This pollution sent 14,500 Pennsylvanians to the hospital with breathing problems in 1997, with untold thousands suffering at home. Health care experts and advocates, led by the American Lung Association, recognize that one of the best ways to end this crisis is to stop the pollution at its source - and that's why they have endorsed the Green Power initiative. The Reverend Joy Kaufmann of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches said participating in Green Power makes sense for church groups as well. Buying electricity made from the sun, the wind and other renewable resources is an ideal way to practice our faith on a daily basis by taking action to prevent global climate change and other human caused destruction. An enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the liver could be used to recycle carbon, reducing the amount released into the atmosphere, say chemists in Illinois.
Methanol is a clean burning fuel that can be used to power cars.
To make methanol, the liver enzyme and two bacterial enzymes are embedded in a sponge like glass and placed in water. When CO2 is bubbled through the water, one of the bacterial enzymes, formate dehydrogenase, converts CO2 into formic acid. Then another enzyme, formaldehyde dehydrogenase, transforms the formic acid into formaldehyde. Finally, alcohol dehydrogenase, which normally helps the liver to detoxify alcohol, completes the reaction by turning the formaldehyde into methanol. To make the process practical, the NADH will have to be recycled by replenishing the electrons it feeds to the enzymes.