Is there any biological organism that produces hydrogen or deuterium?

[OneOnOne1162]

I was wondering if there is any biological organism out there which does or can produce either hydrogen or deuterium. If so, which one? And if possible to answer, how? On that last one I wouldn't mind being directed to a place where I can be informed more extensively like a book or documentary if it's too much to explain in short, though a summary is preferable.

[John Cuthber]

There are certainly bugs that produce hydrogen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohydrogen#Bacterial_biohydrogen

 

And there are related bugs that produce isotopic enrichment

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/667738

 

Why do you want to know?

[OneOnOne1162]

There are certainly bugs that produce hydrogen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohydrogen#Bacterial_biohydrogen

 

And there are related bugs that produce isotopic enrichment

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/667738

 

Why do you want to know?

 

I was just curious whether it'd be possible to have biological organisms synthesize hydrogen or deuturium for nuclear fusion.

[CharonY]

As John said, organisms can produce hydrogen but it is quite inefficient compared to other methods.

[OneOnOne1162]

As John said, organisms can produce hydrogen but it is quite inefficient compared to other methods.

 

How come it's so inefficient?

[hypervalent_iodine]

At a guess, the amount of biomass required to make usable amounts would be large and extracting it pure would be energy intensive.

[OneOnOne1162]

At a guess, the amount of biomass required to make usable amounts would be large and extracting it pure would be energy intensive.

 

Well, but what about producing it as a byproduct of a larger "system." You know, as a hypothetical you grow some plant to feed cattle and then you harvest hydrogen from it while it grows or something.

[CharonY]

To run a biogas fermenter you have to expend energy to maintain conditions under which hydrogen is produced even if you just feed it with waste. The overall yield is still so low that it is currently much more economic to use conventional means.

[John Cuthber]

Beer isn't a very efficient process for making alcohol.

Efficiency isn't always the most important criterion.

Being able to brew hydrogen from cow dung might be useful in some circumstances.

If you wanted a hydrogen balloon to get you off your deserted island it might be a very useful thing to know about.

 

But if you plan to do fusion, there are more practical ways to get hydrogen, and I doubt you could get much deuterium.

[OneOnOne1162]

Beer isn't a very efficient process for making alcohol.

Efficiency isn't always the most important criterion.

Being able to brew hydrogen from cow dung might be useful in some circumstances.

If you wanted a hydrogen balloon to get you off your deserted island it might be a very useful thing to know about.

 

But if you plan to do fusion, there are more practical ways to get hydrogen, and I doubt you could get much deuterium.

 

What makes the process so energy intensive/inefficient? Could that be solved?