A team of Virginia Tech researchers used dirty biomass such as the corncobs, husks or stalks in a process to create fuel. Professor Percival Zhang and his colleagues used a genetic algorithm together with a series of complex mathematical expressions to analyze the enzymatic process that breaks down corn stover into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

In the study, they affected glucose and xylose to increase the rate at which the hydrogen is released simultaneously. Typically, in biological conversions, these two sugars can only be used sequentially. This system can increase reaction rates by threefold. Meanwhile, it only requires a research room equivalent to a gas station, much smaller than the existing production base of hydrogen fuel.

Corn-based product processing factories also can create fuel in this way and provide energy for operating procedures. According to the expert team, this could be a breakthrough of this era, in which people are dependent on fossil fuel causing environmental pollution.

“We believe that this exciting technology has the potential to enable the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles around the world and displace fossil fuels”, IB Times quoted Joe Rollin, the study co-author.

Hydrogen fuel is near-zero emission. To generate enough gas for vehicles and convert it into fuel cell, the current method of sugar conversion requires high production costs.