Gizmorama - August 18, 2014

Good Morning,

Talk about going green! Researchers say that hemp fibers could be used to build the next generation of super-capacitors. Prepare yourself for "plant power".

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Scientists develop test to find filler ingredients in coffee --*
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - With coffee production down, and the number of people wanting their morning boost climbing, the incentive for producers and sellers to make a little coffee go a bit farther is greater than ever. That's why some scientists are working to create a test that can detect the presence of filler ingredients in coffee.

Researcher Suzana Lucy Nixdorf is one of several scientists leading the effort to thwart coffee counterfeiters. She and a team of researchers at State University of Londrina in Brazil have developed a test that can indicate the presence of non-coffee fillers.

"With our test, it is now possible to know with 95 percent accuracy if coffee is pure or has been tampered with, either with corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, acai seed, brown sugar or starch syrup," Nixdorf said.

But Nixdorf says her test is only effective early in the coffee production process. "After roasting and grinding the raw material, it becomes impossible to see any difference between grains of lower cost incorporated into the coffee, especially because of the dark color and oily texture of coffee," she explained.

Traditional tests for ascertaining the purity and quality of coffee involves tasting and examining ground under a microscope, measurements Nixdorf and others say are objective.

The new test developed by Nixdorf and her colleagues are a form of liquid chromatography -- a series of lab
techniques used to separate mixtures. Scientists are using the techniques to identify impurities like wood, twigs, sticks, parchment, husks, whole coffee berries or even clumps of earth. Testers can than use statistical models to more fairly determine whether the amount of impurities is likely to be back by accident or on purpose.

Nixdorf and her team are schedule to share and discuss their research tomorrow in San Francisco with attendees of the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.


*-- Hemp fibers could power next generation of super-capacitors --*
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - With more and more states legalizing medical marijuana, pot's non-psychoactive cousin, industrial hemp, is making a comeback. And some researchers say the plant's fibers could be used to build the next generation of super-capacitors.

Supercapacitors are essentially high performance batteries. They store and release energy to power machines and electronics. But where as traditional batteries can only release energy at a slow and steady drip, supercapacitors can release lots of energy from its storage mechanism all at once -- making them essentially for machines that need lots of power in quick bursts, like the breaking system of an electronic car.

Today's supercapacitors mostly use graphene -- stacks of pure carbon sheet, each one atom thick -- to store and relinquish energy. But researchers and investors think industrial hemp fibers can store and release energy just as well, if not more efficiently, than graphene.

Dr. David Mitlin recently spun a research group at Canada's Alberta University into a business venture called Alta Supercaps. His company wants to develop large scale help-based supercapacitors.

"Obviously hemp can't do all the things graphene can," Mitlin recently told BBC News. "But for energy storage, it works just as well. And it costs a fraction of the price -- $500 to $1,000 a tonne."

Mitlin, who laid out the principles of hemp energy storage in a paper for ACS Nano last year, recently shared his company's ambitions with attendees at the American Chemical Society's annual conference, taking place this week in San Francisco.

"We're past the proof-of-principle stage for the fully functional supercapacitor," Mitlin said. "Now we're gearing up for small-scale manufacturing."

Mitlin says he hopes to develop capacitors for the oil and gas industry, which need energy storage systems that can function at high temperatures.

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