Refillable, Biodegradable, Energy Dense Battery Developed From Sugar

Sugar battery developers Y.H. Percival Zhang (right)and Zhiguang Zhu.
Credit: Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

An environmentally friendly battery that runs on sugar has been developed by a research team at Virginia Tech.

The battery also has a very high energy density compared to previously developed sugar based fuel cells which allows it to run longer before needing to be refueled.

Conventional batteries usually use platinum as a catalyst. Instead, this battery uses sugar and a non-natural synthetic enzymatic pathway to generate electricity. Because of the process, the main byproducts of the sugar battery are electricity and water making this battery environmentally friendly.

It is also easily refilled with sugar extending its usability while also making it low cost, non-toxic, and biodegradable.

The team is confident that this battery will one day be used to power electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets.

Renewable Plant Derived Substance Can Chemically And Biologically Develop Biofuel

Researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a technique using a plant derived chemical that can both biologically and chemically process plants into biofuel. The chemical, Gamma valerolactone (GVL), is inexpensive, renewable and recyclable.

The process converts a high 95% of the material to sugars that can be used by yeast to produce ethanol through fermentation or chemically upgrade furans to create drop-in biofuel.

In the image, the process using GVL dissolves biomass producing fractions that are rich in (from left to right) lignin monomers, hemicellulose and cellulose-derived sugars.

In creating ethanol, GVL helps in concentrating the sugar which the yeast could use to produce ethanol. The process also allows the removal of GVL from the setup for further reuse. Removing and reusing gamma valerolactone can be done through depressurization. Using the gamma valerolactone technique results in a 10% savings in ethanol production compared to current technologies.

Gamma valerolactone can also be used as a solvent for the conversion of biomass to furan chemicals.

Organic Energy and Electronics - Using Bacteria As An Energy Source

Scientists are studying ways to take advantage of the anaerobic respiration process of bacteria in creating fuel and electricity.

Using Dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria (DRMB), scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are studying how these organisms catalyze electron reactions during their respiration process. This process can be used to harvest energy from cultured bacteria in its own environment such as seawater or wastewater.

Anaerobic respiration is a a process that uses electron acceptors such as sulfate (SO42-), nitrate (NO3-), and sulfur (S) instead of oxygen (O2). The process still uses a respiratory electron chain albeit without oxygen. An exogenous final electron acceptor is still needed for electrons to pass through the system.

The electron transfer, known as extracellular electron transfer (EET), is what is exploted to ultimately create energy.

The study can open up applications in the future such as fuel from seawater, electricity from wastewater or at a microlevel - bacteria coated electronics that can power up on its own. Other related technologies have used algae and other crops such as soybean to create biofuel and biodiesel.

In 2009, researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark discovered the presence of bacteria capable of generating electric currents in the seabed.

Tiny Marine Crustacean Assists In Developing Wood Based Biofuel

The gribble, Limnoria quadripunctata, is one of the only animals that can digest wood.
Image: Simon Cragg/University of Portsmouth

Scientists from the University of York, University of Portsmouth and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have discovered an enzyme produced by gribbles, tiny marine wood borers, that can help turn wood based biomass into biofuel. Unlike termites that have microbes inside their guts to help process wood they digest, gribbles have a sterile gut which means that these tiny animals process the wood themselves through an enzyme.

Scientists have now isolated this enzyme and once its structure is studied and can be commercially reproduced, it can help create sustainable liquid biofuels.

Biofuels are sustainable, efficient, and renewable fuels that are processed from biological material called biomass. Biomass are organic material from living or recently living organisms. Biofuels are derived from biological carbon fixation which is the reduction of carbon dioxide or inorganic carbon to organic compounds by living organisms.

Biofuels can come from different sources such as agricultural crops, animal products, plant material or from living organisms like algae.

Algae Based Hydrogen Biofuel Being Studied As A Possibility For Renewable Energy

Researchers are studying the possibility of hydrogen fuel production using green energy; an advancement that can bring alge produced biofuel to a whole new level.

Bioenergy is energy that is produced from biological sources such as plants, agricultural crops and living organisms. Fuel, also known as biofuel, can be derived from these biological or organic sources. It is renewable, natural, and environmentally friendly.

One primary source of biofuel is algae. It is noted that one acre of algae can produce between 1,000 to 5,000 gallons of biofuel each year. The fact that it is sustainable and renewable, biofuel technology has grown tremendously with global biofuel production growing from 17.8 billion liters in 2009 to 21.4 billion liters in 2011.

Research and Advances in Bio-Engineered Algae Nanocellulose at 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society

Scientists from all over the world will be reporting on the advances and research on nanocellulose, a material that has many applications from material technology to biofuel production.

Nanocellulose is a material made up of nanosized cellulose fibrils. It is about 5 to 20 nanometers wide and has variable length.

Nanocellulose is derived from wood fibers and shows exceptional strength characteristics. It is lightweight, durable and biodegradable. It has characteristics similar to plastic and is viscous under normal conditions, but flow (become thin, less viscous) over time when shaken, agitated, or otherwise stressed. When the shearing forces are removed the gel regains much of its original state. The fibrils are isolated from any cellulose containing source including wood-based fibers (pulp fibers) through high-pressure, high temperature and high velocity impact homogenization

As part of the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, several studies and advances on nanocellulose research are presented during the event.

Bioengineered Plant Boosts Oil Production For Use in BioFuels

Researchers have bioengineered plants to improve its oil production. Proof of their experiment can be seen from caterpillar larvae that has become fat from consuming the leaves of these plants. This study can lead to better production of biofuels.

Biological sources most specially from agricultural crops like soybean can be used to produce biofuels. An acre of soybean can yield about 50 gallons of biodiesel per year.

But algae surpasses this by far. Biofuel from an acre of algae can produce as much as 1,000 to 5,000 gallons per year. Biofuel production from these sources are renewable, economical, and environment friendly. Algae is easy and fast to cultivate. It only takes one to ten days to harvest fuel from algae and does not compete with regular agricultural crops for land space and water.

The process in producing biofuel from algae involves the photosynthesis. Algae converts sunlight to biomass which undergoes a chemical process to produce biofuel.

Bi-Functional Alkane Producing Enzyme Developed For More Efficient Biofuel Production

Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a bi-functional or dual enzyme that can continuously produce alkane. This can lead to using the enzyme in bacteria, algae, or plants to produce biofuels that need no further processing.

Alkanes are highly combustible chemical compounds made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms. These compounds are called hydrocarbons, more specifically, saturated hydrocarbons because they are saturated with hydrogen atoms (every carbon atom is attached to at least two hydrogen atoms). Hydrocarbons naturally occur in crude oil, where decomposed organic matter provides an abundance of carbon and hydrogen.

The first four alkanes from the group are methane, ethane, propane, and butane. Alkane can be identified because of the "-ane" suffix which is paired up with a number prefix such as dec (decane), hec (hecane), oct (octane).

When alkanes burn, they form H₂O and CO₂ - water and carbon dioxide. Because of this, they are highly valued as clean fuels. The first four alkane are used directly as fuels. A mixture of other alkanes also produce fuel. Gasoline is a mixture of alkanes from pentane up to about decane.

Aside from being used as a fuel source, alkanes are also used in other products such as plastic, paint, cosmetics, detergent and various others.

From Fuel Cell to Fuel Tank - Studying How To Maximize Efficiency of Hydrogen as an Alternative Fuel

A hydrogen fuel cell is a device that converts hydrogen into electricity. Aside from energy, the other byproduct is water.

Just like a regular battery cell, a fuel cell consists of an anode, a cathode and electrolyte. Electrons travel from the anode to the cathode generating electricity. For fuel cells, the energy created can be used to power vehicles, motors, and other devices.

Hydrogen fuel cells, at the moment, have components made up of precious metals such as platinum. Because of this, the price of hydrogen fuel cells are at a premium and slightly above the reach of the average consumer. Platinum is used as a catalyst for the chemical reactions that occur within the fuel cell.

There are many benefits on the application of fuel cells particularly hydrogen fuel cells. Because the byproduct of a hydrogen fuel cell is water, it is pollution free and environment friendly. The power generated by hydrogen is much greater than that of regular gasoline. Also, since these cells do not need combustion or any moving parts, the device is close to 100% reliable.

And as stated, even if hydrogen is used as a combustion based fuel, the byproduct generated is not harmful smog, but water vapor.

Three materials could hold the key to future hydrogen cars

New research funded by the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award will look at how to safely and efficiently store hydrogen – one of the key problems preventing hydrogen from being used as an alternative fuel.

Award recipient Timo Thonhauser, of the Wake Forest University physics department, said current storage methods, such as compressing hydrogen into tanks, are unwieldy, making the storage question the big bottleneck in turning hydrogen fuel cars into a reality.

Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion Pushes Biofuel Production Forward To The Future

Renewable energy comes from sources that are naturally replenished. Natural occurring resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, ocean tides, and geothermal heat (geysers) can be utilized to provide energy without worrying about depletion.

Modern renewable energy can be substituted for fossil fuels in four areas: power generation, heating and cooling, transport fuels, and rural/off-grid energy services.

Biofuel promises an efficient, sustainable and renewable energy source for generations to come. It is derived through biological carbon fixation. Carbon fixation is the reduction of inorganic carbon (carbon dioxide) to organic compounds by living organisms.

Biological material from living, or recently living organisms called biomass is processed to produce these biofuels. One such example of biomass source is algae. Since it can be cultivated in sewage water or saltwater, it does not compete with food crops in terms of land space or freshwater sources.

Fueling the future with renewable gasoline and diesel

A new process for converting municipal waste, algae, corn stalks and similar material to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel is showing the same promise in larger plants as it did in laboratory-scale devices, the developers reported here today. It was part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, which continues through Thursday.

"These results are essential in establishing the credibility of a process that may seem too good to be within the realm of possibility," said Martin Linck, Ph.D. "However, we are moving steadily toward having multiple demonstration-scale facilities in operation by 2014, with each facility producing a range of 3,500-17,500 gallons of fuel a day from non-food plant material. We will be designing commercial-scale facilities that could produce as much as 300,000 gallons per day from the same kinds of feedstocks."

The technology, termed Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion (IH2), already has the credibility of its developer, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), where Linck is a scientist. Located in Des Plaines, Ill, GTI is a nonprofit energy technology research organization whose accomplishments during the last 70 years include nearly 500 products, 750 licenses and more than 1,200 associated patents.

Starbucks and City University of Hong Kong Collaborate On Biorefinery Project

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Disclaimer: Quantum Day does not endorse or promote Starbucks and holds no relationship with its commercial suppliers or distributors. The report is based on research presented to The American Chemical Society.
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The School of Energy and Environment at the City University of Hong Kong has recently started collaborating with coffee retailer giant 'Starbucks Hong Kong'. The partnership, which was facilitated by the NGO the Climate Group, will focus on the valorisation of spent coffee grounds and unconsumed bakeries via bio-processing. The collaboration is based on a support scheme and part of the "Care for our Planet" campaign: for every set of Care For Our Planet Cookies Charity Set sold, Starbucks will donate HK$8 to the School of Energy and Environment of City University of Hong Kong to support research on valorisation of food waste for sustainable production of chemicals and materials.

The aim of the research is to valorise the disposed coffee grounds and unconsumed bakeries to bio-plastics and detergents ingredients, facilitating the development of biomass use in Hong Kong and reduce the release of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants into the atmosphere.

The Hong Kong Starbucks project will focus on the use of acidic hydrolysis of non pre-treated spent coffee grounds and bakery waste, followed by fungal solid state fermentation for breaking down the carbohydrate into simple sugars for the subsequent succinic acid fermentation. One of the critical issues to be solved is to overcome the inhibitory compounds which affect the growth of Actinobacillus succinogenes, which is a facultative anaerobic bacterium used in the fermentative production of succinic acid.

This research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

New biorefinery finds treasure in Starbucks' spent coffee grounds and stale bakery goods

With 1.3 billion tons of food trashed, dumped in landfills and otherwise wasted around the world every year, scientists today described development and successful laboratory testing of a new "biorefinery" intended to change food waste into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergents and scores of other everyday products.

Their report on a project launched in cooperation with the Starbucks restaurant chain - concerned with sustainability and seeking a use for spent coffee grounds and stale bakery goods - came at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. Thousands of scientists and others are here this week for the meeting of the world's largest scientific society, which features almost 8,600 reports on new discoveries in science.

"Our new process addresses the food waste problem by turning Starbucks' trash into treasure — detergent ingredients and bio-plastics that can be incorporated into other useful products," said Carol S. K. Lin, Ph.D., who led the research team. "The strategy reduces the environmental burden of food waste, produces a potential income from this waste and is a sustainable solution."

Algae Shows Great Promise As A Next Generation Sustainable and Renewable Bio Fuel

Algae Biofuel is being touted as an efficient, sustainable and renewable energy source for generations to come.

Algae has more oil per pound compared to traditional biological sources such as corn and soybean. Since it can be cultivated in sewage water or saltwater, it does not compete with food crops in terms of land space or freshwater sources.

Algae is also easy to cultivate. It can grow twenty to thirty times faster than traditional food crops with a harvesting cycle of one to ten days. This gives this alternative fuel source an almost abundant and continuous supply all year round.

For examply, biodiesel is typically sourced from soybeans. With soybeans, the yield per acre per year is about 50 gallons. Comparing this to bio-oil that can be sourced from algae, the yield would be anywhere between 1,000 to 5,000 gallons per acre per year.

The reason for this is because algae efficiently converts sunlight to biomass. Through chemical processes, oil can be extracted from this and converted to various oils and fuels that can even be used in combustible engines.

Toward a more economical process for making biodiesel fuel from algae

Scientists today described an advance toward a long-sought economical process that could turn algae, like the stuff of pond scum, into a revolutionary new and sustainable source of biodiesel and other "green" fuels. Their report on the use of an environmentally friendly process for extracting oil from algae came at a session of 16th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, being held here June 18-20 by the Green Chemistry Institute, part of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

"Algae has great promise as a next-generation biofuel, a fuel that is sustainable and renewable," explained Julie Zimmerman, Ph.D., who leads the research team. "It has more oil per pound than corn and soybeans, does not divert crops from the food supply and can potentially be grown in sewage water and seawater without impacting the freshwater supply." The presentation was part of a symposium on green fuel sources, abstracts for which appear below.

Lindsay Soh, a graduate student in Zimmerman's lab, described their efforts toward a simple process that would extract the fatty molecules called lipids used to make biodiesel from algae and transform them into usable fuel in one fell swoop. This could make biodiesel production from algae cheaper, faster and greener than current methods, which require separate steps — each with its own vessel and chemicals — to perform those operations. This "one-pot" reaction uses so-called supercritical carbon dioxide, which uses elevated pressures and temperatures so that it fills its container like a gas but is as dense as a liquid.