Nanotech and Biotech Consulting

According to Andreas Mershin, a research scientist in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Bits and Atoms, United States, people living in remote villages in the developing world may soon be able to make their own solar panels, inexpensively, using worthless agricultural waste as their raw material. Mershin has extended upon a project begun by Shuguang Zhang, a principal research scientist at MIT, who was able to enlist a complex of molecules known as photosystem-1 (PS-1) – the tiny structures within plant cells that carry out photosynthesis – to produce an electric current when exposed to light. The initial system had some drawbacks and very low efficiency, but Mershin says the process has now been simplified to the point that virtually any lab could replicate it, and the new efficiency is 10,000 times greater than in previous versions. Still, it only converts 0.1 percent of sunlight’s energy into electricity, so an improvement of another tenfold is needed in order for the system to become useful. The huge improvement in efficiency resulted from Mershin’s creation of an “electric nanoforest” comprised of zinc oxide nanowires and titanium dioxide nanostructure coated with a light-collecting material derived from bacteria. The new device exposes much more of the PS-1 complex per surface area of the device to the sun. Mershin says that for the raw material, “You can use anything green, even grass clippings,” and no special laboratory conditions would be needed. “It can be very dirty and it still works, because of the way nature has designed it. Nature works in dirty environments — it’s the result of billions of experiments over billions of years,” he said. Eventually, Mershin said, within a few years a villager in a remote, off-grid location could “take that bag, mix it with anything green and paint it on the roof” and begin producing power adequate to charge cell phones or lanterns. It will be, he hopes, a “way of getting low-tech electricity to people who have never been thought of as consumers or producers of solar-power technology.” Mershin’s work appears in the journal Scientific Reports.

The African Network for Solar Energy (ANSOLE), launched officially a year ago, has an ambitious dream of harnessing the abundant sunshine in an energy-deprived continent. But solar energy researchers in Africa face many challenges: loss of talent due to brain drain; lack of funding; little connection between like-minded scientists; and, few opportunities to entice scientists into the solar energy field. ANSOLE’s mission is to strengthen the links between solar researchers not just within Africa but also between African countries and the rest of the world. Getachew Adam, a PhD student at the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and ANSOLE member, said, "We want the coming generation not to worry about where to study, who to work with. We want to make African scientists come together [to solve the] African energy problem." Daniel Egbe, a Cameroonian scientist who serves as the coordinator of ANSOLE, says, "Our approach is to build capacity, especially when it comes to research. Through our network many African researchers, especially physicists and chemists, are now directing their research in solar and renewable energy." Connecting researchers is critical, and ANSOLE provides a mix of online and real-world networking. ANSOLE will hold a meeting this February in Cameroon that will bring African researchers and international collaborators face to face. "To expect Africans to compete internationally in the already very advanced area of silicon-based photovoltaics is not realistic," says Egbe. "But members of ANSOLE are saying that we can do internationally competitive research in organic and hybrid organic–silicon photovoltaics…With a little bit of money you can build your research labs and carry out your research. On this level we can compete with Europeans and Americans. When it comes to silicon-based research, you need a lot of money and a clean room, which costs a lot." Another field, says Egbe, where African researchers can push science forward is solar thermal energy. ANSOLE also organized a webinar through nanotechnology project ICPC Nanonet as part of its online networking efforts. The long-term vision for the network is to create an African research center for renewable energy. A lack of funding is the limiting factor to the network’s ambition. "Our plans need funding," says Egbe. "I hope that the UN can support such endeavours, since the UN has declared 2012 the year of renewable energies, and renewable energies are important for the protection of our environment."

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