Two Innovations at Lund University to Decrease Pollution

Published on 28 February 2023 at 16:01

Sweden's Riksdag resolved in 2017 with a sizable political majority to approve a climate act and a framework for climate policy. The implementation of the Paris Agreement in Sweden is outlined in this framework, which represents the most significant climate reform in Sweden's history. Sweden must have no net emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by the year 2045. Lund University in Sweden is one of the best universities in the world and is playing a vital role in saving the earth from the dark consequences of climate change. I want to mention two successful projects completed at Lund University to decrease pollution. 

There have been some surprisingly amazing choices discovered as a result of interest in renewable energy production. One illustration is the production of energy by microorganisms. Researchers have been examining ways to efficiently harness the electrical current that bacteria make as a result of their metabolism for some time in order to produce electricity or carry out bioremediation, a process that uses live organisms to remove contaminants from water or soil. However, the bacterium has a thick cell wall that is challenging to penetrate, and previous investigations have found that the transfer of the electrical current to a receiving electrode (a conductor via which energy enters or leaves an item) has proven ineffective. Researchers at Lund University have developed a synthetic chemical known as a redox polymer that can penetrate bacterial cell walls. Extracellular electron transfer, a technique used by this redox polymer, successfully draws energy from the bacteria by obtaining electrons from the cell wall. Future improvements in bacterial electrical energy production may benefit from the study's findings.

Another innovation is to convert carbon dioxide into fuel by using advanced materials and ultra-fast laser spectroscopy. The amount of sunlight that reaches Earth in a single hour is about equivalent to all the energy used by humans in a calendar year. We are producing more carbon dioxide globally as well. The materials that are combined in the study absorb sunlight and transform carbon dioxide using its energy. They have precisely traced what occurs in that process with the use of ultra-fast laser spectroscopy, according to Tönu Pullerits, a chemical researcher at Lund University. The covalent organic framework (COF) is a porous organic substance that the researchers have researched. The substance is renowned for effectively absorbing sunlight. They were able to transform carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide without using any more energy by adding a so-called catalytic complex to COF.

It takes two electrons to change carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide. According to Kaibo Zheng, a chemical researcher at Lund University, "When we found that photons with blue light produce long-lived electrons with high energy levels, we could simply charge COF with electrons and complete a reaction." The discovery, according to Tönu Pullerits and Kaibo Zheng, might be utilized to build bigger systems that could be used globally to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transform it into fuel or chemicals. That might be one of several options for resolving the current climate catastrophe.

 

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