Renewable Energy Research and Development - Renewable Energy R&D

By: EconomyWatch   Date: 30 April 2010

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Recent Progress in Renewable, Alternative and Sustainable Energy Research & Development

Be it generating fuel from bacteria, pulp mills or solar energy, the growth of recent research discoveries has been significant. In recent years, there have been some very interesting discoveries that would aid the development of sustainable fuels in coming decades.

The most recent findings from scientists at the University of Sheffield have been centered on a type of bacteria called Nostoc, which has the capacity to fix nitrogen and release hydrogen while doing so. This makes Nostoc bacteria a potential source of energy. The discovery was made when the bacteria’s metabolic pathways were mapped by scientists to understand its bacterial metabolism. Scientists are hopeful that further investigation will make it possible to understand how the actual hydrogen production mechanism works. While research in this field will take a while before it can generate sustainable fuel, the futuristic possibilities are limitless.

Another interesting and recent discovery in the realm of biofuels, bioenergy and bioproducts relates to the pulp and paper industry. The paper industry can potentially generate billions of gallons of biofuels per annum. Moreover, this industry already has a well-established infrastructure in place and will not require significant investments to realign operations to produce bio-energy while manufacturing paper. This discovery has grabbed headlines recently, with pulp and paper mills now being hailed as major producers of renewable energy. The US alone has 200 or more chemical pulp mills and, therefore, significant potential to generate renewable energy.

In August 2008, ENN News reported a US scientist’s discovery of powering fuel cells in a way that will enable homeowners to store and produce electricity from solar energy and run lights and appliances using this medium. A professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Daniel Nocera, developed this new catalyst that could enable homeowners to bank solar energy as oxygen and hydrogen that a fuel cell can use to produce electricity in the absence of sunshine.

Research based on the development of fuel cell devices has recently gained momentum. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) have studied a type of MOFs (metal-organic frameworks). These highly porous materials, developed at the University of California at Los Angeles), have the ability to soak up large volumes of hydrogen gas and release this when heated. NCNR's Craig Brown said that the initial experiments indicated that “the metal interaction doesn't just increase the temperature at which hydrogen can be stored, but it also increases the density above that in solid hydrogen.”


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