Zhang, Y. H. PercivalMielenz, Jonathan R.2017-09-202017-09-202011-01-31Zhang, Y.-H.; Mielenz, J.R. Renewable Hydrogen Carrier — Carbohydrate: Constructing the Carbon-Neutral Carbohydrate Economy. Energies 2011, 4, 254-275.http://hdl.handle.net/10919/79150The hydrogen economy presents an appealing energy future but its implementation must solve numerous problems ranging from low-cost sustainable production, high-density storage, costly infrastructure, to eliminating safety concern. The use of renewable carbohydrate as a high-density hydrogen carrier and energy source for hydrogen production is possible due to emerging cell-free synthetic biology technology—cell-free synthetic pathway biotransformation (SyPaB). Assembly of numerous enzymes and co-enzymes <em>in vitro</em> can create complicated set of biological reactions or pathways that microorganisms or catalysts cannot complete, for example, C₆H₁₀O₅ (aq) + 7 H₂O (l) à 12 H₂ (g) + 6 CO₂ (g) (PLoS One 2007, 2:e456). Thanks to 100% selectivity of enzymes, modest reaction conditions, and high-purity of generated hydrogen, carbohydrate is a promising hydrogen carrier for end users. Gravimetric density of carbohydrate is 14.8 H₂ mass% if water can be recycled from proton exchange membrane fuel cells or 8.33% H₂ mass% without water recycling. Renewable carbohydrate can be isolated from plant biomass or would be produced from a combination of solar electricity/hydrogen and carbon dioxide fixation mediated by high-efficiency artificial photosynthesis mediated by SyPaB. The construction of this carbon-neutral carbohydrate economy would address numerous sustainability challenges, such as electricity and hydrogen storage, CO₂ fixation and long-term storage, water conservation, transportation fuel production, plus feed and food production.application/pdfenCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalartificial photosynthesiscarbohydrate economycarbon dioxide utilizationhydrogen carrierhydrogen productioncell-free synthetic pathway biotransformation (SyPaB)Article - Refereed2017-09-20https://doi.org/10.3390/en4020254