Releasing Brakes on Biocatalysis

The new findings could play a role in H2 technologies

01-Dec-2023 - Formaldehyde can inhibit enzymes that produce hydrogen particularly efficiently. Researchers from Bochum have discovered how this can be prevented. Enzymes from microorganisms can produce hydrogen (H2) under certain conditions, which makes them potential biocatalysts for biobased H2 technologies. ...

Soil bacteria as biocatalysts

Researchers have clarified the molecular structure of an enzyme class, enabling them to use bacteria to produce prodrugs

08-Mar-2023 - Researchers from Bochum and Leipzig have successfully used a soil bacterium to specifically produce prodrugs. The key to this step was a detailed understanding of the metabolisation of indole. The natural compound is first activated in microorganisms. To do this, they need a monooxygenase, the ...

Protecting biocatalysts from oxygen

A genetic modification can make hydrogen-producing enzymes more stable

13-Jan-2023 - Certain enzymes from bacteria and algae can produce molecular hydrogen from protons and electrons – an energy carrier on which many hopes are riding. All they need for this purpose is light energy. The major obstacle to their use is that they are destroyed by contact with oxygen. An ...

A poison helps to understand H2-producing biocatalysts

The toxic cyanide molecule attacks H2-generating enzymes, but at the same time provides new insights into catalysis

20-Dec-2022 - In nature, enzymes termed hydrogenases are capable of producing molecular hydrogen (H2). Special types of these biocatalysts, so-called [FeFe]-hydrogenases, are extremely efficient and therefore of interest for biobased hydrogen production. Although scientists have learned a lot about how these ...

Cyanobacteria as green catalysts in biotechnology

Research team genetically eliminated an unnecessary energy consumer - This means that less light is sufficient for catalysis

07-Oct-2020 - Researchers from Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) and Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) show in the journal ACS Catalysis from 4 September 2020 how the catalytic activity of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, can be significantly increased. This brings biotechnological and thus ...

Making enzymes fit for industrial applications

Biobased process for ammonia production

27-Aug-2020 - Bacterial enzymes are often powerful but also very sensitive catalysts. To call up their performance, they therefore need a special environment. Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed new techniques for efficiently coupling bacterial enzymes to electrodes. Together with a ...

Algae as living biocatalysts for a green industry

Discovery could lead to more environmental protection in the chemical industry

03-Jul-2020 - Many substances that we use every day only work in the right 3D structure. Natural enzymes could produce these in an environmentally friendly way – if they didn’t need a co-substrate that is expensive to produce to date. A research team at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has discovered exactly the ...

How to make biocatalysts immortal

10-Oct-2019 - Oxygen threatens sustainable catalysts that use hydrogen to produce electricity in fuel cells. Researchers from Bochum and Marseille have developed a way to combat this. Efficient catalysts for converting hydrogen into electricity in fuel cells for the energy transition are often based on ...

Next step on the path towards an efficient biofuel cell

Two concepts combined making system as efficient as precious metal catalysts

16-Nov-2018 - Fuel cells that work with the enzyme hydrogenase are, in principle, just as efficient as those that contain the expensive precious metal platinum as a catalyst. However, the enzymes need an aqueous environment, which makes it difficult for the starting material for the reaction – hydrogen – to ...

Biochemistry: Combining two catalytic worlds

This is how chemical processes could become more environmentally friendly

20-Oct-2016 - Chemical and biological catalysts tend to require very different reaction conditions, making their combination challenging. Researchers of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have succeeded in taking this hurdle by using a special gel matrix to compartmentalize both types of catalysts. The results ...