​Microbiologists has succeeded in using bacteria to be a biobattery for hydrogen storage

One of the big challenges for the use of Hydrogen is to store and transport the highly explosive gas in a safe and easy way. Researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt has found an enzyme in a bacteria that lives in the absence of air and binds hydrogen directly to CO2 producing formic acid. The process is completely reversible – a basic requirement for hydrogen storage.The researchers have demonstrated for the first time that a bio-based system, using Acetobacterium woodii as the biocatalyst, allows multiple cycles of bi-directional hydrogenation of CO2 to formic acid in one bioreactor. The process was kept running over 2 weeks producing and oxidizing 330 mM formic acid in total. Unwanted side-product formation of acetic acid was prevented through metabolic engineering of the organism. The demonstrated process design can be considered as a future “bio-battery” for the reversible storage of electrons in the form of H2 in formic acid, a versatile compound.

Photo Fabian M. Schwarz, Florian Oswald, Jimyung Moon, Volker Müller: Biological hydrogen storage and release through multiple cycles of bi-directional hydrogenation of CO2 to formic acid in a single process unit. Joule (2022)



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