Newly Discovered Extreme Bacterium Churns Out Hydrogen

Scientists have discovered a bacterium that produces hydrogen, which could be huge for renewable fuels sources in the future. The element could one day lesson the world's dependence on oil.

The researchers weren't specifically hunting for this particular bacterium. Instead, they were looking for bacteria that could help clean up the environment and were especially looking at the extremophiles found in Soap Lake. Extremophiles are microorganisms that live in conditions of extreme temperature, acidity, or other hostile environmental conditions.

That's when they found the bacterium, Halanaerobium hydrogeninformans. This microorganism has metabolic capabilities under conditions that occur at some contaminated waste sites. What's interesting is that this bacterium can produce hydrogen and 1,3-propanedio under high pH and salinity conditions. This could especially valuable industrially since 1,3-propenediol can be formulated into industrial products that include composites, adhesives, laminates and coatings.

Yet what truly intrigues researchers is the hydrogen production. While the infrastructure isn't currently in place for hydrogen to replace gasoline as a fuel, it could be useful for the future.

"It would be great if we got liters and liters of production of hydrogen," said Melanie Mormile, the head researcher, in a news release. "However, we have not been able to scale up yet."

Currently, the researchers plan to continue work with the microorganism to better understand its potential.

"Usually, I tend to study the overall microbial ecology of extreme environments, but this particular bacterium has caught by attention," said Mormile. "I intend to study this isolate in greater detail."

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

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