Dead Sea's poison gas may produce life-sustaining clean energy

Washington, March 25 (ANI): A new study has indicated that the Black Sea, the world's largest dead zone that has high concentrations of a poisonous gas, may be chock-full of life-sustaining energy.

The Black Sea, an isolated inland sea in Eastern Europe, has been devoid of life for decades due to pollution carried by rivers.

The influx of toxic waste from 17 European countries has contributed to a decline in oxygen in the water. This in turn has created high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas in the sea.

But, according to a report in National Geographic News, researchers have said that if hydrogen could be harvested from this poisonous gas, it could mean a new form of clean energy for Europe.

"We need clean energy, and we have a pollution problem," said study co-author Mehmet Haklidir of the Tubitak Marmara Research Center in Gebze-Kocaeli, Turkey.

"Taking hydrogen from the contaminated sea can both be a renewable source of energy and combat pollution," he added.

Though the research is still in its early stages, Haklidir and co-author Fusun Servin Tut Haklidir suggest that scientists could separate hydrogen from the hydrogen sulfide via several potential processes, including thermal, electrochemical, or photochemical.

In thermal decomposition, scientists could use temperatures of about 1,472 to 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit (800 to 1500 degrees Celsius) to remove the hydrogen.

As for storage, the gas could be kept naturally in underground caves, which are plentiful in Turkey's Black Sea region.

"We hope that researchers work and study this kind of energy system to develop the technology," Servin Tut Haklidir said. (ANI)