Cool! Nanoparticle Research Points to Energy Savings
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.
Good News About $4 Gas? Fewer Traffic Deaths
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.
Chemists Get Scoop on Crude 'Oil' from Pig Manure
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.
Researchers Use Fungus to Improve Corn-to-ethanol Process
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.
New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers
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.
New Method Rapidly Produces Low-Cost Biofuels from Wood, Grass
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.
Key to Using Local Resources for Biomass May Include Waste
Key to Northwest biofuels may include waste among biomass resources.
Study Shows Hybrid Effect on Power Distribution
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.
Imports from Latin America May Help U.S. Meet Energy Goals
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.
New Research Suggests Biofuel Blending is Often Inaccurate
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.
Costs of Solar Photovoltaic Panels Substantially Eclipse Benefits
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.
Researchers Give New Hybrid Vehicle Its First Test-Drive in the Ocean
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.
Biogenic Natural Gas Linked to Climate Change, Renewable Energy
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.
Researchers Investigate Supercritical Method of Converting Chicken Fat and Tall Oil Fatty Acid into Biodiesel
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.
Improving Fuel Cell Durability Starts with Failures
Researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute's (GTRI) Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies believe that understanding how and why fuel cells fail is the key to both reducing cost and improving durability. The problems they are addressing include chemical attack of the membrane, carbon corrosion and platinum instability.
Researchers Examine World's Potential to Produce Biodiesel
What do the countries of Thailand, Uruguay and Ghana have in common? They all could become leading producers of the emerging renewable fuel known as biodiesel, says a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Cellulose-Munching Microbe at Heart of New Bioethanol Company
The search for alternatives to fossil fuels has led to a major investment in a microbe that converts plant matter into ethanol. Noted for its appetite for all things cellulose, the bacterium efficiently converts biomass to ethanol in a carbon-neutral process that doesn't require the additional enzyme treatments usually accompanying bioethanol production.
New Catalyst May Revolutionize Biodiesel Production
Victor Lin, a chemistry professor at Iowa State University, has developed a catalyst that he thinks will revolutionize biodiesel production. Lin has founded a company in Ames, Catilin Inc., to develop and market that technology.
Engineers Develop Higher-energy Liquid-transportation Fuel from Sugar
Reporting in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical and biological engineering Professor James Dumesic and his research team describe a two-stage process for turning biomass-derived sugar into 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), a liquid transportation fuel with 40 percent greater energy density than ethanol.
Sugar Can Fuel Tomorrow's Vehicles
Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia propose using polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, from biomass to directly produce low-cost hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy. The vision is for the ingredients to be mixed in the fuel tank of your car to power a fuel cell.
Higher Gas Prices Leave Many Workers Running on Empty
Few have been unaffected by the rapidly increasing price of gas, which has inched its way up toward $4 a gallon in some parts of the United States. And consumers aren't feeling those effects just in their wallets, a Florida State University professor in Tallahassee, Fla., has found.
Meeting the Ethanol Challenge: Scientists Use Supercomputer to Target Cellulose Bottleneck
Termites and fungi already know how to digest cellulose, but the human process of producing ethanol from cellulose remains slow and expensive. The central bottleneck is the sluggish rate at which the cellulose enzyme complex breaks down tightly bound cellulose into sugars, which are then fermented into ethanol.
Cheap, Efficient Solar Power: What's Needed Now to Get There?
If solar power is going to play a significant role in the energy equation of the future, there must be advances in technologies to store that power and more investment by manufacturers, concludes a new federally funded study by University of Massachusetts Amherst scientist Erin Baker.
New Nanoscale Engineering Breakthrough Points to Hydrogen-powered Vehicles
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have developed an advanced concept in nanoscale catalyst engineering "" a combination of experiments and simulations that will bring polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for hydrogen-powered vehicles closer to massive commercialization.
Researchers Find Substantial Wind Resource Off Mid-Atlantic Coast
The wind resource off the Mid-Atlantic coast could supply the energy needs of nine states from Massachusetts to North Carolina, plus the District of Columbia--with enough left over to support a 50 percent increase in future energy demand--according to a study by researchers at the University of Delaware and Stanford University.