NewNergy

NewNergy discusses the latest inventions, innovations and breakthroughs in the energy & environmental sciences.

New Economical Way of Corn-based Ethanol Production

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:02 PM

TMO Renewables, based in the south of England, has developed a new fermentation process using certain micro-organisms that enables part of the waste deriving from corn-based ethanol production to be used to make more biofuel. According to the company, 25 ethanol plants in the US are interested in TMO Renewables’ proposal. In a recent case study in Iowa, TMO proved that it could deliver lower energy consumption, lower costs and higher output, thus producing a 70% improvement in margin – and this after the payment of a royalty to TMO.

The TMO process exploits two innate properties of the unique organism. Firstly, by exploiting the high temperature that the organism favours, fermentation can be performed at temperatures in excess of sixty degrees Celsius.Since very little cooling or heating is required, there is a significant saving in energy.

Secondly, the organism has a preference for consuming the longer chain sugars that derive from the breakup of biomass. This brings a very significant benefit in that a very large portion of the work and cost required to break down biomass to simple sugars, such as glucose, is removed.

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Labels: biofuels, economics, ethanol

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New Solar Battery Technology Offers Cheap Household Power

Posted on Monday, September 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:58 PM

Salt Lake City-based company Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, has made what it believes to be a massive breakthrough in batteries for storing energy harnessed from the sun. The company is making impressive inroads on the prototype of a deep storage battery, the size of a small refrigerator, that safely operates at room temperature, consists of everyday materials, and can output household power at 2.5c per kWh. What’s more, Ceramatec says it will be cheap to purchase.

Currently, great performing energy-dense batteries are huge containers of super-hot molten sodium that hover around 600°C. At that temperature the material is highly conductive of electricity, however, it is also toxic and corrosive. Instead, Ceramatec's battery comprises a large piece of solid sodium metal mated to a sulfur compound by a paper-thin ceramic membrane, called NaSICON. The membrane conducts ions - electrically-charged particles - back and forth to generate a current.

The company calculates that the battery will be able to sustain 20-40kWh of energy into a refrigerator-size housing that operates at around or below 90°C. This is possibly the only way that this type of dense battery technology will ever be approved for household use – safe, small (relatively) and cheap to purchase.

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Labels: batteries, economics, energy, solar

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Solar power drops to $1 per watt, nears parity with oil

Posted on Friday, April 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:48 PM

Solar energy costs have dropped steadily and consistently over the past 30 years. In the late 1970s solar energy cost $100 per watt. Even though the price with the newest solar technology has now fallen to under $1 per watt, that price will almost certainly continue to drop.

key excerpts of an article on solar energy breaking the $1 per watt barrier, as reported in Popular Mechanics, one of the few major media publications to publish this exciting, milestone story.

A long-sought solar milestone was eclipsed on Tuesday, when Tempe, Ariz.–based First Solar Inc. announced that the manufacturing costs for its thin-film photovoltaic panels had dipped below $1 per watt for the first time. With comparable costs for standard silicon panels still hovering in the $3 range, it's tempting to conclude that First Solar's cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology has won the race.

[Yet] even if the solar cell market were to grow at 56 percent a year for the next 10 years—slightly higher than the rapid growth of the past year—photovoltaics would still only account for about 2.5 percent of global electricity, LBNL researcher Cyrus Wadia says. "First Solar is great, as long as we're talking megawatts or gigawatts," he says. "But as soon as they have to start rolling out terawatts, that's where I believe they will reach some limitations." Even the current rate of growth won't be easy to sustain.

full article here

Labels: economics, energy, solar

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First Economical Process for Making Algae Biodiesel

Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:47 PM

Chemists reported development of what they termed the first economical, eco-friendly process to convert algae oil into biodiesel fuel — a discovery they predict could one day lead to U.S. independence from petroleum as a fuel.A key advantage of this new process, he says, is that it uses a proprietary solid catalyst developed at his company instead of liquid catalysts used by other scientists today. First, the solid catalyst can be used over and over. Second, it allows the continuously flowing production of biodiesel, compared to the method using a liquid catalyst.

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Labels: biodiesel, economics

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Floating Wind Generators With High Rated Capacity

Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 1:02 AM

Wind power is notoriously flighty, particularly at ground level. Most turbine-on-a-post wind powered generators operate at around 20-40% of their rated generation capacity, simply because wind is intermittent and changes direction. But a generator situated 500-1000 feet above ground level would enjoy much more consistent strong wind - which is why the Magenn MARS system makes so much sense. It's a helium-filled rotating airship that spins in the wind on the end of a variable-length tether that also acts as a power transmitter, and it's expected to operate at more like 50% of its rated capacity. Each MARS system will be cheap and portable, which will make them extremely useful in rural, camping and emergency situations. A prototype has successfully been flown in North Carolina.

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Labels: economics, efficiency, energy, wind

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Palm oil boon may well be biodiesel bane

Posted on Saturday, April 21, 2007 posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 1:44 AM

Palm oil boon may well be biodiesel bane

By Zaidi Isham Ismail

April 19 2007, Business Times, Malaysia

Malaysia's crude palm oil (CPO) prices have soared to record levels, but, ironically, may also hurt another equally lucrative and rejuvenated sector - palm oil-based biodiesel.

This is because CPO, the main raw material needed to make biodiesel, is set to become more expensive than the selling price of biodiesel, says this report.

Read the full news report here @ Business Times, Malaysia

Labels: economics

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Corn can't solve our problem

Posted on Thursday, March 29, 2007 posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 11:05 AM

Corn can't solve our problem

March 27, 2007, By David Tilman & Jason Hill - Check Biotech

The world has come full circle. A century ago our first transportation biofuels -- the hay and oats fed to our horses -- were replaced by gasoline. Today, ethanol from corn and biodiesel from soybeans have begun edging out gasoline and diesel.

This has been hailed as an overwhelmingly positive development that will help us reduce the threat of climate change and ease our dependence on foreign oil...But lost in the euphoria, however, is the fact that three of our most fundamental needs -- food, energy, and a livable and sustainable environment -- are now in direct conflict. Moreover, a recent analyses of the full costs and benefits of various biofuels, performed at the University of Minnesota, present a markedly different and more nuanced picture than has been heard on the campaign trail, says this analysis article at Check Biotech

Read the full article from here @ Check Biotech

Labels: economics, ethanol

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Biofuels increasing food prices globally

Posted on posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 10:42 AM

Biofuels increasing food prices globally

Lester Brown, 21 March 2007, Cherry Creek News

The escalating share of the U.S. grain harvest going to ethanol distilleries is driving up food prices worldwide.

Corn prices have doubled over the last year, wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years, soybean futures have risen by half. A Bloomberg analysis notes that the soaring use of corn as the feedstock for fuel ethanol “is creating unintended consequences throughout the global food chain.”

Food prices are also rising in China, India, and the United States, countries that contain 40 percent of the world’s people. While relatively little corn is eaten directly in these countries, vast quantities are consumed indirectly in meat, milk, and eggs in China and the US.

Read the full report from here @ Cherry Creek News

Labels: economics, ethanol

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Ethanol, energy and profits

Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 7:14 AM

Ethanol, energy and profits

March 24, 2007, Author: David Kennell

Brazil leads the world with “hundreds of miles” of sugarcane plantations, much of it derived by decimation of vast areas of the large Amazon rainforest basin, critical for life on the planet. Eight of 10 new Brazilian cars are fueled by ethanol. Brazilian media billed Bush’s meeting with President Lula da Silva as a bid to create a new “OPEC of ethanol.”

However, analysts point to a major problem for the Brazil-U.S. relationship: a 54 cent U.S. tariff per gallon on Brazilian ethanol. Since corn is the major U.S. plant source for ethanol, the tariff is to protect the U.S. agrichemical industry (free trade indeed).

Read more on this interesting viewpoint from this report @ People's Weekly World

Labels: economics, environment, ethanol

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