Biotechnology
Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal substrates. The cellulose substrates and made from plants and can be easily recycled at the end of their life. To date, organic solar cells have usually been fabricated on glass or plastic. Neither of these is easy to recycle if, for example, they are broken during manufacture or installation. Cells on plastic have the further disadvantage of being petroleum-based. Paper substrates have been tried but have limited performance because of paper's rough surface and porosity. However, cellulose nanomaterials, being made from plants, are renewable … Continue Reading
At the American Chemical Society Conference, Dr Malcolm J Brown Jr, a leading researcher on nanocellulose since the 1970s, has reported major advances in producing nanocellulose from blue-green algae. The great strength and light weight of nanocellulose have fostered interest in using it in everything from lightweight armour and ballistic glass to wound dressings and scaffolds for growing replacement organs for transplantation. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on earth but most of it is in the form of wood fibre and plant cell walls. Very few organisms produce cellulose in its nanostructure form. Nanocellulose research has a long … Continue Reading
Researchers at Virginia Tech, led by Associate Professor Percival Zhang, have developed a process by which approximately 30% of the cellulose from any plant material (including agricultural waste) can be converted into a starch known as amylose. Amylose can be used in food or as biodegradable packaging. Cellulose and starch have the same chemical composiition – the difference being their chemical linkages. Professor Percival Zhang's team used an enzyme cascade to break up the bonds in cellulose, enabling their reconfiguration as the starch, amylose. Amylose s a good source of dietay fibre and has been shown to decrease the risk … Continue Reading
Researchers at the University of Georgia say that they have found a way to take the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to make useful industrial products, potentially including liquid fuels. The process uses a unique microorganism called a "rushing fireball" (Pyrococcus furiosus) which thrives by feeding on carbohydrates in the super-heated ocean waters near geothermal vents. By manipulating this organism's genetic material, the researchers created a microorganism that is capable of living at much lower temperatures and feeds on carbon dioxide. The research team then used hydrogen gas to create a chemical reaction in the microorganism that … Continue Reading
Israeli company, Emefcy, has developed a microbe-based technology that harvests energy while treating waste water. The process starts with the same principle as most wastewater treatment – water is aerated so that bacteria in the liquid breaks down organic material. But instead of using electricity to push air into the water, Emefcy uses a permeable, polyethylene filter that allows air in but doesn't let liquid out, The polyethylene membrane surrounds a fuel cell chamber into which the waste water flows. Inside the fuel cell, anaerobic bacteria release electrons. The electrons flow to an anode and then to cathodes in a … Continue Reading
Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have reported inthe journal Science that they have "genetically engineered a lithoautotrophic microorganism known as Ralstonia eutropha H16 to produce isobutanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol in an electro-bioreactor using carbon dioxide as the sole carbon source and electricity as the sole energy input." Or, in English, they have created a bug whch makes a form of alcohol from carbon dioxide when it gets an electric shock. The significance of this is that it allows electricity to be stored in the form of an alcohol which can be used as a … Continue Reading
A Dutch company, Ecofys, is investigating the possibilities of integrating seaweed cultivation into offshore wind farms. The project is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Ecofys and several partners are creating a test module for seaweed cultivation in an offshore environment. The test module consists of nets a few metres below the sea surface, held in place by steel cables attached to buoys. The Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands is looking into refining the seaweed into proteins that could be components for biofuels or used as biomass for energy generation. Ecofys also believes that … Continue Reading
Dutch scientists from Utrecht University and the Dow Chemical Company have found a way of turning plant matter into the building blocks of common plastics using a catalyst made from iron nanoparticles, that offers an alternative to oil-based production. Existing bioplastics, which are made from crops such as corn and sugar, have only limited use because they are not exact substitutes for oil-based products. However, the Dutch team has produced ethylene and propylene which are the same as those made in petrochemical works, allowing them to be used in a wide range of industries. The downside is that, like oil-based … Continue Reading
In the video below, MIT researcher Andreas Mershin describes advances in producing photovoltaic cells based on waste plant material, such as grass clippings. The work is an extension of a project begun eight years ago by Shuguang Zhang, associate director at MIT’s Center for Biomedical Engineering. Zhang extracted the tiny structures within plant cells that carry out photosynthesis from plants, stabilized them chemically and formed a layer on a glass substrate that could produce an electric current when exposed to light. But assembling and stabilizing the material required expensive chemicals and sophisticated lab equipment and the efficiency of the solar … Continue Reading
Seaweed would seem to an ideal source of biomass for making renewable fuels. Kelp has a high sugar content; it doesn’t need farmland or fresh water and large quantities can be sustainably harvested. Harvesting the kelp which is already growing along 3% of the world’s coastlines could potentially produce 60 billion gallons of ethanol. The problem with kelp is that its primary sugar, alginate, could not be broken down efficiently enough to produce biofuel on an industrial scale. Now, scientists from the Bio Architecture Laboratory in Berkeley, California, have genetically engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria capable of digesting … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted WaterScientists from Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling … Continue Reading → […]
- Aussie Researchers Make Efficient Solar Cells from Low-grade SiliconResearchers at the University of New South Wales have found a way to make very high efficiency solar cells out of cheap, low-grade silicon. It has been known for several decades that hydrogen atoms can be introduced into the atomic … Continue Reading → […]
- First Aussie “Hot Rocks” Power Plant Begins ProducingThe first power plant in Australia to produce electricity using an enhanced geothermal ("hot rocks") system has begun producing electricity in the far north-east of South Australia. The one-megawatt Habanero pilot plant near outback Innamincka is operated by Geodynamics. Geodynamics … Continue Reading → […]
- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted Water
