Sugar Beet By-Product to Enhance Technology.

• Position: ENERGY STORAGE

An emerging energy storage technology could soon have an unexpected ally: the pulp left over from processing sugar beets into sugar. A team of scientists is studying how the by-product of the starchy root crop can be refined into cellulose nanocrystals that show promise for improving how heat is captured and recycled in a variety of industrial settings.

'This is a totally new application of cellulose nanocrystals," says Dilpreet Bajwa, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Montana State University, Bozeman.

Bajwa, a specialist in the tiny, extremely hard particles derived from breaking down biomass, previously found that the nanocrystals significantly increase the efficiency of certain salts used to absorb and store heat. The salts, which melt when heated, can store much more heat per a given volume than materials like water. They commonly are used in power plants that concentrate the sun's rays to generate heat that then can spin electricity-generating turbines. They also have a range of potential applications in other industries, including saltwater desalinization and oil production.

"A lot of industry produces so much heat that's lost, so finding a low-cost way to store and reuse it could have a...