Innovation Pipeline

When listing nature’s wonders, you’d have to put spiderwebs somewhere near the top. Strands of biomaterial with the tensile strength of steel formed into complex shapes that withstand wind, heat and sunlight. They’re so impressive that scientists still don’t entirely understand them.

But recently researchers at the University of Wyoming have deciphered the glue that cements web ends to surfaces. It ranks as one of the strongest евтини мебелиglues made in nature, so strong that adhesives based on the web glue could ultimately replace existing petrochemical adhesives, according to Omer Choresh, molecular biologist at the University of Wyoming.

A group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are working on a new type of sodium-ion battery that could prove to be a practical option for storing power from wind and solar farms, says Jay Whitacre, a professor of materials science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Whitacre’s startup, 44 Tech, based in Pittsburgh, will receive $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the 2009 Recovery Act to develop the technology. The funding is part of a $620 million package for improving the electricity grid.

The 44 Tech batteries could be not only cheaper but also longer-lasting than existing batteries, Whitacre says. This would make them particularly useful for storing large amounts of electricity cheaply–something that will be essential in making renewable energy the primary source of energy in the U.S. rather than the supplemental source it is now. Such storage will make it practical to store energy from wind turbines and solar farms for use when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

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The efficiency and elegance of materials occurring in nature have always been an inspiration to researchers. Trying to achieve similar results via nanoengineering, scientists are now working on nanoscale particles that automatically orient themselves into unique materials with powerful properties.
It makes sense, this self-assembly approach, because it’s simply too difficult to manipulate nanoparticles with lab devices, no matter how small they are. But if conditions are arranged correctly, self-assembly could be an effective way to manufacture new materials.
Consequently, there has been a lot of work in the area of self-assembly. In one very interesting project, Tel Aviv University researchers reportedly were able to grow peptides resembling small forests of grass that repelled dust and water.

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The old saying is that oil and water don’t mix. But in fact separating oil from water is no easy task.
Research engineers at the University of Utah http://www.unews.utah.edu/p/?r=111209-1 have come up with an inexpensive way to remove oil from on water. It’s accomplished by applying pressurizing and depressurizing cycles of ozone gas in a containment vesicle to the oily water. The microscopic bubbles, which have strong oxidant properties, attack the oil and break it down so it can be removed by sand filters. The scrubbing bubbles have a great deal of surface area and permit the oil to interact with the gas and the pollutants accumulate on the bubbles.

Researchers say they’re not trying to treat the all the oil in the water but convert it to a form that can be captured by a simple and economical process like sand filtration.

The research findings were reported in the journal Chemosphere. Currently the patent-pending methods developed by Andy Hong, professor of civil and environmental engineering, have several different industrial applications.

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Plant researchers have long studied why certain plants survive environmental stresses like drought while others wither and die. Now, with global warming, growing water crises around the world and increased interest in growing plants for biofuels, the question of plant survival is a hot-button issue.

Scientists from the University of California at Riverside made a significant discovery earlier this year when they determined how a stress hormone in plants, abscisic acid (ABA), helps them survive through periods of drought. Other researchers at the Scripps Research Institute and the University of California at San Diego have also been looking at ABA.

Here’s how it works. When a drought-tolerant plant detects dry conditions, the plant synthesizes ABA. That hormone effects changes from the roots to the leaves to the flowers of the plant. The outcome of the hormone release is water conservation. ABA was discovered in the early 1960s, but it wasn’t until this year that plant biologists gained a better understanding for how the hormone works.

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When it comes to the merits of counting carbon as a remedy to improve the health of our planet, there’s plenty of room for debate and dissension. It’s also quickly becoming a major obsession and perhaps a real distraction from important policy work that needs to get done.

A recent paper in Science, “Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error” shed light on the way carbon is being counted in current U.S. climate legislation and in the Kyoto Protocol. The accounting problem could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using biofuels made from biomass. If the carbon is not correctly accounted for in calculations, resulting policies and practices may become counterproductive.

It all comes down to greenhouse gas consequences. If, for example, fast growing biofuel crops are grown on abandoned farmland, they can capture more carbon than existing plants and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, if existing forests are cut down and replaced with bioenergy crops, the carbon released from the soil and mature trees plus the loss of future carbon storage is greater than the carbon captured by the crops.

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New thinking about how to design and build batteries is generating some novel research well outside the box of mainstream electronics. A group of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Yale University recently revealed in a research paper in Advanced Materials how certain real cells generate electric voltages and hence act as a tiny battery.

Think about electric eels and how they manage to pack a lethal charge for their prey. The biological model offers an elegant alternative to conventional solid-state batteries.

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For all the unpleasant characteristics green algae possesses, it is beloved in cleantech circles because it can manufacture biofuels.

Now, scientists at the Angstrom Laboratory at Uppsala University in Sweden have discovered green algae’s distinctive cellulose nanostructure can also provide an effective coating substrate for batteries. It provides two advantages: it’s lighter in weight and much more environmentally friendly when battery components are recycled.

Researcher Albert Mihranyan and Professor Maria Strømme at the Nanotechnology and Functional Materials Department of Engineering Sciences at the Angstrom Laboratory have been studying algae for several years, primarily focusing on ways it can be used in pharmaceutical applications. The battery work came about as a collaboration with battery chemists and nanotechnologists at the university.

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The U.S. stimulus package had a clear message and mandate for renewable energy. There was far less stimulus devoted to the water industry and people wondered how that would impact the business.

As it turns out, a recent water industry survey of businesses and technologists indicates there’s a rebound in water-project spending expected over the next 12 months, according to Changewave Research’s latest survey.

The survey revealed that water infrastructure repair and replacement was the top sector and expected to attract the most spending over the next two years. Wastewater treatment also fared well in terms of outlook for the next year. But those areas of the water industry showing less interest in terms of spending were desalination, water metering and water filtration.

That boost in wastewater treatment is partly related to municipal plants where there’s interest in using renewable-energy generation technologies like solar to supply electricity to power systems.

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Evolution is an elegant and powerful force. And if you’re looking for an effective design, what better source to borrow from than nature? That’s what researchers do in the emerging field of biomimicry, which uses natural forms for inspiration.
They study how nature solves problems and maximizes efficiency in areas like propulsion and mobility. Leonardo da Vinci did the same, looking closely at naturally refined characteristics to inform his designs. The underlying lesson: the power of geometry over chemistry.
The gecko, with its sticky feet and ability to defy gravity, is the poster child in the field of biomimicry. It helped inspire gecko tape but there are plenty of other interesting examples, like velcro, which was inspired by the natural hooks in burrs. And there’s researchers from Oregon State University working with blue mussel and the proteins involved in its strong byssus threads for anchoring it in marine environments. Those insights have been used to create mussel-inspired adhesives used in plywood now sold at Home Depot.

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