Team:SJTang/Description
Eco.H: Sustainable Energy via Photosynthetic Fermentation
Compared with traditional means, biohydrogen production is cost-effective and owns unique environmental advantages. Herein, SJTang modified E. coli and R. palustris, a purple non-sulfur bacterium notable for its hydrogen production ability. In both strains, photosynthetic biohybrid systems are introduced by interfacing iodine-doped hydrothermally carbonized carbon on the cell surface, facilitating photoelectron transduction. Moreover, oxygen-tolerant [NiFe]-hydrogenase is expressed heterologously to enhance versatility and efficiency. Genes encoding for biofilm and uptake hydrogenase in R. palustris were knocked out to maximize yield. Upon modification, the co-culture of E. coli and R. palustris demonstrated a mutualistic relationship in hydrogen production by exchanging essential carbon and nitrogen sources. A low-cost bioreactor capable of fermentation, gas collection, and quantitative component analysis is developed and packed into an integrated open-source solution. Through metabolic modification and hardware innovation, SJTang hopes further to improve hydrogen production efficiency and lower unit costs.
Inspiration
Through an extensive study conducted towards the hydrogen market and recent environmental policies, it came to our attention that a sustainable, cheap, and easy-to-deploy technology for hydrogen production is in dire need. With over ninety percent of hydrogen nowadays still relying on fossil fuels, electrolysis alone can not be the sole solution to the transition towards clean production.
The production of hydrogen from biological processes provides a promising alternative, as soon as its production efficiency is optimized, hydrogen through fermentation can greatly contribute to the need for clean hydrogen. SJTang is committed to improving the efficiency of biological hydrogen by standardizing new strains, developing relative hardware and software tools, optimizing fermentation conditions, and integrating novel advances in related fields.
Project Aim Overview
