University of Edinburgh Researchers Use Waste Bread to Enable Fossil Fuel-Free Hydrogenation Process
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that waste bread can replace fossil fuel-derived hydrogen in hydrogenation, a critical reaction in chemical manufacturing. They used a strain of E. coli to produce hydrogen gas from sugars extracted from wasted bread, enabling hydrogenation under mild conditions and low energy consumption.
This method is carbon-negative, as it avoids fossil fuel hydrogen and diverts food waste from landfills, resulting in a net reduction of greenhouse gases. The team plans to expand this approach to a wider range of daily products and explore different microbial hosts to eliminate the need for metal catalysts. The study was published in Nature Chemistry and funded by UKRI, ERC, IBioIC, and High-Value Biorenewables Network.
