One of the more interesting applications of hydrogenases is to produce hydrogen, due its capacity to catalyze its redox reaction:
In the field of hydrogen production, the incorporation of chemical compounds in electrochemical devices to produce molecular hydrogen has been a topic of huge interest in the recent years due to the possibility of using hydrogen as a replacement of the fossil fuels as an energetic carrier. This approach of using materials inspired by natural models to do the same function as their natural counterparts is called bio-mimetic approach. Nowadays this approach has received a big impulse due to the availability of high-resolution crystal structures of several hydrogenases obtained with different techniques. The technical details of these hydrogenases are stored in electronic databases at disposition to who may be interested.
This information has allowed scientists to determine the important parts of the enzyme necessary to catalyze the reaction and determine the pathway of the reaction in a very detailed way. Which allow to have a very good comprehension of what is necessary to catalyze the same reaction using artificial components.