Energy

On September 16th the 2010 World Solar-Powered Air Conditioning Development Forum was held in Dezhou, a municipality of China's Shandong Province. During the conference, Shandong Vicot Air Conditioning Co., Ltd. unveiled the world's first directly solar-powered air conditioning unit, which could be a significant step forward for the industry's future strategy and development.  Some predict that by 2060, the world will be faced with a diminished supply of current energy sources - in order to replace all fossil fuels by that time, sustainable energy sources should make up 30% of all energy…

To cure global warming we have to trade some acid rain - at least given current battery technology, which uses toxic heavy metals. Obviously, plants have a much better solution and we have written about it often - artificial photosynthesis - but despite nature being our best example of efficiency, she isn't easy to duplicate.    But a group of chemists say they have made a step towards that, by discovering a new way to pass electrons back and forth between two molecules.  Understanding the electron transfer processes in these molecules provides a way to design organic…

Current battery design and implementation is not optimal, but it's cheap.  A new effort seeks to make conventional battery systems more standardized and increase interoperability of battery and charger parts, which creates energy waste, extra costs and operational inefficiencies.  But it's not for the casual user. It's called the Intelligent Battery system and it also isn't cheap - the charger is about 20 percent more expensive than alternatives but the developers say the extra initial investment is recuperated in the medium and long term through prolonged battery life and better…

It would seem that mimicking nature would be among the easiest things to do for science.  After all, it's right there, in front of us, happening for millions of years. Take plants, for instance.   Every day they absorb sunlight and turn it into energy but our solar technology is bordering on laughable and, if solar lobbyists get there way and it gets more subsidies and even mandates, criminal.    The issue science has is that the sun's rays are highly destructive to man-made materials and that leads to a gradual degradation of many systems developed to harness it.…

Using corn or soybean for getting ethanol or bio-diesel additive could be good option for some nations, developing cellulose resources could be another with genetic engineering, while Jatropha is in mission mode in developing world, there cannot be general consensus what should make renewable energy crop. The opinions may vary and logics could be different. Different paths could lead to same destination replacement of fossil fuel with bio-fuel. This goes with the assumption or scientific fact (which ever way you want it ) that using bio-fuel will help in green house gas mitigation. However…

Personalized energy systems, where instead of huge nuclear plants (or worse, even larger windmills or solar farms) powering air conditioning for homes or gas stations fueling cars, individuals can produce power themselves, edged a little closer as scientists reported discovery of a new nickel borate catalyst that could boost efficiency of fuel cells up to 20,000 percent.  The system would consist of rooftop solar energy panels that produce electricity for heating, cooking, lighting, and to charge the batteries on the homeowners' electric cars during. Any surplus electricity would go to…

Should you happen to be in Washington, D.C. in October and at House of Sweden, the Swedish Embassy, you will get a chance to see a fireball red colored car that delighted Europeans who like tiny red cars earlier this year. It's called the Baldos II and it is a hybrid auto built by engineering students at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden.    So what? The fuel tests show it can run 152.2 kilometers on a liter of fuel, whatever that means - in Sweden, they use some primitive system invented during the French Revolution to stick it to the English, so I am not certain but that…

It was heartening to see rapeseed mustard being widely cultivated on patches of lands in Giessen Hessen .. Large patches of land earlier lying wastelands near rly tracts between Giessen to Frankfurt were lined with rapeseed mustard crops. This crop is main source of biofuel in Germany . Mustard oil is edible in India and sells around Rs 100 or USD 2,5 per litre. However its different in Germany if they cultivate rapeseed mustard of set aside lands. Let us hope it does not compete with food grains. Choice is getting more and more difficult as the debate of  food vs fuel at least in…

Researchers at Edinburgh Napier’s Biofuel Research Centre have done something unthinkable - they have used Scotch to fuel cars instead of violence-filled weekends. Well, not Scotch specifically, rather whisky manufacturing waste from Glenkinchie Distillery (The Edinburgh Malt). Whew, the culture dodged a bullet there.     But it's also a good idea.  Scotch is a $5.5 billion industry in Scotland and Edinburgh Napier hit on the idea that whisky by-products could be an excellent resource for developing biobutanol, a next-generation biofuel with 30% more output power than…

Coal isn't popular everywhere these days, particularly in Africa.  Driven by economic growth and demand, electricity within sub-Saharan Africa is rapidly approaching supply capacity and in many countries exceeding it. The demand for new generation capacity is boosting growth in the steam turbine market for the region.   The sub-Saharan African steam turbine market is expected to grow considerably due to the cost efficiencies in power production attained from coal-fired power plants in coal-rich countries, according to Frost Sullivan research. The emergence of combined cycle…