Fabrication and Characterization of Environmentally Friendly Biochar Anode

Electrical power generation by means of electrochemical systems utilizing wastewaters is a global energy challenge tackling technique for which a creation of novel eco-friendly electrode materials is in high relevance. For this purpose a Rhodophyta algae derived activated biochar anode bound with a flaxseeds mucilage binder (5, 10, 20, 30 wt.%) was formed and characterized by thermogravimetric, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis as well as conductivity and mechanical resistance determination. Activation technique with KOH prior to carbonization at 800 °C of algae was employed to obtain biocarbon with a large surface area. The highest specific surface area of 1298.49 m2/g was obtained with the binder-free sample and had a tendency to decrease with the increase of the binder content. It was estimated that biochar anodes are thermally stable at the temperature of up to 200 °C regardless of binder concentration. The concentration of the binder on the other hand had a significant influence in anodes mechanical resistance and electrical conductance: anode with 30 wt.% of the binder had the highest compressive strength equal to 104 bar; however, the highest conductivity was estimated in anode with 5 wt.% of the binder equal to 58 S/m. It is concluded that anode with 10 wt.% mucilage binder has the optimal properties necessary in MFC utilization.

Hydrogen as a Clean Energy Source

Sustainable development of the world is mainly dependent on the use of present energy resources, which primarily includes water, wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear power. Hydrogen as a clean and green energy source can be the resolution of the energy challenge and may satisfy the demands of several upcoming generations. Hydrogen when used it does not produce any type of pollutant and this makes it a best candidate as a clean energy. Hydrogen energy can be generated from natural gas, oil, biomass, and fossil fuels using thermochemical, photocatalytic, microbiological and electrolysis processes. Large scale hydrogen production is also testified up to some extent with proper engineering for multi applications. Alas, storage and transportation of hydrogen are the main challenge amongst scientific community. Photocatalytic hydrogen production with good efficiencies and amount is well discussed. Till date, using a variety of metal oxide-sulfide, carbon-based materials, metal organic frameworks are utilized by doping or with their composites for enhance the hydrogen production. Main intents of this chapter are to introduce all the possible areas of hydrogen applications and main difficulties of hydrogen transportation, storage and achievements in the hydrogen generation with its applications.

Campus City Project: Challenge Living Lab for Smart Cities

This work presents the Campus City initiative followed by the Challenge Living Lab platform to promote research, innovation, and entrepreneurship with the intention to create urban infrastructure and creative talent (human resources) that solves different community, industrial and government Pain Points within a Smart City ecosystem. The main contribution of this work is to present a working model and the open innovation ecosystem used in Tecnologico de Monterrey that could be used as both, a learning mechanism as well as a base model for scaling it up into a Smart Campus and Smart City. Moreover, this work presents the Smart Energy challenge as an example of a pedagogic opportunity for the development of competencies. This included the pedagogic design of the challenge, the methodology followed by the students and the results. Finally, a discussion on the findings and learnings of the model and challenge implementation. Results showed that Campus City initiative and the Challenge Living Lab allows the identification of highly relevant and meaningful challenges while providing a pedagogic framework in which students are highly motivated, engaged, and prepared to tackle different problems that involve government, community, industry, and academia.

The contribution of psychological and biological energy to increasing the quality of sports training factor indices

The personality of the athlete is capitalized by the totality of his psychic, physical and functional qualities and functions as a biopsychosocial model of the set of internal and external factors, which has a meaning of adaptation to sports training efforts, in the integrity of its dynamic-energetic aspects, at the physical-material level, emotional, mental, energetic, transcendental and spiritual. Sports training is based to a large extent on the quality of the indices of physical training factors, technical, functional, psychological, etc. Based on the control of the body's reaction to effort, new models of sports training are planned. The theory and practice of sports training also needs to supplement the knowledge of notions, ideas, information of the contribution of psychic energy and biological energy to streamlining the quality of bio-psycho-electromagnetic parameters of the athlete to create a model of athlete with higher energy potential. The model of a performance athlete consists of specific cellular models with integrative electrical characteristics. In bioenergy, the term "integration" is used to describe the magnetic movement in the body from the head (psychic energy), the trunk to the lower limbs (biological energy), and vice versa without blocking, forming a bio-psycho-electromagnetic circuit. Psychic energy is a state of consciousness, of energy challenge, including alpha waves in the posterior brain. Stimulates energy centers for overcoming the mental state, consciousness, cultivating emotional intelligence, energy ability, etc. Biological energy stimulates the meridians of the internal organs, the energetic harmony of the neuromuscular system of the arms and lower limbs. Based on special research, the structure of the interaction of human energy was developed, forming an algorithm of harmony between the groups of psychic energy and biological energy. There were 5 (five) levels of electromagnetic energy potential: high, medium high, medium, minimum and very low with variations in the value of the electric field component from - 0.116 to 2.998 quanta depending on time.

Dysbindin-1 regulates mitochondrial fission and gamma oscillations

Mitochondria are cellular ATP generators. They are dynamic structures undergoing fission and fusion. While much is known about the mitochondrial fission machinery, the mechanism of initiating fission and the significance of fission to neurophysiology are largely unclear. Gamma oscillations are synchronized neural activities that impose a great energy challenge to synapses. The cellular mechanism of fueling gamma oscillations has yet to be defined. Here, we show that dysbindin-1, a protein decreased in the brain of individuals with schizophrenia, is required for neural activity-induced fission by promoting Drp1 oligomerization. This process is engaged by gamma-frequency activities and in turn, supports gamma oscillations. Gamma oscillations and novel object recognition are impaired in dysbindin-1 null mice. These defects can be ameliorated by increasing mitochondrial fission. These findings identify a molecular mechanism for activity-induced mitochondrial fission, a role of mitochondrial fission in gamma oscillations, and mitochondrial fission as a potential target for improving cognitive functions.

THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE IN TETRADESMUS OBLIQUUS

The ever growing demand of energy generation and distribution has been one of the concerns of governments and the focus of research institutions. Likewise, how to supply the energy demands necessary for the development of nations having the lowest environmental impact possible has also been studied. Biofuels have been pointed out as an alternative for that energy challenge, since their use reduce the carbon footprint of industries and vehicles. Biofuels can be obtained from microalgae with the advantage of not competing for space with corn, sugar cane or other crops for food industry. Even though attractive, the biofuel production from microalgae presents some challenges, as for example the separation process required to obtain microalgae biomass. The culture is very diluted and the dewatering must be efficient, low cost and cause no damage to the cell. With the intent to address this issue, the herein paper presents a study of an alternative way to increase flocculation efficiency according to the temperature of the culture with the potential to improve the filtration efficiency in a continuous process. An increasing in the flocculation temperature from 20°C to 60°C increased the flocculation efficiency from 97.79% to 98.64%, using ferric chloride as a flocculant agent.

An Overview of EGS Development and Management Suggestions

The world is facing the energy challenge to over-reliance to fossil-fuels, the development of renewable energy is inevitable. From a clean and economic view, enhanced geothermal system (EGS) provides an effective mean to utilize geothermal energy to generate. Different form the conventionalhydro geothermal, the host rock of EGS is Hot Dry Rock (HDR), which buries deeper with high temperature (more than 180°C). The generationof EGS is promising. The development of EGS can be combined with the tech Power to geothermal energy. Exceed power is supposed to drive fluid working in HDR layer to obtain geothermal energy for generation. The whole article can be divided into three parts. In the first art, evaluation indexes of EGS as well as pilot EGs Projects (e.g. Fenton Hill and Basel) and exiting EGS project (e.g. Paralana and Newberry) are summarized, which points a general impression on EGS site. The dominate indexes are heat flow, geothermal gradient and thermal storage. The second part is focused on the simulation methods and working fluids selection of EGS. A detailed comparison of the main simulation software (e.g. TOUGH2 and FEHM) is carried out. With the respect of working fluid selection, the comparison between water and CO2 is researched and CO2 is a preferred option for EGS development for less fluid loss and less dissolution to HDR. The art of CO2-EGS is introduced clearly in this part. The third part is about the addition consideration of EGS plant operation, it excludes auxiliary plant support and HSE management.