Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

Scientists and engineers are seeking ways to improve on photosynthesis, and some of them convened in Providence, R.I., earlier this month at the Society for Biological Engineering’s inaugural conference on electrofuels research to discuss their progress. Specifically, the conference focused on projects funded by the electrofuels program of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects [...]

Water samples collected from the Northern region of India were used for isolation of anoxygenic photosynthetic (purple non-sulfur) bacterial isolate. The isolate was grown in modified Sistrom’s media at pH 7.0 and characterized as new strain of Rhodobacter sphaeroides NMBL-01 by 16S rDNA sequencing analysis and used for current study. Effect of pH on growth [...]

The syngas redox (SGR) process to produce hydrogen from coal derived syngas is described. The process involves reduction of a metal oxide to metallic form with syngas and subsequent regeneration with steam to generate hydrogen in a cyclic operation. Metal oxides of Ni, Cu, Cd, Co, Mn, Sn, and Fe were evaluated for this process [...]

Nearly all the energy we use on this planet starts out as sunlight that plants use to knit chemical bonds. Now, for the first time, researchers have created a potentially cheap, practical artificial leaf that does much the same thing. The new device is a silicon wafer about the shape and size of a playing [...]

A two-stage anaerobic digestion process intended for biohydrogen and bio-methane combined production from organic fraction of municipal solid wastes was investigated. In thermophilic conditions blocking of methanogenesis at the first stage of the anaerobic fermentation was achieved at pH 9.0. Cumulative hydrogen production made 82.5 l/kg volatile solids. Pretreatment of organic fraction of municipal solid wastes [...]

The study of the optoelectronic effects of plasmonic metal nanoparticles on semiconductors has led to compelling evidence for plasmon-enhanced water splitting. We review the relevant physics, device geometries, and research progress in this area. We focus on localized surface plasmons and their effects on semiconductors, particularly in terms of energy transfer, scattering, and hot electron [...]

In 2008, researchers discovered that genetically altered alga (C. reinhardtii) could produce hydrogen at an efficiency of 25%. This is far better than the 10% required to meet the $2.60/kg US-DOE goal (the energy content of  1kg of H is approximately equal to that of 1 gallon of gasoline). This result suggests that we have [...]