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.
A team of scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and the Savannah River National Laboratory have identified that carbon nanostructures can be used as catalysts to store and release hydrogen, a finding that may point researchers toward developing the right material for hydrogen storage for use in cars.
In the future, natural gas derived from chunks of ice that workers collect from beneath the ocean floor and beneath the arctic permafrost may fuel cars, heat homes, and power factories. Government researchers are reporting that these so-called "gas hydrates," a frozen form of natural gas, show increasing promise as an abundant, untapped source of clean, sustainable energy. The study is scheduled for presentation in March at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
This year's list of the technologically most interesting new cars suggests that a radical rethinking of personal transportation is in the air.
Kansas State University biologists are working with a researcher in Ghana to create biodiesel from the seeds of trees that are common and well adapted to the climate of northern Ghana.
The process to turn propane into industrially necessary propylene has been expensive and environmentally unfriendly. That was until scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory devised a greener way to take this important step in chemical catalysis.
The creation of long platinum nanowires at the University of Rochester could soon lead to the development of commercially viable fuel cells by providing significant increases in both the longevity and efficiency. Nanowire enhanced fuel cells could power many types of vehicles, helping reduce the use of petroleum fuels for transportation.
Researchers from Iowa State University, Frontline BioEnergy and Hawkeye Energy Holdings are using a $2.37 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund to develop new burner and catalyst technologies. The technologies will use gas made from biomass to efficiently produce ethanol and provide clean, renewable power for heating and drying equipment.
A team of researchers at Penn State has come up with an ingenious method of turning captured CO2 into methane using the energy of the sun.
Three sites are being reviewed for a proposed coal gasification facility in Wyoming, a joint venture of the University of Wyoming and GE Energy. The cost of the project is between $100 million and $120 million and will be split by the developers.
Ethanol production used less than 5% of the nation's corn in 1990-91 but used as much as 24% in 2007-08. South Dakota, one of the top five ethanol producing states, used 60% of corn grown in that year affecting availability of corn for feed and exports.
A University of Adelaide petroleum geologist is spearheading an international project to extract more oil and gas from the ground, potentially saving companies billions of dollars.
Vikram Dalal and a team of Iowa State University researchers are trying to improve thin film solar cells. A $1.69 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund is allowing the researchers to look for efficiencies in new materials, new structures and organic semiconductors.
Scientists from all over the United States "“ who study how to make sustainable bioenergy products "“ will meet at the Sun Grant Initiative Energy Conference, March 10-12, in Washington, D.C. The meeting is hosted by Northeast Sun Grant Center at Cornell University and organized by Larry Walker, Cornell professor of biological and environmental engineering.
Millions of homes in rural areas of Far Eastern countries are heated by charcoal burned on small, hibachi-style portable grills. Scientists in Japan are now reporting development of an improved "biomass charcoal combustion heater" that they say could open a new era in sustainable and ultra-high efficiency home heating.
Taking a chemical approach, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a two-step method to convert the cellulose in raw biomass into a promising biofuel. The process, which is described in the Wednesday, Feb. 11 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, is unprecedented in its use of untreated, inedible biomass as the starting material.
An in-depth study by Sandia National Laboratories and General Motors Corp. has found that plant and forestry waste and dedicated energy crops could sustainably replace nearly a third of gasoline use by the year 2030.
The ultrafine coal particles that are the residue of the coal cleaning process have been discarded into hundreds of impoundments. Now, a dewatering technology developed at Virginia Tech has succeeded in reducing the moisture content of ultrafine coal to less than 20 percent.
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