Difference between revisions of "Team:ECUST/Description"

With the rising of the world population and the higher average lifespan resulting from the development of science and technology, more energy is required to meet people’s growing demand. However, existing mineral resources on the earth, mainly known as coals, oil and gas, are limited and non-renewable. In order to solve this dilemma, we must find ways to obtain green energy resources with the assistance of modern technology to maintain sustainable development. Hydrogen energy, as a kind of green energy, is an efficient fuel and can be widely used in chemical synthesis, smelting process, etc. As a new energy, hydrogen energy development and utilization is still in its infancy.

Now several methods are used for the production of hydrogen energy, including water electrolysis, coal gasification, heavy oil and natural gas water vapor catalytic conversion, etc. The relatively green method is water electrolysis, that is, hydrogen is produced by pyrolysis of water with the usage of light-resourced battery^[1]. Additionally, we found that there are many biophytes in the biological world with the corresponding nitrogenase and hydrogen enzymes can use light in the appropriate conditions to produce hydrogen ^[2]. The main mechanism is the nitrogenase can turn ATP, protons and electrons into H₂, while ATP comes from the photosynthetic phosphorylation, part of the proton is from the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and other parts are from the ATP synthase. The electrons use organic (glucose, succinic acid, malic acid) as the donor^[3].

The use of photosynthetic bacteria has a good application prospect.They use organic acids as electron donor to produce hydrogen,and this process can be combined with the organic wastewater.

But during the process of light fermentation,there are two major problems we have to face.

First, photosynthetic bacteria are relatively low in photoelectric conversion efficiency. Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 use light complex to absorb electrons and by photoion separation they produce electronics. The photochemical conversion efficiency is only 8.4% at 522 nm and 19% at 860 nm.

Second, a reasonable photoreactor makes it possible to maximize the use of light energy by photosynthetic bacteria, which is one of the challenges we face.

We used Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 for the study of chassis organisms, Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1, as a type of non-sulfur purple photosynthetic bacteria have their unique absorption spectrum. We hope to broaden its absorption spectrum to enhance its total photon absorption.

The prediction of the RC complex and the sYFP2 distance by protein homology modeling shows that the method is potentially feasible. Learn more (protein homology modeling)

Then, we designed a new type of photobioreactor, the idea of which is to combine the light source with the mixing system. We use the latest LED light technology, and give full play to its merits, including small size, energy saving and environmental protection. With the help of brush on the top and other ancillary equipment, the light source can rotate with the paddles at the same time, which will not affect the flow field and the mixing effect of the photobioreactor.