Developing low-intensity pulsed ultrasound circuits to enhance cellulosic bioethanol yield for renewable energy

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The global economy has been growing at an unprecedented rate over the past decades. With the increasing detriments of rampant fossil fuel usage, renewable energy is urgently needed. Biofuel is one of the most promising alternative clean energy sources in addition to solar and wind energy. However, the bioethanol conversion rate is too low, which limits the biofuel to be a viable solution to renewable energy. Over the past five years, the principle investigator (PI) has collaborated with researchers in the Faculty of Medicine to discover that low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) can promote dental tissue regrowth, gene delivery, and stem cell proliferation. The PI's role in these projects is to lead the design of the prototype LIPUS generation circuits, and implement them first on printed circuit board and then miniaturize the design towards nanoscale system-on-chip design. Our research has resulted in several papers, two patents and several news publications (including the cover page report in "Globe and Mail" on June 28, 2006, and featured in 2006 Reader's Digest Canadian Medical Breakthroughs). The LIPUS patent has been licensed by a Canadian company. Recently, we discovered that the LIPUS technology can also stimulate microorganism growth by at least 30% over non-ultrasounded samples. The microorganism investigated is T. Reesei, the cellulosic enzyme producing fungi commonly used in converting plant biomass to bioethanol.