Jessica Cocker, Development Editor

Author Archive

Biodiesel byproduct rejuvenated into plastic feedstock

22 Dec 2014

A significant amount of glycerol (bottom layer) is leftover when making biodiesel (top layer) © Bo Cheng/ETH Zurich

A sustainable method to synthesise platform chemical lactic acid from waste glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel production, has emerged from research in Switzerland.

Collaboration between the advanced catalysis engineering and the safety and environmental technology groups at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, headed by Javier Pérez-Ramírez and Konrad Hungerbuehler, respectively, gave way to the new cascade process. Glycerol is first oxidised to give dihydroxyacetone through an established enzymatic process. Dihydroxyacetone is then isomerised over a tin-containing zeolite catalyst, which was designed by ETH Zurich team, to give lactic acid.

Interested to know more?

Take a look at the full Chemistry World article by Geri Kitley online now.

For further information also see the original research article:

Environmental and economic assessment of lactic acid production from glycerol using cascade bio- and chemocatalysis
Merten Morales, Pierre Y. Dapsens, Isabella Giovinazzo, Julia Witte, Cecilia Mondelli, Stavros Papadokonstantakis, Konrad Hungerbühler and Javier Pérez-Ramírez
Energ. Environ. Sci., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03352C

Comments Off on Biodiesel byproduct rejuvenated into plastic feedstock

From nutshell to supercapattery

15 Dec 2014

Scientists in Canada have created a hybrid sodium ion capacitor (NIC) from peanut shells in a pioneering study bridging the gap between conventional ion batteries and supercapacitors.

Interested to know more?

Take a look at the full Chemistry World article by Dannielle Whittaker online now.

For further details there’s also the original research paper:

Peanut shell hybrid sodium ion capacitor with extreme energy–power rivals lithium ion capacitors
Jia Ding, Huanlei Wang, Zhi Li, Kai Cui, Dimitre Karpuzov, Xuehai Tan, Alireza Kohandehghan and David Mitlin
Energy Environ. Sci., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C4EE02986K

Comments Off on From nutshell to supercapattery

Foreign Policy Global Thinkers award for EES authors

01 Dec 2014

Credit: Foreign Policy magazine

We are delighted to announce that Energy and Environmental Science authors Florent Boudoire, Rita Toth, Jakob Heier, Artur Braun and Edwin C. Constable have been listed among Foreign Policy magazine’s “100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2014” for their work on advancing solar technology using rust and moth eyes.

The researchers are based at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology and the University of Basel, Switzerland and were honoured in the innovators section. The Foreign Policy editors noted on their work that ‘The advance opens up a new method for hydrogen-fuel production and could let the next generation of solar technologies take wing.’

For further information take a look at the Global Thinkers website and make sure to read the original EES article!

Photonic light trapping in self-organized all-oxide microspheroids impacts photoelectrochemical water splitting
Florent Boudoire, Rita Toth, Jakob Heier, Artur Braun and Edwin C. Constable
Energy Environ. Sci., 2014,7, 2680-2688

Comments Off on Foreign Policy Global Thinkers award for EES authors

Sawdust cellulose offers alkane pipeline

09 Oct 2014

A new way for converting cellulose into liquid straight-chain alkanes may provide a viable alternative route to chemicals traditionally sourced from crude oil. With the demand for fossil-derived chemicals and fuels ever-increasing, making chemical building blocks using cellulose from the vast amounts of cheap, waste non-food plant biomass produced worldwide in combination with existing oil refinery infrastructure, could be an invaluable bridge to sustainable chemicals and fuels.

Read the full news article on the work from Bert Sels et al. online at Chemistry World.

The original research article is also free to access for a limited time – download it here:

Direct catalytic conversion of cellulose to liquid straight-chain alkanes
Beau Op de Beeck, Michiel Dusselier, Jan Geboers, Jensen Holsbeek, Eline Morré, Steffen Oswald, Lars Giebeler and Bert F. Sels
Energy. Environ. Sci., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4EE01523A

Comments Off on Sawdust cellulose offers alkane pipeline

EES Impact Factor climbs even higher – 15.49

30 Jul 2014

We are delighted to announce a huge rise in the Impact Factor* of Energy & Environmental Science to a record high of 15.49.

This increase means Energy & Environmental Science remains the #1 ranking journal (of all 205 journals) in its ISI subject category.

This great news demonstrates that the journal continues to attract and publish outstanding research, which appeals to its community-spanning international readership. ees cover

We wish to thank all our Board members, authors and referees for their continuing support – Energy & Environmental Science is your journal.

Please do continue to submit your best work to Energy & Environmental Science. We look forward to further success in the months and years ahead.

Read more about the 2013 Impact Factors from across RSC Publishing on the RSC Publishing Blog.

*The Impact Factor provides an indication of the average number of citations per paper. Produced annually, Impact Factors are calculated by dividing the number of citations in a year by the number of citeable articles published in the preceding two years. Data based on 2013 Journal Citation Reports^®, (Thomson Reuters, 2014).

Comments Off on EES Impact Factor climbs even higher – 15.49

Aaron Wheeler interviewed in Chemistry World

25 Jul 2014

Energy and Environmental Science author Aaron Wheeler (University of Toronto) was recently interviewed in Chemistry World about his recent paper describing a technique that can screen algae with the aim of generating more efficient biofuels.

Here’s the beginning of the interview:

You recently reported an exciting technique that can screen algae grown under different wavelengths with the aim of generating more efficient biofuels.¹ Can you tell me more about this work?

Sure, this was the first time we have developed a method for the area of renewable energy. I had a student, Steve Shih, who is now a postdoc at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in California, who became interested in the idea that we can cultivate algae to produce biofuel. Of course this is an idea that has been around for a while.

So, in looking at the problem it seems that the biofuel we can collect from algae does not have the required energy density relative to the cost needed to extract and generate fuel, to compete with non-renewable resources. There are ongoing efforts to develop ways to encourage algae to generate more lipids. The idea is that the algae generate stores of lipids that we can then extract and refine into fuel.

We saw an opportunity; we thought we might be able to build a microfluidic device that could rapidly screen for conditions that folks haven’t looked at before just to see if we could find some conditions that encouraged the algae to produce more lipids. A lot of time we start these projects but don’t end up with an exciting result, but this one was really exciting in that we believe we have identified a brand new phenomenon which is that, at least for this particular algae, if you culture them under yellow light they experience some sort of stress which causes them to increase lipid production!

Visit Chemistry World now to read the rest!

1. S C C Shih et al, Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 2366 (DOI: 10.1039/c4ee01123f)

Aaron Wheeler

Comments Off on Aaron Wheeler interviewed in Chemistry World

3D printing cuts fuel cell component costs

08 Jul 2014

By using 3D printing researchers in the UK have cut the cost of manufacturing devices that produce hydrogen fuel by splitting water. The 3D printed plastic components developed by Lee Cronin and co-workers at the University of Glasgow, UK, allow for the construction of light weight and low-cost electrolysers that could make the currently expensive devices available to a wider audience. Hardware hackers in the scientific community are also encouraged to use the new manufacturing approach in open source developments.

Interested to find out more? For the full article visit Chemistry World.

Read the original article in Energy and Environmental Science – free to access until August 15th!

3D Printed Flow Plates for the Electrolysis of Water: an Economic and Adaptable Approach to Device Manufacture

Lee Cronin, Greig Chisholm, Philip Kitson, Niall Kirkaldy and Leanne Bloor

Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, Accepted Manuscript

DOI: 10.1039/C4EE01426J, Paper

Comments Off on 3D printing cuts fuel cell component costs

Solar cells: Tiny balls of fire – EES article featured in The Economist

30 Jun 2014

A recent article in EES on how to increase the light-absorbing capability of a photoelectrochemical cell by arranging spheres of tungsten oxide has been selected as one of the three science articles featured in this week’s issue of The Economist. The article is written by Florent Boudoire and co-workers at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, where the group’s research efforts are concentrated on high performance ceramic materials for energy and the environment.

The Economist offers authoritative insight and opinion on international news, politics, business, finance, science, technology and the connections between them.

Read the full article on the website now!

Also check out the original research article which has been made free to access for a limited period of time! –

Florent Boudoire et al., Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4EE00380B

Comments Off on Solar cells: Tiny balls of fire – EES article featured in The Economist

EES Blog

Author Archive

Biodiesel byproduct rejuvenated into plastic feedstock

From nutshell to supercapattery

Foreign Policy Global Thinkers award for EES authors

Sawdust cellulose offers alkane pipeline

EES Impact Factor climbs even higher – 15.49

Aaron Wheeler interviewed in Chemistry World

3D printing cuts fuel cell component costs

Solar cells: Tiny balls of fire – EES article featured in The Economist

Links

Categories

Archives

Meta