EES Blog

May’s issue of Energy & Environmental Science has now been published online – take a look today…

Here’s just some of the great content from this month’s issue:

Analysis article
Life-cycle analysis of product integrated polymer solar cells
Nieves Espinosa, Rafael García-Valverde and Frederik C. Krebs, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 1547

Review
Carbon nanotubes and their composites in electrochemical applications
Grzegorz Lota, Krzysztof Fic and Elzbieta Frackowiak, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 1592

Perspective
Nuclear fuel in generation II and III reactors: research issues related to high burn-up
C. Degueldre, J. Bertsch, G. Kuri and M. Martin, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 1651

Issue 5 also features some great artwork:

The outside cover highlights the work by Vilas Pol and Michael Thackeray on lithium electrochemical cells (DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00256A) and the inside cover features electronic/ionic conducting membranes for artificial photosynthesis by Nate Lewis and colleagues (DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00384K).

Two Energy & Environmental Science papers have been featured this week in an article on Capturing CO₂ in C&EN

Take a look at the at the C&EN article or read the two Energy & Environmental Science papers today:

High efficiency nanocomposite sorbents for CO₂ capture based on amine-functionalized mesoporous capsules
Genggeng Qi, Yanbing Wang, Luis Estevez, Xiaonan Duan, Nkechi Anako, Ah-Hyung Alissa Park, Wen Li, Christopher W. Jones and Emmanuel P. Giannelis
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 444-452
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00213E

Sustainable porous carbons with a superior performance for CO₂ capture
Marta Sevilla and Antonio B. Fuertes
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 1765-1771
DOI: 10.1039/C0EE00784F

Furfural and carboxylic acids from waste aqueous hemicellulose solutions from the pulp, paper and cellulosic ethanol industries

A new process to produce furfural and co-products of formic and acetic acids from waste aqueous hemicellulose solutions using a continuous two zone biphasic reactor has been developed by scientists from the US. The researchers have estimated that their approach uses 67% to 80% less energy than the current industrial processes to produce furfural.

An economic analysis indicates that furfural can be produced with this process at 366 US$ per metric ton, which is 25% of the selling price of furfural in the US market, say the team.

They have also demonstrated that high purity (>99%) of furfural, formic and acetic acids can be obtained, with a final recovery of more than 97%, 56%, and 88% of the furfural, formic acid and acetic acid, respectively.

Reference:
R Xing, W Qi and G W Huber, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1ee01022k