Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, removed six genes from the E. Coli genome.

This resulted in a strain that produces 140 times more hydrogen than unmodified E. Coli.

"These bacteria have 5,000 genes that enable them to survive environmental changes," said Wood.

"When we knock things out, the bacteria become less competitive."

"We haven't given them an ability to do something."

"They don't gain anything here -- they lose."

"The bacteria that we're making are less competitive and less harmful because of what's been removed."

As cultivation of crops for biofuel becomes more popular, Wood sees this as a good way to take the resulting sugars and turn them into usable energy.

"A lot of people are working on converting something that you grow into some kind of sugar," he said.

"We're going to get some form of sugar-like molecule and use the bacteria to convert that into hydrogen."

Wood sees his process as far superior to energy-intensive processes such as electrolysis, which uses of electricity and water to create hydrogen.

"One of the most difficult things about chemical engineering is how you get the product," he explained.

"In this case, it's very easy because the hydrogen is a gas, and it just bubbles out of the solution."

"You just catch the gas as it comes out of the glass."

"That's it -- you have pure hydrogen."

Concerns have been raised over the transportation and storage of hydrogen, but Wood thinks that his process could make on-site manufacture feasible.

"The main thing we think is you can transport things like sugar, and if you spill the sugar there is not a huge catastrophe," he said.

"The idea is to make the hydrogen where you need it."

He now wants to refine the process and make it even more efficient, with the hope that it could become a viable source of energy.

"Take your house, for example," said Wood.

"The size of the reactor that we'd need today if we implemented this technology would be less than the size of a 250-gallon fuel tank found in the typical east coast home."

"I'm not finished with this yet, but at this point if we implemented the technology right now, you or a machine would have to shovel in about the weight of a man every day so that the reactor could provide enough hydrogen to take care of the average American home for a 24-hour period."

"We're trying to make bacteria so it's doesn't require 80 kilograms -- it will be closer to 8 kilograms."