Could Agave (the plant that’s used to make Tequila) be the key to energy independence? And what about wastewater as a source of electricity?
In a recent round-up of some of the most compelling advances made in the field of chemistry in the past year (See: Cutting Edge Chemistry in 2011), one particular area of research caught my attention. As it turns out, there is evidence to suggest that nature – and in particular, the leaf (artificial or otherwise), may have a great deal to teach us about how to effectively harness energy from water.
In fact, there are a number of approaches that chemists are presently exploring as a means of generating power from alternative energy sources, as noted in the article:
- At the Spring ACS meeting in Anaheim, US, Dan Nocera from the Massachusetts Institute of
- Nocera's leaf can apparently work with human waste water, but what about other approaches? A team led by Ioannis Ieropoulos and John Greenman at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK have developed microbial fuel cells that use bacteria to break down urine and produce electricity.
- The agave plant is well known as the plant that makes tequila, but David King's team at the University of Oxford's Low Carbon Mobility Centre, UK, has shown that it can also be used as a feedstock to make bioethanol23. Crucially, unlike other feedstock plants agave thrives in arid conditions and would not need arable farmland to be given over to its production.
What’s worth noting here, I think, is that as far-fetched as some of these ideas may seem, it is just such innovation that the alternative energy sector (and their colleagues among forward-thinking manufacturers) requires to produce a significant shift away from dependence on sources of energy that require the use of fossil fuels. And while many may still debate the value of exploring such alternative forms of energy, one very clear danger of not exploring safer, less environmentally-toxic, alternative energy options is the potential threat that a fossil-fuel driven lifestyle poses not only to our economic security, but to our environment and, ultimately, to our health.
Indeed, the link between cancer in humans and our growing level of exposure to environmental toxins, is becoming increasingly evident. One of the biggest culprits, according to ecologist and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, PhD (author of Living Downstream and Raising Elijah), is the release of toxic chemicals from the extraction and use of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Most recently, Steingraber and her peers have been focused on raising awareness about the potentially tragic consequences of employing fracking techniques to extract natural gas, a practice which has proven especially dangerous and all too common in recent years.
Translated? Green energy may not only help us to save the environment – it could well prove to save lives.
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