PNNL to study enzyme energy

Scientists at

will receive $1.98m from the

over the next three years to emulate nature’s use of enzymes to convert chemicals to energy.

The information gathered by scientists at the DOE national laboratory may point to new materials that render it economically feasible to produce energy from hydrogen fuel cells.

‘This is a basic research project, but one that we hope will provide new knowledge that will be pertinent to the production of hydrogen or oxidation of hydrogen in fuel cells,’ said Morris Bullock, who co-leads the project with Dan DuBois. Both Bullock and DuBois are members of the Molecular Interactions and Transformations group and the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis at PNNL.

Bullock noted that an electrocatalytic reaction, or energy made by catalytic oxidation of hydrogen in fuel cells, “is very attractive for many applications.” But so far, such chemical conversions are expensive; fuel cells require the precious metal platinum. ‘We seek to prepare new metal complexes based on abundant, inexpensive metals such as iron, manganese and molybdenum,’ he said.