Date: 2024-10-19 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00017538
Materials
Algae Into a Material as Hard as Steel
Researchers Turn Algae Into a Material as Hard as Steel. Thomas Brück of the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and his team developed a process that uses algae oil to create carbon fibers.
Peter Burgess
Algae in a pond may look flimsy. But scientists are using algae to develop industrial-strength material that's as hard as steel but only a fraction of the weight.
Thomas Brück of the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and his team developed a process that uses algae oil to create carbon fibers. They're strong, lightweight materials that can be used in cars, airplanes and buildings.
Making these carbon fibers uses far less energy and produces far less carbon pollution than making concrete or steel. But that's not its only climate benefit.
Algae absorb CO2 as they grow, so when algae oil is used as a raw material for carbon fibers, the CO2 gets locked inside.
Years later, when those carbon fibers need to be disposed of, they can be ground up and permanently stored underground.
'So you have this very new advanced material where you can actually store atmospheric carbon indefinitely,' Brück says.
He says scaling up will require big investments in algae cultivation. But once that's in place, this new technology could create strong industrial materials that also benefit the climate.
Reposted with permission from our media associate Yale Climate Connections. Additional reporting provided by Sarah Kennedy, ChavoBart Digital Media.
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Lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel: innovative materials with carbon fibres made from algae 01.07.2019 In combination with granite or other types of hard rock, carbon fibres make possible all-new construction and building materials. Theoretical calculations show: If the carbon fibres are produced from algae oil, production of the innovative materials extracts more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the process sets free. A research project spearheaded by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is to further advance these technologies. The most recent global climate report (IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C) considers manufacturing processes which use more carbon dioxide (CO2) than they release to be an important option to get climate change under control. e-scooter step made of a composite material integrating granite and carbon fibers made from algae. Image: Andreas Battenberg / TUM Pariya Shaigani, PhD candidate at the Werner Siemens Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology, on an e-scooter with a step made from a composite material integrating granite and carbon fibers from algae. Image: Andreas Battenberg / TUM The objective of the project started today under the title “Green Carbon” is to develop manufacturing processes for polymers and carbon-based light-weight construction materials based on algae which may be utilised in the aviation and automotive industry, for example. The development of the various processes is accompanied by technological, economical and sustainability analyses. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) has dedicated funds amounting to around 6.5 million Euro to fund the research at TU Munich. ... more about: »CO2 »Carbon »Chemistry Research »automotive industry »carbon dioxide »composite materials »construction materials »fatty acids »free fatty acids »greenhouse gas CO2 »innovative materials »manufacturing processes Microalgae bind carbon dioxide Due to their fast growth, microalgae like those cultivated in the globally unrivalled technical algae centre at TUM’s Ludwig Bölkow Campus south of Munich can actively store the greenhouse gas CO2 in form of biomass. CO2 is mainly bound in sugars and algae oil. These can be used in chemical and biotechnological processes to produce precursors for a variety of industrial processes. For example, oil-forming yeasts produce yeast oil from the algae sugars, which is a feedstock for sustainable plastics. Furthermore, enzymes can split the yeast oil into glycerine and free fatty acids. The free fatty acids are precursors for products like high-quality additives for lubricants, among others; the glycerine can be turned into carbon fibres. Submit Sustainable production of carbon fibres In the further course of the project, the plastics will be combined with the carbon fibres to produce corresponding composite materials. “The carbon fibres produced from algae are absolutely identical to the fibres currently in use in the industry,” says project lead Thomas Brück, professor for synthetic biotechnology at TU Munich. “Therefore, they can be used for all standard processes in aviation and automotive production.” Furthermore, carbon fibres and hard rock can be used in a process of the industrial partner TechnoCarbon Technologies to produce novel construction materials. Not only do they have a negative CO2 balance, they are also lighter than aluminium and stronger than steel. Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner: Prof. Dr. Thomas Brück Technical University of Munich Werner Siemens-Chair for Synthetic Biotechnology Lichtenbergstr. 4, 85748 Garching, Germany Tel.: +49 89 289 13253 – e-mail: brueck@tum.de Web: http://www.wssb.ch.tum.de Originalpublikation: Carbon Capture and Sustainable Utilization by Algal Polyacrylonitrile Fiber Production: Process Design, Techno-Economic Analysis, and Climate Related Aspects. Uwe Arnold, Thomas Brück, Andreas De Palmenaer und Kolja Kuse, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2018 57 (23), 7922-7933, DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b04828 Energy-Efficient Carbon Fiber Production with Concentrated Solar Power: Process Design and Techno-economic Analysis. Uwe Arnold, Andreas De Palmenaer, Thomas Brück und Kolja Kuse. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2018 57 (23), 7934-7945, DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b04841 Weitere Informationen: https://www.tum.de/nc/en/about-tum/news/press-releases/details/35079/ Earlier press release on algae carbon fibers https://www.tum.de/nc/en/about-tum/news/press-releases/details/32656/ TUM-algae cultivation center https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1507350 High resolution images Dr. Ulrich Marsch | Technische Universität München Further reports about: > CO2 > Carbon > Chemistry Research > automotive industry > carbon dioxide > composite materials > construction materials > fatty acids > free fatty acids > greenhouse gas CO2 > innovative materials > manufacturing processes More articles from Materials Sciences: nachricht Bio-circuitry mimics synapses and neurons in a step toward sensory computing 18.10.2019 | DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory nachricht Chains of atoms move at lightning speed inside metals 17.10.2019 | Linköping University