Cart
Article
A Simple Method To Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar
Hi-Res PDFPurchase the full-text
- PDF/HTML,
figures/images,
references and tables,
(where available)
Abstract
There is current interest in and concern for the development of environmentally friendly bioprocesses whereby biomass and the biodegradable content of municipal wastes can be converted to useful forms of energy. For example, cellulose, a glucose polymer that is the principal component of biomass and paper waste, can be enzymatically degraded to glucose, which can subsequently be converted by fermentation or further enzymatic reaction to fuels such as ethanol or hydrogen. These products represent alternative energy sources to fossil fuels such as oil. Demonstration of the relevant reactions in high-school and undergraduate college laboratories would have value not only in illustrating environmentally friendly biotechnology for the utilization of renewable energy sources, such as cellulosic wastes, but could also be used to teach the principles of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. In the experimental protocol described here, it has been demonstrated that the common sugar glucose can be used to produce hydrogen using two enzymes, glucose dehydrogenase and hydrogenase. No sophisticated or expensive hydrogen detection equipment is required-only a redox dye, benzyl viologen, which turns purple when it is reduced. The color can be detected by a simple colorimeter. Furthermore, it is shown that the renewable resource cellulose, in its soluble derivative from carboxymethylcellulose, as well as aspen-wood waste, is also a source of hydrogen if the enzyme cellulase is included in the reaction mixture.
Keywords (Audience):
High School / Introductory ChemistryKeywords (Domain):
Laboratory InstructionKeywords (Pedagogy):
Hands-On Learning / ManipulativesKeywords (Subject):
HydrogenCiting Articles
Citation data is made available by participants in CrossRef's Cited-by Linking service. For a more comprehensive list of citations to this article, users are encouraged to perform a search in SciFinder.
This article has been cited by 1 ACS Journal articles (1 most recent appear below).
Celebrating Excellence: A Lesson from the 2011 Oscars
Norbert J. PientaJournal of Chemical Education2011 88 (5), 523-523Celebrating Excellence: A Lesson from the 2011 Oscars
Norbert J. PientaJournal of Chemical Education2011 88 (5), 523-523A connection is made between the 2011 Oscar awards given by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and student success in chemistry.
Full Text HTMLTools
-
Add to Favorites
-
Download Citation
-
Email a Colleague -
Permalink
Order Reprints
Rights & Permissions
Citation Alerts
SciFinder Links
Explore by:
History
- Received: August 03, 2009
ACS
Network
Facebook
Tweet This
CiteULike
Newsvine
Digg This
Delicious
