The scientists say introducing an enzyme into the water in which the algae live suppresses sugar production and increases hydrogen production by about 400 percent without killing the organisms.

Ultimately, the bioengineered algae could be used to produce hydrogen on a large scale because algae is abundant, prolific and hardy and there is nothing toxic involved in the process.

Creating hydrogen on a renewable basis at mass scale could be used to power fuel cells, which create energy with no byproducts except water from hydrogen and oxygen.