say though that the "manufactured in an industrial scale" statement is a bit misleading. Purified blood proteins in general are ungodly expensive. For instance, immunoglobins, which you might get to protect you against infection if you've been exposed to, say, Hepatitis B or C, are some of the most expensive drugs we have, ranging up into the thousands of $ per shot. Most of these are refined from human blood, but even if you have trillions of bacteria slaving away for you producing recombinant proteins, it's the purification and quality control steps that are the killer.