Monday, May 2, 2011
Grand Ballroom C-D, 2nd fl (Sheraton Seattle)
Recently, a mixture of 13 enzymes was successfully combined to produce a synthetic pathway biotransformation (SyPaB) of starch to hydrogen gas (Zhang et al., 2007). Subsequent work broadened the substrate range to include cello-oligomers, by starting with cellobiose (Ye et al., 2009). In both cases, polymerized glucose was a necessary starting point for obtaining glucose-1-phosphate (G1P) without the use of costly ATP. In this study, the substrate range is widened further, by starting with glucose monomers. Here glucose is first activated to glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) with polyphosphate using polyphosphate glucokinase. G6P is then fully oxidized to produce 12 mol H2 per mol of glucose. The production of hydrogen gas from cheap starting materials such as glucose and polyphosphate is an important step towards the use of biomass to produce economical, clean hydrogen.
Ye, X.H., Wang, Y.R., Hopkins, R.C., Adams, M.W.W., Evans, B.R., Mielenz, J.R., and Zhang, Y.H.P. (2009). Spontaneous High-Yield Production of Hydrogen from Cellulosic Materials and Water Catalyzed by Enzyme Cocktails. ChemSusChem 2, 149-152.
Zhang, Y.H.P., Evans, B.R., Mielenz, J.R., Hopkins, R.C., and Adams, M.W.W. (2007). High-Yield Hydrogen Production from Starch and Water by a Synthetic Enzymatic Pathway. PLoS One 2, Article No.: e456.