Plants Give Up Secret Of Splitting Water

IOL ^ | 2-6-2004

[blam]

Plants give up secret of splitting water

February 06 2004 at 07:21AM

Washington - Researchers said on Thursday they had taken another step toward understanding how plants split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms - which may provide a cheap way to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel.

Producing hydrogen from water is the stuff of science fiction - and some comments by US President George Bush. But the team at Imperial College London and Japan Science and Technology Corp. in Yokohama said they had taken the best pictures yet of the plant structures that do it every day.

They used high-resolution x-ray crystallography to make an image of the tiny atomic splitter that separates the two hydrogen atoms from an oxygen atom in a water molecule.

"Results by other groups, including those obtained using lower resolution x-ray crystallography at 3.7 angstroms have shown that the splitting of water occurs at a catalytic center that consists of four manganese atoms," said So Iwata of Imperial's Department of Biological Sciences.

'Together this arrangement gives strong hints about the water-splitting chemistry'

"We've taken this further by showing that three of the manganese atoms, a calcium atom and four oxygen atoms form a cube-like structure, which brings stability to the catalytic center," Iwata added in a statement.

"Together this arrangement gives strong hints about the water-splitting chemistry."

Writing in the journal Science, Iwata and colleagues said they looked at a plant bacterium called Thermosynechococcus elongatus. "Without photosynthesis life on Earth would not exist as we know it," Jim Barber of Imperial's Department of Biological Sciences said in a statement.

"Oxygen derived from this process is part of the air we breathe and maintains the ozone layer needed to protect us from ultraviolet radiation.

"Now hydrogen also contained in water could be one of the most promising energy sources for the future. Unlike fossil fuels it's highly efficient, low-polluting and is mobile so it can be used for power generation in remote regions where it's difficult to access electricity."

Water has always seemed a logical source for hydrogen but the only known feasible method to separate it, electrolysis, costs ten times as much as natural gas, and is three times as expensive as gasoline, Barber said.

[pabianice]

This is big news.

[gridlock]

Cool, dude.

[txzman]

Yep. Another wonder of science that emerged out of the slime. The intense and infinitely complex nature of the simplest parts of nature continue to strengthen my in intelligent creation by the God I know.

Love the Jewish concept of how to understand whether God exits or not - get up in the morning and go outside.

[hoosiermama]

Particularly for the fuel cell industry....Imagine burner water instead of fossil fuels?

[TBall]

Nice!!! The doubters will be all over this thread telling us how laws of physics show that it will never be possible to get cheap hydrogen and therefore it is a waste of time to even look for a solution.

[templar]

This could make hydrogen powered vehicles pracitcal. Now to overcome the Hindenberg effect.

[Paradox]

Wow, I hadn't even thought of doing it this way, or of checking into how plants do it. Guess thats why I am not a real scientist, LOL.

[TBall]

Already been done. Look up Millennium Cell Inc.

[balrog666]

Too bad it's not scalable to commercial levels.

[Naspino]

The laws of physics show that it will never be possible to get cheap hydrogen and therefore it is a waste of time to even look for a solution.

[Sacajaweau]

Everyone said it was my imagination. My plants WERE spitting at me.

[nightdriver]

Great! Now if they can only find a way to drain a bit of that hydrogen off before the plant uses it to make its cellulose, we will have some real progress.

[far sider]

Isn't evolution wonderful?

I'm with you. How can people think such things "just happened" by chance?

[Johnny_Cipher]

Producing hydrogen from water is the stuff of science fiction

It is? Since when?

[trebb]

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Does a pretty good job breaking water too!

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[demnomo]

Wasn't there a fiction book called "The Water Engine" that dealt with this subject? A bunch of evil oil executives put the kabosh on it cause it would put them out of business. I recall reading a review about it a few years ago.

Eco-nutcase conspiracies aside, I might be willing to pay 3X the amount for my energy needs if it meant bankrupting one of the main sources of income to terrorists and the exportation of Whabbism. I would think that eventually the method would be refined and the price would come down in time.

Hey, the Europeans and Japanese pay way more than the US does for gasoline. We're spoiled. It would be cool to see h2o being used in this manner. And no, I'm not an SUV-hating enviromentalist whacko because I desire an alternate energy source to oil.

[#3Fan]

Invest in manganese.

[Redbob]

There's certainly no law of physics preventing cheap hydrogen - there's always nuclear-powered hydrolysis.

The problem is in the storage and transport of H2; current estimates are that 15% - 20% of all hydrogen leaks out through tank walls, hoses, and seals.

I personally am holding out for a rhododendron-powered Corvette!