Scientists just found a way to turn food and animal waste into clean-burning hydrogen fuel more efficiently than ever before, South Korea's National Research Council of Science and Technology reported via Tech Xplore.
This "significant breakthrough" could expedite the shift to cleaner, cheaper energy while tackling hard-to-handle organic waste.
The research team created an improved version of a bio-electrochemical cell, equipment that helps tiny organisms break down waste and produce hydrogen gas. Their upgraded design improves the process by keeping key components closer together, which means less energy gets wasted along the way.
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Absolutely 💯 The team has been working on this technology for years, trying to solve a tricky problem: how to make hydrogen fuel without creating pollution or using lots of energy. Traditional methods need very high temperatures and release carbon dioxide. This new approach works at room temperature and creates far less carbon dioxide.
In tests at their laboratory, the improved design produced 20% more hydrogen and generated nearly twice as many electrons as older versions. An independent testing facility confirmed these impressive results.
Processing organic waste costs money and can harm the environment when not done properly. The new technology offers a solution by turning that waste into valuable clean fuel. It can help city budgets by cutting waste management costs while creating a product that can power vehicles and buildings without adding heat-trapping gases to the air.
"This technological development not only addresses the environmental and economic challenges of processing organic waste in Korea but also represents a significant breakthrough in the high-efficiency production of clean hydrogen energy," Eunjin Jwa, who led the research, said.
The team's next step is scaling up from laboratory tests to larger systems that could work for cities and towns. While they haven't announced when the technology might be available, successful pilot tests suggest it could start appearing at waste treatment facilities within the next few years.
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