11.6 Summary and Final Tasks

11.6 Summary and Final Tasks

Summary

This last lesson covered topics that are practical, such as anaerobic digestion (it is part of digestion), and also topics that are more research-oriented, such as syngas fermentation and microbial fuel cells. The best application for anaerobic digestion is on farms, as a way to utilize waste from animals. Syngas fermentation could be a lower energy-intensive process that could make gasification/syngas fermentation less expensive than using FT synthesis. And, finally, microbial fuel cells are a unique fuel cell that can take advantage of bacteria to make electricity or clean up wastewater inexpensively.

References

Jian Shi¹, Ruihong Zhang², Wei Liao ³, Conly L. Hansen⁴, Yebo Li^{1, *} 1. Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California-Davis. 3. Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University, 4. Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Utah State University, BEEMS Module B7, Anaerobic Digestion, USDA Higher Education Challenger Program, 2009-38411-19761. Contact: Yebo Li, li.851@osu.edu

Frigon and Guiot, 2010, Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, 4, 447-458.

On-Farm Anaerobic Digester Operator Handbook. M.C. Gould and M.F. Crook. 2010. Modified by D.M. Kirk. January 2010.

Hasan K. Atiyeh, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering,  Oklahoma State University, Syngas Fermentation, BEEMS Module N1, USDA Higher Education Challenger Program, 2009-38411-19761, Contact: Hasan K. Atiyeh, hasan.atiyeh@okstate.edu.

Wilkins and Atiyeh. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2011, 22:326–330.