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Tobacco and Renewable Energy
The researchers note that tobacco is a renewable source
for next-generation battery components,
and it is emerging as a
renewable source for fuel, too. It is highly efficient at producing oil
and
sugar, and scientists have found that tobacco can be genetically
modified to yield twenty times more oil, making it a good candidate for
a non-food biofuel crop. A researcher at the University of Central
Florida has also developed a tobacco-derived enzyme that can help break
down woody nonf00d biomass such as oil peels and newspaper to make
biofuel.
Image: Tobacco flower by taberandrew on flickr.com.
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Tobacco
has brought wealth, pleasure, poverty, pain and misery to millions, but
now its chaotic role in American life seems on the verge of morphing
into something that is far more consistently beneficial. Researchers at
the University of Maryland have found that tobacco
hosts a virus that could be used to engineer high efficiency energy
storage devices.
From Tobacco Virus to
Energy Storage
The virus, aptly named Tobacco Mosaic Virus, has a
spaghetti-like form that the researchers coaxed into perpendicular
arrangements on the surface of battery electrodes. The roads are then
coated with conductive material, which results in a greatly increased
surface area on the electrode. That in turn enhances the battery’s
ability to charge and discharge quickly, with an energy capacity about
ten times greater than a conventional lithium-ion battery. As an green
added bonus, the virus binds itself to the metal surface without the
need for any other operation, which makes the entire process less
energy-dependent and less expensive than conventional manufacturing.
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