The century-old challenge of storing and transporting acetylene safely may have been solved in principle by a team of scientists working at NIST.
Most of us take the electric current behind our power buttons for granted, assuming the juice will be there when we need it. But will it? Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate is working on a new superconducting cable to make sure it is.
Engineers at Ohio State University have found a way to double the production of the biofuel butanol, which might someday replace gasoline in automobiles.
Expansion of renewable energies should appreciably improve the health status of the 700,000 US workers employed in the energy sector, according to a commentary by Medical College of Wisconsin researchers, in Milwaukee. Their review is published in the August 19, 2009, issue of JAMA.
Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have released a new report, Cap and Dividend: A State-by-State Analysis, jointly published with the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network.
Virginia Tech's 2009 solar house team have moved their zero-energy home from the construction site to a public site and revealed its technology online. Completely powered by the sun, other sustainable features include the use of passive energy systems, radiant heating, and building materials that are from renewable and/or recyclable sources.
NIST and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have published a report on the inaugural meeting of the Nuclear Energy Standards Coordination Collaborative (NESCC), a new ANSI Standards Panel, co-chaired by NIST and ANSI, to address the current and future standards needs of the nuclear energy industry.
A highly efficient system for generating and distributing energy is lean, mean and green "“ and could be as close as the nearest farm, according to a University of Connecticut professor.
University of Washington researchers have found a way to measure exactly how much electrical current is carried by tiny bubbles and channels that form inside nanoscale solar cells, paving the way for development of more efficient materials.
A new public-private consortium will produce biofuels from algae. Led by Plankton Power, the consortium includes the Regional Technology Development Corp. of Cape Cod, Mass. Nat'l Guard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Marine Biological Laboratory, and Cape Cod Commission and will establish a facility to develop cost-competitive algae biodiesel.
Diesel and gasoline fuel sources both bring unique assets and liabilities to powering internal combustion engines. But what if an engine could be programmed to harvest the best properties of both fuel sources at once, on the fly, by blending the fuels within the combustion chamber?
The fifth edition of Virginia Tech's Green500 List shows that supercomputers continue to use less power even as their capacity soars. Computers raking in top spots a year ago are falling by the wayside to newer models.
For the first time in the history of scientific ocean drilling, researchers aboard the riser-equipped drilling vessel CHIKYU successfully drilled down to a depth of 1,603.7 meters beneath the sea floor into an earthquake-generating zone off the coast of Japan.
Electrical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina were informed this week that they will receive federal economic stimulus funds via the National Science Foundation to continue and strengthen their efforts to modernize the national power grid. The award will establish an NSF center of excellence, known as an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center.
A new class of economically viable solar power cells"”cheap, flexible and easy to make"”has come a step closer to reality as a result of recent work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have deepened their understanding of the complex organic films at the heart of the devices.
The University of California, San Diego has begun producing electricity with newly installed solar panels made by Concentrix Solar that automatically track the sun as it crosses the daytime sky and concentrates sunlight onto hundreds of electricity-producing solar cells, each smaller than a shirt button.
Thirty top wildlife scientists"”including five from Cornell"”have announced agreement on some of the highest research priorities to help America's rapidly growing wind energy industry produce much-needed alternative energy while also providing safe passage for birds and bats.
Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) can be an important part of the solution to America's energy crisis, says Dr. Andrew Goudy of Delaware State University. He is leading a research team striving to solve a key technical FCV puzzle.
Wind power received a gust of support as the U.S. Department of Energy announced funding for 28 new wind energy projects, including an award to Tennessee Tech University for more than a quarter million dollars.
Kansas State University students are combining engineering and nature to design a more affordable and more sustainable lighting source for those living without electricity. The solar lantern with a more affordable initial cost is geared toward people living in Sub-Saharan Africa, the least electrified region in the world.
Burning coal and biomass to generate power while reducing emissions at the same time, Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) technology uses fluidization to mix and circulate fuel particles with limestone as they burn in a low-temperature combustion process. Unlike conventional steam generators that burn the fuel in a massive high-temperature flame, CFB technology does not have burners or a flame within its furnace.
Stirling Energy Systems (SES) and Tessera Solar recently unveiled four newly designed solar power collection dishes at Sandia National Laboratories' National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF). Called SunCatchers (TM), the new dishes have a refined design that will be used in commercial-scale deployments of the units beginning in 2010.
Drexel University will deploy a smart grid system to provide real-time measurements of the University's power usage and allow excess power to be sold back to the regional grid.
Northeastern's new cutting-edge program in energy systems bridges the divide between new technological developments and business solutions.
It's called a Plug-in Hybrid Retrofit Kit. It could double the average mileage per gallon. If 50 percent of the automobiles in America used it, it could save 120 million gallons of fuel per day"”globally, as much as 600 million gallons per day. It will reduce our dependence on oil. It will reduce carbon emissions and could create 2,000 new manufacturing jobs. A potential foreign market is growing daily.
A Florida State University researcher has received a $1 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a study that could lead to the design of better nuclear fuels and safer and more efficient reactors to generate nuclear power.
Electricity generated from cellulosic biomass is clean, cost effective, renewable, and environmentally friendly.
Iowa State University's first Intensive Program in Biorenewables attracted 46 students from across the country and around the world. They're spending two weeks in talks, tours, demonstrations and tests that cover the science, the opportunities and the challenges of developing a bioeconomy.
The University of Michigan's reigning North American Solar Challenge champions will soon unveil their solar car that will compete in an 1,800-mile race across Australia this fall.
A group of Virginia Tech students have produced more than 200 gallons of biodiesel as part of a senior design project. They are using it in two pickup trucks.
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have great potential for stationary and mobile applications. But SOFCs have had a flaw "“ the integrity of the seals within and between power-producing units. A materials science professor has invented a self-healing seal that will provide strength and long-term stability.
Commerce Secretary Locke and Energy Secretary Chu have announced the first set of NIST-recognized standards needed for interoperability and security of a planned nationwide "smart" electric power grid"”a system that would allow electricity users to connect directly with power suppliers via real-time, two-way communication technologies.
A team of students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will be spending part of the summer designing and starting to build solar-powered pasteurization systems for communities in rural Peru. The group of engineers was one of four student teams nationally to win a highly competitive SEED grant from nonprofit volunteer organization Engineers for a Sustainable World.
Acquiring cheap genome sequence data can improve the quality of feedstocks used to create biofuels, according to a new study published in The Plant Genome.
QD Tech has won the $35,000 grand prize in the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Innovation Challenge Final Business Plan Competition. The winning team plans to produce quantum-dot"based materials designed to improve solar cells.
Trees positioned to shade the west and south sides of a house may decrease summertime electric bills by 5 percent on average, according to a recent study of California homes by researchers from NIST and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A new center to develop technologies for converting methane gas and other hydrocarbon and fossil resources into readily transportable and higher-value liquid fuels is being established at the University of Virginia under a new $11 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
PNNL's Smart Charger Controller simplifies electric vehicle recharging, protects the grid and saves consumers money; device automatically activates the vehicle's battery to recharge at times of least stress on the grid.
Federal requirements to increase the production of ethanol has developed into a "drink-or-drive issue" in the Midwest as a result of biofuel production's impact on water supplies and water quality, says an environmental engineering researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology in the latest issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders today joined UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, local scientists and industry leaders to announce their support for a regional partnership designed to develop innovative ways to turn algae into biofuels.
April 27-29, Northeastern will host a renewable energy technology symposium that will feature forums, scientific sessions and educational outreach programs. The event will draw expert speakers, including the Honorable Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India, Dr. John P. Holdren, science adviser to U.S. president Barack Obama, and senior leaders from a variety of energy companies and government agencies.
On April 19, CBS aired a "60 Minutes" segment on "cold fusion," a process that proponents claim could solve the world's energy problems. The script stated that "... ["˜60 Minutes'] asked the American Physical Society, the top physics organization in America, to recommend an independent scientist. They gave us Rob Duncan, vice chancellor of research at the University of Missouri and an expert in measuring energy." That statement is false.
A research team from Northeastern University and NIST has discovered, serendipitously, that a residue of a process used to build arrays of titania nanotubes--a residue that wasn't even noticed before this--plays an important role in improving the performance of the nanotubes in solar cells that produce hydrogen gas from water.
The Department of Defense awarded $1.9 million to a biofuel research team to turn wood and corn waste products into fuel precursors. Chemical engineer George Huber and colleagues developed new catalysts to allow low-cost conversion of woody plant fibers to liquid for easy refining to military fuel.
An engineering student design team at Virginia Tech is creating a photovoltaic system to provide a medical clinic in Kenya with a desperately needed source of power.
Roughly 20 percent of the electricity consumed worldwide is used to light homes, businesses, and other private and public spaces. Though this consumption represents a large drain on resources, it also presents a tremendous opportunity for savings. Improving the efficiency of commercially available light bulbs -- even a little -- could translate into dramatically lower energy usage if implemented widely.
Weizmann Institute scientists have identified a new mode of bond generation between oxygen atoms. This work is a step toward development of an efficient artificial catalyst for solar-driven splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen, which is a major goal of renewable, clean energy research.
Vestas, the world's leading producer of wind power technology, has entered into a long-term partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering that promises to propel wind-energy research, provide student learning opportunities and give the company a long-term presence in Madison.
Chemists are reporting development of what they termed the first economical, eco-friendly process to convert algae oil into biodiesel fuel "” a discovery they predict could one day lead to U.S. independence from petroleum as a fuel. The study is scheduled for presentation in March at the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have won a $1.6 million DoE grant to develop new methods for manufacturing a key fuel cell component. The multi-year grant aims to create new technology and processes for faster, more cost-effective manufacturing of fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). Comprised of a PEM, catalyst, and electrodes, MEAs are the core of a fuel cell.
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