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Burning fuel for transport is the third largest contributor of greenhouse gasses and strategies to eliminate this carbon footprint need to be developed. The by-product of hydrogen fuel consumption is water thus hydrogen is a highly attractive carbon neutral fuel. Current systems that isolate hydrogen are energy intensive and therefore environmentally and economically costly. In addition, the storage of hydrogen presents huge challenges as hydrogen is extremely flammable. In nature, hydrogen can be transformed to formic acid in a benign environment without high energy input. Formic acid, which is not flammable in 85% concentrations, can be treated to re-generate hydrogen fuel in situ. By employing biotechnology, our aim is to mimic the natural enzymatic process to store hydrogen in the safe form of formic acid. Not only will this methodology save energy, the "stored" fuel will then be able to be transported easily and safely.
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