A consortium of teams from 6 universities aims to achieve major advances in a technology that potentially produces electricity directly from sustainable biological materials and air, in devices known as biological fuel cells. These devices are of two main types: in microbial fuel cells micro-organisms convert organic materials into fuels that can be oxidised in electrochemical cells, and in enzymatic fuel cells electricity is produced as a result of the action of an enzyme (a biological catalyst). Fuels that can be used include (1) pure biochemicals such as glucose, (2) hydrogen gas and (3) organic chemicals present in waste water.The Consortium programme involves a unique combination of microbiology, enzymology, electrochemistry, materials science and computational modelling. Key challenges that the Consortium will face include modelling and understanding the interaction of an electrochemical cell and a population of micro-organisms, attaching and optimising appropriate enzymes, developing and studying synthetic assemblies that contain the active site of a natural enzyme, optimising electrode materials for this application, and designing, building and testing novel biological fuel cells.A Biofuel Cells Industrial Club is to be formed, with industrial partners active in water management, porous materials, microbiology, biological catalysis and fuel cell technology. The programme and its outcomes will be significant steps towards producing electricity from materials and techniques originating in the life sciences. The technology is likely to be perceived as greener than use of solely chemical and engineering approaches, and there is considerable potential for spin off in changed technologies (e.g. cost reductions, reduction in the need for precious metals, biological catalysts for production of hydrogen by electrolysis).

Electrochemistry is widely used in the world around us from batteries of different types both large and small, through the industrial processes used to make chlorine and sodium hydroxide and methods to deposit metals for decorative effects and to make microchips, to the portable devices used several times a day by diabetics to measure their blood glucose. Electrochemical reactions occur at surfaces and one of their great advantages is that the voltage applied to the electrode is used directly to drive the chemical reaction and the current that flows is a direct measure of the speed of the reaction. In many cases the challenge is to design the surface of the electrode to carry out a particular chemical reaction so that we can exploit these advantages. At bare metal, or carbon, surfaces reactions occur by the transfer of electrons one at a time. As a result in many reactions that we would like to carry out unstable intermediates are formed which then undergo further reactions that lead to fouling of the electrode surface and the production of undesirable side products. A way to overcome this problem is to modify the electrode surface by attaching molecules which act as intermediates or mediators in the overall reaction. The reaction at the electrode surface then occurs by first transferring the electrons one at a time to (or from) the mediator attached to the electrode surface. Then, in a second step these mediators react with molecules in solution, thus catalysing the reaction that we wish to carry out at the electrode. The big advantage of this approach is that, in principle, we can select the molecules we choose to attach to the surface of the electrode so that they exchange electrons rapidly with the electrode and react selectively with the molecules in solution - we can design the electrode surface for the reaction we want. The challenge is to find the right molecules and the right way to attach them to the electrode surface. For the last 20 years or so efforts to do this have used inspired guesswork to pick one or two molecules to try and then prepared electrode surfaces with these molecules attached. In this project we will tackle this problem in a much more effective way. We will synthesise hundreds or thousands of related, but each slightly different, molecules on electrode surfaces and then screen these to find the best for the particular reactions we are interested in. To do this we will develop new ways of preparing the electrode surfaces and new ways to screen the surfaces for activity. We have chosen three particular reactions for our study. The first is the oxidation of NADH, a common coenzyme. There are hundreds of enzymes in nature which use NADH. If we can find good electrodes for the oxidation of NADH we can then use these different enzymes to make sensors and in fuel cells. In particular a good modified electrode for NADH oxidation could be important in developing better sensors to allow diabetics to measure their blood glucose. The second reaction is the oxidation of ascorbate (vitamin C). Ascorbate is an important possible interference when trying to oxidise NADH because ascorbate is present in blood and many biological samples. Therefore for the NADH electrodes we want to find modified surfaces at which NADH reacts much better than ascorbate. On the other hand ascorbate is also important in its own right as we need to be able to measure its concentration in drinks and foodstuffs so we will also be looking for modified electrodes which are very good for ascorbate oxidation. The final target is dopamine, a molecule involved in signalling between neurones in the brain. Many of the molecules which catalyse the reaction of NADH also catalyse the oxidation of dopamine. We will screen the different molecules we produce to see if any are especially good for the detection of dopamine so that we can produce minute electrodes that can be used to measure dopamine in studies of the brain.

The proposal will develop one of the three UK energy materials hubs, which will carry out cutting edge research in close collaboration with industry in the development of materials up to demonstrator level (pre-commercial) devices. The hub will also have a major role in networking, training, educating in energy materials and devices across UK groups and industry, and will link-up and compliment existing energy related networks and groups to benefit the UK. The "JUICED" Hub [Joint University-Industry Consortium for Energy (Materials) and Devices Hub] will focus its research on nano-enabled energy materials (ceramic materials on a scale of a billionth of a meter wide). Energy materials will be made and developed in applications, such as high performance batteries and similar energy storage devices for automotive, grid or consumer device applications, low cost materials for electrolysers (which use electrical energy to split water into oxygen and hydrogen fuel), fuel cells [devices which take chemical energy and can (sometimes) reversibly convert it to electrical energy]. Other energy materials of interest are materials which can scavenge low grade heat or energy and convert it into electrical energy or materials which can help store, transfer or regulate thermal energy. The novelty in the hub's approach is that it will be able to considerably accelerate the development of new sustainable materials ; (i) Use high throughput synthesis (making a large number of samples quickly in parallel or in series) and in many cases, computational methods (use of computers to simulate and understand and predict materials properties) and appropriate (rapid) screening of materials properties, which will identify lead materials in each application area (ii) Laboratory-scale synthesis of the highest performing samples from above and testing to identify materials for larger scale syntheses (iii) pilot scale syntheses and tests on samples on pre-commercial demonstrator devices, (in collaboration with industry or end users with a strong emphasis on replacing precious or unsustainable metals such as Pt, Ir, Ru, Pb, etc.). How the research aligns with the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund objectives; The proposed energy hub aligns well to the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund objectives as follows; the interactions with the industrial consortium in the hub will work with UK industry and accelerate discoveries of new advanced functional materials which will increase UK businesses' investment in R&D and improved R&D capability and capacity. The research in the hub, which covers aspects of materials, testing and characterisation as well as scale-up will lead to an increase multi- and interdisciplinary research around the challenge area of "clean and flexible energy", particularly in the design, development and manufacture of energy storage devices (batteries or similar devices) for the electrification of vehicles to support the business opportunities presented by the low carbon economy and tackle air pollution (e.g. new sustainable catalysts for oxygen evolution and reduction which can also be used in next generation batteries). Other areas that the hub covers that are which are linked to the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund include "Manufacturing and Materials of the Future" (develop new, affordable, materials for advanced manufacturing sectors). Some of these materials are important components in devices which have applications also in Satellites and space technologies. The JUICED hub includes a number of scale-up and demonstrator activities and therefore this will lead to increased business-academic engagement on innovation activities relating to the same aforementioned challenge areas. The JUICED energy hub will include a number of larger and smaller companies and it will reach out to even more potential companies in the UK (SMEs and larger companies) with its workshops which will publicise capabilities.

The ability to store and release energy on demand is essential to an energy future that is based on clean, non-polluting and sustainable renewable energy. This includes both electrical and thermal energy and a large number of technologies are being developed to fulfil this need. Energy storage will become a major industry in our century and will employ hundreds of thousands of people globally. Energy storage will be everywhere - in large scale batteries connected to electrical networks, in homes to store energy generated from solar panels and in cars, replacing petrol engines. In order to meet this challenge and to ensure that UK plays an important role in this industry we will form a Centre of Doctoral Training in to train researchers at the highest level to help form and influence the direction of Energy Storage technologies. Our students will receive training in all aspects of energy but concentrating on the core technologies of electrochemical storage (batteries and supercapacitors), mechanical storage, thermal storage and superconducting magnetic energy storage. They will have the opportunity to interact with industrialists and gain experience in running a grid connected Lithium-ion battery. They will also undertake a major three-year research project allowing them to specialise in the topic of their choice.

Laccase is a protein excreted by white-rot fungi that works as well or better than precious metals at catalysing the reduction of oxygen to water. This chemical reaction is central to almost all low-temperature fuel cells that work in air.Fuel cells are devices that convert chemical energy from a fuel like methanol or hydrogen directly and efficiently into electrical energy. In contrast, when fuel is burned in a generator, the fuel's chemical energy is converted into thermal energy (hot gases) and mechanical energy (moving pistons) before it becomes electrical energy. Each energy conversion step has losses from heat loss and friction and from inescapable inefficiencies governed by the laws of thermodynamics; fuel cells, on the other hand, can have greater efficiencies by bypassing these intermediate stages.In most fuel cells the oxygen reduction reaction takes place on the surface of particles of expensive precious metals (usually platinum). Laccase catalyses the same reaction using only four copper atoms per enzyme molecule. Laccase catalysis is more energetically efficient, nearly as rapid, and more selective against catalyst-killing gaseous impurities.There are two key problems with using laccase in fuel cells. The first is stability: enzymes are complex and often fragile biological polymers that need to be properly oriented to work in a fuel cell. However, I have developed a technique that extends the working lifetime of laccase in a fuel cell from hours to several months. The second is the amount of electric current that is generated from a given area or volume. The platinum surface can host thousands of reactions at once while the each laccase molecule can only react one oxygen molecule at a time. To compensate for this, I am proposing introducing laccase into porous, three-dimensional electrode materials, essentially taking laccase from working on a open plain and moving it to a multi-storey office complex. For laccase to function as efficiently as possible, it needs to have its reaction needs met: a good supply of oxygen (fast gas diffusion), a constant concentration of hydrogen ions (buffered pH), and a well-connected electrical supply. Designing and building this infrastructure requires a thorough understanding of the interactions between the enzyme's surface and the surface to which it is attached and careful control of how material flows through the pores. Extending the surfaces into the third dimension lets us make more compact power sources that are suitable, for example, for small electronics like portable music players and mobile phones.Most of the surface area of porous materials is on the inside of the structure and probing an interior surface is always a challenge. I will use small gaseous molecules explore the interior, high-energy beams of metal ions to cut open the structure, high-resolution electron microscopy to examine it, and electronic and spectroscopic methods that can interrogate the interaction between the enzyme and a surface.This work is supported by an active, ongoing collaboration with experts in fungal biology. They are currently working on understanding the molecular biology behind laccase, first to mass produce the enzyme, followed by genetic engineering to change laccase's catalytic behaviour, selectivity and surface interactions.In addition to portable fuel cells that work at ambient temperatures, we may also discover more efficient, less expensive catalysts and learn how enzymes are able to carry out the oxygen reduction reaction with copper, a common metal from the first row of the transition metals, rather than platinum, a rare and expensive metal from the third row.