Food Waste Mixed with Carbon Nanotubes Could Store Solar and Wind Energy
October 27, 2016 | ACSEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Saving up excess solar and wind energy for times when the sun is down or the air is still requires a storage device. Batteries get the most attention as a promising solution although pumped hydroelectric storage is currently used most often. Now researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Physical Chemistry C are advancing another potential approach using sugar alcohols — an abundant waste product of the food industry — mixed with carbon nanotubes.
Electricity generation from renewables has grown steadily over recent years, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects this rise to continue. To keep up with this expansion, use of battery and flywheel energy storage has increased in the past five years, according to the EIA. These technologies take advantage of chemical and mechanical energy. But storing energy as heat is another feasible option.
Some scientists have been exploring sugar alcohols as a possible material for making thermal storage work, but this direction has some limitations.
Huaichen Zhang, Silvia V. Nedea and colleagues wanted to investigate how mixing carbon nanotubes with sugar alcohols might affect their energy storage properties (Journal of Physical Chemistry C, "Nanoscale Heat Transfer in Carbon Nanotubes - Sugar Alcohol Composite as Heat Storage Materials").
The researchers analyzed what happened when carbon nanotubes of varying sizes were mixed with two types of sugar alcohols — erythritol and xylitol, both naturally occurring compounds in foods. Their findings showed that with one exception, heat transfer within a mixture decreased as the nanotube diameter decreased. They also found that in general, higher density combinations led to better heat transfer.
The researchers say these new insights could assist in the future design of sugar alcohol-based energy storage systems.
Suggested Items
Australian Flow Batteries and The SCHMID Group Announce Groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding
04/17/2024 | SCHMID GroupAustralian Flow Batteries Pty Ltd (AFB), a leader in innovative energy solutions and economical, safe, and reliable power storage, and SCHMID Energy Systems GmbH a company of the German SCHMID Group, a global technology leader with a rich history in delivering innovative solutions across multiple industries including Electronics, Renewables, and Energy Storage sectors, are thrilled to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
Coherent Secures $15M in Chips Act Funding Through the CLAWS Hub
04/12/2024 | CoherentCoherent Corp., a leader in wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors, announced that it secured $15 million in funding from the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act of 2022 that provided the Department of Defense (DoD) with $2 billion to strengthen and revitalize the U.S. semiconductor supply chain.
The Need for a Holistic Global Sustainability Standard
04/10/2024 | Michael Ford, Aegis SoftwareNo one can deny that the resources of our fragile planet are finite. The environment seems like a third party, subject to constant degradation. We’re acutely aware of the effects of pollution on our climate, and despite our “throw-away” culture, recycling and recovery of materials has remained relatively expensive, even as we use more energy just to survive.
Ambiq Apollo510 Delivers 30x Power Efficiency Improvement to Unleash Endpoint AI
03/27/2024 | AmbiqAmbiq, a technology leader in exceptionally energy-efficient semiconductors for IoT devices, is introducing the new Apollo510, the first member of the Apollo5 SoC family, which is uniquely positioned to kickstart the age of truly ubiquitous, practical, and meaningful AI.
A Replacement for Traditional Motors Could Enhance Next-gen Robots
03/25/2024 | Stanford UniversityWhether it’s a powered prosthesis to assist a person who has lost a limb or an independent robot navigating the outside world, we are asking machines to perform increasingly complex, dynamic tasks.