The next issue of Science will report a study that explains the mechanism for oxygen release by cerium oxide. This material is an important catalyst that favors many fundamental reactions that have profound implications for energy storage and environmental issues. These reactions include, for example, the purification of polluted gases and the production of hydrogen as new energy vector for fuel cells. The present study could inspire the design of new efficient catalysts for producing a large va
The catalytic reforming of liquid fuels offers an attractive solution to supplying hydrogen to fuel cells while avoiding the safety and storage issues related to gaseous hydrogen. Existing catalytic support structures, however, tend to break down at the high temperatures needed to prevent fouling of the catalytic surface by soot.
Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed porous support materials that can withstand the rigors of high-temp
The next generation of motor vehicles could be powered by engines that are cleaner, greener and smarter, thanks to research at two universities in South West England.
Engineers at the University of Bath are carrying our research described as being like ‘neurosurgery on diesel engines’ to find ways of making them even more efficient than their petrol-driven equivalents.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of the West of England are experimenting with the production o
The Inasmet Technology Centre (Basque Country) has participated in the METAFLEX project. The aim of this project is to research photovoltaic solar cells to use in building, transport and space sectors. The main innovation of this project is the flexibility that materials by which cells are manufactured provide, and the additional advantage is a weight reduction, comparing to other materials already used, such as glass.
The secret of this flexibility consists on the combination of su
Engineers at the University of Alberta have created a wind energy generator that they hope people will one day be able to use to power their own homes.
“We have developed a simple, reliable, controller for small scale wind energy generators that is cheaper than competing technologies,” said Dr. Andy Knight, a professor in the U of A Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and lead author of a paper on the subject published recently in IEEE Transactions on Energy Convers
Solar concentrators using highly efficient photovoltaic solar cells will reduce the cost of electricity from sunlight to competitive levels soon, attendees were told at a recent international conference on the subject. Herb Hayden of Arizona Public Service (APS) and Robert McConnell and Martha Symko-Davies of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) organized the conference held May 1-5 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Concentrating solar electric
Double threat could power 900 American homes
An environmental engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has created a device similar to a hydrogen fuel cell that uses bacteria to treat wastewater and create electricity.
Lars Angenent, Ph.D., assistant professor of Chemical Engineering, and a member of the University’s Environmental Engineering Science Program, has devised a microbial fuel cell which he calls an upflow microbial fuel cell (UMFC) that is fed co
Novel electronic devices based upon nanotechnology may soon be realized due to a new understanding of how impurities, or ’dopants,’ can be intentionally incorporated into semiconductor nanocrystals. This understanding, announced today by researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the University of Minnesota (UMN), should help enable a variety of new technologies ranging from high-efficiency solar-cells and lasers to futuristic ’spintronic’ and ultra-sensitive biodete
The microelectronics industry is continually striving to miniaturize conventional silicon-based electronic devices to provide higher performance technology that can be housed in smaller packaging.
Progress resulting from this miniaturization is evident from the rapid advances in consumer electronics, such as cell phones and laptop computers, that have been observed in recent years. Now, silicon-based molecular electronics — a complementary technology to conventional microelectr
Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard is constructing a solar-powered plane to fly around the world. His aim is to support sustainable development by demonstrating what renewable energy and new technologies can achieve. ESA is assisting by making available European space technologies and expertise through its Technology Transfer Programme.
Bertrand Piccard made the first non-stop around the world balloon-flight in a Breitling Orbiter in 1999 with Brian Jones from Britain. Now togeth
Turning plants such as corn, soybeans and sunflowers into fuel uses much more energy than the resulting ethanol or biodiesel generates, according to a new Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley study.
“There is just no energy benefit to using plant biomass for liquid fuel,” says David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell. “These strategies are not sustainable.”
Pimentel and Tad W. Patzek, professor of civil and environmental eng
A new study of the carbon dioxide emissions, cropland area requirements, and other environmental consequences of growing corn and sugarcane to produce fuel ethanol indicates that the “direct and indirect environmental impacts of growing, harvesting, and converting biomass to ethanol far exceed any value in developing this energy resource on a large scale.” The study, published in the July 2005 issue of BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), uses the “eco
How sunny is it outside right now – not just locally but all across Europe and Africa? Answering this question is at the heart of many weather-related business activities: solar power and the wider energy sector, architecture and construction, tourism, even health care. Today accurate and continent-wide scale measurements of ground radiances are provided every 15 minutes by ESA’s Meteosat Second Generation satellite.
Integrating this information with the business practices of solar
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have invented a variation on the standard electronic transistor, creating the first “nanofluidic” transistor that allows them to control the movement of ions through sub-microscopic, water-filled channels.
The researchers – a chemist and a mechanical engineer – predict that, just as the electronic transistor became the main component of microprocessors and integrated circuits, so will nanofluidic transistors anchor molecular pr
What if all the vehicles now on the road in the United States were suddenly powered by hydrogen fuel cells? Stanford researchers say in a June 24 article in the journal Science that such a conversion would improve air quality, health and climate–especially if wind were used to generate the electricity needed to split water and make hydrogen in a pollutionless process.
Similarly to how gas is pumped into tanks, hydrogen would be pumped into fuel cells, which rely on chemistry, not
Neste Oil’s new, proprietary NExBTL technology for producing biodiesel marks an important step forward in efforts to meet the growing demand for this type of fuel, as it offers not only valuable production-related benefits, but also results in a fuel with excellent product properties, particularly at low temperatures.
Various companies have experimented with the idea of combining a natural raw material with an oil refining process to produce a biofuel capable of competing with hyd
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