Creating energy from wood waste has progressed from novel
idea to renewable energy work in development. Researchers from Poland and
Sweden are using a waste product from the paper making process to develop a
battery. That material is lignin. Olle Inganäs, professor of biomolecular and
organic electronics at Linköping University in Sweden and Grzegorz Milczarek, a
researcher at Poznań University of Technology in Poland, have completed a study
that shows how it is done. They maintain that the insulating qualities of
lignin derivatives can be combined with the conductivity of the polymer
polypyrrole to create a composite material that effectively holds an electric
charge.