University of Sydney researchers are copying the natural engineering found in sea creatures such starfish in order to produce a renewable energy source without producing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Dr Andrew Harris and his colleagues from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have been researching techniques to capture the carbon dioxide released while extracting hydrogen from biomass (agricultural wastes). The hydrogen generated can then be used as a sustainable source of energy for fuel cells, with water as the only by-product.
Dr Harris and his team aim to make a sorbent, or ‘sponge’, that will capture the carbon dioxide produced by the process. Capturing the carbon dioxide also generates changes the reaction chemically, increasing the amount of hydrogen produced.Â
“We found that calcium oxide-based sorbents were the most effective and that Echinodermata – sea creatures including starfish and sea cucumbers – already provided the perfect templates for the structure we sought,†Dr. Harris said.
“Hydrogen is the cleanest energy carrier available, but there are serious barriers to its widespread use. Most of the hydrogen produced at the moment – around 95 percent – is derived from fossil fuels, so it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide as burning fossil fuels.
“But making hydrogen from biomass and capturing the carbon dioxide means negative net greenhouse gas emissions, and this is a significant step on the road to a future hydrogen economy.”
The project will use renewable sources such as wood and agricultural wastes for producing hydrogen. This means the process will be sustainable, and won’t require vital food crops to be diverted, unlike the production of other alternative fuels such as ethanol.
The researchers have just received international recognition with a $1 million grant from European energy giant E.ON to develop the materials using a technique called biomimicry – a science that mimics systems found in nature to solve major problems facing humankind.
“My colleagues and I are very interested in the applications of biomimicry in engineering, and this project gives us an opportunity to develop a carbon dioxide sponge which will have significant commercial value,†he said.
European energy company E.ON funds research into applications of nanotechnology in the energy industry. Dr. Harris is the first ever Australian recipient of an E.ON grant for this three-year project, which was announced in Dusseldorf last week.
* Editor’s note: The nano-scale structure of the sorbent is designed so that it has the maximum capacity for CO2, rather than a random design which has a much lower capacity. Tailoring the molecular structure of materials has historically been very challenging, hence the biomimetic approach is a major advance. Â
