Power and Electrical Engineering

Power and Electrical Engineering

LECs: The Future of Affordable Flat Panel Color Displays

In the search for low-cost color displays that do not drain a computer’s battery, the polymer light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) may be the next answer to the problem, according to an international team of electrical engineers.

“The color-variable LEC can provide a solution to simple, low cost color displays,” Cheng Huang, graduate student in electrical engineering at Penn State told attendees today (Aug. 20) at the 224th American Chemical Society annual meeting in Boston.

Power and Electrical Engineering

Engineering Students Overcome Challenges for Hybrid Fuel Cell Vehicle

A series of obstacles fell before the onslaught of a Penn State engineering graduate class as they tackled and found solutions to all the barriers preventing development of a hybrid fuel cell automobile using hydrogen fuel cells and battery storage.

“The professors asked the class to solve the problem of hydrogen odorization,” says Jamie Weston, graduate student in energy and geoenvironmental engineering. “We quickly came up with a solution and, took the rest of the course to develop our so

Power and Electrical Engineering

Nanometer-Scale Light Source Achieves Single-Molecule Emission

Using photon emissions from individual molecules of silver, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created what may be the world’s smallest electroluminescent light source.

Believed to be the first demonstration of electroluminescence from individual molecules, the work could lead to new types of nanometer-scale optical interconnects, high-resolution optical microscopy, nanometer-scale lithography and other applications that require very small light sources. And becaus

Power and Electrical Engineering

Nanoparticles Enhance Solar Energy Conversion Efficiency

An enormous source of clean energy is available to us. We see it almost every day. It’s just a matter of harnessing it.

The problem with solar energy is that it has not been inexpensive enough in the past. David Kelley, professor of chemistry at Kansas State University, developed a new type of nanoparticle — a tiny chemical compound far too small to be seen with the naked eye — that may reap big dividends in solar power.

Kelley’s team is studying the properties and tech

Power and Electrical Engineering

Clean Power Innovation: Harnessing Mine Waste for Energy

New technology for generating power from coal mining waste was launched by the Federal Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Hon. Ian Macfarlane, at CSIRO in Brisbane today.

The revolutionary technology has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gases and bring big savings to mining companies operating coal mines.

The CSIRO-Liquatech hybrid coal and gas turbine system unveiled at the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies will generate electricity from wa

Power and Electrical Engineering

NASA’s Space Launch Initiative’s next generation reusable launch vehicle may fly on kerosene

The kerosene that lights your heater or stove might be the same type of fuel powering the nation’s next space vehicle.

Kerosene — almost as common to American life as gasoline — is being considered as a fuel for two main engine candidates for a second generation reusable launch vehicle, now in development by the Space Launch Initiative. The Initiative is NASA’s technology development program to design a complete space transportation system with increased safety and reliability at a lower c

Power and Electrical Engineering

New Electronic Components for Retrofit Lighting Solutions

Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) presents new electronic components in the Delta switches and socket outlets range for the retrofit market in the area of lighting and shutters. The new products include universal dimmer and shutter control inserts, conventional and wireless operator pushbuttons, and a battery-operated wall-mounted transmitter.

The “sys universal dimmer insert” is suitable for all types of lighting to 420 watts/volt-ampere connected load. The dimmer can be easily retrofitt

Power and Electrical Engineering

Exploring Clean Energy: Innovations in Photovoltaic Technologies

Photovoltaics is a science that examines light-electricity conversion. Conversion of solar energy carried by photons is transformed by solar cells into direct-current electrical energy. Interest in the use of photovoltaic (PV) solar technologies is growing rapidly, as it will permit the direct production of electricity from solar radiation without any harmful emissions or noise. Rising energy costs, the finite nature of fossil fuels and worries about climate change has renewed interest in making the

Power and Electrical Engineering

Molecules Drive Spintronics: A New Era in Electronics

Researchers eager to use individual molecules as the components of ultra-small electronic circuits and computers have put a new spin on their ambitious goal.

They take advantage of a hitherto unexploited property of electric currents, called spin, to make molecular devices that operate under new rules. This fledgling form of electronics, called spintronics, could lead to computers that don’t forget anything when their

Power and Electrical Engineering

Innovative Wind Reservoir: Lighter, Modular, and Cost-Effective

Two Basque companies, Enerlim and NECESA, have developed a new wind generator, a wind reservoir to make use of wind energy.

This wind reservoir is much lighter than ordinary three-arm wind generators; hence, it is more economical and easier to install. On the other side, the machine is completely modular, as columns, pulleys and plates can be divided in order to make easier the production, transport and installation. The largest piece to be transported and installed is 12 meters long and 2

Power and Electrical Engineering

Hubble’s solar arrays – behind the scenes

The power for Hubble’s scientific discoveries comes from solar cells. Designing and constructing Hubble’s first two sets of solar cell arrays constituted a huge technological achievement for the European Space Agency and European industry. After an in-orbit life of more than 8 years, this example of pioneering space technology was this morning (European time) replaced by new, more powerful arrays.

For the last week a dedicated team of engineers, technicians and scientists from the European

Power and Electrical Engineering

Offshore Wind Technology Set for Large-Scale Deployment

European research co-ordinated by TU Delft
Offshore wind technology ready for application

The technology for the construction and operation of offshore windfarms is ready for large-scale application. Companies in the fields of engineering and services are preparing to take part. This can be seen in the conclusions of the project Concerted Action on Offshore Wind Energy in Europe (CA-OWEE) of the European Union, in which seventeen parties from thirteen European countries have brou

Power and Electrical Engineering

New Mini Fuel Cell Could Outlast Traditional Phone Batteries

The days of fast-fading cellular phone batteries may soon be over. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently developed a working prototype for a portable fuel cell energy source that could power a cellular phone 300 percent longer than existing rechargeable batteries do. Indeed, the new technology would be less expensive, smaller and more powerful than any battery currently in use, according to Jeff Morse of LLNL’s Center for Microtechnology Engineering. He predic

Power and Electrical Engineering

Cylinders Create Self-Assembling Carbon Nanotube Circuits

Carbon nanotubes assemble themselves into electronic grids

Tiny electrical circuits with a single molecule for each wire have been created in the United States 1 . These grids could replace silicon chips, making computers and memory devices much more compact and powerful than they are today.

The grids comprise carbon nanotubes – long, hollow cylinders of pure carbon a few millionths of a millimetre (nanometres) across and several thousand nanometres long. Dep

Power and Electrical Engineering

Harnessing Waste Heat: The Quantum Afterburner Explained

A quantum afterburner extracts laser light from vehicle exhaust.

The hot gases belching out of your car’s exhaust are not just useless waste. They are a laser waiting to happen, says physicist Marlan Scully1.

All you need to harness this potential, suggests Scully, of Texas A&M University in College Station, is a quantum afterburner. This hypothetical modification would use quantum mechanics to boost the engine’s efficiency by clawing back waste heat and turning it

Power and Electrical Engineering

Silicon Carbide Crystals: Powering Next-Gen Electronics

Like silicon, silicon carbide is semiconductor and in some aspects, its characteristics are even better. Electrical strength of silicon carbide is ten times higher than that of silicon, heat conductivity is three times higher. Crystals of silicon carbide are almost perfect for power electronics. They can work at high current density (more than 10 kA per square centimeter) and voltage up to 4.5 kV, unachievable for silicon. Moreover, charge-drift velocity is twice higher in silicon carbide providing b

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