Hubbard company powers with hydrogen

HUBBARD — Powering up some light bulbs isn’t normally news.

But for a tiny Hubbard company, it was the occasion for a press release and release of a YouTube video.

NanoLogix, 843 N. Main St., was proud of its achievement because the electricity for the bulbs came from a generator that was running on hydrogen. And the hydrogen came from bacteria that ate sugar residue in juice tanks at Welch’s Foods in Erie, Pa.

It was the first time that electricity was generated in this manner, said Dr. Harry Diz, professor of environmental engineering at Gannon University in Erie and the company’s bioreactor development chief.

The bioreactor is where the bacteria do their work. In time, the bacteria could produce enough electricity to power the juice plant.

In fact, the next step is to build test equipment that would be used to produce electricity for the plant, not just a string of lightbulbs.

“We look forward to the potential of building upon these developments to scale up and use this energy for our operation,” said Paul Zorzie, Welch’s engineering manager.

This is just one of NanoLogix’s projects. Another one is designed to produce hydrogen from the sludge that comes from Erie’s wastewater treatment plant. The company hopes producing hydrogen from sludge would lead to excess electricity that could be sold to utilities.

A third project is designed to reduce the time it takes to identify disease-causing bacteria.

For more on this story, see The Vindicator or www.vindy.com Tuesday.

To see the company’s YouTube video of its work at Welch’s, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS_jmMwy9D8.