Termites can produce Hydrogen, could they be a solution to Climate Change

[TermiteHydrogen]

Hi,

I'm a Chemical Engineering PhD student studying natural production of Hydrogen from Termites (they're not harmed), and wanted to share a video on the topic which also documents my PhD journey up until this point.

I hope you enjoy!

Regards

 

[Brewser]

Explosive Research into New Ideas for Energy

 

[The Snark]

Well my car runs on termite farts. Beat that, Elon!

 

[Introvertebrate]

"Oh, the humanity!" Sorry. Couldn't pass up a Hindenburg joke.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

Nice, just watch that L E L....

 

[The Snark]

@TermiteHydrogen Okay, humor aside. You have me curious academically. I'm going to leap sideways a little here.

In much of SE Asia we have termite issues. Here in northern Thailand exemplifies. The average house in the US would likely be destroyed in less than five years. You build only with rare termite resistant hardwoods or the industry standard here, concrete, brick and mortar. The termite populations are off the charts. If you want to have anything fixed made of wood, the wood needs to be treated and the ground injected with termicidal chemicals once a year or more.

The flooded rice fields lend to concentrating the termite populations. Our property is not at all unusual. A 3 foot across stump of a tree cut down 8 months ago has been half consumed and I estimate it will be gone within a total period of two years.
The termites invade brick and mortar walls, decomposing cement to make channels to get at the little bits of wood used as fascia trim around the eaves over 20 feet in the air. We recently developed a two foot tall termite mound on the northern corner of our property. With the rains the termites swarm, often in such numbers that their bodies on the roadways under the street lights become dangerous for motorcycles as their crushed bodies produce a slick almost as hazardous as ice.
In other words. termites gone exponential.

Anecdotal noise aside, it is logically possible to produce many species of termite inclusive of those that make hydrogen in significant quantities.

An immediate downside as a solution to the energy crisis is the termites that produce hydrogen also produce methane, which is of course a seriously problematic greenhouse gas. Separation of hydrogen is quite feasible but so far only accomplished in minute quantities in labs. Dealing with the methane at present is most easily accomplished and it is disposed of by burning it off which of course contributes to global warming as well.

So let's talk shop here. Feasibility projections to produce hydrogen in the quantities that would be sufficient to offset the use of fossil fuels for a start. Let's have a look.

 

[TermiteHydrogen]

@The Snark

Hey, glad it aroused your curiosity!

Some Termites definitely breed rapidly, and it's certainly possible that there are ways to accelerate the reproduction rate further, that are yet to be discovered, especially as Termites use pheromones, which can be artificially manipulated in an Engineering setting. It could even be possible to use pheromones to lure them away from houses.

In that same vein, it could well be possible to really accelerate their feeding rate further via artificial means. As mentioned in the video, infusing their foods with antibiotics can increase Hydrogen production by 6-7 times, so the possibilities are endless!

Wow, I didn't know could be that Pesky! Theoretically, if there was a way to lure them using pheromones etc away from houses and towards enclosures which can collect the Hydrogen, it'd be a win-win! I'll probably talk about that in my next video.

Yes the Methane thing is something to consider, although there are definitely ways to separate Methane and Hydrogen as steam reformation of Methane for Hydrogen production is the most common means of Hydrogen production, and doesn't 100% convert. Other Engineers can work on improving the separation efficiency and finding better uses for Methane. One company even found a way to convert Methane to fish food! Even with methane still burnt, a mixture of Hydrogen and Methane is still more energy dense than commonly produced Syngas, in which Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide are burnt, since both Methane and Carbon Monoxide have one Carbon per molecule (so will both produce one mole of CO2 when burnt), yet the energy produced by combustion of Methane is significantly higher than that of Carbon Monoxide, so it'd still be an improvement over Syngas.

Termites can also eat coal since it's just fossilized wood.

I hope the video gets traction, the possibilities really are endless, but most people around the world don't know that Termites can produce Hydrogen. I could have easily missed it when browsing through papers when I was studying Termites for non-Hydrogen related purposes.

 

[The Snark]

Termites can also eat coal since it's just fossilized wood.

Since they can decompose cement, .............

I hope the video gets traction,

That video is a concern. The upper echelon of academia would be reviled by the cartoon-ish presentation. The stodgy elite would suggest a firing squad. IE tradition dictates certain venues that run antithetical to the popular mentality.

It appears to me that control and possible use of methane would, at this present juncture, have more value than the production of Hydrogen relative to the greenhouse gas problem. After all, expedience firmly rules all with all iron fist in this age of glut and selfishness.

 

[Kada]

Also interested. But to give an honest opinion. That video is noisy, annoying (music) and swears right from the get go. It just comes across as cringe youtuber teenager energy rather than actual academic curiosity. aimed at children. with that style, it wont gain traction in that format even if it turns out to be a plausible system. Do the R&D first, in a more mature manner. Once proven it's easy to make metal type videos for the masses later once you're published. Academia is incredibly arrogant and very much bias.

Just a thought. But honestly I couldn't get past 20 seconds of that video and i am open minded. It was horrendously noisy and impossible to watch. More interested to read some text you have prepared because it's an interesting idea. Probably hard to scale, but not impossible I wouldn't think. No one in the industry could possibly take this serious however, and this will make your future research tied to your name very hard to be accepted with that style online.

Not trying to be a *** but it is what it is. Keep up the research, be aware of prese tuition though. Too many PhD students slit their throats before they even pass the board.