This is a subject which has been discussed in a great amount of detail by Mike Russell, William Martin and Wolfgang Nitschke. The role of serpentinisation has been postulated to provide an environment suitable for carbon fixation, formation of sugars and amino acids, polymerisation of amino acids and nucleotides and many other reactions required for the origin of life.

The serpentinisation reaction generates hydrogen and methane while creating alkaline fluids which give a pH and temperature gradient from the bulk ocean which could act as an energy source to drive reactions. Gunter Wactershauser has talked for years about the benefits of iron nickel sulphides as catalysts for carbon fixation from CO2 in hydrothermal systems and this could also be possible in these environments in prebiotic times due to an acidic ocean (carbonic acid from dissolved CO2 from the atmosphere).

I think a good starting point will be the paper attached but there are many. I would also check out Lane et al 2010, "How did LUCA make a living? Chemiosmosis in the origin of life" which covers the topic quite nicely. Hope this helps

Thanks a lot Dr Barry

http://deepcarbon.net/feature/aluminum-catalyzes-serpentinization-fuels-deep-life?utm_source=DCO+Newsletter+New+2&utm_campaign=1c552221fe-3_20_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3ab9030249-1c552221fe-67019689#.UrS4ptLs-I9

Geologic hydrogen production has long been thought to fuel deep ecosystems. Hydrogen-producing reactions known to take place between water and rock at high temperatures and pressures, however, have only been recapitulated in the laboratory at very slow rates, perhaps too slow to support Earth’s ubiquitous deep biosphere. In a report published in the October 2013 edition of American Mineralogist, DCO scientists Muriel Andreani, Isabelle Daniel, and Marion Pollet-Villard of University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 show that the rate of one such reaction, serpentinization, can be increased by an order of magnitude using aluminum oxide as a catalyst [1].

Serpentinization reactions take place naturally under hydrothermal conditions, such as those found in and around deep ocean vent systems, and result in the production of molecular hydrogen (H2). High-energy molecular hydrogen is liberated from water, and the rocky, ultramafic substrate is simultaneously modified to produce serpentine. Such reactions have been reproduced in laboratories around the world for several decades, but proceed slowly, over the course of weeks or months. This sluggish reaction would likely be unable to support the thriving, sunlight-deprived, deep microbial ecosystems present on our planet today.

“For the first time we understand why and how we have H2 produced at such a fast rate. When you take into account aluminum, you understand the amount of life flourishing on hydrogen,” said study co-author Isabelle Daniel.