Hydrogen Harvester from OriginOil Creates H2 from Algae

In the past, I’ve talked many times about the algae hydrogen connection. Many see algae as the perfect biofuel for creating hydrogen since it can be grown rapidly, almost anywhere and can produce large amounts of H2.

A beer brewery may be the closest common analogy to an algal biorefinery. In fact, in May 2007 I had talked about how several breweries were using microbial fuel cells to generate power.

A company called OriginOil has come up with a product they are calling Hydrogen Harvester which is part of a larger device called the MultiReactor.

Basically sunlight, CO2, nutrients and water are feed into the MultiReactor that carries different strains of algae. The algae produces hydrogen, oxygen and a biomass harvest.

The Hydrogen Harvester separates the H2 from the algae. The hydrogen and oxygen can be ported directly into a fuel cell to create electricity or the hydrogen can be sold on the open market for transportation fuel.

Having several algal biorefineries in local communities would mean that vast long-distance hydrogen piping or trucking infrastructure would not be needed. Because the algae need only sunlight, nutrients and C02 in order to grow rapidly it is considered a renewable resource.

OriginOil calls this a “potentially game changing device” as if it operates as outlined this could mean large production of local hydrogen at minimal costs and that is what the consumer is looking for when they are going to the fueling pumps.