Scientists produce energy from plants

Israeli scientists say they have produced hydrogen from plants in a development that they hope could eventually lead to using vegetation to produce electricity.

The discovery was made by using microscopic algae, an aquatic plant, in research carried out at a Tel Aviv University laboratory.

"To link a device to electricity, you just have to connect to a power point. In the case of a plant, we didn't know where to connect," said Iftach Yacoby, who heads the university's renewable energy laboratory.

Researchers planted an enzyme into samples of the algae and observed it producing hydrogen, a source of energy already used to fuel vehicles.

"We didn't know if this would work but we believed that it had potential," said Yacoby during a laboratory visit.

Findings of the study, a collaborative project with Kevin Redding at the University of Arizona, were published in April in the Energy & Environmental Science journal.