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Scientists Discover Method of Using Cost-Effective Biocatalysts in Fuel Cells
The redox hydrogel, developed by researchers in Bochum and Mülheim, acts as a protective shield for a hydrogenase. It prevents the sensitive biocatalyst from being damaged by oxygen. Credit: Ruhr-Universität Bochum / MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim
Scientists at the Center for Electrochemical Sciences and the Max Planck Institute have discovered a way of using cost-effective biocatalysts in fuel cells, a step forward to using hydrogen to generate electricity.
In the future, it could be more economical and environmentally friendly to use hydrogen to generate electricity. Scientists at the Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim an der Ruhr have found a way of using cost-effective biocatalysts in fuel cells. Fuel cells generate electricity by converting hydrogen and oxygen into water. Previously, scientists and engineers used precious metal-based catalysts for this process. While these were efficient and stable, they were also expensive and only available in small quantities. The team of researchers in Bochum and Mülheim have now found a way of protecting the very efficient enzymes with a polymer against conditions in the fuel cells that are able to rapidly destroy the unprotected biocatalysts.
Many bacteria and algae are ahead of technology. They use hydrogenases, i.e. enzymes or biocatalysts from widely available elements such as, iron and nickel, to generate hydrogen, completely avoiding the use of precious metals like platinum. Hydrogenases act as catalysts not only in the generation of hydrogen, but also in its uptake to produce electrons, which can then be used by fuel cells to generate electricity, water being the only waste product. The most efficient hydrogenases achieve the same conversion rates as platinum. “Hydrogenases may therefore be an interesting alternative to precious metals,” says Wolfgang Schuhmann, who holds the Chair of Analytical Chemistry at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
However, until now, technology could not make use of these enzymes in fuel cells. This is because hydrogenases cannot work under the conditions prevailing in a fuel cell, where the level of oxygen and the high electrical potential deactivate the biocatalysts.
Redox hydrogel: a protective shield for efficient yet sensitive catalysts
The team from Bochum and Mülheim have now developed a concept that will allow the sensitive catalysts to function in fuel cells. Essentially, the researchers shield the catalyst with a protective matrix, whose properties they have tailored in such a way that the material suppresses the deactivation processes.
Instead of bringing the hydrogenase directly into contact with the electrode, they incorporate the sensitive catalyst into a redox hydrogel. This serves both as a redox buffer and an oxygen scavenger, and means that neither high potential nor oxygen has an impact on the biocatalyst in the hydrogel film. Under certain operating conditions, the fuel cell that has been modified with the hydrogel can convert chemical energy from hydrogen into electrical energy over several weeks. Without the hydrogel, the hydrogenase is rapidly destroyed.
“The hydrogel concept opens up the possibility of using other sensitive biological and artificial catalysts in fuel cells, whose intrinsic stability cannot be enhanced ,” says Wolfgang Lubitz, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim an der Ruhr. “This represents a major step forward towards a significantly improved biofuel cell design and a sustainable energy industry in our society.”
The project was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV (EXC 1069).
Publication: Nicolas Plumere, et al., “A redox hydrogel protects hydrogenase from high-potential deactivation and oxygen damage,” Nature Chemistry (2014); doi:10.1038/nchem.2022
Source: Max Planck Institute
Source: http://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-method-using-cost-effective-biocatalysts-fuel-cells/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
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2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
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Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
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2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
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• International social movement
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