Salt Plus Titanium Dioxide Plus Light Equals Hydrogen

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Microorganisms found in salt flats could offer a new path to green hydrogen fuel, according to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne researchers say that some desert salt flats shelter “a protein found in the membranes of ancient microorganisms,” and could hold promise for generating hydrogen fuel in an “environmentally friendly” way. Salts come in a variety of colors, and each edible variety can lend a unique taste to recipes, but the purple salt used in the Argonne experiments can help make hydrogen. Elena Rozhkova is a scientist at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials in the Nanoscience and Technology Division. She develops her own research programs and works with users in the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), where her work, “Intensely overlaps different kinds of sciences: materials science, chemistry, physics and biological sciences.” Her research develops nanobio hybrid materials, combining “inorganic nanomaterial and a soft biological material and combin[ing] them in hybrid structures with advanced …