Milestone Achieved in the Development of Biological Fuel Cells

Researchers have developed an enzyme based hydrogen fuel cell to power real world devices. The enzyme technology is tolerant of gases that poison traditional fuel cell catalysts removing the need for separation membranes.

The enzymes used are isolated from naturally occurring bacteria that have evolved to use hydrogen in their metabolic process. The unique features of these enzymes are that they are highly selective and tolerant of gases that poison traditional fuel cell catalysts, such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide. Since the enzymes can be grown they represent a cheap and renewable alternative to the expensive platinum based catalysts used by others in hydrogen fuel cells.

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