Max Planck Institutes and Experts

The Earth works like a power plant generating energy out of its planetary drivers. This energy maintains the winds in the atmosphere, ocean currents, and global biogeochemical cycles such as the hydrological cycle. The laws of thermodynamics set the limits to the rates by which these forms of energy are generated and thereby limit the forms of energy that could potentially be used as renewable energy. The global estimate shows that - except for solar and wind power - the natural generation rates of renewable energy are rather small and in the order of the human energy consumption.

Large amounts of methane are produced in the biosphere and released into the atmosphere. The junior research group ORCAS at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry explores new sources of methane in the environment and describes the underlying formation mechanisms. Fungi are an important component of terrestrial biological communities. Just recently, the researchers showed that fungi also release methane in their metabolism. But it is still unknown to what extent this new source of methane contributes to the methane balance of terrestrial ecosystems.

The biogenic emission of nitric oxide (NO) from natural and agriculturally managed soils of the terrestrial drylands is largely unknown, but of high importance for the local and regional air chemistry. The basic spatio-temporal scales of NO-emission ranges from a few cm² to km², and from some minutes to months. A full suite of experimental methods (laboratory incubation of soil samples to remote sensing) is applied to cover these scales for overlapping quantification of the unknown NO-emissions.

Electrochemical energy systems like fuel cells, batteries and electrolysis cells are attractive for future energy systems as they are highly energy efficient and can follow the dynamic demand of energy or can convert a dynamic oversupply of electricity gained from renewables into chemical energy. A deeper understanding of the complex processes at electrodes and in such cells can be reached when systematically applying dynamic electrochemical analysis methods. In addition, such methods may be used to detect the state of cells and electrodes or even to sense concentrations.

Operations in chemistry and biology are based on complex interactions between molecules. The biological and chemical generation of hydrogen, one of the energy carriers of the future, by enzymes or catalysts at ambient temperature was investigated by applying various computational approaches. Nature-inspired chemical systems are necessary in order to reveal details of the enzymatic system. In molecular systems biology, the focus and the way of investigations shift and enable the understanding of interactions and kinetics of proteins in networks.