Monthly Archives: January 2010
Researchers from the Beijing-based Chinese National Research Institute for Family Planning have reported a method for male contraception that they say is effective, reversible and without serious short-term side effects. In the testing conducted with nine other research centers around China, 1,045 healthy fertile males were injected monthly with 500 milligrams of a formulation of testosterone undecanoate in tea seed oil during a course of 30 months. During the 24-month study period, only 1.1 men per 100 experienced contraceptive failure. After the hormone treatment, the participants’ sperm count returned to normal levels. The tested men experienced mild side effects including … Continue Reading
Engineers at Princeton University, led by Professor Michael McAlpine, have developed a power-generating rubber film which could harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking, to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. For example, shoes made of the material could harvest the pounding of walking and running to power mobile electrical devices. The material is composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded into silicone rubber sheets. The nanoribbons are made of lead zirconate titanate, a ceramic material that generates an electrical voltage when pressure is applied to it The silicone sheets, with embedded nanoribbons, generate electricity when flexed and … Continue Reading
Ice Energy, a Colorado company, has signed a contract with the Southern California Public Power Authority to deploy rooftop units that use electricity at night to make ice. The ice is then used to cool buildings during the day. The system effectively stores electricity made at night when demand and cost is low and uses it to reduce electricity demand on hot afternoons, when demand is at its peak. Initially, 53 megawatts of storage will be installed on rooftops in the power authority’s service territory. The Los Angeles Department of Power and Water is the biggest user. Christopher Hickman, a … Continue Reading
American garbage-disposal giant, Waste Management, has partnered with InEnTec, an Oregon-based company, to begin commercializing a plasma-gasi fication process which converts garbage into energy. Plasma gasification technology has been in development and pilot testing for decades. Major pilot plants, capable of processing 1,000 tonnes or more of garbage daily, are under development in Florida, Louisiana and California. In theory, the process is simple. Torches pass an electric current through a gas (often ordinary air) in a chamber to create a superheated plasma with a temperature above 7,000 degrees Celsius. The plasma’s tremendous heat dissociates the molecular bonds of any garbage placed … Continue Reading
The world’s largest tidal power station is to be constructed off the west coast of South Korea at Incheon. GS Engineering and Construction has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power to begin construction next year with a view to completion around 2017. The power station will have a capacity of 1.32 gigawatts – 3.4 times greater than the capacity of the Rance Tidal Power Station in France which is currently the world’s largest tidal power station. The facility will provide 4.5% of South Korea’s demand for household energy. Incheon is a city of 2,500,000 close … Continue Reading
DIME, a company based in the United Arab Emirates, has begun selling a hydrophobic sand for creating an artificial water table which, the company claims, could revolutionize farming in the Middle East and other sandy desert areas. Hydrophobic sand has an extremely thin layer of nanoparticles on each grain which causes it to repel water. In DIME’s case, the nanoparticles are of a substance called "SP-HFS 1609" for which it has obtained an exclusive licence from a German company. A type of hydrophobic sand was sold as a toy in the 1980s; In regions with sandy soil, water is leeched … Continue Reading
Leading members of the corporate community, including IBM, Sony, Nolia and Pitney-Bowes, have come together in a first-of-its-kind effort to help the environment, unleashing dozens of innovative, environmentally responsible patents to the public domain. The pledged portfolio, dubbed the "Eco-Patent Commons", is available on a dedicated, public website, www.wbcsd.org/web/epc, hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Examples of the environmental benefits expected for pledged patents include: Energy conservation or improved energy or fuel efficiency Pollution prevention (source reduction, waste reduction) Use of environmentally preferable materials or substances Water or materials use reduction Increased recycling opportunity. Availability of these … Continue Reading
British company, Riversimple, has shown its Mk 1 "network electric" car. The car is a hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle about the size of a Smart Car. The car features unique technologies that enable it to run on a 6kW fuel cell, with a fuel consumption equivalent to 0.008 litres per kilometre with greenhouse gas emissions at 30g per kilometre – less than a third of that from the most efficient petrol-engine cars (and ten times better than that if the hydrogen comes from renewable resources). It has a range of 320 kilometres and a top speed of 80 kilometres … Continue Reading
In an interview with Time magazine, Christophe de Margerie, CEO of the French oil giant Total, has commented that "what will happen very soon is that oil supplies will not cover demand. That won’t mean there is no oil. There are oil reserves, but you will need to invest billions and billions to get it." In 2007, Mr de Margerie, told a London conference of oil executives that the industry would be unlikely to be able to produce more than 100 million barrels of oil a day and would not be able to produce the 120 million barrels a day … 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
