Sustainable Energy

The Future of Sustainable Energy? Scientists Create First-Ever Battery Using Hemoglobin

Posted by

0


Researchers at the University of Cordoba, in collaboration with other institutions, have developed a new type of battery using hemoglobin as a catalyst in zinc-air batteries. This biocompatible battery can function for up to 30 days and offers several advantages, such as sustainability and suitability for use in human body devices. Despite its non-rechargeable nature, this innovation marks a significant step towards environmentally friendly battery alternatives, addressing the limitations of current lithium-ion batteries. (Artist’s Concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Researchers at the Chemical Institute for Energy and the Environment (IQUEMA) at the University of Cordoba have developed a battery that employs hemoglobin to facilitate electrochemical reactions, maintaining functionality for approximately 20 to 30 days.

Hemoglobin is a protein present in red blood cells and is responsible for conveying oxygen from the lungs to the different tissues of the body (and then transferring carbon dioxide the other way around). It has a very high affinity for oxygen and is fundamental for life, but, what if it were also a key element for a type of electrochemical device in which oxygen also plays an important role, such as zinc-air batteries?

This is what the Physical Chemistry (FQM-204) and Inorganic Chemistry (FQM-175) groups at the University of Córdoba (UCO) wanted to verify and develop, together with a team from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, after study by the University of Oxford and a Final Degree Project at the UCO demonstrated that hemoglobin featured promising properties for the reduction and oxidation (redox) process by which energy is generated in this type of system.

The research team of the University of Cordoba. Credit: University of Cordoba

Thus, the research team developed, through a Proof of Concept project, the first biocompatible battery (which is not harmful to the body) using hemoglobin in the electrochemical reaction that transforms chemical energy into electrical energy.

The Mechanism and Advantages of the Hemoglobin Battery

Using zinc-air batteries, one of the most sustainable alternatives to those that currently dominate the market (lithium-ion batteries), hemoglobin would function as a catalyst in such batteries. That is, it is a protein that is responsible for facilitating the electrochemical reaction, called the Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR), causing, after the air enters the battery, oxygen to be reduced and transformed into water in one of the parts of the battery (the cathode or positive pole), releasing electrons that pass to the other part of the battery (the anode or negative pole), where zinc oxidation occurs.

As UCO researcher Manuel Cano Luna explains: “To be a good catalyst in the oxygen reduction reaction, the catalyst has to have two properties: it needs to quickly absorb oxygen molecules, and form water molecules relatively easily. And hemoglobin met those requirements.” In fact, through this process, the team managed to get their prototype biocompatible battery to work with 0.165 milligrams of hemoglobin for between 20 and 30 days.

In addition to strong performance, the battery prototype they have developed boasts other advantages. First of all, zinc-air batteries are more sustainable and can withstand adverse atmospheric conditions, unlike other batteries affected by humidity and requiring an inert atmosphere for their manufacture.

Secondly, as Cano Luna argues, “the use of hemoglobin as a biocompatible catalyst is quite promising as regards the use of this type of battery in devices that are integrated into the human body,” such as pacemakers. In fact, the battery operates at pH 7.4, which is a pH similar to that of blood. In addition, since hemoglobin is present in almost all mammals, protein of animal origin could also be used.

Challenges and Future Directions

The battery they have developed has some room for improvement, however. The main one is that it is a primary battery, so it only discharges electrical energy. Also, it is not rechargeable. Therefore, the team is already taking the next steps to find another biological protein that can transform water into oxygen and, thus, recharge the battery. In addition, the batteries would only work in the presence of oxygen, so they could not be used in space.

The study, published in the journal Energy & Fuels, opens the door to new functional alternatives for batteries in a context in which more and more mobile devices are expected, and in which there is a rising commitment to renewable energies, such that it is necessary to have devices that store excess electrical energy in the form of chemical energy. Most importantly, the most common batteries today, lithium-ion, are saddled with the problems of lithium’s scarcity and its environmental impact as hazardous waste.

SMALL ISLAND POWERED BY COCONUT OIL & SUNLIGHT

Posted by

0


The political head of the New Zealand islands of Tokelau recently announced a new energy policy that would seem quite outlandish to most individuals living in first world nations. Abandoning traditional energy sources, Tokelau will be completely powered by sunlight and coconut oil.

AtafutrimThe political head of the New Zealand islands of Tokelau recently announced a new energy policy that would seem quite outlandish to most individuals living in first world nations. Abandoning traditional energy sources, Tokelau will be completely powered by sunlight and coconut oil.

Both rich in resources and looking for sustainable energy alternatives, the three small islands that make up Tokelau have decided to take advantage of their abundance of coconuts and persistently strong sunshine. The 1,500 residents residing in Tokelau will be among the first to experience the switch to an energy system ran entirely on renewable resources.

“I have been pushing the issue of 100 percent solar,” said Tokelau’s leader Foua Toloa in an interview with Radio New Zealand in 2009. “So by February next year we’ll try to beat every nation in the world to become the first country to be energy renewable completely run by solar and a little bit of coconut oil.”

Currently, the islands utilize diesel to fuel their electricity demands. Most of the population, who live under the New Zealand flag, own modern appliances that require a sufficient source of power. Around 90% own refrigerators, 57% own washing machines, and many households are equipped with satellite TV and internet. The islands have been importing 42,000 gallons if diesel, 47,000 gallons of gasoline, and 15,000 gallons of kerosene annually to meet their power needs. Even during that time, solar energy was also stabilizing the power grid.

The statistics show just how much energy even a small string of islands can require, and the fact that this modern society is switching to coconut oil and sunshine to power their entire infrastructure is a way to determine the effectiveness of such resources in place of traditional fuel sources. The new alternative energy plan will allot 93% of the power generation burden to photovoltaic solar arrays, with the remainder placed on biofuel derived from coconuts. Motor vehicles and some cooking equipment will still require imported gasoline and kerosene to run, but the overall power grid will be renewable.

Cheaper solar material explained.

Posted by

0


In the near future, solar panels will not only be more efficient but also a lot cheaper and affordable for everyone, thanks to research by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) scientists.

This next generation solar cell, made from organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials, is about five times cheaper than current thin-film solar cells, due to a simpler solution-based manufacturing process.

Perovskite is known to be a remarkable solar cell material as it can convert up to 15 per cent of sunlight to electricity, close to the efficiency of the current solar cells, but scientists did not know why or how, until now.

In a paper published in the world’s most prestigious academic journal, Science, NTU’s interdisciplinary research team was the first in the world to explain this phenomenon.

The team of eight researchers led by Assistant Professor Sum Tze Chien and Dr Nripan Mathews had worked closely with NTU Visiting Professor Michael Grätzel, who currently holds the record for perovskite solar cell efficiency of 15 per cent, and is a co-author of the paper. Prof Grätzel, who is based at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), has won multiple awards for his invention of dye-sensitised solar cells.

The high sunlight-to-electricity efficiency of perovskite solar cells places it in direct competition with thin film solar cells which are already in the market and have efficiencies close to 20 per cent.

The new knowledge on how these solar cells work is now being applied by the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), which is developing a commercial prototype of the perovskite solar cell in collaboration with Australian clean-tech firm Dyesol Limited (ASX: DYE).

Asst Prof Sum said the discovery of why perovskite worked so well as a solar cell material was made possible only through the use of cutting-edge equipment and in close collaboration with NTU engineers.

“In our work, we utilise ultrafast lasers to study the perovskite materials. We tracked how fast these materials react to light in quadrillionths of a second (roughly 100 billion times faster than a camera flash),” said the Singaporean photophysics expert from NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

“We discovered that in these perovskite materials, the electrons generated in the material by sunlight can travel quite far. This will allow us to make thicker solar cells which absorb more light and in turn generate more electricity.”

The NTU physicist added that this unique characteristic of perovskite is quite remarkable since it is made from a simple solution method that normally produces low quality materials.

His collaborator, Dr Nripan Mathews, a senior scientist at ERI@N, said that their discovery is a great example of how investment in fundamental research and an interdisciplinary effort, can lead to advances in knowledge and breakthroughs in applied science.

“Now that we know exactly how perovskite materials behave and work, we will be able to tweak the performance of the new solar cells and improve its efficiency, hopefully reaching or even exceeding the performance of today’s thin-film solar cells,” said Dr Mathews, who is also the Singapore R&D Director of the Singapore-Berkeley Research Initiative for Sustainable Energy (SinBeRISE) NRF CREATE programme.

“The excellent properties of these materials, allow us to make light weight, flexible solar cells on plastic using cheap processes without sacrificing the good sunlight conversion efficiency.”

Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, the Executive Director of ERI@N said they are now looking into building prototype solar cell modules based on this exciting class of materials.

“Perovskite-based solar cells have the potential to reach 20 per cent solar cell efficiencies and another great benefit of these materials is their amenability to yield different translucent colours, such as red, yellow or brown. Having such colourful solar glass will create new opportunities for architectural design,” he added.

The NTU team, consisting of six scientists, one postgraduate and one undergraduate, took six months to complete this fundamental research project, which was funded by NTU and the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore.