Engineered enzyme architectures for renewable hydrogen generation

The storage of solar energy is one of the bottlenecks that prevent its widespread adoption. Perhaps the most widely accepted, and promising, strategy is to store solar energy in the form of energetic chemicals like hydrogen. This feat requires water splitting technology that can use solar energy to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen. In so doing, that solar energy is stored in the form of hydrogen. This proposal describes the development of artificial biological systems that interface with modern electrical components as a means to make hydrogen. The key problem that we are addressing is to eliminate the need for rare and expensive metals (e.g., platinum) that are used in state-of-the-art devices. Anodyne Chemistries (the partner) is a recently formed company that is developing low-carbon, bio-based technology. Their partnership with the Warren group at SFU takes advantage of their expertise in bioinorganic and electrochemistry and is a key benefit to early-stage technology development

Faculty Supervisor:

Jeffrey J Warren

Student:

Partner:

Anodyne Chemistries Inc.

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program: