Sweet energy? Sugarcane juice generates electricity! Technology discovered by researchers uses plants to produce sustainable electricity

Sugarcane juice boosts sustainable generation of electrical energy and could prove to be a great ally for sustainability

Researchers from the Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research (Ipen), linked to USP, discovered an innovative technique: the use of sugar cane juice to generate electrical energy in fuel cells. This method not only prevents the formation of harmful waste, such as vinasse, but can also be expanded to an industrial scale, according to the Engenharia Hoje website.

Fuel cell operation

Almir Oliveira Neto, coordinator of research on sugar cane, explains that The fuel cell operates like a battery, using fuel to generate electrical energy. The cell has two electrodes: the anode (fuel oxidation) and the cathode (oxygen reduction). A membrane between the electrodes acts as an electrolyte, conducting electricity.

In the developed device, the oxidation of sugarcane juice occurs at the anode and the reduction of oxygen at the cathode. A absence of hazardous waste, like vinasse, makes the process environmentally friendly. The electrical energy generated can be directed to the manufacture of products with higher added value, such as gluconic, saccharic, lactic, levulinic and furfural acids, with applications in the food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and polymer industries.

Find out more details about the production of electrical energy by sugar cane

Technology scalability

The prototype showed that it is possible to scale up in the laboratory. To work with larger quantities of sugar cane juice and obtain more electrical energy, it will be necessary to increase the area of ​​the electrodes and develop the technology to a larger scale. Public and private resources will be essential to realize the use of the device on an industrial scale.

The study included researchers Bruno Villardi, Júlio Nadenha, Victória Maia, Priscila Zambiazi and Rodrigo Souza, all from Ipen and the Nuclear Technology and Materials Program at USP. Supervision was by Almir Oliveira Neto, with co-supervision by Rodrigo Souza. The results were published in the Revista Virtual de Química and SugarTech, demonstrating the electrocatalytic performance of different metal compositions for the generation of energy from sugar cane juice.