Novel Fuel Cells

Although the primary energy output of the photobioreactor system is biodiesel, a significant portion of the solar energy captured will be in the non-hydrocarbon biomass – mainly protein and carbohydrates. Microbial energy-conversion processes are able to convert the non-hydrocarbon biomass to energy forms widely and easily useful by human society: hydrogen, electricity, or methane. We are focusing our research on microbial or biomimetic systems to generate hydrogen and electricity from a variety of biomass sources, including cyanobacterial biomass; the initial approaches leverage ASU’s expertise in methanogenesis an approach that has been studied for decades and used practically for over 100 years. Not only will this research allow us to capture energy value from our cyanobacterial biomass, but it will lay the science and technology foundations for microbial conversion of the energy value in all kinds of biomass, including human and animal wastes, agricultural crops and residues, and ethanol.