Vanadium nitrogenase

Unlike molybdenum nitrogenase, vanadium nitrogenase can also reduce carbon monoxide to ethylene, ethane and propane[3] but both enzymes can reduce protons to hydrogen gas and acetylene to ethylene.

Vanadium nitrogenases are found in members of the bacterial genus Azotobacter as well as the species Rhodopseudomonas palustris and Anabaena variabilis.

[4] However, at low temperatures vanadium nitrogenases have been found to be more active than the molybdenum type, and at temperatures as low as 5 °C its nitrogen-fixing activity is 10 times higher than that of molybdenum nitrogenase.

[7] Research at the University of California Irvine showed the ability of vanadium nitrogenase to convert carbon monoxide into trace amounts of propane, ethylene, and ethane in the absence of nitrogen[3][8] through the reduction of carbon monoxide by dithionite and ATP hydrolysis .

The process of forming these hydrocarbons is carried out through proton and electron transfer in which short carbon chains are formed [8] and may ultimately allow the production of hydrocarbon fuel from CO at an industrial scale.