Recently, researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have successfully developed a new type of fuel cell using lignin from trees as a raw material. Unlike batteries that use small molecules such as methanol and ethanol as fuel, this process does not produce carbon dioxide. Not only is the raw material green and environmentally friendly, but the product achieves zero carbon emissions.

　　Recently, researchers from Linköping University in Sweden have successfully developed a new type of fuel cell using lignin from trees as a raw material. Unlike batteries that use small molecules such as methanol and ethanol as fuel, this process does not produce carbon dioxide. Not only is the raw material green and environmentally friendly, but the product achieves zero carbon emissions.

　　Lignin (lignin) is an important structural material for plants and algae. It is commonly found in bark or wood. It is one of the by-products of paper mills. The Organic Electronics Laboratory of Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden uses this material to develop fuel cells. Create low-cost environmentally friendly green fuel technology.

　　Most of today's fuel cells are based on supplementary hydrogen, but 96% of the hydrogen on the earth comes from fossil fuels, and the production process has not reached 100% carbon-free energy. Ethanol-based and methanol-based fuel cells also produce carbon dioxide, and their electrodes are made of expensive and rare platinum.

　　Lignin is a common biopolymer. About 25% of trees are lignin, which is used to make cellulose fibers tightly aggregated to make wood stronger. In the chemical manufacturing of pulp, cellulose is an ideal material for paper, in order to separate the two , Lignin will dissolve in the sulphate or sulphite production process, which is one of the by-products of paper mills, so lignin is a cheaper and easily available material.

　　Lignin is composed of a large number of hydrocarbon chains, which will be decomposed into benzenediols in industrial manufacturing, of which catechol, a variant of benzenediol, accounts for 7% of lignin. Professor Xavier Crispin, a researcher on organic energy materials at LiU, found that this molecule is an excellent fuel for batteries.

　　However, hydroquinone is an aromatic molecule (aromatic molecules), it is not suitable to use metal as a hydroquinone fuel cell electrode, otherwise the reaction will be too complicated. Therefore, the researchers switched to the common conductive polymer PEDOT: PSS as the electrode, which can be used as both an electrode and a proton conductor at the same time. Crispin said that PEDOT:PSS is an ideal catalyst for the reaction of catechol and other hydroquinones. Fuel can also be converted into electricity, not to mention the formation of carbon dioxide.

　　Crispin pointed out that when people use ethanol and other fuels, they usually claim that it has little impact on the climate and the environment, because carbon dioxide is part of the cycle and the carbon dioxide can be used to reproduce ethanol. However, the team has now developed a technology that can produce electricity without emitting any carbon dioxide, which can be said to be cheap and environmentally friendly.

　　Research also pointed out that the electricity generated by the new fuel cell is the same as that of methanol-based and ethanol-based fuel cells. Crispin said that catechol has been effectively produced from lignin, but the team still needs to improve and optimize battery performance in the future. The research has been published in "AdvancedSustainableSystems".