Research and application supports a sustainable future.

Researchers ‘Feed’ Leftover Coffee Grounds to Microalgae to Produce Low Emission Biodiesel

Dr. Vesna Najdanovic senior lecturer in chemical engineering and Dr. Jiawei Wang were part of a team that grew algae which was then processed into fuel.

In just the UK, approximately 98 million cups of coffee are drunk each day, contributing to a massive amount of spent coffee grounds which are processed as general waste, often ending up in landfill or incineration.

However the researchers found that spent coffee grounds provide both nutrients to feed, and a structure on which the microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris sp.) can grow.

As a result, they were able to extract enhanced biodiesel that produces minimal emissions and good engine performance, and meets US and European specifications.

NREL researchers providing best practice guide to water-splitting technologies

Researchers at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a best-practices guide on how to best compare water-splitting technologies across different laboratories, measuring the efficiency of producing hydrogen directly from solar power.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting, which relies on sunlight to split water into its component elements – oxygen and hydrogen – stands out as potentially one of the most sustainable routes to clean energy. Measurements of how efficient the PEC process is on an identical system can vary wildly from different laboratories, however, from a lack of standardised methods. The newly developed best-practices guide published in Frontiers in Energy Research is intended to provide confidence in comparing results obtained at different sites and by different groups.

The publication provides a road map for the PEC community as researchers continue to refine the technology. These best practices were verified by both laboratories via round-robin testing using the same testing hardware, PEC photoelectrodes, and measurement procedures. Research into photovoltaics has allowed a certification of cell efficiencies, but PEC water-splitting efficiency measurements do not yet have a widely accepted protocol.

Geothermal Could Become Workhorse of the Energy Transition

Geothermal energy—the heat deep below our feet—has the potential to become the workhorse of the energy transition as it grows from supplying just 0.4 percent of the world’s energy today to upward of 20, 30, and even 50 percent by 2050. That’s according to the co-founder and CEO of a company working to tap the mother lode of that energy who presented at the SOSV Climate Tech Summit 2022 held October 25-26. SOSV is a global venture capital firm.