Bioenergy technology converts wastewater byproducts to hydrogen

phys.org


February 18, 2014 by Steve Wampler

South Carolina State University adds Center for Energy Studies

Biofuels Digest


Isabel Lane | February 3, 2014


Read more

New Device Harnesses Sun and Sewage to Produce Hydrogen Fuel

Biofuels Digest

Thomas Saidak | October 17, 2013

 

Read more

Soybeans used with molybdenum to create catalyst for hydrogen production

Biofuels Digest

Thomas Saidak | April 29, 2013

 

Read more

Recipe for low-cost, biomass-derived catalyst for hydrogen production

nano werk

Posted: Apr 24th, 2013

Read more

Researchers develop revolutionary biomass-to-hydrogen process

Biomass Magazine

By Virginia Tech | April 04, 2013

German researchers extract hydrogen from wet biomass

Biomass Magazine
By Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg
February 13, 2013

Read more

Japanese group plans to commercialize biohydrogen production

Biomass Magazine
By Erin Voegele
September 20, 2012

Read more

Researchers make hydrogen as cellulosic ethanol coproduct

Ethanol Producer Magazine

By Susanne Retka Schill
July 16, 2012

Rather than focusing on a single microbe capable of converting cellulose to ethanol in a fermenter, researchers at Michigan State University are mimicking nature, culturing two bacteria that grow synergistically. The process creates two fuels, ethanol and hydrogen, the latter being produced from electricity generated by one of the bacteria.

Microbiologist Gemma Reguera explained her team of microbiologists at MSU are known for their work with the bacterium, Geobacter sulfurreducens, used for developing bioeletrochemical systems known as microbial electrolysis cells. The work done by MSU chemical engineer Bruce Dale treating corn stover and other waste biomass with the ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) process was intriguing to them because it mimics what fungi do in in nature to remove lignin and facilitate the hydrolysis of cellulose for symbiotic microorganisms. They then looked for natural organisms that would degrade AFEX pretreated cellulose into ethanol. “They always produce ethanol and something else,” she explained, “and that something is usually acids that bring the pH in the fermentation broth down and back-inhibit the bacterial activity. This really slows growth or kills the fermentation organism.” Mimicking nature again, they looked for a bacterium that would produce ethanol and compounds that would support the electron-producing Geobacter, thus removing ethanol-production inhibitors from the fermentation broth.

Read more

Kordi finds Midas touch with biofuel

Korea JoongAng Daily
June 21,2012

Korea has invented a new technology that will help steel manufacturers cut emissions and enable the country to secure a higher value-added biofuel.

Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (Kordi), which is under the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, announced yesterday it has developed a technology that turns carbon monoxide into hydrogen by using single-celled microorganisms from deep under the seabed in the Pacific Ocean.

Archaea microorganisms, particularly the strand known as NA1, can be used to produce hydrogen.

In September 2010, Kordi discovered how to use the microorganisms and the result was published in the U.S. science journal Nature.

Read more

'Hydrogen is tomorrow's biofuel' say scientists

PhysOrg.com
May 15, 2012

Researchers from the University of Birmingham are creating clean hydrogen from food waste paving the way for a bioenergy alternative for the future.

Currently, Brazil is the world’s most intensive user of bioethanol as an alternative to gasoline for powering transport. There are questions about whether the mass production of bioethanol using sugarcane is sustainable in the long-term. Bioethanol generates carbon dioxide and agricultural waste. However, creating clean hydrogen from waste not only uses that waste but provides a fuel that is emission free and can also be generated sustainably.

Presenting this research at a collaborative bioenergy workshop in São Paulo today, Professor Lynne Macaskie, Professor of Applied Microbiology at the University of Birmingham, said “Fuel cells need clean energy to run them. If you provide bacteria with a supply of sugary waste from, for example, chocolate production, the bacteria can produce hydrogen. At the moment manufacturers pay to dispose of waste but with our technique they could convert it to clean electricity instead.”

Read more

Rentech's Integrated Bio-Refinery Project Mechanically Complete

The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch
press release
Nov. 8, 2011, 9:00 a.m. EST

Cellulosic Fuels Production Expected by End of 2011

LOS ANGELES, Nov 08, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Rentech, Inc. /quotes/zigman/185313/quotes/nls/rtk RTK -4.38% announced today that all systems required to start up the Company's integrated bio-refinery (IBR) in Commerce City, Colorado are mechanically complete. Commissioning, validation and start-up of the renewable energy demonstration facility are underway. The project has reached this milestone within the original budget and schedule.

The IBR project was co-funded by a $23 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, to manufacture and install at the Rentech Energy Technology Center a 20 ton-per-day Rentech-ClearFuels biomass gasifier. The gasifier is designed to produce bio-synthesis gas from various high impact wood waste and sugar cane bagasse feedstocks. The gasifier has been integrated with Rentech's existing Product Demonstration Unit (PDU) at the site, which uses the Rentech Process and UOP's upgrading technologies to produce renewable drop-in synthetic jet and diesel fuels at demonstration scale. Rentech expects the integrated facility, which will have the flexibility to produce renewable syngas, hydrogen, and steam as well as biofuels, will be used to evaluate additional technology integration opportunities. Rentech funded the balance of the project's total cost of approximately $36 million, which includes the cost of building the gasifier, feedstock handling equipment, integration with Rentech's synthetic fuels plant, and operation of the facility for a period of 6 months to collect 2,000 hours of operating data. The project team responsible for meeting this important milestone for mechanical completion included URS Corporation, Linde Group/Hydro-Chem, Piper Electric Corporation and Ames Construction, Inc.

Read more

Argonne researchers look to hydrogen extraction from carbohydrates in biomass

ecoseed.org
Friday, May 27, 2011

In its aim to find ways of harvesting hydrogen based on plant material sources, Argonne National Laboratory scientists are now looking at another option of effectively extracting the element from biomass. Carbohydrates, the sugar that plants produce in the occurrence of photosynthesis, are the next source material that scientists are considering to harvest hydrogen from.

Argonne’s materials scientist Christopher Marshall will be using a biologically-inspired synthesized catalyst to get hydrogen from biomass. His group is studying to use platinum and platinum molybdenum hybrid catalyst to come up with the element on the plant-based material.

Read more

APSU Professor and Students Author Paper on Biofuel Research

Austin Peay State University
2/14/2011

As the demand for biodiesel fuel increases across the globe - it is predicted to reach 12 billion liters this year – a previously unforeseen complication has arisen in the production process. Glycerol, a colorless, odorless liquid, is generated as a byproduct of biodiesel production, and the sheer quantity that is created affects the economic viability of this industry. What should producers do with those billions of unneeded liters of glycerol?

Dr. Sergi Markov, associate professor of biology at Austin Peay State University, has an idea that could help push the alternative fuel race to new levels of possibility. For the last several years, Markov and two of his APSU students – Jared Averitt and Barbara Waldron – have studied the effects of the bacterium Enterobacter aerogenes on glycerol. Turns out, the bacteria converts the liquid into another biofuel, molecular hydrogen.

Read more

Harvesting hydrogen from algae

Biodiesel Magazine
July 2010
By Luke Geiver
Posted July 9, 2010

OriginOil, an algae-to-oil developer, has discovered a process to extract hydrogen from algae. The new technology, called the Hydrogen Harvester, works by capturing hydrogen that is readily available in the algae growth matrix, as opposed to breaking the carbon-hydrogen bonds in the algae itself, according to Brian Goodall, OriginOil’s chief technology officer. The new technology presents a critical development for a fully integrated algal biorefinery, said Goodall. “All routes from algae to ‘drop-in’ fuels such as renewable diesel and jet fuel require hydrogen and hydrogen treating. The Hydrogen Harvester technology would eliminate the need for hydrogen pipelines and dependence on existing refineries, which are typically far removed from ideal sites for algae growth,” Goodall added.

The process also involves targeting the more weakly bound hydrogen, which Goodall said helps to avoid “the use of energy or stressing, genetic modification or other invasive activities.” By minimizing energy inputs and stress levels, “we are tapping the algae system for hydrogen and allowing all other growth and harvesting processes to go on undisturbed,” Goodall said. “External energy inputs are truly minimal, but it takes energy to move water/algae, for example. In terms of stress—other approaches have focused on depriving the algae of sulfur, and/or investigating genetically modified species. Our technology requires neither of these approaches, generating biomass, oil and hydrogen.”

Read more

Two companies isolate pyrolysis oil fractions, hydrogen from algae, in path towards scalable biofuels

Biofuels Digest
July 09, 2010 Jim Lane

Two of the most promising feedstocks used to produce aviation, transportation and industrial biofuels – algal and pyrolysis oils (bio-oil), have taken some key steps forward. One of the Digest’s “Hot 50″ companies, OriginOil (#42) has announced a hydrogen harvesting system, while an early-stage company based in Iowa, Avello Bioenergy, has developed a technology for fast pyrolysis oils that “improves, collects and separates bio-oil into various liquid fractions,” making it far easier to refine.

Read more

Genetically Engineered Cells Will Sweat Ethanol and Diesel Fuel in Texas Pilot Plant

PopSci.com
By Jeremy Hsu
Posted 05.05.2010 at 2:00 pm

The tiny single-cell plants eat, reproduce, and then sweat fuel

Tiny organisms such as algae offer great promise for a clean energy future by creating biofuels or even hydrogen, if only scientists can figure out how to use them in a cost-efficient way. A startup named Joule Unlimited has hit upon a possible solution, with a genetically tailored organism that sweats out its fuel and lives on to continue making more, New York Times reports. The company broke ground recently on a Texas pilot plant that will house the single-cell plant organisms in flat structures resembling solar panels facing the sun.

Water flowing through the panels will carry off the hydrocarbon fuel for separation. Hydrocarbon oils such as diesel produced by the organisms separate from water and make the gathering easy, while distilling technology already exists for separating out the ethanol from water. Workers will regularly flush the system every eight weeks and start with fresh batches.

Read more

Naperville part of plan to turn brush into energy sources

Chicago Tribune
By Bob Goldsborough
April 12, 2010

Brush collected by Naperville could be converted into electricity, ethanol and hydrogen under a federally funded pilot program that Naperville's City Council has unanimously signed off on.

Known as a "green fuels depot demonstration project," the program, which U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., is sponsoring, would place brush that the city picks up each spring into a reactor that would create energy sources. The reactor would be located at a depot at a city site just south of the Springbrook Water Reclamation Facility on Plainfield-Naperville Road.

Read more

Understanding Hydrogen Fuel Generators with Help from The Hydrogen Fuel Guide Online

BigNews.biz
Click here to view related Website: http://hydrogen-fuel-guide.com/
Publish Date: 2010-01-23

(January 23, 2010) Are you wondering about alternative fuels and the different fuel alternatives available to you? Are you curious about alternative fuel cars and their benefits? Do you want to know how you can help fight global warming or how to bring down costs with an auto hydrogen generator? Go to the Hydrogen Fuel Guide to discover the benefits of water generators for the home, diy green projects, the pros and cons of hydrogen fuel cells or how to make homemade solar hydrogen power generation systems now!

The Hydrogen Fuel Guide will introduce you to free information related to using a hydrogen generator to increase gas mileage in a car. You can read articles on hydrogen fuels, hydrogen fuel cell cars, hydrogen powered vehicles, and alternative fuel cars, an auto hydrogen generator, and you can become instantly informed about the pros and cons of hydrogen fuel cells

Read the full story

Research team produces steady supply of hydrogen from algae coupled with platinum catalyst

Biofuels Digest
November 13, 2009 Jim Lane

In Tennessee, a team of researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found that photosynthesis – the process by which plants regenerate using energy from the sun – may function as that clean, sustainable source of hydrogen.

The team, led by Barry Bruce, a professor of biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology at UT Knoxville, found that the inner machinery of photosynthesis can be isolated from certain blue-green algae and, when coupled with a platinum catalyst, is able to produce a steady supply of hydrogen when exposed to light.

The findings are outlined in a recent issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Bruce and his colleagues found that by starting with a thermophilic blue-green algae, which favors warmer temperatures, they could sustain the reaction at temperatures as high as 55 degrees C, or 131 degrees F. That is roughly the temperature in arid deserts with high solar irradiation, where the process would be most productive. They also found the process was more than 10 times more efficient as the temperature increased.

Read the story