The future is green. The future is algae?

Can a mathematician and a field of green algae solve the problem of providing truly green energy?

Perhaps.

Dr Martin Bees, Reader of Mathematics at the University of Glasgow, has been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Advanced Research Fellowship for his work into microorganisms that can produce hydrogen when starved of oxygen and sulphur. By applying mathematical principles to predict how the algae will react when placed under certain conditions, it may be possible to discover how to increase their yield of hydrogen, enabling algae to be used as a green energy source.

 ‘It has been suggested that a normal petrol station could be replaced with a hydrogen station plus a field of green algae out the back. It wouldn’t happen in Scotland though – whilst we have plenty of water, it’s probably not sunny enough!’ Dr Martin Bees

‘We have known for some time that algae could produce hydrogen gas - essentially from water and sunlight - but only for very short periods of time and in small quantities,’ says Dr Bees. ‘It has only recently been realised that if you remove both sulphur and oxygen from the system you can increase the yield. What hasn’t been taken into account so far by biologists is that the organisms are actually swimming and creating patterns.’

These so-called bioconvection patterns, associated with large-scale fluid motion, are caused by the way the algae swim and react to certain stimuli.  As the patterns have an effect on the capabilities of each individual organism to produce hydrogen, being able to predict them is an important step.

As well as looking into the mathematical side of things, Dr Bees also has a wet lab where he can test his theories to make sure that they are fully consistent with reality. ‘These individual organisms are about 10 micrometres long - 10,000 could fit on a pinhead,’ explains Dr Bees. ‘What I am interested in is how you build a mathematical description of an individual’s behaviour to describe what happens at larger scales. Understanding the mathematics of that sort of structure might ultimately have an impact on how to improve environmentally friendly hydrogen production by green algae and of course, everyone wants to know how to produce hydrogen cheaply.’