Much of the wood used around the world goes to waste after being used. Now, German scientists are making strides toward repurposing that waste and also getting clean hydrogen energy out of it, per Tech Xplore.
The researchers are focused on the Black Forest region of Germany, where many furniture and wood processing companies are based. They work in the Fraunhofer system, the largest applied science organization in Europe, and with other regional partners, according to Tech Xplore.
Their project is called H2Wood – BlackForest. Since 2021, they have designed a method of breaking down wood into its individual substructures and then putting them back to work.
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To break down the wood, it is first boiled under pressure in ethanol and water to separate out chemical contaminants and extract the wood's natural fibers and sugars. The sugars then become the food for a fermentation process of bacteria that produces hydrogen and carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide is then used to fuel another fermentation process that grows microalgae, which ultimately produces even more hydrogen, per Tech Xplore.
What's the point of all that hydrogen? Well, it's a powerful energy carrier. When combined with oxygen, it can power a fuel cell that produces heat or electricity and only emits water vapor, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
That all shapes up to be a pretty clean source of energy, especially when using hydrogen sourced from a process like this one. A production plant is expected as soon as this year, per Tech Xplore.
The researchers have shown that they can make use of wood that otherwise would go to waste or be incinerated, which often releases toxic preservatives into the air. Plus, the byproducts of the two fermentation processes can be reused again in industries like car manufacturing, per Tech Xplore.
It doesn't take much to get started, either. As the report explained, just 1 kilogram of old wood can create about one-fifth kilogram of sugar. Dr. Ursula Schliessmann, deputy institute director at Fraunhofer IGB, explained that this could create 50 liters of hydrogen using the researchers' process, per Tech Xplore.
"The Black Forest region has a significant potential to produce hydrogen from local resources," Vladimir Jelschow, a research scientist at Fraunhofer IPA, said. "This potential can only be fully exploited by further developing the technologies and expanding the infrastructure."
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