NewNergy

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

Wind Power Breakthrough: 10 MW Floating Wind Turbine Prototype

Posted on Monday, March 8, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:06 PM

Norwegian-based company Sway is a renewable energy company, with world leading technology and competence on floating wind turbines located in deep water.

State company Enova has allocated 17 million euros for the construction of the largest floating wind turbine designed for offshore wind farms. This prototype, developed by Sway, has a capacity of 10 MW and is equipped with a rotor having a diameter of 145 metres. The wind turbine will have to be tested onshore for two years before being installed in the North Sea.

Unlike most wind farms which are based directly on the seabed (up to a maximum depth of 60-70 meters) the Sway turbine floats and can therefore be installed offshore at depths of several hundred meters.This implies a substantial difference in terms of generated energy, since in Norway, for example, winds blowing about 50 km off the coast (where depths typically range from 100 up to 300 meters) are approximately 25% stronger and more constant than in areas up to 15 km off the coast, where the largest power plants were built up to now.

The buoyancy of the new wind turbine is based on the large internally hollow supporting tower, which extends below the water surface and is filled with ballast, thus having sufficient stability to resist wind loads. The structure is anchored to the seabed also by means of lateral suction anchors, allowing the tower to tilt a few degrees and to turn around, so as to harness more energy from winds, while reducing excessive structural tensions.

Labels: efficiency, energy, wind

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Solar Breakthrough: Water to Hydrogen with 60% Efficiency

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:53 PM

British scientists say they've achieved a breakthrough, figuring out how to extract hydrogen from water with an unheard-of 60% efficiency using solar energy. The secret sauce is nanotechnology, in the form of nanoclusters of indium phosphide encrusted on a gold electrode. Using this, they can turn sunlight into that hotshot hydrogen fuel, clean-burning and as energetic as a swift kick in the ass.

New Device to Make Energy Efficient Biofuels

Posted on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:04 AM

A team of scientists from the University of Sheffield, UK, has developed an innovative device that will make the production of alternative biofuels more energy efficient.The research team has adapted a unique bioreactor for use in the production of alternative renewable fuels, to replace fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel.

The team have devised an air-lift loop bioreactor which creates microbubbles using 18% less energy consumption. Microbubbles are miniature gas bubbles of less than 50 microns diameter in water. They are able to transfer materials in a bioreactor much more rapidly than larger bubbles produced by conventional bubble generation techniques and they consume much less energy. The team's unique adaption of the bioreactor and creation of microbubbles has the potential to revolutionise the energy-efficient production of biofuels.

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Labels: alternative-energy, biofuels, energy, research

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New Energy Technologies Develops ‘Spray on’ Solar Solution

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:10 AM

New Energy Technologies has reached the next development stage of a process for spraying solar cells and their related components onto glass. This product is still awaiting patent and is in the early stages, yet if successful, is expected to make significant changes to the BIPV market.

"The ability to spray solar coatings directly onto glass follows on the heels of our recent breakthrough which replaced visibility-blocking metal with environmentally-friendly see-thru compounds, and marks an important advance in the development of our see-thru glass windows capable of generating electricity," announced Meetesh V. Patel, president and CEO of New Energy Technologies.

In commercial terms, this new spray technology could translate into important manufacturing advantages for our SolarWindow, including significant cost-savings, high-speed production, and room-temperature deposition--common barriers to commercial success for innovative solar technologies.

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Labels: electricity, energy, solar

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Portable Charger Harvests Solar and Wind Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:56 AM

Miniwiz earlier showcased their portable wind-powered gadget charger in 2007, the Hymini, which charges various portable electronic devices using wind energy. The company is back with an upgraded version of the device that now harvests solar energy as well. Dubbed the Hymini Biscuit, the charger was unveiled at CES 2010, and recharges two AA-sized batteries using renewable energy.

The device features a solar panel and a fan to recharge the set of batteries, which can then be used to various electronic devices that support USB charging. The device costs $50 and can be purchased online.

See more about the batteries here

Labels: batteries, energy, renewable, solar, wind

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Energy-efficient Bioconversion to Turn Waste Glycerin to Biofuels

Posted on Monday, January 4, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:17 PM

A large part of the glycerin glut comes from biofuel refineries, which put out enormous quantities of crude glycerin as a byproduct. Glycos Biotechnologies, Inc. , which is commercializing glycerin-gobbling microorganisms developed by researchers at Rice University. The hungry bugs are at the heart of an energy-efficient bioconversion process that turns waste glycerin into fuels and other products.

GlycosBio’s approach is to integrate bioconversion into individual refinery operations. Instead of a liability, the waste glycerin can be made into a profit center, yielding high-value chemicals (alcohols and acids) that can be used to make fabrics, insulation, and food products, as well as additional fuels. Other researchers have been developing ways to convert glycerin into ethanol, methane, hydrogen gas, and even a non-toxic antifreeze.

GlycosBio designed its operations to follow familiar refinery processes, which makes integration relatively easy. The big difference is the company’s proprietary microbe based conversion process, which requires far less heat and power. In addition to crude glycerin, the conversion process can also work on a variety of biofuel feedstocks, perhaps including algae.

Labels: biofuels, energy, waste

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Smart Wind Turbines Can Predict the Wind

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 8:20 PM

Risø DTU has recently completed the world's first successful test on a wind turbine with a laser-based anemometer built into the spinner in order to increase electricity generation.The results show that the system called wind LIDAR can predict wind direction, gusts of wind and turbulence.

It is expected that the technology can increase energy production by up to 5%, primarily because it is possible to use longer blades. For a 4 MW wind turbine, this means a financial gain of 200,000 Danish kroner a year. Compared to the Danish Energy Agency's predictions, this technology could cut CO2 emissions by 25,000 tons by 2025, if every 10th turbine is equipped with a wind LIDAR. At the same time, the technology can be combined with "smart blades" and thereby increase longevity.

Labels: co2, electricity, energy, inventions, wind

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Sopogy Inaugurates World’s First MicroCSP Solar Plant

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:28 AM

Sopogy Inc has inaugurated the world’s first MicroCSP solar thermal plant at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. The 2MW thermal energy project spans 3.8 acres in the hot Kona desert and makes use of 1000 Sopogy MicroCSP solar panels.

The panels are equipped with mirrors and optics and an integrated sun tracking system, which betters the efficiency of the plant. The system also uses a unique thermal energy storage buffer that allows energy to be produced during cloudy periods and to shift energy produced from the day to evening periods.

Labels: efficiency, electricity, energy, solar

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LED Light Bulbs with Remote Controls to Save More Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:09 AM

The new LED EcoBulb by Seokjae Rhee raises the green bar with innovative features to save more energy.

For one, the bulb allows the user to only light the needed area with a small portion of the bulb’s surface aiming in the right direction (the bulb’s surface is divided into 6 parts). The brightness can also be adjusted, so you don’t have to have it on full blast all the time. The bulb also comes with a remote control, so when people are too lazy to get up to turn the light off (can’t imagine you’ve ever been in that situation) they can just grab the remote.

Labels: efficiency, energy, inventions

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Southwest Solar Technologies Finds a Unique Energy Storage Solution

Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:40 AM

Solar Southwest Technology, a Phoenix based company is out with an interesting and innovative idea to store energy. Under the plan whenever excess energy is available from any source, it is utilized to pump air into a subterranean cavern. Nearly 350 pounds of air is pumped in a square inch.

Whenever electricity is required, the air in the cavern is used to spin a turbine that is capable of converting the energy of a passing gas into rotary energy. The turbine in turn spins a generator and puts power on the grid on demand, rather than at the whim of sun or breeze. In order to obtain better results, the air must be heated so that it expands and drives the turbine blades even more efficiently. A mirror dish is used to heat the air. This dish helps in focusing the sun’s energy on a receptacle filled with a fluid, which captures the heat at up to 1,700 degrees and carries it to where it is required.

The project is currently in its initial stages and the company has installed a prototype solar dish and turbine. An electrically driven compressor provides compressed air for the prototype solar dish system.

Labels: efficiency, electricity, energy, solar

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LED Lamp Powered by Solar Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:23 AM

Od-Do Arhiteckti has come up with a sustainable lamp that harvests clean energy during the day for sustainable lighting after dark.The lamp is incorporated with photovoltaic cells that can harvest solar energy during the daytime and stores it in an onboard battery. After dark the energy stored is used to power a set of energy-efficient LED light bulbs for sustainable illumination.

Labels: efficiency, electricity, energy, lighting, solar

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Toyota Industries Develops Solar-powered EV Charging Stations

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:17 AM

Toyota Industries Corp. has developed a new charging station for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles that is powered by solar energy. The municipal government of Toyota City has adopted the stations and plans to build 21 stations at 11 places.

The charging station produces 1.9KW of solar power, which is stored in an 8.4KWh battery pack. The station is also connected to the grid, which enables commuters to charge their rides after the stored electricity runs out and the solar array isn’t producing any charge.

Labels: electricity, energy, hybrids, solar

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New Glitter-Sized Photovoltaic Cells Use Less Silicon, Generate More Electricity

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:00 AM

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have come up with a new photovoltaic cell no bigger than a flake of glitter, but it packs a big punch. The new cell uses 100 times less silicon to generate the same amount of electricity as conventional solar cells. While still in the development stage, the new solar particles could lend themselves relatively easily to commercialization because they are made of crystalline silicon and use the same micro-manufacturing processes typical of modern electronics.

The Sandia team also cites the potential for applying the tiny photovoltaic cells directly to roofing materials, which would practically eliminate the often cumbersome permitting process that is currently needed to install a conventional rooftop solar array (Dow has taken a similar approach with its new solar shingles). Compared to six-by-six inch conventional solar cells, the new solar particles are only up to 20 micrometers thick, less than one third the thickness of a human hair, and they could be imprinted with circuits that would control the collection and disbursement of solar energy within the building and to a grid connection, without the need for expensive and time-consuming electrical design work. Roof maintenance, repair, and shading issues may also be mitigated due to the small size of the micro-cells.

The new cells can be made from available silicon wafers of any size, without some of the quality control problems involved in conventional solar cell manufacturing. The Sandia researchers also expect them to be less expensive, more durable and more efficient that conventional solar collectors, and they could open up an exciting new range of applications.

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Prism Makes $1 a Watt Unique Solar Hybrid

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:47 AM

Prism Solar Technologies in Highland, NY has innovated a breakthrough holographic thin-film (Holographic Planar Concentrator™) that makes possible a very parsimonious use of crystalline PV cells to counteract that problem for Northern regions.This brings the cost down to $1 a watt.

Each of their solar modules is actually made up of both crystalline PV and their unique holographic thin-film. The thin-film strips diffract both direct and reflected energy to the PV cell strips integrated between strips of thin-film. Solar modules made in this way are cheaper because they use 50-72% less silicon to make the same energy.(more from here)

Here are the advantages of Holographic Planar Concentrator™ (HPC) technology:

Less silicon reduces cost per watt
Passive tracking from holographic effect produces more energy from diffuse and reflected light.
Cooler operation than conventional PV module, most unusable light passes through module without being turned into heat.
Bifacial PV cells can increase module performance when mounted over a reflective surface.
Lower embodied energy, the energy required to manufacture the HPC film is much less than that required to mine and process silicon.

Labels: costs, energy, solar, technology

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Power Paper and GE Collaborate to Develop Self-Powered OLED Lighting

Posted on Monday, December 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:21 PM

Power Paper, an Infinity Group portfolio company, and GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced that the companies have signed an agreement to jointly develop self-powered OLED lighting devices. Using low-cost, high volume manufacturing processes, these devices could be deployed in a wide variety of environments from military ships to night-time jogging vests. The collaboration is supported by an Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD Foundation) program.

Under the terms of the agreement, the collaboration will combine Power Paper’s novel thin film batteries and GE’s industry leading Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology. The goal of the GE-Power Paper- BIRD project is to develop a first generation of self-powered OLED lighting products and identify next generation technologies with enhanced capabilities. The length of the program is 12 months. The general illumination market is estimated at $2.5 billion.

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Labels: batteries, efficiency, energy, lighting

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New Bioplastic Material Absorbs Carbon Dioxide

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:34 PM

Myriant Technologies LLC has just won U.S. Department of Energy funding of up to $50 million to construct a new plant that will produce Succinic Acid from sorghum, using a biobased process that is more energy efficient than conventional methods, and also absorbs more carbon dioxide than it produces.

Until now, petroleum has been the feedstock of choice to manufacture Succinic Acid. If commercially successful, a more sustainable biobased process like Myriant’s could have a significant impact on global greenhouse gas emissions, because Succinic Acid is used in a fantastic variety of materials from non-toxic diesel fuel additives, pharmaceuticals and food to plastic car parts, computer casings, and shoe soles.

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Labels: biopolymers, co2, efficiency, energy

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Synthetic Enzyme to Help Capture CO2 from Coal Plant Emissions

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:22 AM

New Jersey-based Carbozyme is taking help from the human blood to develop a system to capture CO2 from mixed gas emissions for later sequestration.

An enzyme in our blood captures about two pounds of CO2 every day and converts it into bicarbonate for easier transportation to the lungs. The same enzyme then works in reverse and converts bicarbonate into CO2 gas that we exhale. Carbozyme is trying to develop a synthetic enzyme that does the same but at a much larger scale.

The idea is to coat porous tubes with the synthetic version of the enzyme and let it capture CO2 from smokestack gases as they pass through the tubes. Based on lab tests, the system should use about a third less energy than other methods, while avoiding the hazardous chemicals typically used for the same process.

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Neptune Renewable Energy Launches Proteus Tidal Power Generator

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:36 AM

Neptune Renewable Energy has announced the development of a breakthrough tidal power generator, which will undergo sea trial at Hull early next year. The generator dubs the action of Proteus,which consists of a 6m x 6m vertical axis, crossflow turbine mounted within a patented, symmetrical Venturi diffuser duct and beneath a very simple steel deck and buoyancy chambers. Similar to Proteus,the £1 million, 150-ton generator is being claimed to be 30% more efficient than conventional hydro dam designs and can provide a continuous supply ofrenewable energy.

The state-of-the-art generator features a steel hull, turbine and buoyancy chambers, which allows it to work equally well in ebb and flow tides. The system consists of a vertical axis cross-flow turbine mounted within symmetrical venture diffusers that efficiently convert tidal energy into electricity.

NREL has selected the Humber Estuary for the first deployment of Proteus, as given its depth and tidal flow, is considered one of the best locations in the British Isles for tidal stream power. Once deployed, the advanced Neptune Proteus NP1000 should generate at least 1000MWh of electricity each year.

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Stanford Scientists Create a New Energy Source: Paper Batteries

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:12 AM

Stanford University scientists discovered a way to turn paper covered with ink containing silver and carbon nano-materials into a “paper battery”. That’s right—a battery made out of paper. What’s really amazing is that this battery might have quite the variety of uses, ranging from electric vehicle power to laptop computer use. There is also the possibility that a paper electronics line may crop up in the future.

Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted that “taking advantage of the mature paper technology, low cost, light and high-performance energy-storage are realized by using conductive paper as current collectors and electrodes”.

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Labels: batteries, computers, energy, inventions, research

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SopoLite: New Version of Google Maps to Maximize Sun's Energy

Posted on Monday, December 7, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 5:02 AM

Sopogy has developed a new 90-pound portable power unit called SopoLite. This invention is a pint-sized version of the parabolic trough reflectors that Sopogy uses to collect solar thermal energy.

The unit's most interesting facet is its original purpose - collecting data on the solar power potential of wherever its located. Kimura, CEO of Sopogy, plans to park these units all over the country and build out a map of the potential availability of thermal solar energy, or the energy derived from the sun's heat. Such a map will make it much easier to determine the true thermal solar power potential of any given location without having to deploy sensors and testing gear. This could prove to be a boon to the still nascent rooftop and commercial solar thermal power segment.

Figuring out how well solar thermal power works in any given location, however, is somewhat tricky. Micro-weather patterns are very important for solar thermal as clouds can really put a drag on thermal heat collection. Winds and thermal patterns can also reduce solar collection possibilities. That's where Kimura hopes to insert SopoLite, and in the process turn the unit (which can be towed behind a trailer) into a data-collection initiative similar in nature to those funny Google cars you see driving around with spinning cameras mounted on their roofs.

It's way too early to see whether this will take off, but it's a fascinating idea in a small package.

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US Company Acquires Patents to A Breakthrough Hydrogen Battery Technology

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 4:24 AM

ERRA Incorporated, San Antonio, TX, USA has acquired all rights and patents to a breakthrough battery technology to be marketed as the YESS (that's "Your Energy Storage Solution") Battery from ERRA, Inc.

It appears the company is planning on launching its own electric car and has decided to re-invent the battery, specifically the nickel hydrogen (NiH2) cell similar to those used in satellites for the past 40 years. They say they have "acquired all rights and patents to a breakthrough battery technology" whose properties are said to include the ability to charge in 15 minutes, be cycled thousands of times and require no maintenance. With a cost said to be similar to lead acid and an energy density equivalent to lithium ion, ERRA believes it has a battery that will "largely displace" other chemistries. If it does manage to successfully maneuver the path from press statement to actual product, be prepared to see the YESS debut in the chassis of a refurbished Solectria Sunrise (specifically, this one). Company CEO Jim Hogarth played a part in the development of that car through his role at Boston Edison in the '90s and has never forgotten its promise of better efficiency through the use of lightweight materials. That presentation may be sooner rather than later as it is being reported that the company could be ready for production within nine months.

Labels: batteries, energy, hydrogen, technology

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New Failure-Proof Wind Turbine Technology

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:10 AM

A wind turbine efficiency breakthrough by Dr Markus Mueller and Dr Alasdair McDonald of the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Energy Systems has the potential to revolutionize the wind energy industry by making large turbines more failure-proof by cutting their weight in half.

It is expensive and hazardous sending workers out to off-shore wind farms for repairs when there is a mechanical failure. By reducing the weight, the researchers reduce mechanical failures, caused by the sheer stresses in these very large turbines.

Their technology substituted a “C” shaped core generator (initially in a 20 kW prototype) to test to see if by changing the mechanical structure of the generator they could still maintain rigidity and structural integrity while cutting the weight by more than half.

The researchers have formed NGenTec; a spin-off company, with the help of Derek Douglas, an entrepreneur familiar with raising money for start-ups.NGenTec hopes to raise £4 million to demonstrate that their improvement will also work full scale; at the 6MW level, and then a further £10 million to set up an assembly and manufacturing operation. The technology would reduce costs for both land-based and off-shore wind farms, while having a more marked effect on repair costs of hard to-get-to locations.

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Solar-coal Electric System - A New Solar Thermal Hybrid Technology

Posted on Sunday, December 6, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:03 PM

A small coal-fired generating plant owned by Colorado's Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. in northwestern New Mexico will be used to test new hybrid technology that combines solar- and coal-generated steam to produce electricity.

The 245-megawatt Escalante Generating Station in Prewitt, N.M., 27 miles northwest of Grants, is one of two host sites that California’s Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) chose to test the technology. The other site is a natural gas-powered generating station near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Solar thermal hybrid applications can provide a low-cost option for incorporating renewable energy into established grids because, rather than build new transmission capability for a stand-alone solar concentrating plant, the steam generated will make electricity through the turbine generator already established at the coal facility.

It also eliminates the challenges of siting a new plant and new power block, said EPRI Vice President of Generation Carolyn Shockley in a news release.

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Solarmer Energy Attained 7.9% Efficiency with Plastic Solar Cells

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 10:08 PM

California based Solarmer Energy has achieved nearly 8 percent efficiency of its plastic solar panels, certified by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.Reaching the 7.9 percent mark makes it the highest conversion efficiency for a plastic organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell to date.

The aperture-area test results also mean the company has beat its own 7.6 percent cell efficiencies, certified by the Newport Technology & Applications Center’s Photovoltaic Lab in October.

The company said it uses low-cost plastic as the active materials to convert solar energy into electricity. The active plastics layer is very thin, also offering low costs. The company said it also uses low-cost printing techniques and a fabrication process that has low temperatures and is eco-friendly.

Solarmer is currently completing its pilot manufacturing line and has said its plastic solar panels are expected to be available in 2010.

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New Generator Design to Make Wind Power Cheaper

Posted on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:06 AM

A radical new design of electrical generator that solves an engineering quandary and promises to be cheaper, lighter and more reliable than anything currently available has been unveiled by scientists at the University of Edinburgh.The work by Markus Mueller and Alasdair McDonald at the university’s Institute of Energy Systems has solved one of the fundamental engineering problems faced by builders of offshore wind turbines.

A new company, NGenTec, was formed ten days ago to exploit the new design. It is chaired by Derek Shepherd, a former managing director of Aggreko International, a Glasgow-based supplier of mainly diesel-fuelled generators.

The blades of conventional turbines are connected to a generator via a gearbox. In harsh conditions at sea, this is prone to breakdown, leading to costly repairs which themselves are at the mercy of the weather.The alternative is to dispense with the gearbox and connect the blades directly to a generator via an axle.

The institute’s design — through a novel arrangement of the magnets inside the generator and the copper coils that produce electricity as they pass the magnets — has succeeded in cutting the weight of direct-drive generators by up to half and made assembly much easier. A prototype installed on a wind turbine has proved that the design works.

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South Korean Engineers Develop New Solar Cell Material

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:35 AM

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) team led by Ha Jang-ho successfully fabricated the single crystal material made from cadmium, zinc and tellurium (CZT) to a diameter of two inches.The compound has a high energy bandgap that permits sensors to operate without additional cooling systems at room temperatures.

Global demand for the CZT compound is on the rise since it can be used to make radiation sensors to detect cancer growth, space telescopes, and solar energy cells.

The global market related to various sensors using radiation stands at around US$1.1 billion and is expected to grow 10 percent annually in the near future. Of the total, CZT sensors make up US$30 million, although it is growing at a faster pace compared to other arrays.

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Storing Renewable Energy in Boxes of Air

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:20 AM

Storage is needed to harvest the full yield available from intermittent sources of energy like wind and solar. One of the options is compressed-air storage; till now only possible in underground caverns. But SustainX Energy Solutions; a Dartmouth College start-up that got $4 million in VC funding from Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital this year is working on compressing and storing air in cheap off-the-shelf shipping containers.

The goalis to develop a renewable energy storage system with the portability and scalability of a battery and the economy and capacity of a cave. Make that a portable cave.

Over the next two years SustainX will try to develop a way to cram 4 megawatt-hours worth of stored energy into each 40-foot long container and to reduce the energy that it currently takes to compress and release air by about 70%.

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Breakthrough in Biomimic Photosynthesis to Tap Solar Power

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:06 AM

Daniel Nocera’s Sun Catalytix was one of the 37 ARPA-E awardees last month with a $4.1 million vote of confidence from the Nobel prizewinner-driven Department of Energy. Now Polaris Venture Partners has just added $1 million to its earlier $2 million investment in the MIT spin-off to bring their total investment to $3 million.Nocera’s work first burst on the world in 2007 with his work in figuring out how to ape the process of photosynthesis to create cheap solar energy stored as fuel.

According to MIT, the catalyst consists of an electrode placed in water containing cobalt and phosphate. MIT explains that when electricity from any source enters the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate create a film over the electrode, forming a catalyst that separates oxygen gas from the water and leaves behind hydrogen molecules. Then a platinum catalyst is used to convert the hydrogen molecules into hydrogen gas, which could power fuel cells and further efforts to lower global dependence on petroleum-based fuels. The vision is to use sunlight to enable these chemical reactions, creating a new way to tap solar power for energy.

Ultimately the plan is to integrate the technology with solar panels or wind turbines to store energy in liquid or gas fuels which are more energy-dense than the batteries traditionally used for energy storage.The Sun Catalytix electrolyzer breakthrough is that it is being designed to be made with cheap materials. Much work lies ahead, including finding a metal cheaper than the platinum to convert hydrogen molecules into hydrogen gas.

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Labels: energy, fuel, fuel-cells, solar

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Solar-collecting Method to Cool Buildings

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:37 AM

University of California, Merced officials are trying a new method of cooling buildings. By concentrating solar collectors, temperatures of 400 degrees are achieved. When this technology,which is developed by professor Roland Winston,is operational,the solar array will heat an environmentally friendly mineral oil that will be circulated through a system of tubes connected to "cooling machine" that will produce cool water and, finally, cool air.

UC Merced was awarded a $2.25 million grant from the University of California Office of Research to be the lead agency in the California Alternative Solar Technologies Institute.A demonstration will take place in a couple of months and the system will be used to cool a 16-by-12-foot trailer, he said.

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Dow's New Solar Energy Technology Wins Accolades

Posted on Monday, November 16, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:34 PM

A shingle that generates solar energy was named one of the 50 Best Innovations of 2009 by Time magazine.

Dow Chemical, the Powerhouse Solar Shingle's inventor, will make the shingles commercially available by the middle of next year. The Powerhouse design includes thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide. Dow notes the cells' low cost relative to other solar technologies.

And, on top of low cost, Dow's new shingle has other advantages. The company reports that the installation process is no different than that of traditional shingles, making Powerhouse shingles attractive to contractors. And in addition to saving money for homeowners by cutting energy use, the shingles are anticipated to make a lot of money for Dow - up to $10 billion a year by 2020.

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Nanowires to Boost Solar Energy Efficiency

Posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:15 PM

A team of Danish nanophysicists has developed a new method for manufacturing nanowires and believes the discovery will have great potential for the development of nanoelectronics and highly efficient solar cells.PhD student Peter Krogstrup, from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, developed the method during his dissertation.

Different materials capture energy from the sun in different and quite specific absorption areas.They have produced nanowires that contain two different semiconductors – GaInAs and InAs,which each have their own absorption area, they can collectively capture energy from a much wider area. We can therefore use more solar energy if we produce nanowires from the two superconductors and use them for solar cells.

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Scientists Make Foldable 3D Solar Cells around an Optical Fibre

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:47 PM

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have made a three-dimensional photovoltaic solar cell around an optical fibre, a revolutionary new approach that could pave the way for a new generation of hyper-flexible solar systems.

According to team-leader Professor Zhong Lin Wang, “Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile. Optical fibre could conduct sunlight into a building’s walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell.”

The dye-sensitised nano-converter is based on coated zinc oxide structures grown on the optical fibre, from which the cladding has been removed, covered with a conductive layer and seeded with ZnO.

The next step is to grow a series of aligned zinc nanowires around the fibre from solution, resulting in something closely akin to a bottle brush, before coating the wires with dye and immersing them in a liquid electrolyte to complete the circuit. The team claim that the set up achieves a solar efficiency of 3.3%.

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WaveRoller : An Invention to Harness Underwater Wave Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:09 AM

It was a Eureka moment for Rauno Koivusaari, and he started to work on harnessing the powerful motion for generating underwater wave power.Now, fifteen years later, the EU is funding the WaveRoller invented by that former diver, with $4.4 million,for his company AW-Energy to build the first full scale demo of his invention.

Each one at full size weighs 20 tons and produces 300 KW.Each 20 ton WaveRoller “door” can be connected together in threes to make up a nearly 1 MW unit. Obviously you can make a modular farm of any size under the ocean of these three-packed units, so the output can be as much as you can build tons-worth of “doors”.

AW-Energy’s WaveRoller uses the roiling currents under the sea to make energy from the repetitive surge motion at the sea floor in what Koivusaari calls the surge zone. The kinetic energy produced is collected by a piston pump. This energy can be converted to electricity by a closed hydraulic system in combination with a hydraulic motor/generator system.This year the company will get the results of a full scale demo built off the coast of Portugal.

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New Energy Efficient Composting Technology

Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:21 AM

NatureMill, Inc. today unveiled its new XE Series of automatic home composters. The new models offer the simplicity and durability required for every day composting, with the convenience of indoor or outdoor use, while reducing overall energy consumption. Now ordinary home users, including apartment dwellers, can nearly eliminate landfill waste and related greenhouse gasses by composting their food waste.

Starting at $299, the all-new XE Series can compost over 100 lbs (45 kg) of food waste per month. New features include a stronger motor to grind and compost the toughest food scraps without jamming, a more powerful filter to eliminate trash odors, and a new heavy duty mode for occasional heavy use. Energy consumption is just 5 kwh per month, costing roughly $0.50 per month depending on local utility rates. A diesel trash truck consumes more energy hauling the same trash to a landfill. A new "Energy Save" mode further reduces energy consumption by 75%. The machine's small size allows it to be used inside a standard kitchen cabinet, which is ideal for people living in apartments with small kitchens.

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Solar Energy Breakthrough: 35.8% Efficiency Achieved

Posted on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 12:18 AM

Sharp Corporation has achieved the world’s highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 35.8% using a triple-junction compound solar cell.

Unlike silicon-based solar cells, the most common type of solar cell in use today, the compound solar cell utilizes photo-absorption layers made from compounds consisting of two or more elements such as indium and gallium. Due to their high conversion efficiency, compound solar cells are used mainly on space satellites.

To boost the efficiency of triple-junction compound solar cells, it is important to improve the crystallinity (the regularity of the atomic arrangement) in each photo-absorption layer (the top, middle, and bottom layer). It is also crucial that the solar cell be composed of materials that can maximize the effective use of solar energy.

Conventionally, Ge (germanium) is used as the bottom layer due to its ease of manufacturing. However, in terms of performance, although Ge generates a large amount of current, the majority of the current is wasted, without being used effectively for electrical energy. The key to solving this problem was to form the bottom layer from InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), a material with high light utilization efficiency. However, the process to make high-quality InGaAs with high crystallinity was difficult.

Sharp has now succeeded in forming an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by using its proprietary technology for forming layers. As a result, the amount of wasted current has been minimized, and the conversion efficiency, which had been 31.5% in Sharp’s previous cells, has been successfully increased to 35.8%.

Sharp achieved this breakthrough as part of a research and development initiative promoted by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)*3 on the theme of “R&D on Innovative Solar Cells”.

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Hydraulic Gearless Transmissions for Large Wind Turbines

Posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:54 PM

Edinburgh based Artemis Intelligent Power has been awarded £1million under Phase1 of the Low Carbon Energy Demonstration capital grants scheme to develop its Digital Displacement technology to replace the mechanical transmissions of wind turbines.

The technology will be initially demonstrated for a 1.5MW transmission but the Digital Displacement components developed will be directly transferable for multi-megawatt offshore deployment. Digital Displacement Hydraulic Transmission are gearless, making them lighter and lower cost than mechanical transmissions.

Digital Displacement uses different principles to off load unused capacity, in a manner which results in very low parasitic loss and because of the speed this is done, it can be controlled with a high bandwidth with good linearity and low hysteresis.

Waverley Cameron, chairman of Artemis Intelligent Power, said: "The Artemis Digital Displacement technology will provide cost effective solutions to some of the most challenging engineering problems facing the large scale deployment of offshore wind, wave and tidal power generation."

Its Digital Displacement technology has been able to overcome many of the efficiency problems traditionally associated with hydraulics and was originally developed for use on cars as a hybrid system, storing braking energy as hydraulic pressure in an accumulator, which can then be used for acceleration. The system improved fuel efficiency by 40%.

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Harnessing the Power of Plasma for Hydrogen Storage

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 11:38 PM

Plasma is like a gas, but many of its atoms have been stripped of an electron or two. These positively charged atoms swim about in a crackling-hot sea of negatively charged loose electrons, making plasmas great electrical conductors.

Kong, technical lead for plasma processing at INL, has built a career of putting plasma to work. He's using it to mass-produce nanoparticles, a project that in August received $1 million in federal stimulus funding. He's also employing plasma to find ways to store hydrogen efficiently, and he'll soon start a project using plasma to convert natural gas, coal and heavy oil to gasoline and diesel.

Kong is also working with a large multinational chemical company to find better ways to store hydrogen.

Simply putting hydrogen in a tank to power a car or appliance is difficult, because the element is a gas at all but extremely low temperatures (its boiling point is -253 degrees Celsius). Tanks holding enough low-density hydrogen gas to power anything would have to be very large, in many cases prohibitively so. Hydrogen could be liquefied — either by compression or cooling — to bring tank size down, but this would require a great deal of energy and raise safety concerns, as elemental hydrogen is very reactive. Chemical storage — in which hydrogen is locked into more complex molecules, then released later after exposure to heat and/or catalysts — strikes many scientists as more practical. But current technologies for making such chemical hydrides are complicated and energy-intensive. Kong is using plasma in an attempt to revolutionize the production process.

The current method of making these complex chemical hydrides is a 13-step process.What they are working on is potentially a one- to two-step process.Eliminating so many steps involves tricky, difficult and unstable reactions, and Kong and his team are still working out the details.

To know about the technology click here

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Solar Beam Concentrator : A New Solar Energy Invention Moves on in Provincial Competition

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 10:22 PM

The solar beam concentrator, designed by Edward Herniak of SolarTron Energy Systems Inc., Massachusetts, USA, has been named one of 25 inventions to make it to the second round of the InNOVAcorp I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition.

Using a celestial guiding system, the solar beam concentrator tracks the sun on a daily basis and isn't affected by the earth's tilt. Much like a wind turbine turns off when it's too windy, the solar beam concentrator goes to sleep when the sun isn't shining.Using a global positioning system, the concentrator rotates to follow the sun, absorbing more of that energy.

The typical unit is 3.8 metres in diameter and produces up to 10 kilowatts of heat, or 34,000 btu per hour. That means if you have a 2,400 square foot house, you can heat your house for a period of 24 hours within three hours,adding some of the energy is stored in hot water tanks.

Herniak said, the concentrator is self-driven so no maintenance is required, and could even be used to de-ice a driveway in the winter with heat pipes built into the driveway. In the warmer months, the energy can be put through an absorption chiller, which would give it a refrigeration effect and be used as air conditioning.

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SoloPower Displays CIGS PV Module Prototype

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:08 AM

SoloPower, a California-based manufacturer of thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules has announced that a prototype of its flexible copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS ) photovoltaic module will be on display at the Solar PowerInternational 2009 conference in Anaheim, California on October 27-29, 2009.

SoloPower`s flexible CIGS modules represent a breakthrough solar product. Because of their lighter weight, they will be deployable with lower installation costs, providing less expensive solar electricity for utility, commercial and industrial customers.SoloPower’s unique and proprietary CIGS technology is a major break-through in low-cost, high-quality, high-volume manufacturing and commercialization of CIGS-based photovoltaics.

SoloPower`s flexible modules will present new opportunities to large rooftop sites that glass-plate modules cannot service due to factors such as weight, high wind conditions, or roof penetrations.SoloPower flexible CIGS modules are expected to be available for sale later in 2010.

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DOE Funds Innovative Energy Research Projects

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:32 AM

Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy ("ARPA-E") selects 37 projects to pursue breakthroughs that could fundamentally change the way we use and produce energy.

Some of the innovative projects selected for awards include:

Liquid Metal Grid-Scale Batteries: Created by Professor Don Sadoway, a leading MIT battery scientist, the all-liquid metal battery is based on low cost, domestically available liquid metals with potential to break through the cost barrier required for mass adoption of large scale energy storage as part of the nation's energy grid. If successful, this battery technology could revolutionize the way electricity is used and produced on the grid, enabling round-the-clock power from America's wind and solar power resources, increasing the stability of the grid, and making blackouts a thing of the past. And if deployed at homes, it could allow individual consumers the ability to be part of a future "smart energy Internet," where they would have much greater control over their energy usage and delivery.
Bacteria for Producing Direct Solar Hydrocarbon Biofuels: Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a bioreactor that has the potential to produce a flow of gasoline directly from sunlight and CO2 using a symbiotic system of two organisms. First, a photosynthetic organism directly captures solar radiation and uses it to convert carbon dioxide to sugars. In the same area, another organism converts the sugars to gasoline and diesel transportation fuels. This development has the potential to greatly increase domestic production of clean fuel for our vehicles and end our reliance on foreign oil.
CO2 Capture using Artificial Enzymes: The funding will support an effort by the United Technologies Research Center to develop new synthetic enzymes that could make it easier and more affordable to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and factories. If successful, the effort would mean a much lower energy requirement for industrial carbon capture and significantly lower capital costs to get carbon capture systems up and running. Success of this project could substantially lower the cost of carbon capture relative to current, state-of-the-art amine and ammonia based processes. This would represent a major breakthrough that could make it affordable to capture the carbon dioxide emissions from coal and natural gas power plants around the world.
Low Cost Crystals for LED Lighting: Developed by Momentive Performance Materials, this proposal for novel crystal growth technology could dramatically lower the cost of developing light emitting diodes (LEDs), which are 30 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and four times more efficient than compact fluorescents. This higher quality, low-cost material would offer significant breakthroughs in lowering costs of finished LED lighting, accelerating mass market use, and dramatically decreasing U.S. lighting energy usage. Lighting accounts for 14 percent of U.S. electricity use.

New Energy Efficient Flow Control Systems for Hydro Power Plants

Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 4:10 AM

Chinese engineering firm, NF Energy Saving Corporation announced that the company has obtained two new patents for its inlet valves for use in the hydro power plants. NF Energy was awarded an invention patent for the ‘butterfly valve body dynamic seal ring pointing device’ and a new application patent for its ‘butterfly valve with butterfly plate adjusting device’.

The dynamic seal ring pointing device was awarded an invention patent, it is used in the inlet valve of hydro power plant. NF Energy’s propriety valve pointing devise has distinct advantages, it provides warning signals, which can be timely sent out with clear instructions. Long term stability of seal ring is achieved through the reduced number of parts. Additionally, the valve pointing device provides greater efficiency, according to NF Energy it saves hydro power due to its easier operation in maintenance, adjustment and replacement of equipment. The valve’s smaller resistance is achieved by optimizing structure.

The butterfly plate adjusting device, is used in the large dimension vertical butterfly valve, the propriety device was awarded a new application patent. It is effective in the reduction of friction and the subsequent wear and tear of bottom valve shaft. The adjusting device is also effective in the prevention of internal leakage. As a result the product achieves energy savings and an extension to the valve's operational life.

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Alaskan Entrepreneur Touts Geothermal Energy Invention

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:57 AM

An Alaskan entrepreneur Bernie Karl has pioneered modern technology to tap into one of Earth's oldest energy resources: hot water.

His energy-generating machine lies on a flatbed truck and can be hooked up to oil and gas wells or other heat-emitting sources to generate electricity.Karl adds a branch connection to an oil or gas pipeline, and the process begins when he "hot taps" into waste water coming through the pipes. The hot water enters the tubes of an evaporator encased in a common refrigerant found in many air conditioning systems. As the hot water passes through the evaporator, it begins to boil the refrigerant in the casing surrounding the tubes. The heat given off by the boiling refrigerant then causes an attached turbine to spin, which jump-starts a generator, producing electrical power.Next, cooling water enters from another source, recondensing the vapor refrigerant into a liquid.A pump pushes the liquid refrigerant back to the evaporator, so the cycle can start again. The difference in temperatures drives the entire "binary system." This setup works exactly the opposite of a refrigerator.

His portable geothermal generator units cost from $350,000 to $375,000, each with the potential to generate enough power for 250 average American homes per year.

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Eternal Candle : A Renewable Solar Heat Storage Technology

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:45 AM

Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin showcased 15 of its newest technologies last week, with a handful falling under the cleantech sector, that are now ready for commercialization.One of Trinity’s recent inventions is called the Eternal Candle, a renewable solar heat storage technology that has the potential to provide light for the developing world.

The research team led by Anthony Robinson invented a white light-emitting diode (WLED) lantern, powered by the sun. At night, the device converts the stored heat into electricity, which drives the WLED. The lamp doesn’t require batteries or have any running costs, but it’s not exactly eternal. The device is designed to provide light for four to five hours.The technology is best suited for off-grid communities, so the likes of sub-Saharan Africa, China and some parts of India where people don’t have electricity coming into their homes.

To know more cleantech innovations of Trinity College Dublin clik here

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Kite Power Harnesses Unspooling Motion For Energy

Posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:50 PM

Kite Gen is pioneering a revolution on how to produce clean energy from wind, with the aim not only to compete within the current wind industry but, as still too rarely happens with renewable sources, to move the battlefield into the territory of fossil fuels.

Instead of harnessing wind power to turn blades tethered to a pole, the KiteGen simply harnesses that rapid unspooling motion of kites reeling out as they release upwards. So instead of a heavy static structure this is simply a light and flexible kite.

The KiteGen would hover at 2,600 feet to produce power each time the kite’s tether unspools, spinning an alternator that generates the power. When the cables are completely unwound the production phase ends, the cables are reeled in to start another production phase. The cycle repeats; like in a yo-yo in reverse.

So the KiteGen splits the components of wind power. In the air; nothing but high efficiency air foils. On the ground, all the heavy machinery for power generation. Connecting the two; high resistance lines transmitting the traction of the kite.

The company holds more than 20 international patents and plans a demo by the end of 2010. These guys are thinking out of the box. They point out that there is about a GW of wind potential in the unusable no-fly air space around nuclear power plants. They suggest that’s the perfect spot for their 2,600 foot kite.

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Precision Nanoparticles to Make Solar Cell More Efficient

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 8:26 PM

Chemists at Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University have invented a way to manufacture highly precise, uniform nanoparticles to order. The technology, Precision Nanoparticles, has the potential to vastly improve the solar cell and further spur the growing nanotech revolution.The chemists have manufactured nanoparticles of the semiconductor copper indium sulfide (identified here as “quantum dots”), a key component of advanced solar cells. Precision Nanoparticles could enable photovoltaic cells to harness a much bigger chunk of the sun’s radiation spectrum.

Engineers have been working hard to harness more of the solar spectrum, to design cells that put low-energy photons to work and use high-energy photons more efficiently. One of the many properties that changes with a nanoparticle's size is its band gap. Because INL chemists learned how to control nanoparticle dimensions so precisely, it may soon be possible to manufacture — from a single material — semiconductor building blocks tuned to specific wavelengths of light. A photovoltaic cell made of such building blocks could capture huge swathes of the solar energy spectrum. And since the cells would contain only a single semiconducting material, they would be much cheaper, more efficient and easier to construct than current multi-layer designs.

Provided by Idaho National Laboratory, This feature story is available here. It was written by Mike Wall.

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Energy Generating Roads Made From Solar Cells

Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 1:46 AM

Scott Brusaw and his wife,Julie,co-owners of Sagle-based startup Solar Roadways,have come up with an idea to merge the nation's power grid with its system of highways and byways into an "electric road" that would power homes, businesses and vehicles.The Brusaws have drawn up plans for a road system built of 12-foot-by-12-foot solar panels rather than asphalt. The panels would draw energy from the sun to power surrounding homes and businesses, and provide the foundation for a new "smart" power grid.

The idea has a long way to go before it's on the ground, but the federal government is willing to give it a shot. Solar Roadways was recently awarded a $100,000 SBIR Phase 1 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build a prototype solar road panel for testing and demonstration. If it pans out, Brusaw said phase two could include an additional $750,000 over two years.

Brusaw estimates that one mile of solar roadway could supply a little less than one megawatt enough energy to power as many as 500 homes.

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MIT Roof Tiles Save Energy in All Climates

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:34 AM

A team of students at MIT has just developed a temperature sensitive roof tile that turns black and absorbs heat in cold weather, and turns white, reflecting heat away when it’s hot.

In cold weather, the polymer stays dissolved and the black backing shows through, but exposed to heat, tiny droplets form and scatter the light back to produce a white appearance. The tiles reflected 80% of the sunlight falling on them when white, and only 30% when black.

The cooling needs would then be reduced 20%.

Dark-roofed houses absorb more heat, requiring more air conditioning use in the summer for cooling, which in turn means using more energy for running air conditioners, which emits more greenhouse gases. Steven Chu at the DOE famously recommends “cool” white roofing for the sunny states - mentioning California, Florida and Georgia. Cool roofs reduce energy costs associated with air conditioning.

There are already special energy efficient elastomeric roof paints, rated by the independent cool roof council through coolroofs.org for how well each one reflects heat. California Energy Commissioner Athur Rosenfeld probably originated the idea to use “white roofs” for sunny climates, where air conditioning costs outpace heating costs for energy use.

In summer, the white roofed house is reflecting heat away. lowering energy costs. But for climates that get both extremes of heat and cold winters, there has not been a solution till now. Their carbon emitting energy use goes up summer and winter.

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‘Bacteria batteries’ For Energy Storage

Posted on Thursday, October 8, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:26 AM

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University are pioneering a method whereby electrical energy is stored as methane, which can then be burned to release power when it’s needed. The system’s active ‘ingredients’ are a combination of tiny microbes and CO2. Placed under an electrical current – for example from an off-grid renewable power source such as wind or solar – the microbes convert the CO2 into methane. Professor Bruce Logan, head of the research team, explains that they work in a similar way to the natural process found in marshes.

The initial carbon dioxide needed for the chemical reaction could even come from industrial sources: “CO2 is soluble in water, so the gas stream could be bubbled or transferred” in pipes from factories, for example. The ‘battery’ is designed to work as a closed loop, capturing and reusing the CO2 that’s released when the methane is burned. The energy conversion is about 80%, Logan claims, but admits that “a lot more research into scaling up these systems is needed” before commercial viability could be assessed.

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Plastic-to-oil Converter: A Breakthrough in Green Technology

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:10 AM

A breakthrough in green technology arrived in Montgomery County,United States as Evion Inc. unveiled its plastic-to-oil conversion technology.Envion said the facility was its first market-ready commercial unit and it was capable of converting any type of plastic waste into high quality, synthetic light medium oil for less than $10 per barrel. The company estimated that the technology, which it calls the Evion Oil Generator, could turn one ton of waste plastic into approximately four 42-gallon barrels of high quality, synthetic light to medium oil. That oil in turn could be used to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and kerosene.

In addition to adding to use oil production Envion said that its technology could reduce landfill use and expense. Envion estimates that the United States produces approximately 50 million tons of plastic waste per year, with most of its heading for landfills. The company estimates its plastic-to-oil conversion processing cost at approximately $17 per ton, much less than the $70-$200 cost range of landfill disposal.

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Energy-Efficient Silicon Device Compresses Light to Make Ultrafast Signals

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:57 AM

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a simple silicon device for speeding up optical data. The device incorporates a silicon chip called a "time lens," lengths of optical fiber, and a laser. It splits up a data stream encoded at 10 gigabits per second, puts it back together, and outputs the same data at 270 gigabits per second. Speeding up optical data transmission usually requires a lot of energy and bulky, expensive optics. The new system is energy efficient and is integrated on a compact silicon chip. It could be used to move vast quantities of data at fast speeds over the Internet or on optical chips inside computers.

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Generating Electricity from Passing Cars

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:45 AM

The first practical test of an innovative technology to generate electricity was conducted by Innowattech and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.The test was accomplished by drivers passing through the Hefer intersection,Israel, without even realizing it.They generated electricity while driving over a ten-meter strip of asphalt,underneath which lie generators capable of producing some 2,000 watt-hours (Wh),the power was relayed to batteries situated beside the road.

The technology is based on piezoelectric materials that enable the conversion of mechanical energy exerted by the weight of passing vehicles into electrical energy. As far as the drivers are concerned, the road is the same.Edery-Azulay added that expanding the project to a length of one kilometer along a single lane would produce 200 KWh, while a four-lane highway could produce about a MWh - sufficient electricity to provide for the average consumption in 2,500 households.

If the pilot test is successful, the project is expected to be expanded. Generators will be situated in one-kilometer strips along Israel's highways.

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Hydrogen-powered Mobile Phone Chargers

Posted on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:53 PM

Scientists from Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute recently unveiled a charger powered by hydrogen.According to the scientists, the device can recharge a mobile phone battery in two hours without being plugged.Tsau Fanghei of the research team says they “hope the hydrogen-powered device can replace current mobile phone recharge systems in 2012.”Fanghei says the team will continue to improve the new technology until it is ready for use. This research is part of Taiwan’s efforts to become a major player in the global hydrogen fuel cell industry, and to lower its energy import rate that is currently at 98%.

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Propulsion System for Mobile Offshore Wind Farm Ship

Posted on Monday, October 5, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:35 AM

Germany’s Voith Turbo is developing a new marine propulsion system for installation into a special mobile offshore construction vessel which will be used for the installation of offshore wind farms.

Weighing over 80 tons and measuring approximately 8m high, the Voith Radial Propellers will enable the specialised vessel to sail at approximately 10 knots with a full load. The propeller’s 360 degree steering will allow highly accurate positioning even in difficult sea conditions for a vessel which has a design resembling that of a drilling platform.European construction giant STRABAG SE, which employs 76,000 people and had a turnover of €13.7bn last year, has ordered five such Voith Radial Propellers for the vessel.

The groundbreaking for a trial gravity foundation for offshore wind farms took place in Cuxhaven last week. The project is a step toward the realisation of planned wind farms in the North Sea.Completion of the trial gravity foundation is planned for spring 2010. Series production is scheduled to begin in autumn of next year. Starting in 2011, the first wind turbines for the offshore wind power plant GlobalTech I are to be set up from Cuxhaven.

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Nanomaterials to Boost the Efficiency of Geothermal Energy Production

Posted on Thursday, October 1, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 4:19 AM

New nanomaterials could provide the boost in efficiency needed to make heat beneath the earth's surface a practical source to generate nearly pollution-free electricity if research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory proves out.Peter McGrail, a fellow at the Richland lab, thinks the nanomaterials may help make geothermal a more practical resource by allowing efficient energy production at lower temperatures.

In conventional geothermal use for power production, hot rock beneath the earth's surface needs to heat water driven into it to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or more typically hotter, to make electricity production efficient. That hot rock might be found 5,000 feet beneath the ground's surface in a few places, but typically it's much, much deeper.

Heat from the ground is typically extracted by forcing water into the ground and then pumping it up after it's flowed through rock and picked up heat. It then goes through a heat exchanger to heat liquid to produce vapor to drive a turbine. If it's water that's being used as a liquid, it has to be 212 degrees at sea level to produce steam.The traditional geothermal energy production methods are inherently inefficient in the way they remove the heat.

The nanomaterials called "metal organic heat carriers"with particles one-thousandth the width of a human hair can hold onto gas molecules at a much higher temperature, preventing the fluid from flashing to gas in the heat exchanger until it gets to a higher temperature and pressure. If successful, enhanced geothermal systems like this could become an important energy source.

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Most Efficient Solar Module from DSM

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:40 AM

Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, announced that its KhepriCoat anti-reflective coating system has contributed to achieving the highest energy conversion ever of a full-size solar module. The world record of 16.4%, achieved by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), was verified by global certification and testing organization TÜV. The previous record of 15.5% from 1998 was broken with an impressive 0.9% efficiency improvement, of which a significant part can be attributed to DSM's coating.

The new record efficiency to 16.4% means a substantial step in the ongoing quest to bring solar energy closer to "grid parity", the point at which solar energy is equal to or cheaper than traditional electricity. This would make it broadly accessible to both industrial and residential users without state and/or government subsidies.

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Revolving Doors Harvest Human Energy

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 4:28 AM

Energy harvesting revolving doors capture otherwise wasted human energy and convert it to electricity to power the installation site, for example lighting and signage.

Designers Jennifer Broutin and Carmen Trudell at design studio Fluxxlab have created Revolution Door, which is a modified revolving door made up of three parts - a redesigned central core replacing that of any existing or new revolving door, a mechanical/electrical system that harnesses human energy and redistributes electricity to an output, and an output device that maps the harnessed energy. The energy harvesting revolving door was exhibited in Manhattan's Eyebeam art and technology centre. When visitors walked through the door, the energy harnessed was used to power a sign that lights up as people pass through.

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Harnessing the Power of Water Currents

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 4:20 AM

Gold Coast company Tidal Energy has developed a turbine that can produce potentially limitless clean electricity from water currents.The design includes a submerged water-current turbine similar to a jet engine. It draws water through a hydrofoil system to turn an impellor that converts the kinetic energy of the water into mechanical energy that can power an electrical generator. It resembles a wind generator under water.The technology could add to existing power sources, not replace them at this stage.

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New Technology Turns Plastic Waste into Oil

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:15 AM

The Envion Oil Generator,United States, has recently assembled the first of its fuel-producing generators at the Derwood waste facility, which can consume any type of plastic and convert it into a light-brown synthetic oil that can be converted into fuel for a truck or a jet airplane.

The District company's technology works by melting plastic in an oxygen-free environment to separate the hydrocarbons destined for the oil barrel from the additives used to make that Big Gulp cup. The additives are rendered into a nonhazardous ash byproduct, the company says. While other firms have developed ways to convert waste plastic into oil, Envion uses a "far-infrared ray" technology that yields more fuel than competitors' processes.

The generator, with a capacity for handling more than 6,000 tons of plastic per year, is a slightly smaller version of what Envion will soon be pitching as its flagship product. The 10,000-ton version, which could produce up to 60,000 barrels, costs $6 million to $7 million to build. Depending on the type of plastic, one ton can be converted into three to six barrels of fuel. Envion said it costs about $10 to convert the plastic waste into a barrel's worth of synthetic oil; currently, crude oil sells for close to $70 a barrel.

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Labels: energy, fuel, oil, waste

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'Silicon ink' for More Efficient Solar Cells

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:52 AM

JA Solar, one of the big players in the solar industry, is working with Innovalight to commercialize the latter's method for making silicon-ink-based, high-efficiency solar cells. Innovalight first got noticed in 2007 for perfecting a process in which it could essentially ink-jet-manufacture solar cells using a proprietary silicon ink it had developed. The solar cells are created by pouring an ink solution incorporated with silicon nanoparticles and then decanting the excess liquid to leave behind a crystalline silicon structure.

Innovalight announced that an independent study of its method by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany confirmed that its silicon ink-based cells "demonstrated a record 18 percent conversion of efficiency."Shanghai, China-based JA Solar said the process will lower its production cost for this type of solar cell.

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WindAir -A New Renewable Energy Invention

Posted on Friday, September 18, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:39 PM

EarthSure, a renewable energy company and innovator in alternative energy sources has developed a renewable energy technology called WindAir,a system for transforming the exhausted air flow from central air conditioning units into a source of renewable, clean energy (electric).

The WindAir system uses the warm air flow from the exhaust of a traditional air conditioning unit and drives it into a secondary fan turbine system. This secondary system has an electric-generating mechanism that transforms the wind flow into free, clean, renewable energy which is then inverted into the electric meter of the home or office building. This renewable energy has the capability to reduce the increase in electric used by the air conditioning system by generating enough electricity to send it back to the meter, thereby turning the air conditioning unit into an actual "sub-power station".The unique WindAir converter system can be incorporated into any existing air conditioning condenser unit or manufactured as a complete new unit.

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Labels: energy, inventions, renewable, waste

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Nanotechnology for High Efficient Solar Cells

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 5:51 AM

Chemical engineers at Oregon State University have invented a new technology to deposit “nanostructure films” on various surfaces, which may first find use as coatings for eyeglasses that cost less and work better. Ultimately, the technique may provide a way to make solar cells more efficiently produce energy.

The key to the process is use of a chemical bath, controlled by a microreactor, to place thin-film deposits on various substrates such as glass, plastic, silicon or aluminum. In this case, the technology will create a type of nanostructure that resembles millions of tiny pyramids in a small space, which function to reduce the reflectance of any light that strikes the material.

The films reduce the reflectance of light, and in the case of eyeglasses would capture more light, reduce glare and also reduce exposure to ultraviolet light. Some coatings with these features are already available, but the new technology should perform better at a lower cost, and be able to be applied on-site in a dispenser’s office.

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Labels: efficiency, energy, inventions, solar

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New Invention Transforms Organic Waste to 'Green' Power

Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 5:33 AM

A new treatment system for organic residues has been launched by CST Wastewater Solutions, promising to convert almost any organic residue or energy crop into biogas, valuable electricity or heat. CST Wastewater Solutions has partnered with Global Water Engineering (GWE) to supply the RAPTOR system, which stands for Rapid Treatment of Organic Residues.

A RAPTOR plant is a total solution, starting with logistics for handling the energy crop and ending with the production of biogas, green electricity or steam. In the RAPTOR process, the pre-treated and blended substrate slurry is transferred into a mixed digester that uses energy efficient and low maintenance mechanical mixing. The digester tank comes in sizes up to 12,000 m3. Optional extras include a foam breaker fan, a scum buster system and a bottom grit trap.

The digester tank is fully insulated, heated by recycling the digester content through a special heat exchanger.

The plant can handle:
• Food waste, such as market surplus, kitchen waste, off specification fruit and vegetables, and excess crops
• Agro-industry residues, like starch and sugar pulps, vegetable or potato waste.
• Industrial residues, such as brewery waste (spent grain), fruit processing waste, and paper mill sludge.
• Energy crops, for example corn (silage), various grasses, algae.

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Labels: biogas, energy, technology, water

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CMU Startup Harnessing Human Body 'Biopower'

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:35 AM

Bio-Nano Power, at tenant at Central Michigan University Research Corp.'s business accelerator has developed a prodess to harness the power that’s available right in a human body.Nathan Long at Bio-Nano Power filed a comprehensive patent, “Bio-Nano Power Cells and Their Uses,” which ties together more than two years of intense biotechnology and nanotechnology research to develop power cells that generate efficient, high density power and emit lower CO2 pollutants.

According to Long, the body is full of bio-fuels that can be converted to electrical energy to run devices inside the body, or to be recreated outside for virtually any power-related need. The patented process he has developed and tested combines the strength of advanced biotechnology with honed nanotechnology techniques in a new and different way.

Long’s patented process creates that “team” of enzyme catalyst polymers that efficiently produce power when activated by common bio-fuels.Long’s vision for Bio-Nano Power is to focus on much needed medical device applications like smaller, faster biosensors for diabetes patients to monitor glucose levels or for clinicians to track and monitor heart conditions through self-powered devices.

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Labels: co2, energy, human-powered

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Electricity from the Artificial Fluorescent Lighting

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:41 AM

New Energy Technologies is trying to develop a solar cell that makes electricity just from that nasty fluorescent tube lighting buzzing over your head.

New Energy’s solar cells in their transparent SolarWindow™ generate electricity by using the visible light in artificial fluorescent lighting typically installed in offices and commercial buildings. In tests published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy they outperformed regular solar cells by orders of magnitude; producing two to ten-fold more power.

Researchers tested the ultra-small solar cells on a 1”x1” substrate against today’s popular solar materials for their capacity to produce electricity under varying artificial light conditions, mimicking the levels of light exposure in homes and commercial offices.

Under normal office lighting conditions, without any natural light from windows, New Energy’s ultra-small solar cells produced not just twice the power of monocrystalline silicon, but achieved:

1. 8-fold greater output power density than copper-indium-selenide, known for its high optical absorption coefficients and versatile optical and electrical characteristics.
2. 10-fold greater output power density than flexible thin-film amorphous-silicon.

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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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Affordable Wind Turbines for Commercial and Residential Uses

Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:03 PM

WindTamer Corporation has developed what the company claims to be a new paradigm of wind power – more power from a small but efficient wind turbine. The company’s latest turbine comes enclosed in a “Wind Flower” housing that makes it harness wind speeds up to 70mph without dominating the view or its surroundings.

The system can be mounted on a 30ft pole, and being noise and vibration-free, the turbine can easily be mounted on a flat roof. The system doesn’t have a gearbox, which eliminates the risk of an overheating gearbox causing a fire.

The turbine is mounted on the same shaft as the blades are, which makes the incoming breeze cool the turbine automatically. The highly efficient system can work in wind speeds as low as 2mph to generate power. The turbine is available in different variants which generate power ranging from 1.5KW to 30KW.

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Harnessing Kinetic Energy from Marching Soldiers

Posted on Monday, August 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 6:04 AM

Researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK aims to develop a system that can harness kinetic energy from marching soldiers.

The $1.5 million plan will focus on finding a way to convert human energy into usable power for military field applications. Soldiers carry around electronic equipment such as large flashlights, and power sources in the form of batteries can weigh as much as 10 kilograms of a foot soldier’s usual 75 kilogram pack. Clearly, having a power source they can carry around will be beneficial.

The Leeds scientists plan to create a similar system that includes knee wraps and backpack straps with crystals and high-tech ceramic materials acting as piezoelectric transducers. These piezoelectric components are responsible for converting mechanical energy from movement into electric charge.

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Labels: energy, human-powered, research

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New Method to Produce More Efficient Fuel from Waste

Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:39 PM

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new effective and environmentally friendly method, which uses electrolyzed water instead of harsh chemicals in the pretreatment of ethanol waste products to produce an acetone-butanol-ethanol fuel mix.

When ethanol is produced, distiller's dried grain with solubles (DDGS) is a waste product.The glucose in DDGS is stuck together, forming cellulosic corn fiber, but the structure is very tough. It forms a kind of crystalline structure which is very difficult to break.In order to get the glucose out, normally people use a strong acid such as sulfuric acid, or a strong lime base, to loosen it, making holes in it. Once the structure is destroyed, we use enzymes to cut the chain of glucose to get glucose that can be used for fermentation.

The strong sulfuric acid method produces some toxic compounds, which can kill the microbes that produce acetone-butanol-ethanol mix completely.Using alkaline sodium hydroxide as a base, after 60 hours, the acetone-butanol-ethanol production was also relatively low. But using acidic electrolyzed water, at about 20 hours the fermentation process began producing the acetone-butanol-ethanol mix. This new technique also eliminates the detoxification of the traditional acid method.The other advantage of this method is that the traditional method produces a large quantity of solid waste that needs to be handled, and some sugars get consumed in the process as well. We want to maximize the sugar yield so we can maximize the ethanol yield.

Get the full article here

Labels: energy, ethanol, research, waste

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Researchers Find New Way to Increase Solarcell Efficiency

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 10:00 PM

Scientists at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina are using the concept of biomimicry to increase the efficiency of solar cells, peering into how a moth’s eye absorbs light.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy lab are working with the University of Florida’s Peng Jiang to study how special coatings that mimic structures found in nature can make solar cells more productive for commercial applications, homes and even space satellites.

A moth’s eye is so good at absorbing light because it consists of tiny, hexagonal bumps that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light.The engineered coatings that mimic the way a moth’s eye absorbs light can reduce unwanted reflection from silicon solar cells from 30 percent to less than 2 percent.

Labels: efficiency, energy, research, solar

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Biomimicry for Converting Co2 to Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 9:27 PM

Cambridge-based Joule Biotechnologies has designed a radical technology to mimic photosynthesis using bio-engineered micro-organisms to make ethanol fuel from carbon dioxide and sunlight. Because of the abundance of these raw materials, Joule Biotechnologies should be able to make ethanol economically, sustainably and at stable prices.

Their device, called SolarConverter doesn’t require fresh water and agricultural land like traditional biofuel production . The converter contains a mixture of brackish water, nutrients, and genetically engineered organisms. Carbon dioxide gas is fed into the mixture, and the device is designed to expose the organisms in the mixture to the sun. The organisms are photosynthetic, meaning that they absorb light energy and carbon dioxide to form compounds. Joule has engineered its organisms to secrete ethanol and hydrocarbons and chemicals.

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Labels: co2, energy, ethanol, technology

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Energy from Waste Glycerin

Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:32 PM

Here is an interesting article on "Biodiesel Yields Hidden Treasure in Waste Glycerin", which reveals some ways to recycle waste glycerin, a major byproduct of biodiesel manufacture.

Read the full article @ Cleantechnica.com

Labels: biofuels, energy, waste

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PecoBOO - An Eco-screen to Save Computer Energy

Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:20 AM

Eco-friendly PC innovator VeryPC has unveiled its latest invention for cutting the energy wasted by computers. The award winning Sheffield firm has launched PecoBOO – a piece of software,which uses a standard webcam and some clever software that recognises when you stop looking at your computer monitor and puts it on standby, instantly cutting the power it is using by a factor of more than 100.

Labels: conservation, energy, inventions

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