"Microbubble device” promises to make biofuel production more energy efficient
In the UK, a researcher from the University of Sheffield has won the Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation for the development of a “microbubble device” that promises to make biofuel production more energy efficient. The new method uses a special air-lift loop bioreactor that creates microbubbles using 18% less energy consumption than existing methods. The miniature gas bubbles, which are less than 50 microns diameter in water, can transfer materials in a bioreactor much more rapidly than larger bubbles produced by conventional bubble generation techniques. They also consume much less energy.
The Brian Mercer Award provides funding of up to $390,000 for researchers to develop and already proven concept of prototype into a near-market product which can be commercially exploited.
In related news in Brazil, José Goldemberg was awarded the $100,000 Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize for helping to lay the scientific foundation for Brazil’s biofuels programme and who subsequently became a leading advocate for the adoption of “leapfrog” technologies to promote economic development in the developing world. In Science magazine in 1978, Goldemberg and his colleagues presented compelling scientific evidence showing that biofuels derived from sugarcane could reduce the use of fossil fuels in Brazil while rendering substantially less harm to the environment.
Category: Research
