Monthly Archives: August 2009
Researchers at the Lane Ag Center in Oklahoma have published a paper which recommends using waste watermelons as feedstock for biofuels. About 20% of watermelons are not sent to market because of blemishes or unusual shapes. The researchers concluded that watermelon juice would have to be concentrated 2.5 to 3 times if it was to be used as the sole biofuel feedstock, but watermelon juice could easily be used to dilute other feedstocks and provide a nitrogen supplement to them. Watermelons are only one of a range of unusual feedstocks, including various vegetable oils, whey and even beer, now being … Continue Reading
Creative Water Solutions, a company in Minnesota, says that it has developed a system for keeping swimming pools clean while drastically reducing the use of chlorine and other harsh chemicals. The patented treatment system uses sphagnum moss to inhibit the formation of bacterial colonies called biofilms. Chlorine kills free-floating bacteria but biofilms absorb the chemical, requiring ever-greater doses to keep a pool clean. Using the moss reduces the amount of chlorine needed by about two-thirds. The company is already selling its treatment for backyard swimming pools and is undertaking its first large-scale commercial test this summer at a public aquatic … Continue Reading
Solar Roadways, an Idaho company, has been given a $100,000 grant by the US Department of Transport to develop a prototype "solar roadway" panel. The company is proposing to develop a 12′ (3.6 metre) square panel covered with super-tough solar cells whcih would be laid on top of a roadway. The solar roadway panels would also incorporate low-power LED lane markers and speed and other road signs which would not only be visible at night, but could easily be changed to suit the traffic conditions. In addition, because the roadways would be designed to tansmit power, the road network could … Continue Reading
Researchers at two institutions have proposed different ways in which the use of ultracapacitors could boost the efficiency and reduce the cost of hybrid vehicles. According to estimates by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory in Illonois, ultracapacitors could lower the cost of the battery packs in plug-in hybrid vehicles by hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, by halving the size of the packs that are needed. The cost of the batteries is the main the reason why hybrids cost thousands of dollars more than conventional vehicles. This is especially true of plug-in hybrids, which rely on large battery packs to … Continue Reading
A team of researchers, led by Professor Martin Green, Research Director of the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence at the University of New South Wales, have claimed the highest efficiency for solar power ever recorded. The team has achieved 43% of sunlight converted into electricity at the research stage. The UNSW team combined a cell developed locally with cells supplied by two US groups to demonstrate a multi-cell combination that has set the new benchmark. Professor Green said that "because sunlight is made up of many colours of different energy, ranging from the high energy ultraviolet to the low energy … Continue Reading
Aurora Biofuels, a California company, says it has cultivated a strain of algae that doubles the production of biodiesel by absorbing more than twice as much carbon dioxide as conventional strains. Normally, algae absorb more carbon dioxide in low light and decrease the amount absorbed as the light gets brighter during the day. By a process of screening and selection, Aurora has bred a strain of algae that can ingest carbon dioxide regardless of the intensity of sunlight. Aurora’s process uses salt water in open ponds. The algae feed on carbon dioxide and Aurora says that its algae will sequester … Continue Reading
Entech Solar, a Texas company with solar projects in more than twenty countries, has has completed a preliminary design review and prototype of its next-generation concentrating solar panel, the ThermaVolt II, which combines concentrating photovoltaic and thermal technologies. The company says its product delivers four to five times the amount of energy of traditional photovoltaic systems and costs less to produce. The ThermaVolt II uses proprietary arched Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight about 20 times onto the solar cells, saving about 95% of the relatively expensive silicon cell material. Normally, this would cause the PV arrays to can get extremely … Continue Reading
Researchers at Ceramatec Inc, a Utah company, have created a small ceramic disk battery which they say will deliver a continuous flow of five kilowatts of electricity over four hours and can be recharged daily for more than ten years. The new battery runs on sodium-sulphur – a composition that normally operates as a battery at temperatures greater than 300°C. Ceramatec’s new battery runs at less than 90°C. The secret is a thin ceramic membrane that is sandwiched between the sodium and sulfur. Only positive sodium ions can pass through, leaving electrons to create a useful electrical current. Ceramatec says … Continue Reading
In an interview on the American Charlie Rose television show, Elon Musk, head of Tesla Motors, has described the company’s plans following the success of its Roadster sports car. Tesla has already previewed its Model S, an electric sedan that Tesla says will carry seven passengers and provide more cargo space than any other sedan currently on the market. The Model S will be available in the United States in 2011 for about $US50,000. Tesla expects to sell about 20,000 sedans a year. The Roadster, which is claimed to be the fastest mass market sports car in the world, sells … Continue Reading
A Canadian company, General Fusion, claims that it can build a relatively low-tech prototype nuclear fusion power plant within the next decade for less than a billion dollars. For decades, billions of dollars have been spent on research into ways of building a practical fusion reactor for electricity production. The major problem is creating a controllable fusion reaction that gives off more energy than is needed to trigger it and most scientists believe that achieving this will take several more decades and cost tens billions of dollars. General Fusion’s approach involves building a metal sphere about three metres in diameter … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted WaterScientists from Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling … Continue Reading → […]
- Aussie Researchers Make Efficient Solar Cells from Low-grade SiliconResearchers at the University of New South Wales have found a way to make very high efficiency solar cells out of cheap, low-grade silicon. It has been known for several decades that hydrogen atoms can be introduced into the atomic … Continue Reading → […]
- First Aussie “Hot Rocks” Power Plant Begins ProducingThe first power plant in Australia to produce electricity using an enhanced geothermal ("hot rocks") system has begun producing electricity in the far north-east of South Australia. The one-megawatt Habanero pilot plant near outback Innamincka is operated by Geodynamics. Geodynamics … Continue Reading → […]
- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted Water
