Hydrogen fuel

Hydrogen fuel is a ‘zero emission’ fuel capable of providing motive power to vehicles, such as cars, boats, aircrafts, and rockets, as well as electrical power to devices, such as those involved in manufacture. The production of hydrogen fuel requires pure hydrogen, and since this is not naturally available in large quantities, it must be acquired via techniques that are very energy intensive. Currently, around 95% of all energy dedicated to hydrogen production is obtained via the burning of fossil fuels. As such, the environmental costs involved in hydrogen fuel production negate a large portion of the environmental benefits seen in hydrogen fuel use.

Our Project

We aim to utilise photosynthetic processes of algae in the production of a renewable hydrogen source. In doing so, we aim to facilitate the development of technologies that would drastically reduce the environmental costs involved in hydrogen fuel production. We will be building off the progress of last year’s Macquarie iGem team by equipping E.coli bacteria with genes directly involved in hydrogen production.
Specifically, we aim to test the effectiveness of hydrogenase in regards to its ability to produce hydrogen gas, when coupled with maturation enzymes and ferredoxin reductase, within the E.coli bacteria.