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@solarfuels
The Solar Fuels Summer Science Exhibition in under 5 minutes We have made a little video of our experience this summer, from loading the van, setting up, our amazing volunteers and our interactions with all you future scientists. Hope you enjoy!
Suzannah and Rhiannon recently attended the 10th International Hydrogenase Conference, this year held in Szeged, Hungary.
Their research towards the understanding of the biological catalyst capable of making and breaking down molecular hydrogen (H2) was presented in front of the World's specialists in the field.
It is through an understanding of how these enzymes work at rates and efficiencies that rival the best hydrogen catalyst - Platinum - that we will be able to inspire man-made catalysts for hydrogen production and limit the need for using fossil fuels.
You can read more about hydrogenases in our earlier post below.
Hydrogen-powered ferry launches in Bristol!
One of the major future implications of our research is the creation of a clean, storable fuel - such as hydrogen - using energy from the sun. But what could we actually use this fuel for? Well, it could be used in Bristol's new 'green' ferry!
Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
Read more about Hydrogenesis, the UK's first hydrogen-powered ferry.
Jas Singh, spokesman for the consortium, said he hoped Hydrogenesis could be the start of a new chapter in Bristol's proud maritime tradition.
Singh said: "The project has put Bristol on the world map amongst the pioneers of the emerging hydrogen economy. This could be the beginning of a new industrial revolution."
So you want to know more?
We have divided our publications into those exploring the mechanism of the fuel producing enzymes we use, and their incorporation in to artificial photosynthesis systems.
Enzyme mechanism publications
1) Evans, Rhiannon M., Parkin, Alison., Roessler, Maxie M., Murphy, Bonnie J., Adamson, Hope., Lukey, Michael J., Sargent, Frank., Volbeda, Anne., Fontecilla-Camps, Juan C., Armstrong, Fraser A. (2013) Principles of Sustained Enzymatic Hydrogen Oxidation in the Presence of Oxygen – The Crucial Influence of High Potential Fe–S Clusters in the Electron Relay of [NiFe]-Hydrogenases J. Am. Chem. Soc., 135, pp., 2694–2707. doi: 10.1021/ja311055d
2) Hexter, Suzannah. V., Grey, Felix., Happe, Thomas., Climent, V., Armstrong, F. A. Electrocatalytic mechanism of reversible hydrogen cycling by enzymes and distinctions between the major classes of hydrogenases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 109, pp., 11516-11521. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1204770109
3) Parkin, Alison. and Sargent, Frank (2012) The hows and whys of aerobic H2 metabolism. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology., 16, pp., 26-34. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2012.01.012
4) Volbeda, Anne., Amara, Patricia., Darnault, Claudine., Mouesca, Jean-Marie., Parkin, Alison., Roessler, Maxie M., Armstrong, Fraser A., Fontecilla-Camps, Juan C., (2012) X-ray crystallographic and computational studies of the O2-tolerant [NiFe]-hydrogenase 1 from Escherichia coli. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 109, pp., 5305-5310. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1119806109
Artificial photosynthesis systems
On the utilisation of enzymes as fuel producing catalysts in artificial photosynthetic systems, the following three articles highlight the research of our laboratory.
5) Erwin Reisner, Juan C. Fontecilla-Camps and Fraser A. Armstrong. (2009) Catalytic electrochemistry of a [NiFeSe]-hydrogenase on TiO2 and demonstration of its suitability for visible-light driven H2 production. Chem Commun. 2009, pp., 550-552. doi:10.1039/B817371K
6) Thomas W. Woolerton, Sally Sheard, Erwin Reisner, Elizabeth Pierce, Stephen W. Ragsdale and Fraser A. Armstrong. (2010) Efficient and Clean Photoreduction of CO2 to CO by Enzyme-Modified TiO2 Nanoparticles Using Visible Light. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, pp., 2132–2133. doi: 10.1021/ja910091z
7) Yatendra S Chaudhary, Thomas W. Woolerton, Christopher S Allen, Jamie H Warner, Elizabeth Pierce, Stephen W Ragsdale, Fraser A Armstrong. (2012) Visible light-driven CO2 reduction by enzyme coupled CdS nanocrystals Chem Commun. 48, pp., 58-60. doi: 10.1039/C1CC16107E
Thank you to everyone who came and visited our stand! We had a blast, and we hope you did too. Get in touch if you have any questions ([email protected]) and don't forget to plant that solar fuel and submit your results!
During the Summer Science Exhibition we got a lot of questions about the commercialization potential of our research.
We believe that an integrated artificial photosynthesis and fuel producing system may be able to be manufactured and scaled up in the next 20-30 years.
However, the amazing thing about fundamental research and blue skies thinking is that there is no telling which amazing places it might lead...
Just look at these incredible inventions that weren't all about the money!
Why did we have these beautiful flowers on our stand?
The fossil fuels we rely on are the remains of ancient plants and animals which used the sun to grow and survive millions of years ago. They are concentrated stores of ‘ancient’ solar energy.
Our science is inspired by the way nature has been able to harness energy from the sun and we are working towards artificial photosynthesis (APS) systems which could mimic this process in the lab.
Thank you to all the wonderful people who helped to knit these lovely flowers.
How many solar fuel scientists can you spot in this summer science exhibition video?
The Glove Box!
In the Armstrong Group we use a piece of lab equipment called a glove box. This bit of kit can be used to study molecules or proteins that can't survive in normal air because they are sensitive to oxygen.
For example, the hydrogenase enzymes that produce hydrogen in our artificial photosynthesis systems can be sensitive to oxygen so we have to study them in glove boxes.
The glove box is tightly sealed, so all of the oxygen can be removed and replaced with another type of gas, such as a nitrogen. To make sure no oxygen is introduced by accident, we have to use big neoprene gloves when we work inside the glove box.
At the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, we set up a glove box for all of our visitors to try. The object was to complete a circuit game to power a marble run. Despite wearing huge sticking gloves some people were still incredibly dexterous - the fastest time to complete the circuit was under 10 seconds!
The team has been enjoying the exhibition so far and we hope you have too! The photos above show the team enjoying Wednesdays night Soiree and then (most excitingly) finding a Summer Science Exhibition poster on our way home. Now nearly halfway through there is still some time if you would like to visit us at our stand, where you can learn all about the research we are doing into developing future Solar Fuels. Come and ask us a question or two!
A few posts below, we talked about 'hydrogenase' - a fuel producing enzyme that releases hydrogen and plays a key role in our current proof-of-concept artificial photosynthesis systems.
These photos show 3D models of this enzyme so you can see its structure. We were able to create these using the University of Oxford's 3D printer!
The red & blue 'monomer' units are actually zoomed-out 'surface representations' of a hydrogenase enzyme. In a bacterial cell such as E. coli (where hydrogenase enzymes are found) two hydrogenase monomer units are sometimes found together in a pair - this is called a dimer and is the case for the E. coli hydrogenase known as Hydrogenase-1.
If you were to magnify either the red or the blue version of the hydrogenase you would see the amazing curling structures of the enzyme in the top & bottom photos, this called a ribbon or cartoon representation of the secondary protein structure (beta sheets/strands and alpha helices).
In our lab we are trying to create a system which is capable of 'Artificial Photosynthesis', that is, a system capable of converting sunlight into useful fuels. Photosynthesis is the process plants use to create the energy they need from the Sun and it is this process, which releases oxygen as a bi-product, that is responsible for the oxygen in our atmosphere today. There are many groups of scientists which research this 'natural photosynthesis'. They want to know why and how organisms started to make energy from sunlight and whether this process always produced oxygen (a process which literally changed the world forever!) For more information check out 'Dawn of the water eaters: How Earth got its oxygen' an article in the latest edition of New Scientist.
You may have seen this reported on the news recently: Trees grown in the USA, cut down and made into wood chips, mixed with sawdust, then dried to form wood pellets and shipped to the UK to be burnt in UK power stations. All so the UK can meet EU renewable energy regulations. A real solution? I'm not so sure...
I think instead we should be looking at the ways trees are able to use a process called photosynthesis, to use energy from the Sun to make the fuels they require for life, and try to learn from this. If we were able to do what plants do, creating fuels that we can use to power our lives from sunlight, such as hydrogen (which can be formed from water) and carbon-based fuels (which can be formed from carbon dioxide), then this may offer a better solution.
Research into making fuels from sunlight, or 'Artificial Photosynthesis', is currently under-way in our lab. Come and see us at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition to learn more!
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As this poster shows, three steps are required to produce fuel using energy from the sun. In our lab we are studying each of these three steps. The combined process is called 'artificial photosynthesis.'
Natural photosynthesis is the process through which green plants (and some other organisms) use sunlight to fuel their growth.
Step 1:
Light is absorbed and its energy is captured by electrons. Plants are incredibly good at absorbing energy from sunlight so we are studying them in the lab and trying to copy what they do.
Electrons are tiny particles that can be charged up with energy and transfer it from one place to another. For example, electricity is the flow of electrons.
Plants use special pigments (you may have heard of one called chlorophyll) to absorb sunlight. When light hits these pigments the electrons inside them get charged up with energy and jump over to another component: the fuel producing catalyst (Step 3).
When electrons get energized (we also call this 'excited') they leave behind a hole. In order to fill this hole, new electrons are required.
Step 2:
A special material or molecule (think of it as a naturally occurring machine) splits water (H2O) and releases electrons. These electrons fill up the hole created in Step 1.
Materials that help carry out chemical reactions like the splitting of water are called catalysts. A catalyst could be a molecule, or the surface of a material.
Step 3:
Fuel is produced! The fuel producing component (a different kind of catalyst) uses the energy carried by the excited electrons to create a fuel, such as hydrogen. A catalyst that can produce hydrogen is called hydrogenase.
Hydrogen is a clean fuel because when you use it the by-product is just water. No CO2 is produced, so using this fuel does not contribute to climate change. Other fuel producing catalysts can even withdraw CO2 from the atmosphere and turn it into carbon-based fuels.
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Interested in learning more about the future of energy? The Switch Energy Project has an amazing range of video resources including a number on $uper Clean solar fuels.
Last week Suzannah and Andreas visited the Research Complex at Harwell to take part in an exhibition marking the opening of the UK Catalysis Hub. This hub endeavours to become a leading institution in the field of catalysis and aims to coordinate, promote and advance UK catalysis research. This is Suzannah and Andreas with the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, Professor Andrew Hamilton, in front of their poster which demonstrates some of the research they have been doing to exploring the concept of Artificial Photosynthesis. Come and visit us at the Royal Society to find out more!