Future Energy Technology News

[Graeme]

New Method to Extract Hydrogen from Seawater

Purdue University scientists announce the development of a new method for producing hydrogen, which extracts the chemical straight out one of the most abundant resources on the planet, seawater.

The approach, which could be used to extract sufficiently-large amounts of hydrogen to run engines on boats and ships, relies on breaking apart saltwater molecules, and extracting the fuel within.

Especially in marine applications, this new production method could put an end to the use of fossil fuel-based products, such as diesel and gasoline, the Purdue team says.

Distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering Jerry Woodall says that this is the first time this method has been applied on seawater. Thus far, it was only demonstrated to work on freshwater.

The expert, who was the leader of the new investigation, says that the hydrogen produced through this method could conceivably be introduced directly inside combustion engines.

“This is important because it might have many marine applications, including cruise ships and tankers,” Woodall explains, adding that the stages of hydrogen storage and transport may be circumvented.

“We generate the hydrogen on demand, as you need it. It also eliminates the need to store fresh water when used for marine applications,” he adds.


Like previous approaches to splitting hydrogen, the new method relies on using aluminum for the job.

“Since aluminum is low-cost, abundant and has an energy density larger than coal, this technology can be used on a global scale and could greatly reduce the global consumption of fossil fuels,” Woodall concludes.

softpedia

[Graeme]

Scientists say it is high time for hemp-based biofuel

Researchers at the University of Connecticut have found that hemp is a viable feedstock for biodiesel fuel and are now working on plans to build a biofuel refinery capable of processing the versatile material.

Working with a selection of research students, associate professor of chemical engineering Richard Parnas announced last week that he is going to build a research refining plant that will be able to use hemp to make fuel.

The refinery, which will be built using a two-year, $1.8m (£1.14m) grant from the Department of Energy, is expected to produce 200,000 gallons of biodiesel a year.

The research team said that it will be able to customise the facility to handle a range of feedstocks, including hemp.

As with many other commercial uses of hemp, Parnas's process would use the Sativa variety, which unlike its cousin the cannabis plant is not psychoactive. Hemp fibre is also being used as a core material in some car body designs.

Hemp has several qualities that make it suitable as a biofuel feedstock, according to Parnas.

One is that it grows in infertile soil, making it easier to produce commercially viable yields in otherwise inhospitable areas. The other is that it is not a food crop, meaning that the use of the plant for commercial fuel purposes should not contribute to food security problems.

"It's equally important to make fuel from plants that are not food, but also won't need the high-quality land," Parnas said.

Finally, hemp may also be able to burn effectively at lower temperatures than other biodiesel products, according to the research team's test results.

businessgreen

[Graeme]

Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics

Noise from wind turbine blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills and even the way wind turbines look have made installing them anything but a breeze. New York design firm Atelier DNA has an alternative concept that ditches blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. The designers came up with the idea for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi. Atelier DNA’s “Windstalk” project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition a contest sponsored by Madsar to identify the best work of art that generates renewable energy from a pool of international submissions.

The proposed design calls for 1,203 “stalks,” each 180-feet high with concrete bases that are between about 33- and 66-feet wide. The carbon-fiber stalks, reinforced with resin, are about a foot wide at the base tapering to about 2 inches at the top. Each stalk will contain alternating layers of electrodes and ceramic discs made from piezoelectric material, which generates a current when put under pressure. In the case of the stalks, the discs will compress as they sway in the wind, creating a charge.

discovery

[Graeme]

How electric cars could become a giant battery for renewable energy

The United States now has more than 35GW of installed wind energy, enough to power close to 10 million homes. Close on the heels of this ongoing renewable energy revolution is another green technology: By next year tens of thousands of Nissan LEAFs, Chevy Volts, and other electric vehicles will start rolling off assembly lines.

The electricity generation and transportation sectors may seem like two disparate pieces of a puzzle, but in fact they may end up being intimately related. The connection comes in the form of the vehicle-to-grid concept, in which a large electric vehicle (EV) fleet — essentially a group of rechargeable batteries that spend most of their time sitting in driveways and garages — might be used to store excess power when demand is low and feed it back to the grid when demand is high. Utilities and electricity wholesalers would pay the EV owners for providing that power.

guardian

[diemos]

inadvertent bat and bird kills

meh. In the future that will be viewed as a feature and people will camp out underneath the blades in order to get the "free chickens" when they fall from the sky.

[furrybill]

Folks came across Michael Strizki's solar/hydrogen house on YouTube tonight. Googled and it looked like nothing much has happened since the 2008 video was made. Though very expensive and something I couldn't do on my own I'm intrigued - in theory he's living completely off the grid [albeit with a failsafe connection]. But how are things 2 years later? I wonder if everything has continued to work well? What kinds of challenges has he experienced? What about maintenance costs [on top of the $100K's installation]? Anyone have any information?

[Graeme]

Water and sunlight: a winning catalytic combination

Researchers have incorporated a sunlight-activated trigger into an oxygenation process that uses water as the oxygen source. The combination approach is a step towards mimicking nature's photocatalytic processes and could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and lead to further applications for solar energy.

Shunichi Fukuzumi and coworkers from Osaka University in Japan and Wonwoo Nam from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea and colleagues have developed highly efficient photocatalytic oxygenations of organic substrates such as sodium p-styrene sulfonate, using sunlight as an initiator and water as an oxygen source.

The team developed a ruthenium (II) complex that absorbs light and uses the energy to reduce a cobalt complex. The ruthenium (III) complex then goes on to react with a manganese porphyrin oxygenation catalyst. This reaction causes the manganese porphyrin complex to give off a proton, and become the active species responsible for the oxidation of organic substrates. The catalyst can oxygenate substrates by using water in a phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.4) as an oxygen source.

'This is an important step for the general use of water as a clean and abundant reactant using solar energy,' say Fukuzumi. He goes onto explain that current industrial oxygenation processes are energy consuming, resulting in large amounts of CO2 emissions. 'Oxygenation reactions using water as an oxygen source under mild conditions using solar energy would contribute to cut down CO2 emissions,' he adds.

rsc

[Graeme]

Harvard Scientists Create New Fuel Cell

Harvard researchers have developed a fuel cell that utilizes methane gas, a significant breakthrough that promises longer-lasting battery life and a more environmentally friendly power source for mobile devices in the future.

Shriram Ramanathan, a professor at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and his team have developed micro-fuel cells that harness energy from cheap methane gas instead of more expensive hydrogen gas, and do not utilize platinum, a traditional component in fuel cells.

Fuel cells convert the chemical energy of fuels like hydrogen and methane gas into electrical energy, which could be used to power mobile devices.

But in order for this new type of battery to be used in commercial devices, its operating temperature must be significantly reduced, which will require significant additional research.

thecrimson

[Graeme]

$20 'Solar to Hydrogen' Conversion System

Sun Catalytix, an American company founded by a MIT professor, is working on a low-cost ‘solar to hydrogen’ power system and plans to launch it within the next 18 months. The product which was announced about two years ago has attracted millions of dollars in investment from the Indian industrial giant Tata.

The system works by utilizing solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then stored to be used later. While there is nothing new in this technology, the way in which the the system does these things is completely revolutionary. The system can use water from any source, be it river water, sea water or even waste water. The company claims to that the system is highly efficient and is capable of powering a house with only two bottles of water from ‘any source’.

The conventional technology used for splitting water into hydrogen is costly as it requires extremely high energy to break the bonds between the water molecules. Professor Daniel Nocera, however, thought of a more natural way to achieve the same results. The hydrogen-splitting technology closely resembles the natural processes found in plant and bacteria. The system uses cobalt phosphate-based catalyst which operates at atmospheric pressure which is significantly advantageous when compared to the conventional catalysts.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Three Innovations That Will Make Solar Power Easier and More Affordable

Solar power as we know it has been around for almost a century. Many people believe that its still the same basic technology that helped power early spacecraft and the White House in the 1970’s. But advancements over the past 10 years have brought solar to the cutting edge with new investment and an emphasis on research. Here are three solar innovations that are making this type of renewable energy more affordable, easier to obtain, and more efficient for generations to come.

1. Thin-Film Cells Will Cut Solar Power Costs in Half
2. Micro-Inverters Are Great Technology for Affordability & Efficiency
3. New Racking Options Make For Fast, Cheap Installation

sustainablog

[pstarr]

$20 'Solar to Hydrogen' Conversion System

The conventional technology used for splitting water into hydrogen is costly as it requires extremely high energy to break the bonds between the water molecules.

No so. All that is required are a pair of charged wires, negative and positive, immersed in water.



The prohibitive cost is compression, storage, and distribution. The tiny H2 molecule is very very difficult to contain.

[Graeme]

Top 40 Shorlisted to Compete for the Prestigious Zayed Future Energy Prize

The Zayed Future Energy Prize, has announced the top 40 entries to compete for the 2011 Prize. The Prize is the most prestigious and internationally recognised award for innovation, performance and leadership in sustainable and renewable energy projects. Entries from 13 nations have been selected for their contribution to sustainable and renewable energy solutions.

The top 40 entries were selected from a total of 391 submissions through a rigorous selection process. The winner, to be announced on 18th January 2011 at an awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi, will receive $1.5 million USD. In addition, two other finalists will receive up to $350,000 each for outstanding work in the field of renewable and sustainable energy. The total $2.2 million Zayed Future Energy Prize, now in its third year, is inspired by the vision and environmental stewardship of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Founding Father and President of the United Arab Emirates.

The Review Committee examined a hundred entries from all over the globe. The top 40 entries include the following regional breakdown: eighteen from the United States, four from the UK, four from India, three from the Netherlands, two from Belgium, two from China and one entry each from Benin, Hong Kong, Brazil, Japan, Denmark, Sweden and Croatia.

techwhack

[Graeme]

Nanotube-Tethered Flying Wind Turbines Could Harvest Energy At 30,000 Feet

Future airborne wind turbines could spin with greater gusto in the faster winds found at high altitudes, and send power back to Earth via nanotube tether cables. Swarms of energy-harvesting kites, whirling blimps or balloons could stay aloft for a year, and could be reeled in during storms or for maintenance.

This vision, outlined by a researcher at NASA, recently sparked the first federally funded research effort into airborne wind farms. In a bureaucratic infinite loop you just have to love, it’s a study of what it would take to actually study the value of these ideas.

NASA aerospace engineer Mark Moore says it’s worth examining how flying wind farms would work, and how tethered turbines would affect airspace, for instance. Each wind turbine could have a two-mile protected no-fly zone, causing headaches for airliners and unmanned aircraft of the future. But, while it could cause air traffic jams, an airborne farm would not take up any ground resources or cause any pollution, Moore points out.

popsci

[Graeme]

Is night falling on classic solar panels?

SOLAR cells that work at night. It sounds like an oxymoron, but a new breed of nanoscale light-sensitive antennas could soon make this possible, heralding a novel form of renewable energy that avoids many of the problems that beset solar cells.

The key to these new devices is their ability to harvest infrared (IR) radiation, says Steven Novack, one of the pioneers of the technology at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls. Nearly half of the available energy in the solar spectrum resides in the infrared band, and IR is re-emitted by the Earth's surface after the sun has gone down, meaning that the antennas can even capture some energy during the night.

Lab tests have already shown that, under ideal conditions, the antennas can collect 84 per cent of incoming photons. Novack's team calculates that a complete system would have an overall efficiency of 46 per cent; the most efficient silicon solar cells are stalled at about 25 per cent. What's more, while those ideal conditions are relatively narrowly constrained for silicon solar cells - if the sun is in the wrong position, light reflects off a silicon solar cell instead of being absorbed - the antennas absorb radiation at a variety of angles. If the antennas can be produced cheaply, the technology could prove to be truly disruptive, says Novack.

newscientist

[Graeme]

New solar fuel machine 'mimics plant life'

A prototype solar device has been unveiled which mimics plant life, turning the Sun's energy into fuel.

The machine uses the Sun's rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported.

Conventional photovoltaic panels must use the electricity they generate in situ, and cannot deliver power at night.

Details are published in the journal Science.

The prototype, which was devised by researchers in the US and Switzerland, uses a quartz window and cavity to concentrate sunlight into a cylinder lined with cerium oxide, also known as ceria.

Ceria has a natural propensity to exhale oxygen as it heats up and inhale it as it cools down.

If as in the prototype, carbon dioxide and/or water are pumped into the vessel, the ceria will rapidly strip the oxygen from them as it cools, creating hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide.

Hydrogen produced could be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells in cars, for example, while a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be used to create "syngas" for fuel.

It is this harnessing of ceria's properties in the solar reactor which represents the major breakthrough, say the inventors of the device. They also say the metal is readily available, being the most abundant of the "rare-earth" metals.

Methane can be produced using the same machine, they say.

Refinements needed

The prototype is grossly inefficient, the fuel created harnessing only between 0.7% and 0.8% of the solar energy taken into the vessel.

Most of the energy is lost through heat loss through the reactor's wall or through the re-radiation of sunlight back through the device's aperture.

But the researchers are confident that efficiency rates of up to 19% can be achieved through better insulation and smaller apertures. Such efficiency rates, they say, could make for a viable commercial device.

BBC

[Graeme]

“Coffee Roaster” Technology Could Speed the Decline of Coal

Researchers at the University of Leeds are developing a roasting process that would transform raw biomass from a bulky, water-saturated material into an energy-rich powder that is perfect for burning in coal-fired power plants. Called torrefaction, it is a relatively low-temperature process similar to that used in roasting coffee beans. If the researchers can overcome a few stumbling blocks, the process could lead to a new burst of coal-to-biomass power plant conversions, and consequently to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Can’t Get No Torrefaction
One of the biggest obstacles to large scale torrefaction is the tendency of powders to explode in storage, so that is one area on which the researchers are focusing close attention. Part of the goal of the research is to design new safety features that can be incorporated into power plants and other large facilities. As far as coal-to-biomass conversions go, it is possible that the cost of new equipment could be offset by the lower cost of shipping and handling torrefied biomass. Torriefied biomass could also be burned in conjuction with coal, resulting in higher efficiency and lower emissions.

cleantechnica

[Tanada]

“Coffee Roaster” Technology Could Speed the Decline of Coal

Researchers at the University of Leeds are developing a roasting process that would transform raw biomass from a bulky, water-saturated material into an energy-rich powder that is perfect for burning in coal-fired power plants. Called torrefaction, it is a relatively low-temperature process similar to that used in roasting coffee beans. If the researchers can overcome a few stumbling blocks, the process could lead to a new burst of coal-to-biomass power plant conversions, and consequently to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Just how much biomass do they think we have to burn anyhow? No offense and I support sustainable use rates, I just don't see enough excess biomass that isn't already needed by the environment for sustainability to make much of a dent in energy production. The way the article reads we can stop mining coal and burn biomass instead, but we burn coal on a truly astonishing scale.

[Graeme]

Ideally, it would better if we didn't burn anymore coal at all. But the reality is that India and China still intend to build more coal-fired power stations and import coal. One option could be that they mix biomass (they would have to choose which kind) using above method with coal (and phase out coal)either in their existing stations (modified) or in the ones they intend to build or both.

[Graeme]

Study finds that biofuel crops grown on marginal lands could produce up to half of world’s current liquid fuel consumption without impacting crops

Using detailed land analysis, University of Illinois researchers have found that biofuel crops cultivated on available land could produce between 26-55% of the world’s current fuel consumption without affecting the use of land with regular productivity for conventional crops and without affecting the current pasture land.

Published in the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology, the study led by civil and environmental engineering professor Ximing Cai identified land around the globe available to produce grass crops for biofuels, with minimal impact on agriculture or the environment.

greencarcongress

[vtsnowedin]

Study finds that biofuel crops grown on marginal lands could produce up to half of world’s current liquid fuel consumption without impacting crops

Using detailed land analysis, University of Illinois researchers have found that biofuel crops cultivated on available land could produce between 26-55% of the world’s current fuel consumption without affecting the use of land with regular productivity for conventional crops and without affecting the current pasture land.

Published in the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology, the study led by civil and environmental engineering professor Ximing Cai identified land around the globe available to produce grass crops for biofuels, with minimal impact on agriculture or the environment.

greencarcongress

Using fuzzy logic modeling, the researchers considered multiple scenarios for land availability. First, they considered only idle land and vegetation land with marginal productivity; for the second scenario, they added degraded or low-quality cropland. For the second scenario, they estimated 702 million hectares of land available for second-generation biofuel crops, such as switchgrass or miscanthus.

I believe that part is correct. No mention of 85,000,000 new people to feed each year from land that isn't already in full production. They don't seem to understand that marginal land is marginal because you can,t grow anything on it that will give your seed back much less a profitable crop.