The urgency to find new sources of green energy It is now a global priority, especially in the face of climate change and global warming. This led the researchers to explore alternative solutions, including energy sources neglected so far. Although several renewable options already exist – such as solar, wind and geothermal energy – research does not stop there.
A team of scientists of the University of Córdoba (Uco)in Spain, made a surprising discovery: it is possible to produce green hydrogen thanks to the interaction between Algae and bacteria. The most surprising element? Everything happened by chance, while studying other biological processes. This innovation could represent a turning point for the clean energy of the future.
Bacteria and algae: an unexpected alliance for the production of green hydrogen
UCO researchers study green hydrogen since 2018, analyzing the role of Algae and bacteria in its production. During the experiments, they realized that the combination of these two forms of life not only generated hydrogen, but also biomass reusable and contributed to the waste water purification.
The investigations have concentrated on the Chlamydomonasan alga capable of collaborating with Three different bacterial species:
- Microbacterium strongwhich favors the production of hydrogen.
- Bacillus Cereus And Stenotrophomonas Goyiwhich help the seaweed to grow optimally.
This biological ecosystem It works symbioticly: while the seaweed provides Vitamins and reduced sulfurbacteria return Co₂ and acetic acidfundamental for the growth of the alga itself. The result? A more stable and lasting consortium than other technologies experienced in the past.
Second David Gonzálezone of the authors of the study, this discovery is crucial because allows to obtain green and biomass hydrogen for long periodswithout the need for fossil fuels or industrial processes with high energy intensity.
An accidental discovery that revolutionizes the future of energy
The most fascinating aspect of this discovery is that it happened by pure chance. As González explained:
We noticed that contaminated crops produced more hydrogen than sterile ones. By deepening the analysis, we identified the presence of three bacteria, which proved to be essential for the process.
Also Neda Fakhimico -author of the study, underlined the importance of this approach:
Our work exploits waste materials as a source of nutrients, making bio -hydrogen production even more sustainable. In addition, this consortium has shown to generate up to Ten times more hydrogen compared to previous techniques.
This discovery could revolutionize the energy transitionplacing Algae and bacteria at the center of the production of clean and renewable energy. Spain is already investing in this direction, considering green hydrogen a key component of its strategy of decarbonisation.
