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Microbes Make Methane from Waste Wind Power
By Brian Belli, Contributor
August 23, 2012 | Post Your Comment
Microbes Make Methane from Waste Wind Power | Renewable Energy News Article
By Brian Belli, Contributor
August 23, 2012 | Post Your Comment
Microbes Make Methane from Waste Wind Power | Renewable Energy News Article
We've long depended on coal-fired and natural gas power plants to convert chemical fuel into electricity. Now, scientists have found a way to convert electricity into a fuel using excess power from renewables like wind and solar.
Scientists from Stanford and Pennsylvania State universities have discovered a process to convert electricity into methane the main constituent of natural gas using microbes. The fuel is carbon neutral and can use the excess electricity from renewable sources.
In a sense, its the Holy Grail, says Alfred Spormann, a professor of chemical, civil and environmental engineering at Stanford who is leading this research. There is a microbiological way to convert electrical energy into chemical fuel. And methane is the most simple fuel that exists and where we have a fairly good infrastructure.
While methane holds potential as a fuel source, it is also a potent greenhouse gas. It is released en masse from landfills, factory farms and natural gas spills and has more than 20 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide. But this microbial methane is different, Spormann says.
The carbon for the methane comes from atmospheric CO2. So the methane that is produced by the microbial electrosynthesis is essentially carbon neutral and so will all other commodity chemicals that can be produced that way, he says.
The electricity comes from clean energy like wind and solar and the process utilizes electricity that would otherwise be lost. With outdated transmission systems, wind farms and solar photovoltaic power plants often produce more electricity than can be used or stored. In the Pacific Northwest, wind farms were taken offlinethis past spring because of an increase in hydroelectric power from dams due to springtime snow melt and an outdated grid that couldnt distribute the additional power.
This microbial technology could turn that excess electricity into useable fuel.