Feature Channels: Energy

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A University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues are urging national policymakers to use a science-based approach when making decisions about biofuels.

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With the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel impacting costs for automobiles, trucks, buses and the overall economy, a simple device that attaches to a vehicle's fuel line near the fuel injector and creates an electrical field could boost gas efficiency as much as 20 percent.

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Florida State University's Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS) has joined a prominent national coalition that seeks to transform the nation's electric power systems. CAPs is now a member of the GridWise Alliance, a group of 69 leading companies and academic institutions whose goal is to combine their knowledge and innovation in an effort to increase the safety, reliability and capacity of the U.S. power grid.

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A giant perennial grass used as a biofuels source has a much longer growing season than corn, and researchers think they've found the secret of its success. Their findings offer a promising avenue for developing cold-tolerant corn, an advance that would significantly boost per-acre yields.

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University of Utah engineers devised a new way to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium for use in the most efficient type of solar power cells. They say the new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor.

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You probably won't be able to drive down the highway in your own non-polluting vehicle that runs on hydrogen power any time soon. And don't start making plans to power your whole house with expensive hydrogen-based technology in the coming years. But, some day in the not-too-distant future, you might own a cell phone equipped with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell instead of a battery.

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The New York State Fair's tribute to dairy farmers will end up in the fuel tanks of a college vehicle fleet.

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A yeast geneticist on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) is close to developing mutant yeast for ethanol production that would reduce or eliminate the need to use corn to make the alternative fuel.

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Researchers here have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently. A new catalyst makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients.

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With oil prices skyrocketing, the search is on for efficient and sustainable biofuels. Research published this month in Agronomy Journal examines one biofuel crop contender: corn stover. Corn stover is made up of the leaves and stalks of corn plants that are left in the field after harvesting the edible corn grain. Corn stover could supply as much as 25% of the biofuel crop needed by 2030.

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Algae are tiny biological factories that use photosynthesis to transform carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy so efficiently that they can double their weight several times a day, producing oil in the process "” 30 times more oil per acre than soybeans, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Like soybean oil, the algae oil can be burned directly in diesel engines or further refined into biodiesel.

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A new material characterized at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could open a pathway toward more efficient fuel cells.

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A major restructuring of global energy markets is underway, yet the U.S. is at risk of being left behind because the nation lacks a comprehensive global energy security roadmap, warned Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson in a speech to the Commonwealth Club. The former NRC Chairman outlined the necessary components of a comprehensive U.S. energy plan that also addresses the linked concerns of climate change and sustainability.

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As gas prices soar, scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University are marketing research that will enable petroleum companies to locate, analyze and process crude oil much faster, cheaper and more accurately.

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An undergraduate research project by a group of University of New Hampshire students has led to a new state law that supports the use of residential wind energy.

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An Arizona firm has found a way to make solar cells in panels vastly larger than anyone could manage before, allowing for far more cost-effective energy generation.

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NIST experiments with varying concentrations of nanoparticle additives indicate a major opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of large industrial, commercial, and institutional cooling systems known as chillers.

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Traditional economies may suggest that bigger is better, but the Oklahoma State University Biofuels Team has received widespread national recognition for cautioning that is not the case with all forms of renewable energy.OSU's vision of the future intersection of energy and agriculture involves a decentralized energy production system.

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An analysis of yearly vehicle deaths compared to gas prices found death rates drop significantly as people slow down and drive less. If gas remains at $4 a gallon or higher for a year or more, traffic fatalities could drop by more than 1,000 per month nationwide, according new findings by a University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher.

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A research team led by Hans van Leeuwen, an Iowa State University professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, has been awarded a 2008 R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine. The researchers are using fungi to clean up and improve the dry-grind ethanol production process. This is the 30th R&D 100 Award presented to researchers affiliated with Iowa State.

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Sol Invictus, Iowa State University's latest student-designed and student-built solar race car, will compete in the North American Solar Challenge July 13-22. The challenge will take 24 university and college teams 2,400 miles from Plano, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

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Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel.

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Biométhodes, a French biotechnology company in Evry, has signed an exclusive and worldwide option-to-license agreement with Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc. (VTIP) for multiple technologies for converting biomass to bioethanol and biohydrogen.

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Researchers have developed the first detailed chemical analysis revealing what processing is needed to transform pig manure derived 'crude oil' into fuel for vehicles or heating. Mass production of this type of biofuel could help consume a waste product overflowing at U.S. farms, but it will require a lot of refining.

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Diesel fuel prices approaching $5 a gallon "“ and the resulting economic impact on products transported by truck "“ have created renewed interest in fuel-saving technologies developed during the past decade at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

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A team of researchers from Iowa State University and the University of Hawai'i are developing a process that cleans up and improves the dry-grind ethanol production process. The process uses fungus to reduce energy costs, allow more water recycling and improve a co-product that's used as livestock feed. The American Academy of Environmental Engineers recently awarded the project its 2008 Grand Prize for University Research.

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Two students from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business recently started a business that supplies electricity to rural villages in India by burning the rice husks that are a waste product of rice milling. So far, two rice husk generators are providing power to about 10,000 rural Indians, but the business plan calls for a rapid expansion that will put the miniature power plants in hundreds more villages within a few years.

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DOE photovoltaic funding for years has gone to programs that promise more efficient conversion of sunlight to electricity, or in aiding solar start-up companies. It's called "technology push." Now for something different. In the past year, an unusually innovative DOE program called Solar America Cities has focused on reaching out to formerly ignored, sometimes low-profile city decision makers who administer large chunks of urban real estate. It's called "technology pull."

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A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation's transportation fuel if production can be scaled up.

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Engineering students at Rowan University (Glassboro, N.J.) are researching the merits of cooking oil as an alternative fuel.

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A new method called catalytic fast pyrolysis turns plant biomass such as wood and grasses into "green gasoline" using one simple step. The process significantly reduces the cost and production time associated with making gasoline-range biofuels.

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As gas prices continue to soar to record highs, motorists are crying out for an alternative that won't cramp their pocketbooks. Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are answering that call by working to chemically manipulate algae for production of the next generation of renewable fuels "“ hydrogen gas.

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Iowa State University, ConocoPhillips and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have agreed to cooperate on research projects designed to advance the conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels. The collaboration is expected to produce an initial report by next January.

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A team of Iowa State University researchers led by Victor Lin, a professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Catalysis, is developing a system of thermochemical and catalytic technologies to produce ethanol from plant biomass. Lin has already worked on his catalyst for a year and has filed a patent application.

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Key to Northwest biofuels may include waste among biomass resources.

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A growing number of plug-in hybrid electric cars and trucks could require major new power generation resources or none at all"” depending on when people recharge their automobiles. A recent ORNL study examined how an expected increase in ownership of hybrid electric cars and trucks will affect the power grid depending on what time of day or night the vehicles are charged.

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University of Maryland research that started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay has led to a process that may be able to convert large volumes of all kinds of plant products, from leftover brewer's mash to paper trash, into ethanol and other biofuel alternatives to gasoline.

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Latin American nations could become important suppliers of ethanol for world markets in coming decades, according to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study released recently.

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While sampling blended biodiesel fuels purchased from small-scale retailers, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that many of the blends do not contain the advertised amount of biofuel.

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The 50th Annual Maize Genetics Conference will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 27 to March 2, 2008. Highlights of the conference include announcing the draft sequence of the maize genome, progress on improving maize as a bioenergy crop, and the development of biofortified, nutritionally enhanced corn.

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Despite increasing popular support for solar photovoltaic panels in the United States, their costs far outweigh the benefits, according to a new analysis by Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business and director of the UC Energy Institute.

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Taking a page out of a science fiction story, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Webb Research Corporation (Falmouth, Mass.) have successfully flown the first environmentally powered robotic vehicle through the ocean. The new robotic "glider" harvests heat energy from the ocean to propel itself across thousands of kilometers of water.

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Led by the three major biofuels producers (the U.S., Brazil and the European Union), an international effort seeks harmonized standards for bioethanol and biodiesel, two key renewable energy sources and global commodities. A report identifying standards differences is step one. Next: national measurement labs (NIST in this country) will work to bridge the gaps.

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Deposits of natural gas in Michigan were created rapidly by bacteria during the last ice age, indicating the possibility of making natural gas a renewable resource. Some of the gas was released when ice retreated, contributing to interglacial methane spikes in the atmosphere, a finding that can be used in current climate models.

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"The Biology and Business of Biofuels," a three-day meeting on the latest science, business and policy issues about biofuels, will be held Monday, Jan. 28, through Wednesday, Jan. 30, in the Hoffmann Auditorium of The Salk Institute on Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla.

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Within five to seven years fast growing trees and grasses might become economically viable alternatives to corn as a source of renewable fuel ethanol, reducing the need for pollutants that now cause a massive "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Biology based renewable energy company Coskata Inc. and automotive giant General Motors announced their cooperative plans to reduce fossil fuel consumption this past weekend, thanks in part to Coskata's "next generation ethanol" process based on research and technology developed by the OSU Biofuels Team and licensed exclusively to Coskata.

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Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products.

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Using smoke, laser light, model airplane propellers and a campus wind tunnel, a team is trying to solve the airflow mysteries that surround wind turbines, an increasingly popular source of "green" energy.

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Using concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion, a research team from Sandia National Laboratories is building a prototype device intended to chemically "reenergize" carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using concentrated solar power. The carbon monoxide could then be used to make hydrogen or serve as a building block to synthesize a liquid combustible fuel, such as methanol or even gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.