Researchers In Switzerland Get Electricity From Wood (electrek.co) 47
fahrbot-bot shares a report from Electrek: Researchers at ETH Zurich and Empa have chemically modified wood and made it more compressible, turning it into a mini-generator. When compressed, it generates an electrical voltage. Such wood could serve as a biosensor or as a building material that harvests energy.
Ingo Burgert and his team at public research university ETH Zurich and Swiss federal laboratory Empa have proven that wood is much more than just a building material. Their research enhances the properties of wood in order to use it for new applications. For instance, they have already developed high-strength, water-repellent, and magnetizable wood. Now, together with the Empa research group led by Francis Schwarze, the team has used one chemical and one biological process to generate electrical voltage from a type of wood sponge. In doing so, they amplify what is known as the "piezoelectric effect" of wood. The findings appear in the journal Science Advances.
Ingo Burgert and his team at public research university ETH Zurich and Swiss federal laboratory Empa have proven that wood is much more than just a building material. Their research enhances the properties of wood in order to use it for new applications. For instance, they have already developed high-strength, water-repellent, and magnetizable wood. Now, together with the Empa research group led by Francis Schwarze, the team has used one chemical and one biological process to generate electrical voltage from a type of wood sponge. In doing so, they amplify what is known as the "piezoelectric effect" of wood. The findings appear in the journal Science Advances.
However (Score:2)
If they just let the trees continue growing, they could adsorb more CO2.
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...and eventually they will become fossil fuels.
Re:However (Score:4, Interesting)
...and eventually they will become fossil fuels.
Apparently not. The conditions for creating coal depend on the lack of certain bacteria which have evolved since the Carboniferous period; we'll never have another major coal-creating period.
If the trees are left to grow they will eventually die and their wood turned into various products. Whether that would lead to a release of CO2 I don't know, but the forest would create a buffer while they grew at least, and a lot of the problems in ecosystems come from the rate of change as much as the underlying changes themselves.
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Apparently not. The conditions for creating coal depend on the lack of certain bacteria which have evolved since the Carboniferous period; we'll never have another major coal-creating period.
Actually, this "fungi and bacteria couldn't eat the wood" theory was refuted by a 2016 study [pnas.org].
The real reason why so much coal was formed during this time is because the world was a lot wetter at the time, with large portions of land covered with shallow lakes and marshes. When wood was submerged in these and started to rot, this created the oxygen-free, acidic environments needed for peat to form. This peat was then subducted and compressed by tectonic activity into coal.
Coal also formed after the Carbonife
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Apparently not. The conditions for creating coal depend on the lack of certain bacteria which have evolved since the Carboniferous period; we'll never have another major coal-creating period.
Actually, this "fungi and bacteria couldn't eat the wood" theory was refuted by a 2016 study [pnas.org].
The real reason why so much coal was formed during this time is because the world was a lot wetter at the time, with large portions of land covered with shallow lakes and marshes. When wood was submerged in these and started to rot, this created the oxygen-free, acidic environments needed for peat to form. This peat was then subducted and compressed by tectonic activity into coal.
Coal also formed after the Carboniferous period btw, but in smaller quantities, because the climate changed significantly since.
OK, I'll look into that. But I can't see peat doing anything in a subduction zone except burning.
Re: However (Score:2)
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But I can't see peat doing anything in a subduction zone except burning.
It can't burn when there is no oxygen to burn it. So it basically pyrolizes, which means it decays into pure carbon (coal) and some volatile gases that escape.
And then what? I've never heard of coal being associated with subduction zones before.
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I've never heard of coal being associated with subduction zones before.
Granted, subduction was not the correct term to use, since that specifically means the sea bed is pushed under a continental plate.
I meant more generally the process where part of a continental plate is folded up on itself, pushing one part downwards, and uplifting the nearby part. For example the Appalachian basin [wikipedia.org]. Basically, tectonic motion is converted into pressure and heat, which converts organic material into coal.
OK. That makes more sense now.
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Fungi did not even exist that time. So: noting refuted. And most certainly not by a single study. However: that one is probably the one with the most references to other research I have ever seen: ~140 other papers referenced.
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The Carboniferous Period lasted from about 359.2 to 299 million years ago during the late Paleozoic Era.
The earliest fungi may have evolved about 600 million years ago or even earlier. Fungi first colonized the land
at least 460 million years ago, around the same time as plants.
Seems like fungi did exist then.
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Yes, but fungi that "eat" wood aka lignin evolved later.
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You can't build with CO2, unfortunately, and since we need buildings, we might as well get energy out of them...
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Sure you can - you just have to let trees turn it into wood first. Or chemistry turn it into concrete - though current methods of producing cement emit far more CO2 than it will later absorb, so that's kind of a non-starter for CO2 sequestration.
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Nope. Trees absorb CO2 as they are growing. They reach a point where through shedding and decay they start to release the CO2 they sequestered. You need to plant new trees continually to really get the benefit you seek (which is really not a bad thing which we should be doing anyway).
We desperately need to stop digging CO2 out of the ground.
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you mean "absorb", not "adsorb".
https://writingexplained.org/a... [writingexplained.org]
+CRISPR = Electricity generating trees (Score:3)
This + CRISPR=
Electricity generating trees (wind piezo)
Profit
Re: +CRISPR = Electricity generating trees (Score:2)
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Do you want Ents? Because that is how you get Ents.
Meanwhile in kinky parts of Germany... (Score:4, Funny)
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Researchers are getting wood from electricity.
I’ll trade you my sheep for your wood. Anyone got wood for my sheep?
I got that too ! (Score:3)
I just burned the wood in the power plant, and lo and behold, I got electricity !
In fact in UK there is a power plant, Wilton 10, that burns wood chips mostly imported from US/Canada. All those tree branches that get trimmed in city parks make very good firewood.
https://www.power-technology.c... [power-technology.com]
It is biomass, therefore it is "green".
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In fact in UK there is a power plant, Wilton 10, that burns wood chips mostly imported from US/Canada.
Biomass plants are pretty common in the US and Canada, but they don't produce very much power. They do produce a lot of carbon credits though.
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Why on Earth would they produce carbon credits? They're doing the exact opposite of sequestering carbon. Though I suppose in the absence of something rational like a carbon tax, crediting systems that release less carbon makes a weird sort of sense.
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"In fact in UK there is a power plant, Wilton 10, that burns wood chips mostly imported from US/Canada. All those tree branches that get trimmed in city parks make very good firewood."
Biomass reactors do it without even burning it.
Other researchers try to get wood from electricity (Score:3)
An initial study on the effect of functional electrical stimulation in erectile dysfunction: a randomized controlled trial [nature.com]
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Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 60 Hz more so than 50.
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Seriously? I recently saw some such gadget on Aliexpress.
User manual was quite undecipherable though
The chinese guy in the drawings did have a super orgasmic expression.
It seemed that the 2 flexible metallic wires were supposed to be inserted till they reach somewhere near the prostate.
Not joking. I have the screenshot somewhere on my phone.
Unlike Thomas Edison... (Score:1)
I'll get my coat..
What a convoluted way (Score:1)
Hrm, that might be 100,000 footsteps,
Is that the kind of dumbed down summary needed on slashdot? And who walks on balsa wood to begin with?
Potatoes (Score:1)
Even better, you can use a potato as a battery, as has been demonstrated millions of times. That would be much better for the planet than all those lithium ion batteries fouling everything.
poetic (Score:2)