Category: Biochar

Posted on

ISTC Supercapacitor Research Gets Most Online Buzz

“Highly ordered macroporous woody biochar with ultra-high carbon content as supercapacitor electrodes” by ISTC researchers Junhua Jiang, Lei Zhang, Xinying Wang, Nancy Holm, Kishore Rajagopalan, and colleagues at the University of South Carolina had the highest altmetric scores from altmetric.com for the Electrochimica Acta for the past six months. This is particularly noteworthy since the articles was published online in November.

 

The article by lead author, Senior Researcher Jiang, received an altmetric score of 43 for the period. The next most popular article received a score of eight.

 

The Illinois Hazardous Waste Research Fund and the HeteroFoaM Center (an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Research) supported this study.

 

For more on biochar supercapacitors, visit http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/article_5d819c9c-45b8-11e3-8549-001a4bcf6878.html

 

 

Posted on

Wood Biochar Offers Promise of Cheap Supercapacitors

ISTC is investigating wood-biochar’s use as a supercapacitor. The material offers equal power capabilities as activated carbon, but is much less expensive.

 

A team led by Senior Engineer Junhua Jiang published results in the journal Electrocimica Acta, demonstrating the natural microstructures of biochars can be provide effective surface area for electrodes. Currently supercapactitors are often manufactured with corrosive chemicals that create elaborate structures of out of activated carbon.

 

Such procedures are far more expensive and can have environmental consequences.
Supercapacitors are super because they have far greater surface area electrodes than regular capacitors, allowing the rapid collection and release of ions. Cousins of electrochemical batteries, supercapacitors do not yet store as much energy, but they can release energy very quickly, recharge quickly and have high cycling stability. In other words, supercapacitors permit much faster discharge and recharge cycles than a battery is capable of, as well as tolerance of a larger number of discharge/charge cycles.

 

The Illinois Hazardous Waste Research Fund and the HeteroFoaM Center (an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Research) supported this study.

 

For more on biochar supercapacitors, visit http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/article_5d819c9c-45b8-11e3-8549-001a4bcf6878.html

Posted on

2013 Naturally Illinois Expo

 


The Prairie Research Institute presents the fifth annual Naturally Illinois Expo on March 8-9, 2013, on the University of Illinois Urbana campus. Families, teachers, and students of all ages are invited to attend and enjoy exhibits, demonstrations and hands-on activities that showcase the work of the Institute, home of the State Scientific Surveys (Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, and Illinois Sustainable Technology Center).  Continue reading “2013 Naturally Illinois Expo”

Posted on

Illinois Biochar Group Meeting – Fall 2012

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) is getting ready to host its fall Illinois Biochar Group meeting.  Meetings are held three times a year and are usually located at ISTC.  The Illinois Biochar Group encourages research in the production and use of biochar including the project topics: soil amendments, site remediation, carbon sequestration, and supercapacitors. Continue reading “Illinois Biochar Group Meeting – Fall 2012”