Regina Food Bank in need of cash donations as it sees more first-time users, fewer volunteers

© Matt Duguid/CBC

 The Regina Food Bank has given out 60 per cent more food this year compared to last year.

The Regina Food Bank is "getting squeezed on all sides", according to its CEO John Bailey.

The food bank has given out 60 per cent more food this year compared to last year, according to Bailey, but it has fewer resources to handle the increase.

He said the food bank is seeing 30 per cent more first-time users and many of them are depending on the food bank for longer than expected.

In addition, the food bank has had to make some adjustments due to COVID-19 protocols.

Bailey said his food bank has spent $100,000 on boxes alone to make pick-ups and deliveries safer, and there is also the added expense of masks and other PPE supplies.

There are also fewer volunteers due to pandemic-related reasons, which means more money has to be spent paying employees.

"It honestly feels like you're sort of getting squeezed on all sides," he said.

© Matt Duguid/CBC John Bailey, CEO of the Regina Food Bank, said the food bank is need of monetary donations as it deals with more clients and fewer volunteers.

Uncertain future

The food bank is also dealing with its holiday demand, sending out hundreds of the usual food hampers on top of 2,600 Christmas meals.

But it's not just the pandemic and holiday season that Bailey is concerned about, it's the next few years as well.

"It's a time of pretty significant uncertainty, in terms of what the future brings," he said.

To help with increased costs and demand, the food bank is asking for cash donations from residents or businesses.

"The challenge now is making sure we have the dollars to pay for the stuff we purchase to make sure we get it in the community," he said.

"There's still a rush on the funds end of things, but the food piece we're in pretty good shape on," Bailey said.

More people losing jobs

He said there are ongoing systemic challenges leading to the increased demand, but he believes it's also because people are either permanently or temporarily losing their jobs because of the pandemic.

"There's no, sort of, really tight demographic [or] sociographic you can point to. A lot of people are fully employed, some of them have multiple jobs, and are just at that level of food insecurity

"There's, sort of, a really immediate need of making sure there's food in people's hands."

He said the food bank has been preparing for dire case situations, like if the demand continues to spike next year.

"We're in it for the long haul here and everything we're doing now is, yes, getting over that hurdle of the busy time of year, but also making sure we're set up going forward," he said.

The federal government has tried to ease some financial pressure food banks are facing by providing $200 million through an emergency food security fund, much of it going to food banks

However, Bailey says food banks will continue to need cash donations.

"No food bank wants to be bigger, but every food bank wants to make sure that they're meeting the needs of their community. Right now, the needs of our community are probably greater than they've ever been."

CANADA
Unions see opportunity as new generation of organizers emerge amid pandemic

While "unprecedented" has been the go-to term to describe the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wave of labour upheaval currently moving across the country is the latest turn in a familiar cycle.  

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Times of crisis have always been linked to labour unrest, says Dimitry Anastakis, who teaches business history at the University of Toronto’s department of history and Rotman School of Management. Labour activity followed both the First and Second World Wars as well as the Great Depression. Anastakis points out the largest strike in Canadian history — the Winnipeg General Strike f 1919 — came amid an influenza pandemic.

“There's something real going on here,” he says.

As the pandemic has dragged on, workers from companies as diverse as Indigo Books and Music, the National Post, Vancouver's Turning Point Brewing and Matchstick Coffee, and Ottawa’s Superette Wellington cannabis dispensary have joined unions this year.

Union leaders say these workers are part of a new generation of labour activists, using creative techniques to get their message out to both management and the general public against the backdrop of COVID-19’s economic upheaval.

Derek Johnstone, special assistant to the national president at United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, says the union has had more new members than usual this year.

“I think that COVID has had a really powerful impact on how service sector workers — how retail workers, how food manufacturing workers — see themselves," Johnstone says. "It's made it abundantly clear not only to themselves, but to the broader Canadian public, and hopefully, to politicians and large employers, that these jobs are important.”

Dollarama and Loblaw employees protested alongside union leaders, and unionized workers spoke out as the COVID-19 pandemic threatened job security for the airline and hotel industries, steel tradespeople and longshore workers.

UFCW initially wasn’t sure how limitations on gatherings would change its organizing efforts, but workers at Indigo were able to run an “inspiring" campaign through social media, Johnstone says.

"What's really amazing is that sense of community that we normally see in an in-person meeting was actually manifesting itself on social media," says Johnstone. "A key part of that campaign was folks being vocal on Facebook, having and planning digital meetings."

One of the labour movement's triumphs of 2020 was the revitalization of General Motors’ plant in Oshawa, Ont., during negotiations with Unifor.

Unifor president Jerry Dias notes that no one could have predicted the demand for trucks would spike because of a global pandemic, pushing GM to look once again to Oshawa.

“COVID has forced everyone to rethink the economy and forced everyone to prioritize … so, for the first time, we really saw a meshing of the minds. Governments have seemingly put the politics aside,” says Dias.

Dias says he sees the unionization rate rising in Canada, as Unifor has noticed renewed interest from workers at other automakers.

"Nobody expected that during a pandemic we're going to bargain $5 billion worth of investments, and one of the strongest economic packages for workers that we've seen probably in 15 years," says Dias.

"So now you'd have non-union workers that work for Honda, Toyota and in the auto parts sectors say, 'Hey ... what about me?'"

Tom Galivan, secretary-treasurer of Service Employees International Union Local 2, says his union also saw some breakthroughs this year. It gained workers in the retail industry, which has historically been difficult to organize due to high turnover, and at craft breweries, an industry that has changed rapidly from the days when a few big, unionized breweries dominated.

But Galivan says at his union, membership is still down this year, as the uneasy transition by regulators to digital systems slowed down the process of voting to unionize.

"Most workers in Canada fall under the jurisdiction of provincial labour relations legislation. It was very uneven province to province, how those labour boards responded," says Galivan.

“In the case of Nova Scotia, for instance, there was a period of time in which the board there just didn't process applications. So, workers didn't have a pathway to unionize."

Galivan says he expects workers and employers to be on a “collision course" set off by the pandemic — a tension he expects will define the next couple of years in the labour movement.

“There is a lot of pent-up frustration in a number of sectors where front-line workers have borne the brunt of the heavy lifting through the public health crisis. And that hasn't been reflected in increased levels of compensation,” says Galivan.

“In fact, what we're seeing is, because the economy is going through so many challenges ... they're now encountering employers that are looking for austerity.”

Anastakis notes that major challenges may lie ahead for labour organizers to keep the momentum from COVID-19 once a vaccine shifts the mood in workplaces, particularly with the rise of precarious “gig economy” work.

Daria Ivanochko, managing director of organizing and regional services at the Canadian Union of Public Employees, says she has not seen major membership growth in her union this year. But she says requests from workers have taken on a more urgent tone.

“I think the pandemic has really created a desire for a collective response in these uncertain times, and at its very core, that's what trade unions are about," says Ivanochko. "I see that as a big opportunity.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2020.

Anita Balakrishnan, The Canadian Press

Family tied to company with history of hiring unlawful 'aliens' among Loeffler donors


Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who has maintained a strong anti-illegal immigration stance during her short tenure in office, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for her Georgia Senate runoff campaign from donors linked to a family owned company that was forced to pay out more than $95 million in fines for unlawful immigration practices and alleged hiring discrimination, disclosure records show.

© Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images, File Sen. Kelly Loeffler speaks at a Defend The Majority campaign event attended by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on December 17, 2020 in Columbus, Ga.

Between late November and early December, Loeffler's campaign received more than $28,000 in contributions from at least 11 members of the Asplundh family, according to new campaign finance reports filed to the Federal Election Commission. The Asplundh family owns and operates the large, privately held Asplundh Tree Expert Company, which has done work for the U.S. Department of Energy.

In 2017, the Pennsylvania-based tree-trimming and vegetation management company had to pay the largest civil settlement ever levied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a yearslong investigation resulted in the company pleading guilty to "unlawfully employing aliens." Additionally, in January 2019, Asplundh agreed to pay $55,000 in back wages to settle hiring discrimination allegations stemming from one of its facilities in Georgia.


None of the donations to Loeffler from the family members properly listed their association with the company as required by the FEC, and instead, the Loeffler campaign wrote under the employer and occupation sections: "INFORMATION REQUESTED PER BEST EFFORTS."

© John Bazemore/AP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., speaks during a campaign rally outside Adventure Outdoors gun store Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, in Smyrna, Ga.

Loeffler is competing against Democrat Raphael Warnock in one of Georgia's dual Senate runoff elections taking place on Jan. 5.

While it's not uncommon for campaigns to fail to obtain their donors' employers or occupation, all of the Asplundh family members that donated to Loeffler have previously disclosed their employers and occupation for their donations to other campaigns and groups. At least three of those family members -- including Christopher Asplundh Jr. -- are current or former executives of the company, while several others were shareholders of the company, according to other disclosure reports.

Asplundh Tree Expert Company did not immediately respond to ABC News' emailed request for comment. Christopher Asplundh Jr., Gregg Asplundh and Brent Asplundh were also contacted via email, and had not responded at the time of publishing. All three men are named on the company's website as having top positions as of 2017.

At the time the fine was announced, Asplundh said in a statement that company officials "accept responsibility for the charges as outlined, and we apologize to our customers, associates and all other stakeholders for what has occurred."

ABC News sent a detailed email to two staffers on Loeffler's campaign that outlined the company's past settlement over its unlawful immigration practices and back pay for alleged discrimination. In addition to asking for a general comment on the donations and the company's past, ABC News also asked if the campaign knew that members of the Asplundh family had donated and intentionally excluded their occupations and employers; if the campaign -- given the senator's stance on immigration and the company's infraction in Georgia -- wanted their support and their donations; and if the campaign did not want their support or donation, if they would refund them.

In response, Loeffler's deputy campaign manager, Stephen Lawson, replied, "[W]e're marking your email as spam. Please don't ever email us again."

In a follow-up email a minute later, Loeffler's press secretary, Caitlin O'Dea, wrote, "And Merry Christmas!"

According to a news release from ICE, and citing court documents, the six-year investigation into the company's immigration practices culminated in September 2017, and found that "the highest levels of Asplundh management remained willfully blind" to a "scheme" where lower-level management hired and rehired workers whom they knew were using fraudulent identification documents.

The acting director of ICE at the time, Thomas Homan, said the "judgment sends a strong, clear message to employers who scheme to hire and retain a workforce of illegal immigrants: we will find you and hold you accountable."

While immigration has not been one of the most talked-about issues during her Senate campaign, Loeffler has made her conservative stance on immigration clear.

On her Senate website, she states, "Tolerating illegal immigration serves only to undermine the law and threatens our national security."

She also introduced a bill with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in August that would allow judges to hold undocumented immigrants in contempt if they fail to show up to their immigration hearings and give judges the ability to issue warrants for their arrests.

"I will always put American citizens first & hold illegal immigrants accountable," Loeffler tweeted along with an article about the bill.

The January 2019 evaluation from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs "found alleged systemic hiring discrimination violations" in the Asplundh Tree Expert Company's Macon facility. According to a press release from the Labor Department, starting in 2015, Asplundh "discriminated against 124 African American applicants in the hiring and selection process for ground person, tree trimmer, and equipment operation positions."

Records indicate that this is the first time the Asplundh family has donated to Loeffler's federal campaign. But over the years, the Asplundh family and Asplundh Tree Expert have been active political donors to various Republican campaigns and groups. In 2016, the company gave $50,000 to Future54, one of the major super PACs that supported President Donald Trump's first presidential bid. In September 2020, the company's political action committee gave $15,000 to the Republican National Committee.

Loeffler and Warnock's race has gained national attention because it, along with Georgia's other Senate runoff, will decide control of Congress' upper chamber. The senator's Democratic challenger has vastly outraised the incumbent, according to the latest campaign finance filings.

From mid-October through mid-December, Warnock's campaign raised $104 million and entered the final three weeks of the runoff with $23 million, while Loeffler's campaign raised $66 million during that period and entered the final three weeks of the runoff with $21 million in the bank. In previous months, Loeffler, fueled by nearly $24 million of her own contribution to the campaign, was outraising Warnock.

UPDATED

Thailand blames migrant workers as Covid-19 cases cross 5,000

Thai health officials have reported 548 new cases, almost all of them among migrant workers in the seafood industry in Samut Sakhon province

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Migrant workers stand in front of a closed shrimp market, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Samut Sakhon province, in Thailand, December 20, 2020. (Reuters)

Thailand’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases have surged past 5,000 as hundreds of migrant workers tested positive, posing a major challenge for the authorities.

Thailand has been one of several Southeast Asian countries that were faring relatively unscathed by the pandemic.

But on Saturday, health officials reported a daily record of 548 new cases, almost all of them among migrant workers in the seafood industry in Samut Sakhon province, 34 kilometres (21 miles) southwest of Bangkok.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha said on Monday his government would wait to see how the situation looked in a week’s time before deciding on any special restrictions for New Year’s celebrations.

The new cases in Samut Sakhon, most not exhibiting symptoms, were found by mass testing after a 67-year-old shrimp vendor at a seafood market tested positive for the virus.

The Klang Koong seafood market — one of the country’s largest — and its associated housing were sealed off by razor wire and police guards.

READ MORE: Migrant worker exodus from Thailand over virus lockdown


Night curfew

The province has also imposed a night curfew and other travel restrictions until January 3. Many public places, including shopping malls, schools, cinemas, spas and sports stadiums, have been ordered closed.

Some 360 of the 382 new cases reported Monday were migrant workers in the province, said the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration. There were 14 other cases defined as locally transmitted and eight found in state quarantine facilities where virtually all people arriving from abroad must stay for two weeks.

Most migrant workers in Samut Sakhon are from neighbouring Myanmar, which has seen a surge in coronavirus cases that began in August. The situation in Myanmar had caused concern among Thai officials, and efforts were made to sharply reduce border traffic.

There was alarm last month when several cases were found among Thai women who had worked in Myanmar and then evaded health controls when returning home to northern Thailand. Several people from the north who recently were in Myanmar and tested positive were tracked only after having already flown to Bangkok.

Thailand has had a total of 5,289 cases, including 60 deaths.

Anti-Myanmar hate speech flares in Thailand over virus

By Panarat Thepgumpanat, Shoon Naing and Matthew Tostevin

© Reuters/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA FILE PHOTO: Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Thailand

BANGKOK (Reuters) - "Wherever you see Myanmar people, shoot them down," read one Thai comment on YouTube after a surge of coronavirus cases among workers from Myanmar.


The outbreak, first detected at a seafood market near Bangkok, has prompted a flare-up in such online hate speech as well as questions over the treatment of millions of migrant workers in traditionally tolerant Thailand.

"Myanmar people are being labelled for transmitting COVID-19, but the virus doesn't discriminate," said Sompong Srakaew of the Labor Protection Network, a Thai group helping migrant workers.

Shifting sentiment had real consequences, he said, with workers from Myanmar, previously known as Burma, being blocked from buses, motorcycle taxis and offices.

One of the many incendiary comments on social media seen by Reuters called for infected migrant workers to remain untreated and punishment for people that brought them into Thailand.

The rhetoric reflects a global pattern since the start of the pandemic of foreigners being blamed for spreading the virus.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha this week said illegal immigration was behind the outbreak in a country that had brought COVID-19 under control, although Thailand's virus task force appealed for sympathy for immigrants.

The independent Social Media Monitoring for Peace group told Reuters it found hundreds of comments classified as hate speech on YouTube with others on Facebook and Twitter.

"The comments included racist language aimed at triggering discrimination and promoting nationalism," said the group's Saijai Liangpunsakul. "We're concerned that online discrimination could translate into further discrimination and even lead to real-world violence."

After Reuters flagged some posts, Facebook said it had removed several for violating hate speech policies.

"We know that hate speech targeted towards vulnerable communities can be the most harmful," a Facebook spokesperson said, saying its technology detected 95% of hate speech.

Facebook came under heavy criticism for the role it played in spreading hate speech that fuelled violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar in 2017 and has since invested in systems that can rapidly detect and remove such content.

Twitter said it was looking into the issue. YouTube did not respond to requests for comment.

Not all the social media traffic has been negative, with some Thais defending the Myanmar workers.

Government spokespeople in Thailand and Myanmar did not respond immediately to requests for comment on hate speech.

'REALLY SAD'

The outbreak was first detected last week at a shrimp market at Samut Sakhon, barely 35 km (20 miles) from central Bangkok. Since then nearly 1,300 infections linked to the market have been found while thousands of people have been quarantined.

"We feel really sad that we Myanmar workers are being blamed," said Nay Lin Thu, a 35-year-old worker from Myanmar who has now volunteered to help others.

"We are told 'this happened because of you Myanmar'. Mostly we do not respond but some of us couldn’t contain their anger."

Officially, Thailand has nearly 1.6 million workers from Myanmar, almost two-thirds of all migrant workers, but the real figure is higher because of illegal immigration. Most migrants are labourers or work in service industries.

"Thai people won't take the jobs they are doing," Taweesin Wisanuyothin, of Thailand's COVID-19 taskforce said as he pleaded for tolerance in a televised broadcast. "Today they are our family... Both Myanmar and Thai people are Buddhists."

Thailand has traditionally been seen as tolerant of foreigners, but a historic enmity has been revived on social media with references to the 18th century destruction by Burmese forces of Ayutthaya, capital of what was then known as Siam.

Myanmar has suffered a much more severe outbreak of coronavirus, with over 2,500 dead from nearly 120,000 confirmed cases compared with 60 fatalities from over 5,800 cases in Thailand.

How the new cases first appeared in Thailand is unclear.

Similar outbreaks among migrant workers living close together in Malaysia and Singapore showed how the virus can spread undetected among healthy young people who show few symptoms. It was first detected in a 67-year-old woman.

Although Thailand reported few local transmissions in recent months, Myanmar had detected cases in citizens returning form Thailand.

"Our judgement is that silent carriers have been present in Thailand," said Sein Htay of the Yangon-based Migrant Worker Rights Network. "Living conditions for Myanmar workers are difficult for social distancing with three or four to a room."

Despite the accusations against Myanmar workers of crossing the border illegally, Thais have done so too.

A previous coronavirus scare flared recently when several Thai women returned home, some using illegal border crossings, after an outbreak at the nightlife spot where they worked in Myanmar.

(Reporting by Shoon Naing in Yangon; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Sam Holmes)

‘Matter of great concern’: Scientists find microplastics in human placenta for 1st time

For the first time, scientists have found microplastics in the human placenta, leading experts to fear that the chemicals could interfere with fetal development, according to a recent study.

© Getty Images fetus inside the womb

The Italian study, published in early December, said microplastics were found in four out of six women's placentas who consented to donate the organ after giving birth.

Read more: Here’s how much plastic you might be eating every day

Only a small portion of the placenta was sampled, suggesting the amount of microplastic was much higher, the authors of the study said.

Tiny fragments of plastic are referred to as microplastics. The particles are usually five millimetres or less in diameter and have been detected in bottled water, drinking water, fish and sea salt in various studies.

The findings of the recent study show that once microplastics are in the human body, they can also reach placenta tissues "at all levels," the authors said.

Video: Scientists find microplastics deep in Arctic ice

The placenta plays a major role in the development of the fetus, supplying oxygen and nutrition, as well as removing waste products.

Microplastics in a placenta may lead to dangerous pregnancy outcomes, including preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction, the authors warned.

"Due to the crucial role of (the) placenta in supporting the fetus development .... the presence of exogenous and potentially harmful (plastic) particles is a matter of great concern," the authors stated.

'It's like having a cyborg baby'

Plastic production has surged in the last 50 years with the widespread use of inexpensive disposable products. As plastic is not biodegradable and only breaks down into smaller pieces, it ultimately ends up everywhere, cluttering beaches and killing marine wildlife, as well as in the food chain.

There have been reports of microplastics found in human intestines and the gastrointestinal tract of marine animals.

Read more: Are microplastics ending up in human stool? Experts say study is too small to prove anything

The authors of the Italian study said they're not sure how the microplastics reached the bloodstream of the women -- as it could have been through the respiratory system or the gastrointestinal system.

"Further studies need to be performed to assess if the presence of (microplastics) in the human placenta may trigger immune responses or may lead to the release of toxic contaminants, resulting harmful for pregnancy," the authors stated.

Dr. Antonio Ragusa, director of the Uoc Obstetrics and Gynaecology Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome, where the research was conducted, told the Daily Mail the findings were very worrying.

"When I saw for the first time microplastics in the placenta, I was astonished," he said.

"If you find something in the placenta, this means you find something in the baby… It's like having a cyborg baby: it is no longer made up of just human cells but a mixture of biological and inorganic materials."

Video: B.C. study says humans unknowingly consume microplastics

A 2019 WWF International study said there is so much plastic in our environment that humans could be ingesting the equivalent of a credit card of plastic every week.

In Canada, microplastics have been found in the Arctic and in Ontario's Great Lakes.

A federal report found that in 2016, 29,000 tonnes of plastic garbage, the equivalent of about 2.3 billion single-use plastic water bottles, ended up as litter in Canada — on beaches, in parks, in lakes and in the air.

The Trudeau government has proposed a ban on single-use plastics in Canada by the end of 2021. The ban would eliminate plastic checkout bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, foodware and cutlery.

However, in a 2019 study, the World Health Organization (WHO) said there is not enough evidence to say ingesting these particles is harmful to human health.

Microplastics don’t currently pose health risks: WHO

The authors of the report said the minuscule plastics are “ubiquitous in the environment” and have been found in drinking water, including both tap and bottled, most likely as the result of treatment and distribution systems.

The WHO said the levels of microplastics in drinking water don’t appear to be risky, but that research has been spotty and more is needed into their effects on the environment and health.

-- With wiles from Reuters and the Canadian Press

Electron-producing microbes power sustainable wastewater treatment

by Tina Hilding, Washington State University

A switchable bioelectrochemical wastewater treatment system was tested at the pilot scale at a wastewater treatment facility in Moscow, Idaho. Credit: Washington State University

WSU researchers have developed a sustainable wastewater treatment system that relies on electron-producing microbial communities to clean the water.


The work could someday lead to reduced reliance on the energy-intensive processes that are used to move and treat wastewater, which accounts for as much as two percent of the total electrical energy consumption in the United States.

Led by Abdelrhman Mohamed, postdoctoral research associate, and Haluk Beyenal, Paul Hohenschuh Distinguished Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, the researchers report on their work in the journal, Bioelectrochemistry.

In wastewater treatment, aeration is an energy intensive and necessary procedure to remove contaminants. Pumps work continuously to mix air into water, adding oxygen that bacteria then use to oxidize organic matter and contaminants. In their work, the researchers used a unique microbial fuel cell system they developed as a substitute for external aeration.

"If we cut the energy use even by a small percentage in the U.S., that is billions of dollars in annual costs," said Mohamed. "Energy costs are one part but that also means reducing environmental emissions, too."

Microbial fuel cells work by having microbes convert chemical energy to electricity in a manner that is similar to a battery. They don't generate a lot of electricity, so they have been used in low-power applications especially in remote areas where batteries are not feasible.

In the case of wastewater treatment, the microbial fuel cell can fill the role that aeration and oxygen plays—accepting electrons that bacteria generate as a product of their metabolic work.

In addition to substituting for the oxygen, the system can also generate a small amount of electricity, which can be used to do additional aeration.

"We tried to think about it in two steps," said Mohamed. "We lower the energy costs because you don't have to aerate and add oxygen, but the second part is we generate a little power that we can use for some useful applications in the wastewater treatment plant itself."

"It's like we're double dipping," added Beyenal. "We use the electrodes and then the electron acceptor to promote microbial growth. On the other hand, we gain a little bit of electricity for the pump and to aerate. With this approach it is more powerful and can treat the wastewater faster."

The fuel cells have been used experimentally in wastewater treatment systems under ideal conditions, but under real-world and varying conditions, they often fail.

"The microbial fuel cells lack internal regulation controlling the potential of anodes and cathodes, and thus cell potential," said Mohamed. "This can cause system failure."

In the system the WSU team developed, the researchers added an extra electrode that allows additional control to their fuel cell system. The system is switchable. It can either work by itself as a microbial fuel cell, using no energy as it slowly cleans up waste, or it can be switched to one that uses a smaller amount of energy than aeration and that cleans more intensively. Mohamed invented a cheap portable electronic device that controls the electrodes.

The researchers were able to operate their system for a year in the laboratory without failure as well as at the pilot scale at a test wastewater treatment facility in Moscow, Idaho. The pilot scale treatment facility is owned and operated by University of Idaho Environmental Engineering Professor Erik R. Coats, who was a collaborator on the project. The system removed waste at comparable rates to aeration.

The system could potentially be used entirely independently from the power grid, and the researchers hope it could someday be used for small scale wastewater treatment facilities, such as for clean up around cattle operations or in very rural areas.

"Over time, we have made a lot of progress," said Mohamed, who first became interested in microbial fuel cells as an undergraduate at WSU. "There are still challenges that we need to overcome to see this as a real application, but it's exciting to see the field moving significantly over a period of time."

"These are difficult systems to build," added Beyenal. "I think everything is so easy when I write the proposal, but this takes a lot of time and a lot of new discovery. There is nothing like this on the market."


Explore further Researchers develop unique waste cleanup for rural areas

More information: Abdelrhman Mohamed et al, Large-scale switchable potentiostatic/microbial fuel cell bioelectrochemical wastewater treatment system, Bioelectrochemistry (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2020.107724

Provided by Washington State University

Engineers go microbial to store energy, sequester carbon dioxide

by Blaine Friedlander, Cornell University

Bioengineered microbes may one day be used to store the sun’s energy, as well as absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide to later turn it into fuel. This illustration features microbe images taken by postdoctoral researchers Youngchan Park and Bing Fu in chemistry. Credit: Wendy Kenigsberg/Cornell University

By borrowing nature's blueprints for photosynthesis, Cornell University bioengineers have found a way to efficiently absorb and store large-scale, low-cost renewable energy from the sun—while sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide to use later as a biofuel.


The key: Let bioengineered microbes do all the work.

Buz Barstow, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University, and doctoral candidate Farshid Salimijazi have assembled theoretical solutions and models that calculate efficiency in microbes, which could take in electricity and store carbon dioxide at least five times more efficiently than photosynthesis, the process by which plants turn sunlight into chemical energy.

"Soon, we will be living in a world with plentiful renewable electricity," Barstow said. "But in order to bring the bountiful energy to the grid, we will need energy storage with a capacity thousands of times greater than we have today."

The research, "Constraints on the Efficiency of Engineered Electromicrobial Production," was published in October in the journal Joule. Salimijazi is lead author.

Electromicrobial production technologies fuse biology and electronics so that energy gathered from wind, sun and water can get converted into renewable electricity in the form of energy-storage polymers (engineered microbes). Solving a storage problem, these microbes can be used on demand or to create low-carbon transportation fuels.

"We need think about how we can store energy for rainy days or for when the wind doesn't gust," he said, noting that battery or fuel-cell technology can take up a lot of space. "We need solutions on how to store this large amount of energy in a cheap and clean way."

In the paper, the researchers suggest taking advantage of microbial electrosynthesis, in which incoming electrons are fed directly to an engineered microbe, which would convert carbon dioxide into non-carbon molecules. More research is necessary to determine the best microbes for the job.

Postdoctoral researcher Alexa Schmitz, a member of Barstow's lab, said the engineered microbes both store energy and absorb carbon dioxide. The CO2 can be converted into a hydrocarbon fuel—effectively neutralizing the carbon cycle, resulting in net-zero carbon emissions.

"While the hydrocarbon fuel would not be carbon negative, carbon neutrality is still very good in this case," Schmitz said. "For a lot of machinery or in aviation, society may still need low-density hydrocarbon fuels for that sector."

That scenario is much better than carbon expansion, she said. "We want to be able to make low-carbon fuel without digging for oil or getting gas out of the ground," she said, "and then releasing the carbon into the atmosphere.

"The microbes act as an efficient microscopic fuel cell," said Barstow, a Cornell Atkinson fellow. "That's why we're offering this road map for the best ways to exploit this potential. More research is necessary to determine the best microbes for the job, as everything comes down to efficiency at the end of the day."


Explore further Engineered bacteria could be missing link in energy storage

More information: Farshid Salimijazi et al, Constraints on the Efficiency of Engineered Electromicrobial Production, Joule (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2020.08.010

Journal information: Joule

Provided by Cornell University

Four ways microbial fuel cells might revolutionize electricity production in the future

by Godfrey Kyazze, The Conversation

Credit: Jackie Niam/Shutterstock

The world population is estimated to reach 9.5 billion by 2050. Given that most of our current energy is generated from fossil fuels, this creates significant challenges when it comes to providing enough sustainable electricity while mitigating climate change.


One idea that has gained traction over recent years is generating electricity using bacteria in devices called microbial fuel cells (MFCs). These fuel cells rely on the ability of certain naturally occurring microorganisms that have the ability to "breathe" metals, exchanging electrons to create electricity. This process can be fuelled using substances called substrates, which include organic materials found in wastewater.

At the moment microbial fuel cells are able to generate electricity to power small devices such as calculators, small fans and LEDs—in our lab we powered the lights on a mini Christmas tree using "simulated wastewater." But if the technology is scaled up, it holds great promise.

How they work

MFCs use a system of anodes and cathodes—electrodes that pass a current either in or out. Common MFC systems consist of an anode chamber and a cathode chamber separated by a membrane. The bacteria grow on the anode and convert the substrates into carbon dioxide, protons and electrons.

The electrons that are produced are then transferred via an external circuit to the cathode chamber, while the protons pass through the membrane. In the cathode chamber, a reaction between the protons and the electrons uses up oxygen and forms water. And as long as substrates are continually converted, electrons will flow—which is what electricity is.

Generating electricity through MFCs has a number of advantages: systems can be set up anywhere; they create less "sludge" than conventional methods of wastewater treatment such as activated sludge systems; they can be small-scale yet a modular design can be used to build bigger systems; they have a high tolerance to salinity; and they can operate at room temperature.

The availability of a wide range of renewable substrates that can be used to generate electricity in MFCs has the potential to revolutionize electricity production in the future. Such substrates include urine, organic matter in wastewater, substances secreted by living plants into the soil (root exudates), inorganic wastes like sulfides and even gaseous pollutants.

Schematic of an MFC latrine. Credit: Cynthia Castro et al. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 2014

1. Pee power


Biodegradable matter in waste materials such as feces and urine can be converted into electricity. This was demonstrated in a microbial fuel cell latrine in Ghana, which suggested that toilets could in future be potential power stations. The latrine, which was operated for two years, was able to generate 268 nW/m² of electricity, enough to power an LED light inside the latrine, while removing nitrogen from urine and composting the feces.

For locations with no grid electricity or for refugee camps, the use of waste in latrines to produce electricity could truly be revolutionary.

2. Plant MFCs

Another renewable and sustainable substrate that MFCs could use to generate electricity is plant root exudates, in what are called plant MFCs. When plants grow they produce carbohydrates such as glucose, some of which are exuded into the root system. The microorganisms near the roots convert the carbohydrates into protons, electrons and carbon dioxide.

In a plant MFC, the protons are transferred through a membrane and recombine with oxygen to complete the circuit of electron transfer. By connecting a load into the circuitry, the electricity being generated can be harnessed.

Plant MFCs could revolutionize electricity production in isolated communities that have no access to the grid. In towns, streets could be lit using trees.


3. Microbial desalination cells

Another variation of microbial fuel cells are microbial desalination cells. These devices use bacteria to generate electricity, for example from wastewater, while simultaneously desalinating water. The water to be desalinated is put in a chamber sandwiched between the anode and cathode chambers of MFCs using membranes of negatively (anion) and positively (cation) charged ions.

When the bacteria in the anode chamber consume the wastewater, protons are released. These protons cannot pass through the anion membrane, so negative ions move from the salty water into the anode chamber. At the cathode protons are consumed, so positively charged ions move from the salty water to the cathode chamber, desalinating the water in the middle chamber. Ions released in the anode and cathode chambers help to improve the efficiency of electricity generation.

Conventional water desalination is currently very energy intensive and hence costly. A process that achieves desalination on a large scale while producing (not consuming) electricity would be revolutionary.

4. Improving the yield of natural gas

Anaerobic digestion – where microorganisms are used to break down biodegradable or waste matter without needing oxygen—is used to recover energy from wastewater by producing biogas that is mostly methane—the main ingredient of natural gas. But this process is usually inefficient.

Research suggests that the microbial groups used within these digesters share electrons—what has been dubbed interspecies electron transfer—opening up the possibility that they could use positive energy to influence their metabolism.

By supplying a small voltage to anaerobic digesters—a process called electromethanogenesis – the methane yield (and hence the electricity that could be recovered from combined heat and power plants) can be significantly improved.

While microbial fuel cells are able to generate electricity to power small devices, researchers are investigating ways to scale up the reactors to increase the amount of power they can generate, and to further understand how extracellular electron transfer works. A few start-up companies such as Robial and Plant-e are beginning to commercialize microbial fuel cells. In the future, microbial fuel cells could even be used to generate electricity in regenerative life support systems during long-term human space missions. It's early days but the technology holds much promise.


Explore further This is how microorganisms can produce renewable energy for us

Provided by The Conversation

Renewables offer savings for Philippine small islands

by SciDev.Net

DECEMBER 23, 2020

islaSol II, a photovoltaic power station located in Negros Occidental, a province in the Philippines. A new report urges the Philippines to shift from diesel to renewable energy to save money. Credit: Kanadaurlauber (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Islasol_II.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0

Shifting to renewables in small islands and isolated areas can provide cheap, reliable energy to more than half of the Philippine population or around 50 million people, says a new report by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

"Access to reliable electricity is an important input to ensure healthcare and food supply through cold storage of medication and food produce or fish," Sara Ahmed, author of the report, tells SciDev.Net.

According to the report, published this month, if the government-owned National Power Corporation's Small Power Utilities Group (NPC-SPUG) shifts away from subsidized diesel power—widely used in remote areas and isolated islands—the savings could reach US$275 million per year.

"It is important to note that the repeated argument of limited absorptive capacity versus renewable energy sources do not apply to hybrid power systems, where diesel and PV (photovoltaic) or wind power are designed to complement each other," said the report. "Ongoing cost and efficiency improvements for renewables will mean that renewable energy cost deflation will enable the government to reach its goal of 100 percent electrification by 2022," it also said.

Ahmed says that "the expertise of the Department of Finance, whose secretary is the chair-designate of the Climate Change Commission, the ex-officio chairman of NPC, can help the NPC-SPUG provide not only clean, but also reliable, secure and affordable power for residents of small island grids."

The secretary of the Philippine Department of Finance did not respond to SciDev.Net's request for a comment.

Instead, his assistant secretary referred us to the secretary of the Philippine Department of Energy, who could not be reached for a comment.

Renato Redentor Constantino, executive director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, a climate and energy policy group based in the Philippines, suggests mandatory clauses in power contracts that are weighted in favor of renewables.

"It's time for the energy regulatory commission to abolish automatic pass-through provisions in power supply agreements that allow fossil generators to bid ultra-cheap in the first year then automatically pass on price and forex fluctuation risks to the consumer, which distorts the market," Constantino tells SciDev.Net.

As customers gain from reduced subsidies to small island grids, the electric cooperatives should receive a share of the proceeds so that they can upgrade their systems and train workers to embrace the new, climate-friendly economy, says Constantino. "Doing so saves a fortune in avoiding more importations of expensive diesel."

The report provided several recommendations. One is to halt new diesel power investments immediately and accelerate hybridisation—where diesel generators work in tandem with renewable energy sources.

Another important recommendation is to redirect electrification subsidies towards investments in renewable energy rather than to diesel-generated power.

"These recommendations are not only realistic, they need to be implemented with speed and a greater sense of inclusivity and urgency," says Constantino.


Explore further Philippines bans new coal-fired projects

More information: Renewables Are a More Affordable, Reliable and Resilient Solution for Small Island and Isolated Power Grids: ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2 … ds_December-2020.pdf

Provided by SciDev.Net

Want cheaper nuclear energy?

 Turn the design process into a game

by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  

In this AI-designed layout for a boiling water reactor, fuel rods are ideally positioned around two fixed water rods to burn more efficiently. MIT researchers ran the equivalent of 36,000 simulations to find the optimal configurations, which could extend the life of the rods in an assembly by about 5 percent, generating $3 million in savings per year if scaled to the full reactor. Colors correspond to varying amounts of uranium and gadolinium oxide in each rod. Credit: Majdi Radaideh/MIT

Nuclear energy provides more carbon-free electricity in the United States than solar and wind combined, making it a key player in the fight against climate change. But the U.S. nuclear fleet is aging, and operators are under pressure to streamline their operations to compete with coal- and gas-fired plants.

One of the key places to cut costs is deep in the reactor core, where energy is produced. If the fuel rods that drive reactions there are ideally placed, they burn less fuel and require less maintenance. Through decades of trial and error, nuclear engineers have learned to design better layouts to extend the life of pricey fuel rods. Now, artificial intelligence is poised to give them a boost.

Researchers at MIT and Exelon show that by turning the design process into a game, an AI system can be trained to generate dozens of optimal configurations that can make each rod last about 5 percent longer, saving a typical power plant an estimated $3 million a year, the researchers report. The AI system can also find optimal solutions faster than a human, and quickly modify designs in a safe, simulated environment. Their results appear this month in the journal Nuclear Engineering and Design.

"This technology can be applied to any nuclear reactor in the world," says the study's senior author, Koroush Shirvan, an assistant professor in MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. "By improving the economics of nuclear energy, which supplies 20 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S., we can help limit the growth of global carbon emissions and attract the best young talents to this important clean-energy sector."

In a typical reactor, fuel rods are lined up on a grid, or assembly, by their levels of uranium and gadolinium oxide within, like chess pieces on a board, with radioactive uranium driving reactions, and rare-earth gadolinium slowing them down. In an ideal layout, these competing impulses balance out to drive efficient reactions. Engineers have tried using traditional algorithms to improve on human-devised layouts, but in a standard 100-rod assembly there might be an astronomical number of options to evaluate. So far, they've had limited success.

The researchers wondered if deep reinforcement learning, an AI technique that has achieved superhuman mastery at games like chess and Go, could make the screening process go faster. Deep reinforcement learning combines deep neural networks, which excel at picking out patterns in reams of data, with reinforcement learning, which ties learning to a reward signal like winning a game, as in Go, or reaching a high score, as in Super Mario Bros.

Here, the researchers trained their agent to position the fuel rods under a set of constraints, earning more points with each favorable move. Each constraint, or rule, picked by the researchers reflects decades of expert knowledge rooted in the laws of physics. The agent might score points, for example, by positioning low-uranium rods on the edges of the assembly, to slow reactions there; by spreading out the gadolinium "poison" rods to maintain consistent burn levels; and by limiting the number of poison rods to between 16 and 18.

"After you wire in rules, the neural networks start to take very good actions," says the study's lead author Majdi Radaideh, a postdoc in Shirvan's lab. "They're not wasting time on random processes. It was fun to watch them learn to play the game like a human would."

Through reinforcement learning, AI has learned to play increasingly complex games as well as or better than humans. But its capabilities remain relatively untested in the real world. Here, the researchers show that reinforcement learning has potentially powerful applications.

"This study is an exciting example of transferring an AI technique for playing board games and video games to helping us solve practical problems in the world," says study co-author Joshua Joseph, a research scientist at the MIT Quest for Intelligence.

Exelon is now testing a beta version of the AI system in a virtual environment that mimics an assembly within a boiling water reactor, and about 200 assemblies within a pressurized water reactor, which is globally the most common type of reactor. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Exelon owns and operates 21 nuclear reactors across the United States. It could be ready to implement the system in a year or two, a company spokesperson says.


Explore further Researchers exploit weaknesses of master game bots

More information: Majdi I. Radaideh et al. Physics-informed reinforcement learning optimization of nuclear assembly design, Nuclear Engineering and Design (2020).

DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110966

Provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology