Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells
Increasing carbon emissions have accelerated climate change, resulting in devastating effects that are now tangible on an everyday basis. This is mirrored by a projected increase in global energy demand of approximately 50% within a single generation, urging a shift from fossil-fuel-derived material...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173380 |
| _version_ | 1824456003386605568 |
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| author | Soon, Wei Long Peydayesh, Mohammad de Wild, Tym Donat, Felix Saran, Rinku Müller, Christoph R. Gubler, Lorenz Mezzenga, Raffaele Miserez, Ali |
| author2 | School of Materials Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Materials Science and Engineering Soon, Wei Long Peydayesh, Mohammad de Wild, Tym Donat, Felix Saran, Rinku Müller, Christoph R. Gubler, Lorenz Mezzenga, Raffaele Miserez, Ali |
| author_sort | Soon, Wei Long |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Increasing carbon emissions have accelerated climate change, resulting in devastating effects that are now tangible on an everyday basis. This is mirrored by a projected increase in global energy demand of approximately 50% within a single generation, urging a shift from fossil-fuel-derived materials toward greener materials and more sustainable manufacturing processes. Biobased industrial byproducts, such as side streams from the food industry, are attractive alternatives with strong potential for valorization due to their large volume, low cost, renewability, biodegradability, and intrinsic material properties. Here, we demonstrate the reutilization of industrial chicken feather waste into proton-conductive membranes for fuel cells, protonic transistors, and water-splitting devices. Keratin was isolated from chicken feathers via a fast and economical process, converted into amyloid fibrils through heat treatment, and further processed into membranes with an imparted proton conductivity of 6.3 mS cm-1 using a simple oxidative method. The functionality of the membranes is demonstrated by assembling them into a hydrogen fuel cell capable of generating 25 mW cm-2 of power density to operate various types of devices using hydrogen and air as fuel. Additionally, these membranes were used to generate hydrogen through water splitting and in protonic field-effect transistors as thin-film modulators of protonic conductivity via the electrostatic gating effect. We believe that by converting industrial waste into renewable energy materials at low cost and high scalability, our green manufacturing process can contribute to a fully circular economy with a neutral carbon footprint. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:47:11Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/173380 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:47:11Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1733802024-01-30T07:48:05Z Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells Soon, Wei Long Peydayesh, Mohammad de Wild, Tym Donat, Felix Saran, Rinku Müller, Christoph R. Gubler, Lorenz Mezzenga, Raffaele Miserez, Ali School of Materials Science and Engineering School of Biological Sciences Center for Sustainable Materials (SusMat) Engineering::Materials Amyloid Fibrils Biomaterials Increasing carbon emissions have accelerated climate change, resulting in devastating effects that are now tangible on an everyday basis. This is mirrored by a projected increase in global energy demand of approximately 50% within a single generation, urging a shift from fossil-fuel-derived materials toward greener materials and more sustainable manufacturing processes. Biobased industrial byproducts, such as side streams from the food industry, are attractive alternatives with strong potential for valorization due to their large volume, low cost, renewability, biodegradability, and intrinsic material properties. Here, we demonstrate the reutilization of industrial chicken feather waste into proton-conductive membranes for fuel cells, protonic transistors, and water-splitting devices. Keratin was isolated from chicken feathers via a fast and economical process, converted into amyloid fibrils through heat treatment, and further processed into membranes with an imparted proton conductivity of 6.3 mS cm-1 using a simple oxidative method. The functionality of the membranes is demonstrated by assembling them into a hydrogen fuel cell capable of generating 25 mW cm-2 of power density to operate various types of devices using hydrogen and air as fuel. Additionally, these membranes were used to generate hydrogen through water splitting and in protonic field-effect transistors as thin-film modulators of protonic conductivity via the electrostatic gating effect. We believe that by converting industrial waste into renewable energy materials at low cost and high scalability, our green manufacturing process can contribute to a fully circular economy with a neutral carbon footprint. Nanyang Technological University This research was supported by the strategic initiative on biomimetic and sustainable materials (IBSM), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. W.L.S. thanks NTU Singapore for the Nanyang President Graduate Scholarship (NPGS). 2024-01-30T07:48:05Z 2024-01-30T07:48:05Z 2023 Journal Article Soon, W. L., Peydayesh, M., de Wild, T., Donat, F., Saran, R., Müller, C. R., Gubler, L., Mezzenga, R. & Miserez, A. (2023). Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 15(40), 47049-47057. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c10218 1944-8244 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173380 10.1021/acsami.3c10218 37751482 2-s2.0-85173618954 40 15 47049 47057 en ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces © 2023 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Materials Amyloid Fibrils Biomaterials Soon, Wei Long Peydayesh, Mohammad de Wild, Tym Donat, Felix Saran, Rinku Müller, Christoph R. Gubler, Lorenz Mezzenga, Raffaele Miserez, Ali Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells |
| title | Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells |
| title_full | Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells |
| title_fullStr | Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells |
| title_full_unstemmed | Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells |
| title_short | Renewable energy from livestock waste valorization: amyloid-based feather keratin fuel cells |
| title_sort | renewable energy from livestock waste valorization amyloid based feather keratin fuel cells |
| topic | Engineering::Materials Amyloid Fibrils Biomaterials |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173380 |
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