{"id":175281,"date":"2026-04-07T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=175281"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:44:13","slug":"uk-innovation-turns-distillery-waste-into-supercapacitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/uk-innovation-turns-distillery-waste-into-supercapacitors\/","title":{"rendered":"UK innovation turns distillery waste into supercapacitors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"701\" height=\"336\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.28.07.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-175307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.28.07.png 701w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.28.07-300x144.png 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.28.07-150x72.png 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.28.07-400x192.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u00a9 Josiel Barrios Cossio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Kentuckians drink a lot of bourbon, and that means a lot of fermented grain leftover after distillation. For every bottle of bourbon produced, there\u2019s up to 10 barrels of waste in the form of stillage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>That\u2019s what drove University of Kentucky researchers to develop a way to transform this waste into high-performance components for supercapacitors. This solution repurposes an industrial byproduct in a way that could eventually help stabilize the electrical grid.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project is a collaboration between Marcelo Guzman, Ph.D., a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/chem.as.uky.edu\/\">chemistry<\/a>&nbsp;professor in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.as.uky.edu\/\">College of Arts and Sciences<\/a>, and graduate student Josiel Barrios Cossio. By using a technique called hydrothermal carbonization, which functions like a high-intensity pressure cooker, they convert stillage into a black carbonaceous material called hydrochar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe could take the stillage as it is, in a dispersion with a lot of water and use that disadvantage as an advantage,\u201d <strong>Barrios Cossio<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cInnovation to convert a waste stream to a supercapacitor is a wonderful example of why the University of Kentucky, as the flagship, land-grant school for Kentucky, exists,\u201d said <strong>Seth DeBolt, Ph.D., director of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/beaminstitute.mgcafe.uky.edu\/\">James B. Beam Institute<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and professor at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mgcafe.uky.edu\/\">Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment<\/a>. \u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The process involves heating the powder in a furnace to create two distinct types of carbon electrodes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hard carbon \u2014 produced at 1832 degrees Fahrenheit, this material is ideal for absorbing lithium ions to boost energy storage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Activated carbon \u2014 created at 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit, this highly porous material can store massive amounts of charge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIt was a huge discovery for me that you can make hybrid devices from this waste,\u201d <strong>Barrios Cossio<\/strong>\u00a0said. \u201cHybrid devices are not common. Not common and not easy to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In performance tests, the team\u2019s hybrid lithium-ion supercapacitors stored up to 25 times more energy per kilogram than conventional versions. Furthermore, their double-layer capacitors showed remarkable durability, retaining 96% of their capacity even after 15,000 cycles. The team collaborated with local distilleries across the region and partnered with researchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany to develop the prototype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"254\" height=\"323\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.08.53.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-175305\" style=\"width:126px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.08.53.png 254w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.08.53-236x300.png 236w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.08.53-118x150.png 118w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-03-30-um-14.08.53-212x270.png 212w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 254px) 100vw, 254px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marcelo Guzman \u00a9 UK<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis project allowed us to link with a real-world problem with industries at our state level,\u201d <strong>Guzman <\/strong>said. \u201cAnd that was super cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The project was supported by the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/research.uky.edu\/research-priorities\/materials-science\">UK Materials Science&nbsp;Research Priority Area<\/a>, and findings are being presented this week at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society. The researchers next aim is to scale the results and analyze economic and technological feasibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:12px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Original publication<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Yutong Chen, Liangxian Liu, Lijian Cai, Guoqing Mu, Tian Ju, Ming Wei, Zhenhua Li, Zetan Lu, Na Wang, Tianpeng Zhang, Jian Li, Yanjun Xie, Shaoliang Xiao; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acssuschemeng.3c08092\">High-Performance Wet Adhesion of Wood with Chitosan<\/a>&#8220;; <em>ACS Sustainable Chemistry &amp; Engineering, Volume 12, 2024-3-9<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kentuckians drink a lot of bourbon, and that means a lot of fermented grain leftover after distillation. For every bottle of bourbon produced, there\u2019s up to 10 barrels of waste in the form of stillage. That\u2019s what drove University of Kentucky researchers to develop a way to transform this waste into high-performance components for supercapacitors. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":175307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":" University of Kentucky researchers collaborated with local distilleries across the region and partnered with researchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany to develop the prototype","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[16735,27751,10416,16733,26121],"supplier":[1143,1457,2609],"class_list":["post-175281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biowaste","tag-byproducts","tag-circulareconomy","tag-energystorage","tag-supercapacitors","supplier-american-chemical-society-acs","supplier-universitaet-jena","supplier-university-of-kentucky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175308,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175281\/revisions\/175308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175281"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=175281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}