Difference between revisions of "Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich"

<strong>The problem</strong><br/> Global climate change and fuel poverty are some of the biggest challenges facing energy production today. Using renewable energy sources to increase global energy production in a sustainable way is therefore vital. However, current technologies have many problems with cost, for example those stemming from intermittency Go to the background page under project for more information. <br />

<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/7/7b/T--NRP-UEA-Norwich--NASAGraph.jpg" width="400px"/>

 

<strong>The Solution</strong><br/> To reduce the energy wasted from intermittency problems with renewable energy sources (such as wind and solar) there has been a lot of research focusing on trying to convert this energy into hydrogen to be stored and used later. Biowire’s project uses synthetic biology techniques to engineer the bacterium <i>Shewanella oneidensis</i>. This bacterium has a ‘nanowire’ which can channel electrons into the cell and to the hydrogenase enzymes which can then produce hydrogen. <br />

<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/0/00/T--NRP-UEA-Norwich--HydrogenaseGoals.jpg" width="200px"/>

<strong>The goals</strong><br/> The overall aim of Biowire’s project is to explore the possibility of using <i>S. oneidensis</i> as an energy storage system. By trying to increase the hydrogen output of <i>S. oneidensis</i> in comparison to the wild type, we are hoping to make this hydrogen production system a more attractive and efficient bioenergy solution to the challenges facing energy production. <br />

<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/a/a5/T--NRP-UEA-Norwich--peakgraph.jpg" width="400px"/>