Microbubbles Provide New Boost for Biofuel Production

A solution to the difficult issue of harvesting algae for use as a biofuel has been developed using microbubble technology pioneered at the University of Sheffield. The technique builds on previous research in which microbubbles were used to improve the way algae is cultivated.

Algae produce an oil which can be processed to create a useful biofuel. Biofuels, made from plant material, are considered an important alternative to fossil fuels and algae, in particular, has the potential to be a very efficient biofuel producer. Until now, however, there has been no cost-effective crmethod of harvesting and removing the water from the algae for it to be processed effectively.

Now, a team led by Professor Will Zimmerman in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield, believe they have solved the problem. They have developed an inexpensive way of producing microbubbles that can float algae particles to the surface of the water, making harvesting easier, and saving biofuel-producing companies time and money.

The research is set to be published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering on 26 January 2012.

Professor Zimmerman and his team won the Moulton Medal, from the Institute of Chemical Engineers, for their earlier work which used the microbubble technology to improve algae production methods, allowing producers to grow crops more rapidly and more densely.

"We thought we had solved the major barrier to biofuel companies processing algae to use as fuel when we used microbubbles to grow the algae more densely," explains Professor Zimmerman.

"It turned out, however, that algae biofuels still couldn´t be produced economically, because of the difficulty in harvesting and dewatering the algae. We had to develop a solution to this problem and once again, microbubbles provided a solution."

Microbubbles have been used for flotation before: water purification companies use the process to float out impurities, but it hasn´t been done in this context, partly because previous methods have been very expensive.

The system developed by Professor Zimmerman´s team uses up to 1000 times less energy to produce the microbubbles and, in addition, the cost of installing the Sheffield microbubble system is predicted to be much less than existing flotation systems.

The next step in the project is to develop a pilot plant to test the system at an industrial scale. Professor Zimmerman is already working with Tata Steel at their site in Scunthorpe using CO2 from their flue-gas stacks and plans to continue this partnership to test the new system.

Dr. Bruce Adderley, Manager Climate Change Breakthrough Technology, said, "Professor Zimmerman´s microbubble-based technologies are exactly the kind of step-change innovations that we are seeking as a means to address our emissions in the longer term, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to extend our relationship with Will and his team in the next phase of this pioneering research."

The research was supported by the University of Sheffield´s Knowledge Transfer Account, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It was also supported by the Royal Society Innovation Award 2010, and the Concept Fund of Yorkshire Forward

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Sheffield.

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---

Journal Reference:

1. James Hanotu, HC Hemaka Bandulasena, William B Zimmerman. Microflotation performance for algal separation. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2012; DOI:10.1002/bit.24449

Highly efficient oxygen catalyst found: Rechargeable batteries and hydrogen-fuel production could benefit

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) — A team of researchers at MIT has found one of the most effective catalysts ever discovered for splitting oxygen atoms from water molecules -- a key reaction for advanced energy-storage systems, including electrolyzers, to produce hydrogen fuel and rechargeable batteries. This new catalyst liberates oxygen at more than 10 times the rate of the best previously known catalyst of its type.

The new compound, composed of cobalt, iron and oxygen with other metals, splits oxygen from water (called the Oxygen Evolution Reaction, or OER) at a rate at least an order of magnitude higher than the compound currently considered the gold standard for such reactions, the team says. The compound's high level of activity was predicted from a systematic experimental study that looked at the catalytic activity of 10 known compounds.

The team, which includes materials science and engineering graduate student Jin Suntivich, mechanical engineering graduate student Kevin J. May and professor Yang Shao-Horn, published their results in Science on Oct. 28.

The scientists found that reactivity depended on a specific characteristic: the configuration of the outermost electron of transition metal ions. They were able to use this information to predict the high reactivity of the new compound -- which they then confirmed in lab tests.

"We not only identified a fundamental principle" that governs the OER activity of different compounds, "but also we actually found this new compound" based on that principle, says Shao-Horn, the Gail E. Kendall (1978) Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.

Many other groups have been searching for more efficient catalysts to speed the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen. This reaction is key to the production of hydrogen as a fuel to be used in cars; the operation of some rechargeable batteries, including zinc-air batteries; and to generate electricity in devices called fuel cells. Two catalysts are needed for such a reaction -- one that liberates the hydrogen atoms, and another for the oxygen atoms -- but the oxygen reaction has been the limiting factor in such systems.

Other groups, including one led by MIT's Daniel Nocera, have focused on similar catalysts that can operate -- in a so-called "artificial leaf" -- at low cost in ordinary water. But such reactions can occur with higher efficiency in alkaline solutions, which are required for the best previously known catalyst, iridium oxide, as well as for this new compound.

Shao-Horn and her collaborators are now working with Nocera, integrating their catalyst with his artificial leaf to produce a self-contained system to generate hydrogen and oxygen when placed in an alkaline solution. They will also be exploring different configurations of the catalyst material to better understand the mechanisms involved. Their initial tests used a powder form of the catalyst; now they plan to try thin films to better understand the reactions.

In addition, even though they have already found the highest rate of activity yet seen, they plan to continue searching for even more efficient catalyst materials. "It's our belief that there may be others with even higher activity," Shao-Horn says.

Jens Norskov, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University and director of the Suncat Center for Interface Science and Catalysis there, who was not involved in this work, says, "I find this an extremely interesting 'rational design' approach to finding new catalysts for a very important and demanding problem."

The research, which was done in collaboration with visiting professor Hubert A. Gasteiger (currently a professor at the Technische Universität München in Germany) and professor John B. Goodenough from the University of Texas at Austin, was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydrogen Initiative, the National Science Foundation, the Toyota Motor Corporation and the Chesonis Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office.

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Journal Reference:

J. Suntivich, K. J. May, H. A. Gasteiger, J. B. Goodenough, Y. Shao-Horn. A Perovskite Oxide Optimized for Oxygen Evolution Catalysis from Molecular Orbital Principles. Science, 2011; DOI: 10.1126/science.1212858

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Self-replication process holds promise for production of new materials

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2011) — New York University scientists have developed artificial structures that can self-replicate, a process that has the potential to yield new types of materials. In the natural world, self-replication is ubiquitous in all living entities, but artificial self-replication has been elusive. The new discovery is the first steps toward a general process for self-replication of a wide variety of arbitrarily designed seeds. The seeds are made from DNA tile motifs that serve as letters arranged to spell out a particular word. The replication process preserves the letter sequence and the shape of the seed and hence the information required to produce further generations.

The work, conducted by researchers in NYU's Departments of Chemistry and Physics and its Center for Soft Matter Research, appears in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

This process holds much promise for the creation of new materials. DNA is a robust functional entity that can organize itself and other molecules into complex structures. More recently DNA has been used to organize inorganic matter, such as metallic particles, as well. The re-creation by the NYU scientists of this type of assembly in a laboratory raises the prospect for the eventual development of self-replicating materials that possess a wide range of patterns and that can perform a variety of functions. The breakthrough the NYU researchers have achieved is the replication of a system that contains complex information. Thus, the replication of this material, like that of DNA in the cell, is not limited to repeating patterns.

To demonstrate this self-replication process, the NYU scientists created artificial DNA tile motifs -- short, nanometer-scale arrangements of DNA. Each tile serves as a letter -- A or B -- that recognizes and binds to complementary letters A' or B'. In the natural world, the DNA replication process involves complementary matches between bases -- adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T) and guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C) -- to form its familiar double helix. By contrast, the NYU researchers developed an artificial tile or motif, called BTX (bent triple helix molecules containing three DNA double helices), with each BTX molecule composed of 10 DNA strands. Unlike DNA, the BTX code is not limited to four letters -- in principle, it can contain quadrillions of different letters and tiles that pair using the complementarity of four DNA single strands, or "sticky ends," on each tile, to form a six-helix bundle.

In order to achieve self-replication of the BTX tile arrays, a seed word is needed to catalyze multiple generations of identical arrays. BTX's seed consists of a sequence of seven tiles -- a seven-letter word. To bring about the self-replication process, the seed is placed in a chemical solution, where it assembles complementary tiles to form a "daughter BTX array" -- a complementary word. The daughter array is then separated from the seed by heating the solution to ~ 40 oC. The process is then repeated. The daughter array binds with its complementary tiles to form a "granddaughter array," thus achieving self-replication of the material and of the information in the seed -- and hence reproducing the sequence within the original seed word. Significantly, this process is distinct from the replication processes that occur within the cell, because no biological components, particularly enzymes, are used in its execution -- even the DNA is synthetic.

"This is the first step in the process of creating artificial self-replicating materials of an arbitrary composition," said Paul Chaikin, a professor in NYU's Department of Physics and one of the study's co-authors. "The next challenge is to create a process in which self-replication occurs not only for a few generations, but long enough to show exponential growth."

"While our replication method requires multiple chemical and thermal processing cycles, we have demonstrated that it is possible to replicate not just molecules like cellular DNA or RNA, but discrete structures that could in principle assume many different shapes, have many different functional features, and be associated with many different types of chemical species," added Nadrian Seeman, a professor in NYU's Department of Chemistry and a co-author of the study.

The research was supported by grants from the W.M. Keck Foundation, the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Army Research Office, NASA, and the Office of Naval Research.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by New York University.

Journal Reference:

Tong Wang, Ruojie Sha, Rémi Dreyfus, Mirjam E. Leunissen, Corinna Maass, David J. Pine, Paul M. Chaikin, Nadrian C. Seeman. Self-replication of information-bearing nanoscale patterns. Nature, 2011; 478 (7368): 225 DOI: 10.1038/nature10500

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Self-replication process holds promise for production of new materials

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2011) — New York University scientists have developed artificial structures that can self-replicate, a process that has the potential to yield new types of materials. In the natural world, self-replication is ubiquitous in all living entities, but artificial self-replication has been elusive. The new discovery is the first steps toward a general process for self-replication of a wide variety of arbitrarily designed seeds. The seeds are made from DNA tile motifs that serve as letters arranged to spell out a particular word. The replication process preserves the letter sequence and the shape of the seed and hence the information required to produce further generations.

The work, conducted by researchers in NYU's Departments of Chemistry and Physics and its Center for Soft Matter Research, appears in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

This process holds much promise for the creation of new materials. DNA is a robust functional entity that can organize itself and other molecules into complex structures. More recently DNA has been used to organize inorganic matter, such as metallic particles, as well. The re-creation by the NYU scientists of this type of assembly in a laboratory raises the prospect for the eventual development of self-replicating materials that possess a wide range of patterns and that can perform a variety of functions. The breakthrough the NYU researchers have achieved is the replication of a system that contains complex information. Thus, the replication of this material, like that of DNA in the cell, is not limited to repeating patterns.

To demonstrate this self-replication process, the NYU scientists created artificial DNA tile motifs -- short, nanometer-scale arrangements of DNA. Each tile serves as a letter -- A or B -- that recognizes and binds to complementary letters A' or B'. In the natural world, the DNA replication process involves complementary matches between bases -- adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T) and guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C) -- to form its familiar double helix. By contrast, the NYU researchers developed an artificial tile or motif, called BTX (bent triple helix molecules containing three DNA double helices), with each BTX molecule composed of 10 DNA strands. Unlike DNA, the BTX code is not limited to four letters -- in principle, it can contain quadrillions of different letters and tiles that pair using the complementarity of four DNA single strands, or "sticky ends," on each tile, to form a six-helix bundle.

In order to achieve self-replication of the BTX tile arrays, a seed word is needed to catalyze multiple generations of identical arrays. BTX's seed consists of a sequence of seven tiles -- a seven-letter word. To bring about the self-replication process, the seed is placed in a chemical solution, where it assembles complementary tiles to form a "daughter BTX array" -- a complementary word. The daughter array is then separated from the seed by heating the solution to ~ 40 oC. The process is then repeated. The daughter array binds with its complementary tiles to form a "granddaughter array," thus achieving self-replication of the material and of the information in the seed -- and hence reproducing the sequence within the original seed word. Significantly, this process is distinct from the replication processes that occur within the cell, because no biological components, particularly enzymes, are used in its execution -- even the DNA is synthetic.

"This is the first step in the process of creating artificial self-replicating materials of an arbitrary composition," said Paul Chaikin, a professor in NYU's Department of Physics and one of the study's co-authors. "The next challenge is to create a process in which self-replication occurs not only for a few generations, but long enough to show exponential growth."

"While our replication method requires multiple chemical and thermal processing cycles, we have demonstrated that it is possible to replicate not just molecules like cellular DNA or RNA, but discrete structures that could in principle assume many different shapes, have many different functional features, and be associated with many different types of chemical species," added Nadrian Seeman, a professor in NYU's Department of Chemistry and a co-author of the study.

The research was supported by grants from the W.M. Keck Foundation, the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Army Research Office, NASA, and the Office of Naval Research.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by New York University.

Journal Reference:

Tong Wang, Ruojie Sha, Rémi Dreyfus, Mirjam E. Leunissen, Corinna Maass, David J. Pine, Paul M. Chaikin, Nadrian C. Seeman. Self-replication of information-bearing nanoscale patterns. Nature, 2011; 478 (7368): 225 DOI: 10.1038/nature10500

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View the original article here

Fuel and plastics production could be made more energy efficient and cost effective

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2011) — A University of Minnesota team of researchers has overcome a major hurdle in the quest to design a specialized type of molecular sieve that could make the production of gasoline, plastics and various chemicals more cost effective and energy efficient. The breakthrough research, led by chemical engineering and materials science professor Michael Tsapatsis in the university's College of Science and Engineering, is published in the most recent issue of the journal Science.

After more than a decade of research, the team devised a means for developing free-standing, ultra-thin zeolite nanosheets that as thin films can speed up the filtration process and require less energy. The team has a provisional patent and hopes to commercialize the technology.

"In addition to research on new renewable fuels, chemicals and natural plastics, we also need to look at the production processes of these and other products we use now and try to find ways to save energy," Tsapatsis said.

Separating mixed substances can demand considerable amounts of energy -- currently estimated to be approximately 15 percent of the total energy consumption -- part of which is wasted due to process inefficiencies. In days of abundant and inexpensive fuel, this was not a major consideration when designing industrial separation processes such as distillation for purifying gasoline and polymer precursors. But as energy prices rise and policies promote efficiency, the need for more energy-efficient alternatives has grown.

One promising option for more energy-efficient separations is high-resolution molecular separation with membranes. They are based on preferential adsorption and/or sieving of molecules with minute size and shape differences. Among the candidates for selective separation membranes, zeolite materials (crystals with molecular-sized pores) show particular promise.

While zeolites have been used as adsorbents and catalysts for several decades, there have been substantial challenges in processing zeolitic materials into extended sheets that remain intact. To enable energy-savings technology, scientists needed to develop cost-effective, reliable and scalable deposition methods for thin film zeolite formation.

The University of Minnesota team used sound waves in a specialized centrifuge process to develop "carpets" of flaky crystal-type nanosheets that are not only flat, but have just the right amount of thickness. The resulting product can be used to separate molecules as a sieve or as a membrane barrier in both research and industrial applications.

"We think this discovery holds great promise in commercial applications," said Kumar Varoon, a University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science Ph.D. candidate and one of the primary authors of the paper published in Science. "This material has good coverage and is very thin. It could significantly reduce production costs in refineries and save energy."

Members of the research team include Ph.D. candidates Kumar Varoon and Xueyi Zhang; postdoctoral fellows Bahman Elyassi and Cgun-Yi Sung; former students and Ph.D. graduates Damien Brewer, Sandeep Kumar, J. Alex Lee and Sudeep Maheshwari, graduate student Anudha Mittal; former undergraduate student Melissa Gettel; and faculty members Matteo Cococcioni, Lorraine Francis, Alon McCormick, K. Andre Mkhoyan and Michael Tsapatsis.

This research is being funded by the United States Department of Energy (including the Carbon Sequestration Program and the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation -- An Energy Frontier Center), the National Science Foundation and a variety of University of Minnesota partners.

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Journal Reference:

K. Varoon, X. Zhang, B. Elyassi, D. D. Brewer, M. Gettel, S. Kumar, J. A. Lee, S. Maheshwari, A. Mittal, C.-Y. Sung, M. Cococcioni, L. F. Francis, A. V. McCormick, K. A. Mkhoyan, M. Tsapatsis. Dispersible Exfoliated Zeolite Nanosheets and Their Application as a Selective Membrane. Science, 2011; 334 (6052): 72 DOI: 10.1126/science.1208891

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New nanostructure-based process will streamline production of magnetic materials

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2011) — Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that for the first time they have designed a much simpler method of preparing ordered magnetic materials than ever before, by coupling magnetic properties to nanostructure formation at low temperatures.

The innovative process allows them to create room-temperature ferromagnetic materials that are stable for long periods more effectively and with fewer steps than more complicated existing methods. The approach is outlined by UMass Amherst polymer scientist Gregory Tew and colleagues in the Sept. 27 issue of Nature Communications.

Tew explains that his group's signature improvement is a one-step method to generate ordered magnetic materials based on cobalt nanostructures by encoding a block copolymer with the appropriate chemical information to self-organize into nanoscopic domains. Block copolymers are made up of two or more single-polymer subunits linked by covalent chemical bonds.

The new process delivers magnetic properties to materials upon heating the sample once to a relatively low temperature, about 390 degrees (200 degrees Celsius), which transforms them into room-temperature, fully magnetic materials. Most previous processes required either much higher temperatures or more process steps to achieve the same result, which increases costs, Tew says.

He adds, "The small cobalt particles should not be magnetic at room temperature because they are too small. However, the block copolymer's nanostructure confines them locally which apparently induces stronger magnetic interactions among the particles, yielding room-temperature ferromagnetic materials that have many practical applications."

"Until now, it has not been possible to produce ordered, magnetic materials via block copolymers in a simple process," Tew says. "Current methods require multiple steps just to generate the ordered magnetic materials. They also have limited effectiveness because they may not retain the fidelity of the ordered block copolymer, they can't confine the magnetic materials to one domain of the block copolymer, or they just don't produce strongly magnetic materials. Our process answers all these limitations."

Magnetic materials are used in everything from memory storage devices in our phones and computers to the data strips on debit and credit cards. Tew and colleagues have discovered a way to build block copolymers with the necessary chemical information to self-organize into nanoscopic structures one millionth of a millimeter thin, or about 50,000 times thinner than the average human hair.

Earlier studies have demonstrated that block copolymers can be organized over relatively large areas. What makes the UMass Amherst research group's results so intriguing, Tew says, is the possible coupling of long-range organization with improved magnetic properties. This could translate into lower-cost development of new memory media, giant magneto-resistive devices and futuristic spintronic devices that might include "instant on" computers or computers that require much less power, he points out.

He adds, "Although work remains to be done before new data storage applications are enabled, for example making the magnets harder, our process is highly tunable and therefore amendable to incorporating different types of metal precursors. This result should be interesting to every scientist in nanotechnology because it shows conclusively that nano-confinement leds to completely new properties, in this case room temperature magnetic materials."

"Our work highlights the importance of learning how to control a material's nanostructure. We show that the nanostructure is directly related to an important and practical outcome, that is, the ability to generate room-temperature magnets."

"Our work highlights the importance of learning how to control a material's nanostructure. We show that the nanostructure is directly related to an important and practical outcome, that is, the ability to generate room temperature magnets." As part of this study, the UMass Amherst team also demonstrated that using a block copolymer or nanoscopic material results in a material that is magnetic at room temperature. By contrast, using a homopolymer, or unstructured material, leads only to far less useful non- or partial-magnetic materials.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Journal Reference:

Zoha M. AL-Badri, Raghavendra R. Maddikeri, Yongping Zha, Hitesh D. Thaker, Priyanka Dobriyal, Raja Shunmugam, Thomas P. Russell, Gregory N. Tew. Room temperature magnetic materials from nanostructured diblock copolymers. Nature Communications, 2011; 2: 482 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1485

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Shape memory materials ready for mass production

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2011) — Materials that can remember their shape and switch from one form to another may sound like science fiction, they are actually real and already in use all around us. But the alloy used to produce shape memory materials, based on nickel and titanium is expensive. Some researchers have started looking for cheaper options.

Five years ago, Professor Mirko Gojic, a researcher at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, wondered what his small team of researchers could do to lower the price of 'smart metals': a type of high-tech materials that can remember their original cold-forged shape, returning the pre-deformed shape by heating -- a property that makes them crucial in a series of industries. The idea was there, but problems quickly aroused from lack of money and key equipment. Thanks to the support of EUREKA, the product is now almost finalised and could be rolled out within the next two years. Gojic thinks that this international research project he led could soon turn into commercial production of a cheaper alloy for use in aerospace engineering or electronics.

Shape memory alloys can be produced to many shapes and sizes for various uses. Although not as strong as steel, they are much more elastic and their properties allow them to adopt the needed shape when exposed to high temperatures. They are used in smart phones, robotics and for medical purposes. For example, nickel-titanium alloy balloons that expand and adapt to the shape of a blood vessel when exposed to body temperatures are used in stent grafts and surgery.

One of the key problems with manufacturing such materials is their high price. Gojic and his team embarked on producing a new, cheaper alloy, based on copper, whereas the most-used alloy is built on a half-half mix of titanium and nickel, known under its trade name Nitinol. 'It is also the most expensive alloy, so there is a lot of effort going into finding an economically viable alternative', says Gojic. The research project called RSSMA, for Rapidly Solidified Shape Memory Alloys, lasted three years.

"We are not the only ones to put our efforts into research on copper alloys, we contributed to the extent of the possibilities offered by our infrastructure and benefited greatly from collaborations with international partners." Trans-border cooperation between R&D partners is one of the pre-requisites to receive financial support from EUREKA.

The Croatian team did not have the facilities to produce the new alloy, but the EUREKA grant allowed them to grow an existing collaboration with colleagues from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maribor, Slovenia who helped to produce the alloys, which were then tested and examined for their characteristics in Croatia. They also collaborated with colleagues from Montanuniversität Leoben in Austria, and the Faculty of Natural Science and Engineering, University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

'It is difficult to know exactly how much cheaper the final product will be -- it is an important economic parameter to evaluate the success of the project -- and it depends partly on techniques used to produce the alloy, but it would certainly be a cost-effective alternative, as titanium and nickel are far more expensive raw materials than copper and aluminium.' Besides the economic requirements, materials used in the production of alloys also have to comply with a certain level of purity and hold specific properties in order to be worthwhile for the industry. 'Tests so far have shown that we are on the right way and we should be able to enter soon in the production phase', Gojic says.

"We have successfully reached the final stages of the research and testing, notably in setting up a process of 'continuous casting', which is crucial for commercial production," he says. "It is important because it allows you to get an important quantity of semi-product, you can make it without interruptions, allowing for mass production, as it is done with other common metallic materials, such as steel."

The next step will be to pursue research, aiming to have a finalised product within the next one and a half years, followed by the construction of a pilot plant and then finally the take-off of the commercial production. If the next stage of the research goes well it should lead rapidly to the creation of a spin-off pilot firm to manufacture the new alloy. 'This would require more funding and I am considering applying for a further grant that would help us get to the pilot stage, which could then eventually lead to industrial scale manufacturing of the new, cheaper alloy.'

The new alloy has great commercial potential, it would mainly be used in electronics and mechanical industries, since it does not hold the biocompatibility properties of nickel and titanium. It might also find use in the booming market of smartphones and high-tech gadgets. "It would not have been possible for us to improve our knowledge and competencies without EUREKA," Gojic admits.

The grant also allowed the team to put money towards buying new equipment, such as a scanning electronic microscope and equipment for thermal analysis which was important in studying the properties of the alloys developed during the research project. Financing for the new equipment several sources, but the team had to make their own initial investment in order to be granted access to it, and EUREKA allowed them to do so. The team now continues to use this new equipment to develop the project further but also for new research activities in the field of smart materials.

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New nanostructure-based process will streamline production of magnetic materials

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2011) — Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that for the first time they have designed a much simpler method of preparing ordered magnetic materials than ever before, by coupling magnetic properties to nanostructure formation at low temperatures.

The innovative process allows them to create room-temperature ferromagnetic materials that are stable for long periods more effectively and with fewer steps than more complicated existing methods. The approach is outlined by UMass Amherst polymer scientist Gregory Tew and colleagues in the Sept. 27 issue of Nature Communications.

Tew explains that his group's signature improvement is a one-step method to generate ordered magnetic materials based on cobalt nanostructures by encoding a block copolymer with the appropriate chemical information to self-organize into nanoscopic domains. Block copolymers are made up of two or more single-polymer subunits linked by covalent chemical bonds.

The new process delivers magnetic properties to materials upon heating the sample once to a relatively low temperature, about 390 degrees (200 degrees Celsius), which transforms them into room-temperature, fully magnetic materials. Most previous processes required either much higher temperatures or more process steps to achieve the same result, which increases costs, Tew says.

He adds, "The small cobalt particles should not be magnetic at room temperature because they are too small. However, the block copolymer's nanostructure confines them locally which apparently induces stronger magnetic interactions among the particles, yielding room-temperature ferromagnetic materials that have many practical applications."

"Until now, it has not been possible to produce ordered, magnetic materials via block copolymers in a simple process," Tew says. "Current methods require multiple steps just to generate the ordered magnetic materials. They also have limited effectiveness because they may not retain the fidelity of the ordered block copolymer, they can't confine the magnetic materials to one domain of the block copolymer, or they just don't produce strongly magnetic materials. Our process answers all these limitations."

Magnetic materials are used in everything from memory storage devices in our phones and computers to the data strips on debit and credit cards. Tew and colleagues have discovered a way to build block copolymers with the necessary chemical information to self-organize into nanoscopic structures one millionth of a millimeter thin, or about 50,000 times thinner than the average human hair.

Earlier studies have demonstrated that block copolymers can be organized over relatively large areas. What makes the UMass Amherst research group's results so intriguing, Tew says, is the possible coupling of long-range organization with improved magnetic properties. This could translate into lower-cost development of new memory media, giant magneto-resistive devices and futuristic spintronic devices that might include "instant on" computers or computers that require much less power, he points out.

He adds, "Although work remains to be done before new data storage applications are enabled, for example making the magnets harder, our process is highly tunable and therefore amendable to incorporating different types of metal precursors. This result should be interesting to every scientist in nanotechnology because it shows conclusively that nano-confinement leds to completely new properties, in this case room temperature magnetic materials."

"Our work highlights the importance of learning how to control a material's nanostructure. We show that the nanostructure is directly related to an important and practical outcome, that is, the ability to generate room-temperature magnets."

"Our work highlights the importance of learning how to control a material's nanostructure. We show that the nanostructure is directly related to an important and practical outcome, that is, the ability to generate room temperature magnets." As part of this study, the UMass Amherst team also demonstrated that using a block copolymer or nanoscopic material results in a material that is magnetic at room temperature. By contrast, using a homopolymer, or unstructured material, leads only to far less useful non- or partial-magnetic materials.

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Zoha M. AL-Badri, Raghavendra R. Maddikeri, Yongping Zha, Hitesh D. Thaker, Priyanka Dobriyal, Raja Shunmugam, Thomas P. Russell, Gregory N. Tew. Room temperature magnetic materials from nanostructured diblock copolymers. Nature Communications, 2011; 2: 482 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1485

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Shape memory materials ready for mass production

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2011) — Materials that can remember their shape and switch from one form to another may sound like science fiction, they are actually real and already in use all around us. But the alloy used to produce shape memory materials, based on nickel and titanium is expensive. Some researchers have started looking for cheaper options.

Five years ago, Professor Mirko Gojic, a researcher at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, wondered what his small team of researchers could do to lower the price of 'smart metals': a type of high-tech materials that can remember their original cold-forged shape, returning the pre-deformed shape by heating -- a property that makes them crucial in a series of industries. The idea was there, but problems quickly aroused from lack of money and key equipment. Thanks to the support of EUREKA, the product is now almost finalised and could be rolled out within the next two years. Gojic thinks that this international research project he led could soon turn into commercial production of a cheaper alloy for use in aerospace engineering or electronics.

Shape memory alloys can be produced to many shapes and sizes for various uses. Although not as strong as steel, they are much more elastic and their properties allow them to adopt the needed shape when exposed to high temperatures. They are used in smart phones, robotics and for medical purposes. For example, nickel-titanium alloy balloons that expand and adapt to the shape of a blood vessel when exposed to body temperatures are used in stent grafts and surgery.

One of the key problems with manufacturing such materials is their high price. Gojic and his team embarked on producing a new, cheaper alloy, based on copper, whereas the most-used alloy is built on a half-half mix of titanium and nickel, known under its trade name Nitinol. 'It is also the most expensive alloy, so there is a lot of effort going into finding an economically viable alternative', says Gojic. The research project called RSSMA, for Rapidly Solidified Shape Memory Alloys, lasted three years.

"We are not the only ones to put our efforts into research on copper alloys, we contributed to the extent of the possibilities offered by our infrastructure and benefited greatly from collaborations with international partners." Trans-border cooperation between R&D partners is one of the pre-requisites to receive financial support from EUREKA.

The Croatian team did not have the facilities to produce the new alloy, but the EUREKA grant allowed them to grow an existing collaboration with colleagues from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maribor, Slovenia who helped to produce the alloys, which were then tested and examined for their characteristics in Croatia. They also collaborated with colleagues from Montanuniversität Leoben in Austria, and the Faculty of Natural Science and Engineering, University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

'It is difficult to know exactly how much cheaper the final product will be -- it is an important economic parameter to evaluate the success of the project -- and it depends partly on techniques used to produce the alloy, but it would certainly be a cost-effective alternative, as titanium and nickel are far more expensive raw materials than copper and aluminium.' Besides the economic requirements, materials used in the production of alloys also have to comply with a certain level of purity and hold specific properties in order to be worthwhile for the industry. 'Tests so far have shown that we are on the right way and we should be able to enter soon in the production phase', Gojic says.

"We have successfully reached the final stages of the research and testing, notably in setting up a process of 'continuous casting', which is crucial for commercial production," he says. "It is important because it allows you to get an important quantity of semi-product, you can make it without interruptions, allowing for mass production, as it is done with other common metallic materials, such as steel."

The next step will be to pursue research, aiming to have a finalised product within the next one and a half years, followed by the construction of a pilot plant and then finally the take-off of the commercial production. If the next stage of the research goes well it should lead rapidly to the creation of a spin-off pilot firm to manufacture the new alloy. 'This would require more funding and I am considering applying for a further grant that would help us get to the pilot stage, which could then eventually lead to industrial scale manufacturing of the new, cheaper alloy.'

The new alloy has great commercial potential, it would mainly be used in electronics and mechanical industries, since it does not hold the biocompatibility properties of nickel and titanium. It might also find use in the booming market of smartphones and high-tech gadgets. "It would not have been possible for us to improve our knowledge and competencies without EUREKA," Gojic admits.

The grant also allowed the team to put money towards buying new equipment, such as a scanning electronic microscope and equipment for thermal analysis which was important in studying the properties of the alloys developed during the research project. Financing for the new equipment several sources, but the team had to make their own initial investment in order to be granted access to it, and EUREKA allowed them to do so. The team now continues to use this new equipment to develop the project further but also for new research activities in the field of smart materials.

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Antibody production gets confused during long-term spaceflight

ScienceDaily (May 19, 2011) — The trip to Mars just got a little more difficult now that French researchers have discovered that antibodies used to fight off disease might become seriously compromised during long-term space flight. In a new report published online in the FASEB Journal, the scientists show that antibodies produced in space are less effective than those produced on terra firma. The reduced effectiveness of antibodies makes astronauts more susceptible to illness, while increasing the danger posed by bacteria and viruses likely to coexist with wayfaring astronauts.

"We hope to find efficient pharmacological and/or nutritional countermeasures to alterations of the immune system that could be useful to astronauts and to people who have weak immune systems on Earth because of infections, aging, or chronic stress exposure," said Jean-Pol Frippiat, a researcher involved in the work from the Faculty of Medicine, Development and Immunogenetics at the Université Henri Poincaré-Nancy, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.

To make their discovery, Frippiat and colleagues conducted studies using three groups of amphibians. Amphibians were chosen for the work because they use the same cellular mechanisms to produce antibodies as humans do. The first group of amphibians was immunized in space, the second was immunized on Earth, and the third was not immunized at all. Comparison of the antibodies produced revealed that the quality of the antibodies generated by the group immunized in space was decreased. This suggests that spaceflight conditions alter the immune system and affect its ability to protect against infections and tumors, posing a serious risk for astronauts.

"This paper shows that somatic hypermutation occurs at a lower frequency in spaceflight and brings together yet more evidence that the immune system is dependent on gravity," said Millie Hughes-Fulford, Ph.D., NASA Science Astronaut; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF; Director, Laboratory of Cell Growth, VAMC/UCSF; and editorial board member of the FASEB Journal. "Dependence on gravity should be no surprise since all of earth's jawed vertebrates developed in earth's gravity, and it would be logical to expect that some systems would require gravity for normal function."

"Outer space may be the final frontier, but this research shows that our inner space could pose the greatest threat to the success of a mission," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. "These explorers will have to be prepared not only for the challenges of extremely hostile environments, but also those posed by microbial stowaways, even those with which we peacefully co-exist on Earth."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Matthieu Bascove, Nathan Guéguinou, Bérénice Schaerlinger, Guillemette Gauquelin-Koch, and Jean-Pol Frippiat. Decrease in antibody somatic hypermutation frequency under extreme, extended spaceflight conditions. FASEB J., May 18, 2011 DOI: 1096/fj.11-185215

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Teaching algae to make fuel: New process could lead to production of hydrogen using bioengineered microorganisms

ScienceDaily (May 24, 2011) — Many kinds of algae and cyanobacteria, common water-dwelling microorganisms, are capable of using energy from sunlight to split water molecules and release hydrogen, which holds promise as a clean and carbon-free fuel for the future. One reason this approach hasn't yet been harnessed for fuel production is that under ordinary circumstances, hydrogen production takes a back seat to the production of compounds that the organisms use to support their own growth.

But Shuguang Zhang, associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering, and postdocs Iftach Yacoby and Sergii Pochekailov, together with colleagues at Tel Aviv University in Israel and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, have found a way to use bioengineered proteins to flip this preference, allowing more hydrogen to be produced.

"The algae are really not interested in producing hydrogen, they want to produce sugar," Yacoby says -- the sugar is what they need for their own survival, and the hydrogen is just a byproduct. But a multitasking enzyme, introduced into the liquid where the algae are at work, both suppresses the sugar production and redirects the organisms' energies into hydrogen production. The work is described in a paper being published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was supported in part by a European Molecular Biology Organization postdoctoral fellowship, the Yang Trust Fund and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Adding the bioengineered enzyme increases the rate of algal hydrogen production by about 400 percent, Yacoby says. The sugar production is suppressed but not eliminated, he explains, because "if it went to zero, it would kill the organism."

The research demonstrates for the first time how the two processes carried out by algae compete with each other; it also shows how that competition could be modified to favor hydrogen production in a laboratory environment. Zhang and Yacoby plan to continue developing the system to increase its efficiency of hydrogen production.

"It's one step closer to an industrial process," Zhang says. "First, you have to understand the science" -- which has been achieved through this experimental work. Now, developing it further -- through refinements to produce a viable commercial system for hydrogen-fuel manufacturing -- is "a matter of time and money," Zhang says.

Ultimately, such a system could be used to produce hydrogen on a large scale using water and sunlight. The hydrogen could be used directly to generate electricity in a fuel cell or to power a vehicle, or could be combined with carbon dioxide to make methane or other fuels in a renewable, carbon-neutral way, the researchers say.

In the long run, "the only viable way to produce renewable energy is to use the sun, [either] to make electricity or in a biochemical reaction to produce hydrogen," Yacoby says. "I believe there is no one solution," he adds, but rather many different approaches depending on the location and the end uses.

This particular approach, he says, is simple enough that it has promise "not just in industrialized countries, but in developing countries as well" as a source of inexpensive fuel. The algae needed for the process exist everywhere on Earth, and there are no toxic materials involved in any part of the process, he says.

"The beauty is in its simplicity," he says.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by David L. Chandler.

Journal Reference:

I. Yacoby, S. Pochekailov, H. Toporik, M. L. Ghirardi, P. W. King, S. Zhang. Photosynthetic electron partitioning between [FeFe]-hydrogenase and ferredoxin:NADP -oxidoreductase (FNR) enzymes in vitro. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1103659108

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Antibody production gets confused during long-term spaceflight

ScienceDaily (May 19, 2011) — The trip to Mars just got a little more difficult now that French researchers have discovered that antibodies used to fight off disease might become seriously compromised during long-term space flight. In a new report published online in the FASEB Journal, the scientists show that antibodies produced in space are less effective than those produced on terra firma. The reduced effectiveness of antibodies makes astronauts more susceptible to illness, while increasing the danger posed by bacteria and viruses likely to coexist with wayfaring astronauts.

"We hope to find efficient pharmacological and/or nutritional countermeasures to alterations of the immune system that could be useful to astronauts and to people who have weak immune systems on Earth because of infections, aging, or chronic stress exposure," said Jean-Pol Frippiat, a researcher involved in the work from the Faculty of Medicine, Development and Immunogenetics at the Université Henri Poincaré-Nancy, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.

To make their discovery, Frippiat and colleagues conducted studies using three groups of amphibians. Amphibians were chosen for the work because they use the same cellular mechanisms to produce antibodies as humans do. The first group of amphibians was immunized in space, the second was immunized on Earth, and the third was not immunized at all. Comparison of the antibodies produced revealed that the quality of the antibodies generated by the group immunized in space was decreased. This suggests that spaceflight conditions alter the immune system and affect its ability to protect against infections and tumors, posing a serious risk for astronauts.

"This paper shows that somatic hypermutation occurs at a lower frequency in spaceflight and brings together yet more evidence that the immune system is dependent on gravity," said Millie Hughes-Fulford, Ph.D., NASA Science Astronaut; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF; Director, Laboratory of Cell Growth, VAMC/UCSF; and editorial board member of the FASEB Journal. "Dependence on gravity should be no surprise since all of earth's jawed vertebrates developed in earth's gravity, and it would be logical to expect that some systems would require gravity for normal function."

"Outer space may be the final frontier, but this research shows that our inner space could pose the greatest threat to the success of a mission," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. "These explorers will have to be prepared not only for the challenges of extremely hostile environments, but also those posed by microbial stowaways, even those with which we peacefully co-exist on Earth."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Matthieu Bascove, Nathan Guéguinou, Bérénice Schaerlinger, Guillemette Gauquelin-Koch, and Jean-Pol Frippiat. Decrease in antibody somatic hypermutation frequency under extreme, extended spaceflight conditions. FASEB J., May 18, 2011 DOI: 1096/fj.11-185215

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Teaching algae to make fuel: New process could lead to production of hydrogen using bioengineered microorganisms

ScienceDaily (May 24, 2011) — Many kinds of algae and cyanobacteria, common water-dwelling microorganisms, are capable of using energy from sunlight to split water molecules and release hydrogen, which holds promise as a clean and carbon-free fuel for the future. One reason this approach hasn't yet been harnessed for fuel production is that under ordinary circumstances, hydrogen production takes a back seat to the production of compounds that the organisms use to support their own growth.

But Shuguang Zhang, associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering, and postdocs Iftach Yacoby and Sergii Pochekailov, together with colleagues at Tel Aviv University in Israel and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, have found a way to use bioengineered proteins to flip this preference, allowing more hydrogen to be produced.

"The algae are really not interested in producing hydrogen, they want to produce sugar," Yacoby says -- the sugar is what they need for their own survival, and the hydrogen is just a byproduct. But a multitasking enzyme, introduced into the liquid where the algae are at work, both suppresses the sugar production and redirects the organisms' energies into hydrogen production. The work is described in a paper being published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was supported in part by a European Molecular Biology Organization postdoctoral fellowship, the Yang Trust Fund and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Adding the bioengineered enzyme increases the rate of algal hydrogen production by about 400 percent, Yacoby says. The sugar production is suppressed but not eliminated, he explains, because "if it went to zero, it would kill the organism."

The research demonstrates for the first time how the two processes carried out by algae compete with each other; it also shows how that competition could be modified to favor hydrogen production in a laboratory environment. Zhang and Yacoby plan to continue developing the system to increase its efficiency of hydrogen production.

"It's one step closer to an industrial process," Zhang says. "First, you have to understand the science" -- which has been achieved through this experimental work. Now, developing it further -- through refinements to produce a viable commercial system for hydrogen-fuel manufacturing -- is "a matter of time and money," Zhang says.

Ultimately, such a system could be used to produce hydrogen on a large scale using water and sunlight. The hydrogen could be used directly to generate electricity in a fuel cell or to power a vehicle, or could be combined with carbon dioxide to make methane or other fuels in a renewable, carbon-neutral way, the researchers say.

In the long run, "the only viable way to produce renewable energy is to use the sun, [either] to make electricity or in a biochemical reaction to produce hydrogen," Yacoby says. "I believe there is no one solution," he adds, but rather many different approaches depending on the location and the end uses.

This particular approach, he says, is simple enough that it has promise "not just in industrialized countries, but in developing countries as well" as a source of inexpensive fuel. The algae needed for the process exist everywhere on Earth, and there are no toxic materials involved in any part of the process, he says.

"The beauty is in its simplicity," he says.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by David L. Chandler.

Journal Reference:

I. Yacoby, S. Pochekailov, H. Toporik, M. L. Ghirardi, P. W. King, S. Zhang. Photosynthetic electron partitioning between [FeFe]-hydrogenase and ferredoxin:NADP -oxidoreductase (FNR) enzymes in vitro. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1103659108

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

New green technology for hydrogen production

ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011) — Researcher Mohamed Halabi of Eindhoven University of Technology demonstrates a proof-of-concept for a new and clean technology to produce high purity hydrogen from natural gas. This allows hydrogen to be produced in an elegant technique at much lower temperatures, and without releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

Hydrogen is a valuable feedstock for the petrochemical industry and it may play a big role in the energy supply of the future, as a green, non-polluting, and efficient energy carrier. If it is burnt, only water is formed. However, the conventional technology for hydrogen production from natural gas ('steam reforming') is a highly energy intensive process, operated at high pressures (up to 25 bar) and high temperature (850 oC), with multistage subsequent separation and purification units. Moreover, huge amounts of CO2 have to be handled in post-processing steps.

TU Eindhoven has now developed a new and improved technology called "sorption enhanced catalytic reforming of methane," using novel catalyst/sorbent materials. Halabi, working in collaboration with the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), has demonstrated the feasibility of producing hydrogen through such a process at much lower temperatures (400 to 500 degrees Celsius).

The process is performed in a packed bed reactor using a Rhodium-based catalyst and a Hydrotalcite-based sorbent as a new system of materials. Hydrogen is produced on the active catalyst and the cogenerated CO2 is effectively adsorbed on the sorbent, hence preventing any CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.

Halabi: "Direct production of high purity hydrogen and fuel conversion greater than 99.5% is experimentally achieved at low temperature range of (400 -- 500 oC) and at a pressure of 4.5 bar with a low level of carbon oxides impurities: less than 100 ppm." The enormous reduction of the reactor size, material loading, catalyst/sorbent ratio, and energy requirements are beneficial key factors for the success of the concept over the conventional technologies. Small size hydrogen generation plants for residential or industrial application operated at a relatively low pressure, of less than 4.5 bar, seem to be feasible.

Dr. Mohamed Halabi received his PhD on May 9, 2011, at TU Eindhoven based on his dissertation "Sorption Enhanced Catalytic Reforming of Methane for Pure Hydrogen Production -- Experimental and Modeling." He conducted his research at the laboratory of Chemical Reactor Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Jaap Schouten.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Eindhoven University of Technology.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

New green technology for hydrogen production

ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011) — Researcher Mohamed Halabi of Eindhoven University of Technology demonstrates a proof-of-concept for a new and clean technology to produce high purity hydrogen from natural gas. This allows hydrogen to be produced in an elegant technique at much lower temperatures, and without releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

Hydrogen is a valuable feedstock for the petrochemical industry and it may play a big role in the energy supply of the future, as a green, non-polluting, and efficient energy carrier. If it is burnt, only water is formed. However, the conventional technology for hydrogen production from natural gas ('steam reforming') is a highly energy intensive process, operated at high pressures (up to 25 bar) and high temperature (850 oC), with multistage subsequent separation and purification units. Moreover, huge amounts of CO2 have to be handled in post-processing steps.

TU Eindhoven has now developed a new and improved technology called "sorption enhanced catalytic reforming of methane," using novel catalyst/sorbent materials. Halabi, working in collaboration with the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), has demonstrated the feasibility of producing hydrogen through such a process at much lower temperatures (400 to 500 degrees Celsius).

The process is performed in a packed bed reactor using a Rhodium-based catalyst and a Hydrotalcite-based sorbent as a new system of materials. Hydrogen is produced on the active catalyst and the cogenerated CO2 is effectively adsorbed on the sorbent, hence preventing any CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.

Halabi: "Direct production of high purity hydrogen and fuel conversion greater than 99.5% is experimentally achieved at low temperature range of (400 -- 500 oC) and at a pressure of 4.5 bar with a low level of carbon oxides impurities: less than 100 ppm." The enormous reduction of the reactor size, material loading, catalyst/sorbent ratio, and energy requirements are beneficial key factors for the success of the concept over the conventional technologies. Small size hydrogen generation plants for residential or industrial application operated at a relatively low pressure, of less than 4.5 bar, seem to be feasible.

Dr. Mohamed Halabi received his PhD on May 9, 2011, at TU Eindhoven based on his dissertation "Sorption Enhanced Catalytic Reforming of Methane for Pure Hydrogen Production -- Experimental and Modeling." He conducted his research at the laboratory of Chemical Reactor Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Jaap Schouten.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Eindhoven University of Technology.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here