{"410401":{"#nid":"410401","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Yulin Deng Discovers a Novel Method to Convert  Biomass Directly to Electricity","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Yulin Deng and his Georgia Tech students have published exciting research to convert biomass to electricity directly.\u0026nbsp; The solar-induced fuel cell is powered with biomass without the need of purification or complicated pretreatment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis paper, \u201cSolar-induced direct biomass-to-electricity hybrid fuel cell using polyoxometalates as photo-catalyst and charge carrier\u201d was published in February in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ENature Communications\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Deng and his group directly converted natural biomass materials, such as starch, cellulose, lignin, switch grass, wood powders, algae, poultry manufacture wastes and animal excrement to electric power.\u0026nbsp; The conversion was accomplished with the assistance of a catalyst activated by solar or thermal energy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis research shows that any type of biomass can be converted to electricity at room temperature.\u0026nbsp; Our work offers a generic approach to utilizing many kinds of biomass and organic waste to produce electrical power without the need for expensive and extensive purification of the biomass feedstock,\u201d Dr. Deng says. \u0026nbsp;He explains that the biomass is oxidized by polyoxometalates under solar irradiation and the reduced polyoxometalate is oxidized by oxygen through an external circuit, producing electricity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESumming up the potential of the work, Dr. Deng observes \u201cSolar energy and biomass are both sustainable energy sources.\u0026nbsp; We have shown that we can make the two work together to produce energy.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe reviewers from\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ENature Communications\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;said: \u0026nbsp;\u201cThe results may even open up new avenues in photoelectrochemistry and energy conversion, and are therefore very important. I anticipate the paper will be read primarily by researchers in the photoelectrochemistry, bio-energy, fuel cell, and photocatalysis communities, but may also attract even wider attention. Rapid dissemination is warranted. The paper may be one of the most cited papers in at least one of these fields this year.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Deng\u2019s Georgia Tech team includes Wei Liu, Wei Mu, Mengjie Liu, Xiaodan Zhang and Hongli Cai, all from the School of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering or the Institute of Paper Science and Technology at Georgia Tech.\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe paper can be found at:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nature.com\/ncomms\/2014\/140207\/ncomms4208\/full\/ncomms4208.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ewww.nature.com\/ncomms\/2014\/140207\/ncomms4208\/full\/ncomms4208.html\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Dr. Deng publishes novel research that directly converts biomass to electricity"}],"uid":"27178","created_gmt":"2015-06-04 09:15:46","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:29","author":"Amna Jamshad","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"410391":{"id":"410391","type":"image","title":"Dr. Yulin Deng","body":null,"created":"1449254195","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:35","changed":"1475895139","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:19","alt":"Dr. Yulin Deng","file":{"fid":"202258","name":"140328_deng.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/140328_deng_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/140328_deng_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":32992,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/140328_deng_0.jpg?itok=JLsiFps8"}}},"media_ids":["410391"],"groups":[{"id":"372221","name":"Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI)"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"3023","name":"biomass"},{"id":"436","name":"electricity"},{"id":"213","name":"energy"},{"id":"516","name":"engineering"},{"id":"93811","name":"RBI"},{"id":"4174","name":"renewable"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKelly B. Smith, Marketing \u0026amp; Communication\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kelly.smith@ipst.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}