www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

The green energy of the future: A German-Australian research team has
succeeded in breeding algae, which produce hydrogen in previously unheard-of
quantities, May 2006.

Amid rising oil prices and dwindling energy reserves, a genetically
altered alga is now nourishing visions of an environment-friendly supply of
energy.

Researchers from the University of Bielefeld in Germany and the University
of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, have genetically changed the
single-cell green alga "Chlamydomonas reinhardtii" in such a way that it
produces an especially large amount of hydrogen.

This gas can then be burned to produce energy. In contrast to the use of
fossil-based fuels such as petroleum, coal or natural gas, no carbon dioxide
is produced, but instead only water.

It has been known for a long time that certain algae can produce hydrogen
during the photosynthetic process, explains Bielefeld biologist Olaf Kruse.
But the catch was efficiency, as one litre of alga produces only about 100
ml of hydrogen. "Then it's over, because the cells die off."

But the genetically altered variant boosts this up to half a litre of
hydrogen. By Kruse's estimates, it can, in the long run, produce five times
the volume made by the wild form of alga.

Economic feasibility with regard to algae sets in only when the energy
efficiency - the conversion of sunlight into hydrogen - reaches 7-10
percent. But alga in its natural form achieves at most a meagre 0.1 percent.
The new "turbo-alga" has now come up to 1.6-2.0 percent.

"We have not reached our goal yet," says Kruse, calmly announcing: "We want
to reach it in five years."

At the end of the development process could be a biological fuel cell in
which the alga produces the necessary hydrogen directly at the site of
consumption. A motorist would then, instead of a stop at the petrol pump,
need only to have an alga power plant on board.

This is naturally a futuristic vision.

Kruse has been working on such a "turbo-alga" together with Ben Hankamer of
the Institute of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland since
the year 2001. From a pool of 20,000 random mutations, the scientists have
selected 20 algae, ultimately coming up with a genetically altered mutation
called "Stm6".

Meanwhile, at the Technical University in Karlsruhe, a prototype of a
bio-reactor containing 500-1,000 litres of algae cultures is being
developed. The reactor is to be used to prove the economic feasibility of
the system in the next five years.

"What is of decisive importance is finding a way of producing energy for
which we won't need to import any resources," Kruse says. On the basis of
calculations, a reactor shaped like a cube measuring three metres per side
and filled with algae could supply a two-person household with their energy
needs.

Decentralised reactors with a million litres of alga cultures could in the
future supply entire districts of 1,000 households.

"Hydrogen is absolutely the energy of the future," Kruse stresses. "A
precondition however is that certain things must be improved. In the next 20
years, we must have built up a carbon dioxide-free alternative source of
energy."

[www.newkerala.com]

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