They produced energy from the worst waste.  Car exhaust fumes will no longer be a nuisance

Diverting pollution and waste is not an idea that can be put aside. Scientists from the Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute in Madhya Pradesh, India, argue in their article in Chemical Engineering JournalThat we can produce energy from soot and wastewater.

Read also: The Czechs are doing their best to get cheap energy for the winter. On the one hand, they are ahead of Poland

When thinking about soot, researchers primarily consider automobile exhaust gases, which are largely composed of carbon nanoparticles. Their concentrically arranged ring-shaped internal structure is ideal for constructing fuel cell electrodes from these impurities.

Scientists in India produce energy from soot and sewage. The fuel cell has a unique structure

A cathode and anode made of soot alone can’t do much, but when we introduce heteroatoms (i.e. an atom that’s not carbon or hydrogen) into them, we get efficient mesoporous fractal electrodes – say the study’s authors. The heteroatoms doped at the cathode and anode were mainly composed of nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. Thanks to them, charcoal has enhanced its catalytic activity and its ability to reduce oxygen.

Read also: Gold to save the world. This is how you can produce clean energy

Graphical summary of the article. On the left is a laboratory model of a fuel cell/Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.145627

The fuel for microbiological cells can be, for example, wastewater, where we will find specific types of bacteria responsible for the production of the biological layer on the anode (biofilm). The researchers distinguished five types of bacteria, with a particular type favoring rapid electron transfer – Pseudomonas aeruginosaAs demonstrated by cytochrome oxidase testing.

From an environmental point of view, the whole system turns out to be ideal – we build cells from nanoparticles found in automobile exhaust gases, purify wastewater, produce energy, and use microorganisms that accelerate reactions on electrodes. Scientists have proven that their microbial fuel cells reduce COD (chemical oxygen demand – an indicator that quantifies water and wastewater pollution) by 70%. Within a week.

Read also: The legendary heir to batteries is coming. Not only will it save energy, it will do something else

If scientists can convince the world to solve these problems, we may witness a major revolution in the energy industry. These cells will benefit not only humanity, but above all nature, which we will at least partially “clean” from the waste produced by our civilization.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Cosmos. An asteroid was discovered two hours before it entered the Earth’s atmosphere

A galactic astronomer discovered a small asteroid on March 11th. Less than…

NASA. An unusual picture from space. What is this shadow on the surface of Jupiter?

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar…

A black hole closer to Earth has been discovered. It is part of a binary system

Black holes do not emit or reflect light and are therefore difficult…

a test. Check if you passed the 2022 math test. These tasks are the basis for getting at least 30 percent off and passing the matura exam!

Author: shutterstock Matura 2022 in Mathematics is one of the biggest challenges…