Reply #3: Yes, and can assist in producing hydrogen

[EVDebs]

Enzyme Lets Algae Produce Hydrogen to Use as Clean Fuel
Berkeley scientist says discovery is like `striking oil'

by Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, January 29, 2000

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/29/MN76411.DTL&type=printable

""The breakthrough, by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley and the U.S. Department of Energy, would make possible the commercial production of hydrogen gas by photosynthesis in tanks, ponds or the open ocean.

``I guess it's the equivalent of striking oil,'' said Tasios Melis, a microbial biology professor at UC Berkeley. ``It was enormously exciting. It was unbelievable.''

Melis made the discovery with UC Berkeley researcher Liping Zhang and with Michael Seibert, Maria Ghiardi and Marc Forestier of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a Department of Energy project in Golden, Colo.

The team's findings appear in this month's issue of Plant Physiology, a science journal. ""