Topsoe, a Danish research company in cooperation with Technical University of Denmark, Department of Chemistry, has developed process to convert carbohydrates from biomass to lactic acid using a catalyst. Lactic acid is used for the production of bio-degradable plastics.

Previously, biomass has been converted to lactic acid using fermentation. The use of catalysts for fermentation is being done for first time. As the process may now take place using an inorganic catalyst, it will be possible to produce lactic acid using new and more cost-efficient processes.

The process developed by researchers at Topsoe and DTU Chemistry, mirrors the process seen in biological systems. Esben Taarning one of researcher behind the discovery said, "You may say the catalyst acts in the same way as bacteria do in the natural fermentation process."

Claus Hviid Christensen, Vice President at Topsøe says: “In the future, biomass will be the primary building block for the chemical industry. The production of chemicals will create greater value than what is possible today - and at the same time reduce CO2 emissions. So we are already well on the way towards the technology of the future.”

Wind turbines typically operate about 30 percent of the time as a result of intermittent or slow winds.

Now ‘Hybrid Turbine, a start-up US company has worked on a new hybrid wind turbine system that uses a gas generator as backup for unreliable wind energy. It could solve one of the biggest challenges faced by wind farms.

The company’s SmartGen system, which was launched on first June, tackles the issue of intermittent wind by burning biogas or natural gas to spin wind turbine generators even when the wind is not blowing. The gas-powered system uses a ground-based turbo-compressor to compress air that then drives a turbo air motor directly connected to the generator.

The company is targetting both the onshore and offshore market. However, the design can currently only scale up to support 4MW turbines, meaning that it would not be suitable for many of the 5MW turbines expected to come on the market in the next decade.

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have shown that a tiny, nearly invisible nanowire can convert the energy of pulsing, flexing muscles inside a rat’s body into electric current. Such nano generator could some day lead to medical implants and sensors powered by heartbeats or breathing.

Zhong Lin Wang Professor and his group demonstrated this phenomenon in 2005. Since then they have made devices that can harness the energy of a running hamster and tapping fingers, and have also combined their piezoelectric nanowires with solar cells.

In their latest work, Wang’s team has shown that the nanogenerator works inside a live animal. The researchers deposited a zinc oxide nanowire on a flexible polymer substrate and encapsulated the device in a polymer casing to shield it from body fluids. It was then attached to a rat’s diaphragm. The rodent’s breathing stretched the nanowire, and the device generated four picoamperes of current at two millivolts. When attached to a rat’s heart, the device gave 30 picoamperes at three millivolts.

Zinc oxide nanogenerators would be an ideal power source for nano-scale sensors that monitor blood pressure or glucose levels and detect cancer biomarkers. These can run on low power levels of about one microwatt, but they need a long-lasting nano-sized power source instead of a battery to be truly nano-scale. “Our ultimate goal is to make self-powered nano devices for medical applications,” says Wang.

Researchers are working with integrated nanowires and also trying other substitute materials like PZT, a compound of lead, zirconium, and titanium, to get higher power.