This review considers the literature published since 1994 on microbial and enzymatic biofuel cells. Types of biofuel cell are classified according to the nature of the electrode reaction and the nature of the biochemical reactions. The performance of fuel cells is critically reviewed and a variety of possible applications is considered. The current direction of development of biofuel cells is c...

Project Goals (Abstracts 97-99): Microbial biofuel (i.e. hydrogen and butanol) production holds great promise as a source of renewable clean energy. A critical step towards more efficient biofuel production is improved understanding of the regulation of biofuel-related metabolism and the development of models that are sufficiently accurate to enable rational control of the network behavior. Wit...

Biofuel cells have been widely used to generate bioelectricity. Early biofuel cells employ a semi-permeable membrane to separate the anodic and cathodic compartments. The impact of different membrane materials and compositions has also been explored. Some membrane materials are employed strictly as membrane separators, while some have gained significant attention in the immobilization of enzyme...

This paper analyses the economics of biofuel production and the implications that the accelerating growth in biofuel production in many countries could have on agricultural markets. It shows that production costs of ethanol and biodiesel differ significantly across countries and feedstock crops. These costs often exceed those of fossil fuels. In consequence, the economics of biofuel production ...

One of the key goals of enzymatic biofuel cells research has been the development of a fully enzymatic biofuel cell that operates under a continuous flow-through regime. Here, we present our work on achieving this task. Two NAD(+)-dependent dehydrogenase enzymes; malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) were independently coupled with poly-methylene green (poly-MG) catalyst fo...

Biofuels are a new priority in efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels; nevertheless, the rapid increase in production of biofuel feedstock may threaten biodiversity. There are general principles that should be used in developing guidelines for certifying biodiversity-friendly biofuels. First, biofuel feedstocks should be grown with environmentally safe and biodiversity-friendly agricultur...

BACKGROUND In light of the rapid decrease in fossils fuel reserves and an increasing demand for energy, novel methods are required to explore alternative biofuel production processes to alleviate these pressures. A wide variety of molecules which can either be used as biofuels or as biofuel precursors are produced using microbial enzymes. However, the common challenges in the industrial impleme...

Present energy situation of the world is unsustainable due to unequal geographical distribution of natural wealth as well as environmental, geopolitical and economical concerns. Ever increasing drift of energy consumption due to growth of population, transportation and luxurious lifestyle has motivated researchers to carry out research on biofuel as a sustainable alternative fuel for diesel eng...

In this study, the opportunity to invest in combined heat and power (CHP) plants and second-generation biofuel production plants in Europe is investigated. To determine the number and type of production plants, a mixed integer linear model is used, based on minimization of the total cost of the whole supply chain. Different policy scenarios are studied with varying values of carbon cost and bio...

Despite a rapid worldwide expansion of the biofuel industry, there is a lack of consensus within the scientific community about the potential of biofuels to reduce reliance on petroleum and decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although life cycle assessment provides a means to quantify these potential benefits and environmental impacts, existing methods limit direct comparison within and be...