Systems and methods for growing vegetation are provided. The disclosed systems (100) and methods (1100, 1200) use rotating growth mats (102) and a cutting device (112). The rotating growth mats and cutting device can be coupled to an anaerobic digester (402) to generated methane gas using vegetation grown on the growth mats. The systems and methods may further use C artificial light sources (108) and a nutrients delivery system (110) to assist growth.

A photobioreactor is described for cultivating phototrophic organisms and in particular a mat, as can be used in one such photobioreactor. The mat has a plurality of first fibres which are light conductive along their longitudinal direction and are constructed to decouple light conducted in the longitudinal direction laterally, at least somewhat transversely to the longitudinal direction. The mat furthermore has a plurality of second fibres which are electrically conductive along their longitudinal direction. With the aid of one such mat, light can on the one hand be coupled in the interior of a photobioreactor. On the other hand, a travelling electric alternating field can be generated by applying a suitable polyphase voltage from a voltage source with the aid of electrically conductive second fibres. This alternating field can act on electrically charged particles.

An integrated process for the cultivation of algae or plants and the contemporaneous production of electric energy using a system in which a luminescent solar concentrator having a photovoltaic cell positioned on an outer side thereof is interposed between a cultivation area and a radiation source, totally or partially covering the cultivation area. The electric energy recovered from the photovoltaic cell is used in the cultivation of the algae or plants.

A renewable energy microgeneration apparatus is disclosed that includes a mixing tank that mixes waste with a liquid, a buffer tank that receives and pre-warms the mixed waste, a pasteurization tank that pasteurizes on the pre-warmed mixed waste, a digestion tank that performs anaerobic digestion on the pasteurized waste, a de-watering device that separates liquid digestate and removes salt from the liquid, sensors that measure salinity and biogas quality, and a controller. The controller causes the transfer of digestate from the digestion tank to the pasteurization tank to the dewatering device, causes the de-watering device to separate the liquid and remove the salt from the liquid, monitors the salinity of the liquid and the quality of biogas using the sensors, and causes the mixing of the liquid with the waste and adjusts the feed rate of the waste to reduce the salinity of the waste and increase methane production.

A facility for treating and recycling animal waste (2), including a unit (6) for methanizing the waste including treatment of the obtained biogases, a cogeneration unit (8) delivering electricity and heat (32) from the biogases, and a unit for hydroponically cultivating microalgae (14) in photo-bioreactors supplied by the liquid phase (12) of the organic residues from the methanization. The facility further includes a unit for cultivating macrophytes (22) supplied with water (20) leaving the unit for cultivating microalgae, and a vermiculture unit (24) fed by harvesting the macrophytes (22) and by the sludge (36) coming from the raw digestate from the methanization.

Biological material is used to build up biological cathode electrodes (biological cathode) and biological batteries, particularly biological metal air batteries as well as biological flow battery. A biological battery system includes a reaction vessel, a medium, a conductive anode and a biological cathode electrode. The biological cathode has a conductive support layer, a polymeric binding layer disposed between the conductive support layer and a contact layer. The contact layer being configured to be in electrical contact with biological components in the medium or being deposited with biological components. When the reaction vessel is open to an ambient air, the biological components accept electrons from the cathode.

Biogas production from the anaerobic digestion of juice in an ethanol production plant is maximized by mixing a juice containing thin stillage and/or water with a concentrated syrup prior to the anaerobic digestion. The juice then can be mixed with a biomass such as corn meal and enzymes to form a slurry suitable for fermentation. Sufficient syrup is mixed into the juice to provide a BOD concentration in the juice between 100,000 and 150,000 ppm. Enough biogas can be produced to supply enough energy to meet all of the boiler steam production/distillation energy/electrical generation demands for the ethanal production plant with some excess biogas left over for other uses.

A renewable energy microgeneration apparatus is disclosed that includes a mixing tank that mixes waste with a liquid, a buffer tank that receives and pre-warms the mixed waste, a pasteurization tank that pasteurizes on the pre-warmed mixed waste, a digestion tank that performs anaerobic digestion on the pasteurized waste, a de-watering device that separates liquid digestate and removes salt from the liquid, sensors that measure salinity and biogas quality, and a controller. The controller causes the transfer of digestate from the digestion tank to the pasteurization tank to the dewatering device, causes the de-watering device to separate the liquid and remove the salt from the liquid, monitors the salinity of the liquid and the quality of biogas using the sensors, and causes the mixing of the liquid with the waste and adjusts the feed rate of the waste to reduce the salinity of the waste and increase methane production.

A bio-processing system (100) for wirelessly powering one or more sensors (116-128, 400) is presented. The system (100) includes bio-processing units (106-110), process supporting devices (112-114), energy sources (146-148), and sensors (116-128, 400) including an energy harvesting unit (402) and an energy storage unit (404). The system (100) includes a power management subsystem (104, 200) wirelessly coupled to the sensors (116-128, 400) and including a processor (202) configured to wirelessly monitor energy consumption of the sensors (116-128, 400) and a level of energy stored in corresponding energy storage units (404), select at least one sensor (116-128, 400) based on the energy consumption of the sensors (116-128, 400) and corresponding levels of energy stored in the energy storage units (404), and identify at least one active energy source (146-148) as a power source, where the identified power source is configured to wirelessly transfer power to the selected sensor (116-128, 400).

Systems and processes of providing novel thermal energy sources for hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) reactors are described herein. According to various implementations, the systems and processes use concentrated solar thermal energy from a focused high-energy beam to provide sufficient energy for driving the HTL biomass-to-biocrude process. In addition, other implementations convert biowaste, such as municipal biosolids and grease and food waste, to biocrude using anaerobic digesters, and a portion of the biogas generated by the digesters is used to produce the thermal and/or electrical energy used in the HTL reactor for the biomass-to-biocrude process. Furthermore, alternative implementations may include a hybrid system that uses biogas and solar radiation to provide sufficient thermal energy for the HTL reactor.