| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/S62406/01 |
| Title: |
Biological hydrogen production from crops & sugar wastes |
| Principal Investigator: |
Macaskie, Professor LE |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Department: |
Sch of Biosciences |
| Organisation: |
University of Birmingham |
| Scheme: |
LINK |
| Starts: |
01 October 2003 |
Ends: |
31 December 2004 |
Value (£): |
23,652
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Fuel Cell Technologies |
Sustainable Energy Vectors |
| Waste Minimisation |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Concerns about global warming and the finiteness of non-renewable energy sources have led to the acceptance that H2 is the clean fuel of tomorrow. H2 can be made by chemical techniques or by fermentation or organic wastes. Such wastes can be high-sugar, or starch wastes from industry, or crop residues from agriculture. This project will use an H-overproducing mutant of E. coli which produces H2 + C02 as gaseous products, and organic acid fermentation co-products. A second organism, R. spaeroides, converts these organic acids into an additional H-stream by a side reaction of nitrogenase activity in the presence of light. An integrated reactor will be constructed at the University of Bimingham, and a Demonstrator in the plant at Cadbury Trebor Bassett to show H2 preoduction from high sugar confectionery waste. The H2 will be trapped in H-stores and utilised in a fuel cell (contributed by another project) with a movie made for purposes of dissemination and IP. Potato starch will be used as an alternative feedstock at U of B, with an upstream immobilised enzyme reactor (debranching enzyme) incorporated if necessary to boost the rate of starch breakdown to maltodextrins, which are readily utilised by E. coli. Conversion extents/rates of sugar/starch to H2 from the pooled H-streams will be calculated from the H loaded and stored into the H-storage modules
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.bham.ac.uk |