The news is full of stories today about a breakthrough in fuel cell technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). Professor Daniel Nocera and his colleague, Matthew Kanan,
published a paper yesterday describing a more efficient method of
splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
In reducing by 90% the amount of electricity needed to split the
molecules, the researchers say home-based solar power systems could
theoretically store excess power in the form of hydrogen, to be used
during the night or during cloudy periods, when the sun isn’t shining.
They hydrogen and oxygen could be recombined during these darker
periods to produce electricity. The closed loop system would then
collect the water for splitting in the next cycle.
Nocera and Kanan’s advancement is in the first, splitting phase,
where their use of a cobalt phosphate catalyst, offers significant
cost, efficiency and operating benefits over current fuel cell
technologies. However, the recombining stage of the loop still requires
a platinum catalyst, which continues to be a prohibitively expensive
and delicate material for mass commercialization.
However, the MIT team is open-sourcing their research in the
hopes that others will take it up and the technology will be available
within ten years.
Learn more on CNET News.
At the University of Georgia researchers have developed
a new technology that promises to dramatically increase the yield of
ethanol from readily available non-food crops, such as Bermudagrass,
switchgrass, Napiergrass-and even yard waste.
The new technology features a fast, mild, acid-free pretreatment
process that increases by at least 10 times the amount of simple sugars
released from inexpensive biomass for conversion to ethanol. The
technology effectively eliminates the use of expensive and
environmentally unsafe chemicals currently used to pretreat biomass,
according to a release.
Joy Peterson, professor of microbiology and chair of UGA’s
Bioenergy Task Force developed the new technology with former UGA
microbiology student Sarah Kate Brandon, and Mark Eiteman, professor of
biological and agricultural engineering.
The technology is available for licensing from the University of
Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. (UGARF), which has filed a patent
application.
"By allowing for the use of myriad raw materials, this
technology allows more options for ethanol facilities trying to meet
nearby demand by using locally available, inexpensive starting
materials," said Gennaro Gama, UGARF technology manager responsible for
licensing this technology. "This would greatly reduce the costs and
carbon footprint associated with the delivery of raw materials to
fermentation facilities and the subsequent delivery of ethanol to
points of sale. Local production of ethanol may also protect specific
areas against speculative fluctuations in fuel prices.
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