FuelCellsWorks

A spoonful of herbicide helps the sugar break down in a most delightful way.

Researchers at Brigham Young University have developed a fuel cell – basically a battery with a gas tank – that harvests electricity from glucose and other sugars known as carbohydrates.

The human body’s preferred energy source could someday power our gadgets, cars or homes.

“Carbohydrates are very energy rich,” said BYU chemistry professor Gerald Watt. “What we needed was a catalyst that would extract the electrons from glucose and transfer them to an electrode.”

The surprising solution turned out to be a common weed killer, as reported by Watt and his colleagues in the October issue of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society. Watt shares his wonderfully appropriate last name with his great-great-uncle James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine.

The effectiveness of this cheap and abundant herbicide is a boon to carbohydrate-based fuel cells. By contrast, hydrogen-based fuel cells like those developed by General Motors require costly platinum as a catalyst.

The next step for the BYU team is to ramp up the power through design improvements.

The study reported experiments that yielded a 29 percent conversion rate, or the transfer of 7 of the 24 available electrons per glucose molecule.

“We showed you can get a lot more out of glucose than other people have done before,” said Dean Wheeler, lead faculty author of the paper and a chemical engineering professor in BYU’s Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. “Now we’re trying to get the power density higher so the technology will be more commercially attractive.”

Since they wrote the paper, the researchers’ prototype has achieved a doubling of power performance. And they’re pursuing an even stronger sugar high.

The hydrogen-producing green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Scientists have discovered how oxygen stops green algae from producing hydrogen. The findings could help those working towards ‘solar H2-farms’ in which microorganisms produce hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water.

An international team of scientists from Oxford University and universities in Germany report their results in two papers, one in the journal JACS and one in PNAS, published this week.

For years scientists have been interested in how we could, potentially, produce hydrogen from just sunlight and water to power vehicles and other devices. One option is to use photosynthetic microorganisms that are able to produce hydrogen as well as starch. Green algae are one of the microorganisms that many have suggested could be turned into living hydrogen factories.

‘The hydrogen-producing enzyme found in green algae, known as an iron-iron hydrogenase, has evolved a structure that makes it particularly susceptible to attacking oxygen molecules,’ said Professor Fraser Armstrong from Oxford University’s Department of Chemistry, an author of both papers. ‘Because oxygen is a major by-product of the hydrogen-making photosynthetic process in such organisms, the build-up of oxygen, which rapidly attacks the active site of the enzyme, quickly brings the hydrogen-making process to an irreversible halt. Our work has revealed the mechanism of this process.’

The team used electrochemical kinetic methods to determine the order of events in which oxygen attacks the active site of an iron-iron hydrogenase found in the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. They combined their observations with data obtained from X-ray absorption spectroscopy. By measuring ripples in the photoelectron energy spectrum of the enzyme under X-ray bombardment they were able to deduce the nature of the damage caused to the active site following attack by oxygen.

Yet while the research reported in PNAS shows just how destructive oxygen is to the enzyme powering green algae’s hydrogen-making process, the team’s research reported in JACS shows that similar hydrogenases produced by other microorganisms may possess greater tolerance to oxygen, sufficient perhaps to survive in the presence of oxygen released during photosynthetic hydrogen production.

Professor Armstrong said: ‘It shows that whilst we may have found a major obstacle along one route to the biological production of hydrogen, this knowledge could help us to identify new routes where nature could suggest an answer to the problem of oxygen’s destructive effect on hydrogen-producing enzymes.’

The team will shortly be publishing the results of similar research into nickel-iron hydrogenases, enzymes related to those that enable blue-green algae to produce hydrogen.

The research was carried out by an international team including Professor Fraser Armstrong, Gabrielle Goldet, Caterina Brandmayr, and Kylie Vincent from Oxford’s Department of Chemistry with researchers from Ruhr Universität Bochum (Germany), and Freie Universität Berlin (Germany).

Oakville, Calif. — The first demonstration of a renewable method for hydrogen production from wastewater using a microbial electrolysis system is underway at the Napa Wine Company in Oakville. The refrigerator-sized hydrogen generator will take winery wastewater, and using bacteria and a small amount of electrical energy, convert the organic material into hydrogen, according to a Penn State environmental engineer.

“This is a demonstration to prove we can continuously generate renewable hydrogen and to study the engineering factors affecting the system performance,” said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe professor of environmental engineering. “The hydrogen produced will be vented except for a small amount that will be used in a hydrogen fuel cell.” Eventually, Napa Wine Company would like to use the hydrogen to run vehicles and power systems.

Napa Wine Company’s wastewater comes from cleaning equipment, grape disposal, wine making and other processes. The company already has on-site wastewater treatment and recycling and the partially treated water from the microbial electrolysis system will join other water for further treatment and use in irrigation.

“It is nice that Napa Wine Company offered up their winery and facilities to test this new approach,” said Logan. “We chose a winery because it is a natural tourist attraction. People go there all the time to experience wine making and wine, and now they can also see a demonstration of how to make clean hydrogen gas from agricultural wastes.”

The demonstration microbial electrolysis plant is a continuous flow system that will process about 1,000 liters of wastewater a day. Microbial electrolysis cells consist of two electrodes immersed in liquid. Logan uses electrode pairs consisting of one carbon anode and one stainless steel cathode in his system rather than an electrode coated with a precious metal like platinum or gold. Replacing precious metals will keep down costs. The wastewater enters the cell where naturally occurring bacteria convert the organic material into electrical current. If the voltage produced by the bacteria is slightly increased, hydrogen gas is produced electrochemically on the stainless steel cathode.

The demonstration plant is made up of 24 modules. Each module has six pairs of electrodes.

“The composition of the wastewater will change throughout the year,” said Logan. “Now it is likely to be rather sugary, but later it may shift more toward the remnants of the fermentation process.”

The bacteria that work in the electrolysis cells will consume either of these organic materials.

The project is supported by Air Products & Chemicals, Inc., The Water Environmental Research Foundation Paul L. Busch Award and other donors. Brown & Caldwell, an environmental engineering consulting firm, was contracted to build the demonstration plant. The Napa Wine Company is donating its facilities and wastewater for the demonstration.

COLUMBUS, Ohio– Rolls-Royce’s announcement that it will expand its Ohio fuel cell research operations furthers the state’s reputation as a national advanced energy leader in fuel cell technology, according to the Ohio Business Development Coalition, the nonprofit organization that markets the state for capital investment. Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems will invest $3 million in processing and testing equipment to consolidate its research and development activities at its North American headquarters at Stark State College of Technology in North Canton.

“The partnership with Rolls-Royce, Stark State and the state of Ohio demonstrates a commitment to accelerating Ohio’s economy through continued growth in our high-growth industries and collaboration with our higher education institutions,” said Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. “This type of investment is exactly what we need to create and expand business opportunities for Ohio companies and position our state as a leader in innovation and technology.” Rolls-Royce’s expansion is expected to create about 60 jobs and sustain 32 existing fuel cell technology jobs in Ohio.

More Rolls-Royce investment into fuel cell research at Stark State is a return on investment for Ohio, which has awarded $3.5 million to the company and invested $7.5 million at the college to help establish its fuel cell prototyping center. Rolls-Royce is developing utility-scale fuel cells at the North Canton site, with potential to launch production in 2012.

Over $75 million in Ohio grants have been invested in fuel cell R&D and manufacturing process improvements, demonstrations and commercialization projects since 2003 with a continuing state commitment to additional funding support. The Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition, of which Rolls-Royce is a member, also supports the industry as a fuel cell commercialization advocate.

“Ohio’s unique assets are what makes it the hub of the global fuel cell technology economy,” said Ed Burghard, executive director of the Ohio Business Development Coalition. “It’s one of the few places in the world where all phases of fuel cell development take place. And beyond advantages in supply chain and skilled work force, it’s an ideal location for business investment with work:life balance for executives and their employees. Ohio’s low-cost, low-stress communities and combination of micropolitan and metropolitan cities provides executives and employees the resources and time to make any ambition achievable. Ohio truly is the state of perfect balance.”

About the Ohio Business Development Coalition

The Ohio Business Development Coalition is a nonprofit organization that markets the state for capital investment. The OBDC provides marketing strategy and implementation to support Ohio’s economic development efforts. For more information on business development or business relocation, visit www.ohiomeansbusiness.com.

In accordance with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued on August 26 a Federal Register Notice (FRN) on a section of the H-Prize for breakthrough advances in materials for hydrogen storage. The Hydrogen Education Foundation (HEF), as announced on September 23, 2008, is administering the H-Prize competition, which starts with the FRN.

A single amount of $1 million will be awarded for the development of an on-board hydrogen storage material that meets or exceeds a set of performance targets specified in the competition announcement. As authorized by legislation and recommended by the National Academies, inducement prizes complement the current federal research program by “incentivizing” the R&D community outside the conventional grant process. Prize mechanisms also complement DOE’s R&D portfolio, which has increased emphasis on technologies for near-term impact such as biofuels and plug-in hybrids. The success of this contest can help to accelerate the widespread commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cells in the long term and complement the near-term focus on fuel cells for early markets such as stationary and backup power, portable power, and forklifts auxiliary power.

Prospective participants must register by February 15, 2010, and submit material samples for testing by November 15, 2010 to be eligible. For more information, visit the H-Prize Web site.

Many energy experts predict that hydrogen will replace fossil fuel as the main source of energy supply in the near future as it is an ideal fuel that produces only water upon combustion. To enable the public to learn more about this technology, the Hong Kong Science Museum launches a new exhibition entitled “Bio-hydrogen production from wastewater” at its Science News Corner from today (September 23) to January 17, 2010. The exhibition, with information provided by Professor Herbert H P  Fang, Chair of Environmental Engineering of the Department of Civil Engineering at The University of Hong Kong, introduces the use of biological technology to produce hydrogen from wastewater.

Hydrogen is an ideal and environmentally friendly energy source. It has very high fuel value and produces only water upon combustion. Many economists and scientists believe that the economy of the 21st century will be powered by hydrogen, just as petroleum did in the 20th century and coal in the 19th century. Although petroleum had been used since the early 20th century for motor vehicles and airplanes, it took about 50 years for petroleum to overtake  coal as the main energy source for the world economy. Currently, using hydrogen is only at the embryonic stage. It is, however, believed that hydrogen will eventually replace petroleum as the main energy source for the world economy.

Hydrogen can be used directly as fuel for internal combustion engines. Hydrogen cars and buses are already in use in Europe and America. It can also be used for airplanes as demonstrated by the Russians in the 1960s. Furthermore, converting hydrogen into energy is a mature technology in which hydrogen reacts with oxygen producing electricity at an ambient temperature. The full scale application of hydrogen as fuel is presently hampered by the lack of technologies for its safe storage and an infrastructure for its convenient supply to users. Today, hydrogen is mostly produced by gasification of fossil fuel or by electrolysis of water.

Hydrogen can also be produced anaerobically by microorganisms under proper conditions. However, people can hardly detect hydrogen in the natural environment because the hydrogen produced is readily consumed by many hydrogen-consuming microorganisms which have developed the appetite. Researchers found that if engineers can control the anaerobic reactor condition to suppress the bioactivities of the hydrogen-consuming microorganisms, they should be able to harness hydrogen from wastewater.

Energy and environmental protection are two of the most significant issues for sustainable development today. Hydrogen-producing treatment technology is still in its infancy. Environmental microbiologists are looking for new microorganisms with substantially higher energy recovery efficiency. Meanwhile, many research teams are developing various hybrid two-stage processes – generating bio-hydrogen from wastewater at the first stage and using phototrophic bacteria for further hydrogen production or the well-established methanogenic process at the second stage. A lot of work remains to be done, which may take another 10 to 20 years, for bio-hydrogen production from wastewater to become a widely accepted treatment technology.

The Science Museum is located at 2 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East. It opens from 1pm to 9pm from Monday to Wednesday and on Fridays, and from 10am to 9pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. It is closed on Thursdays (except public holidays). Admission is $25 with half-price concession for full-time students, people with disabilities and senior citizens aged 60 or above. Admission is free on Wednesdays.

For enquiries, call 2732 3232 or visit the Science Museum’s website at (http://hk.science.museum).