Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Bremen have developed a paint which they say improves the efficiency of ships, aircraft and wind turbines by reducing their flow resistance.

They have achieved this by modelling the paint’s structure on the scales of fast-swimnming sharks which evolved in a manner that significantly diminishes drag.

Carribean Reef Sharl (Image by Albert Kok via Wikimedia)

Click here to read the rest of this entry.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

University of Warwick researchers have made a breakthrough in adsorption systems design that dramatically shrinks heat pumps making them small and light enough for use in both domestic heating and automotive air conditioning.

Researchers have long been aware of a very efficient way to drive heat pumps and air conditioners using adsorption technology. This uses heat from a gas flame or engine waste heat to power a closed system containing only active carbon and a refrigerant. When the carbon is at room temperature it adsorbs the refrigerant and when it is heated the refrigerant is driven out. The process can be used to extract heat from the outside air and put it into radiators or hot water tanks or to extract heat to cool the inside of a car or building. The snag has been that the adsorption technology would need to be roughly 300 litres in volume for a car air conditioner and much larger for a heat pump to heat a house - far too big to easily fit.

Click here to read the rest of this entry.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

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 are highly efficient at converting mechanical energy to electrical energy.

Because the silicone is biocompatible (it is already used for cosmetic implants and medical devices), it can be implanted in the body to power medical devices. Placed against the lungs, sheets of the material could use breathing motions to power pacemakers, obviating the current need for surgical replacement of the batteries to power the devices.

As well as generating electricity when it is flexed, the material flexes when electrical current is applied to it. This opens the door to other kinds of applications, such as use for microsurgical devices.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

The World Future Energy Summit on renewable energy, carbon capture and smart energy technologies is currently underway in Abu Dhabi. It has attracted 600 exhibitors and 9,000 delegates on its first day.

Time magazine has summed up the feeling among conference-goers as "the politicians might have failed to act on climate change, but everybody else is going to push on regardless".

The magazine points out that total investment in clean energy dropped from $155 billion in 2008 to $130 billion last year but spending has already bounced back and may reach as much as $200 billion by the end of 2010.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

Researchers Peter H. Gleick and Heather Cooley at the Pacific Institute in California have published research which shows that bottled water requires as much as 2,000 times more energy to produce than tap water.

Gleick and Cooley calculated the energy requirements for various stages in bottled water production, including manufacturing the plastic bottles, processing the water and the bottles, and transporting and cooling the final product. 

Combining the energy for these stages, the analysis finds that producing bottled water requires between 5.6 and 10.2 megajoules of energy per litre of water - up to 2,000 times the energy cost of tap water, which takes about 0.005 megajoules per litre to treat and transport. Around 50 million barrels of oil per year are used just to produce the plastic bottles - very few of which are currently made from recycled material. Click here to read the rest of this entry.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

Michael Palin, a student designer at the University of Western Sydney, has been shortlisted for an Australian Design Award for a neat and attractive way of adding double glazing in a rental property.

The "inflatable window" is actually a clear polycarbonate sheet which has the same look and feel as glass. The clear sheet is fitted to a frame that that. uses an inflatable rubber tube to seal it into the window reveal. The rubber tubing provides a 100% air tight seal without damaging the building in any way.

The frame hides the inside of the existing window and the architrave and can be designed in a range of styles and painted if desired.

The secondary window is held into the frame with magnets, so that it can be easily removed and the window opened.

The Australian Building Codes Board says that 87% of heat loss and 48% of heat gain is through windows. Installing inflatable windows has been shown to improve insulation by up to 50%.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

The UK government is about to give away three thousand free "intelligent" refrigerators. The fridges, which will adapt their power use to the ebb and flow of demands on the national electricity grid, are to be given away in a trial by the UK government next year.

A report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change says that widespread use of this dynamic demand technology in Britain could save about 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and a further £222 million ($au500 million) in energy savings. Dynamic demand technology can also be used for other devices such as air conditioners, immersion heaters and electric car chargers.

Paul Lazarevic, a director at RLtec, which will supply the dyanmic demand technology, said  "An algorithm device sits in the fridge and monitors grid frequency and if the grid frequency goes up or down it adjusts energy use within safe parameters. The beauty of it is that you don’t know it’s happening and there’s no safety risk with your fridge defrosting."

RLtec estimates that large numbers of appliances running with dynamic demand technology would create a "virtual power station" that could displace coal-fired generators. For example, fitting all the fridges in the UK with dynamic demand technology would allow the decommissioning of a 750-megawatt "back-up" power station.

General Electric has also announced that it will be selling "Smart Energy Enabled" refrigerators from 2009.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

According to an analysis done by energy experts at Google, the United States could wean itself from coal and oil for electricity generation and nearly halve its petrol consumption by 2030. 

The analysis was first published in October but has since been revised in the light of comments and changes such as the decrease in the price of oil. The new analysis is at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/clean-energy-2030.html.

Overall, the analysis found that by 2030, the United States could reduce fossil fuel-based electricity generation by 88%, reduce vehicle petroleum consumption by 44% and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 49% at a total cost of $3.86 trillion over the 22 years - but would generate savings of $4.68 trillion over that period - a net saving of $820 billion.

This would be achieved by increasing the efficiency of electrical appliances and vehicles; rapidly increasing the use of wind, solar and geothermal power; and transitioning to plug-in vehicles.

The main immediate steps that Google recommends are:

• subsidising home owners to "weatherize" their houses which would cut their energy bills by an average of 30%,
• funding an intelligent electricity grid to monitor and manage power usage,
• mandating that all government agencies purchase energy from renewable sources, use energy-efficient buildings and use hybrid vehicles, and
• change renewable energy subsidies so that they do not rely on tax credits (because corporate profits and taxes are declining).

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has outlined a new energy plan for the U.S. that the company claims could reduce fossil fuel-based energy generation by 88 percent 2030 at a net saving of a trillion dollars..

The plan calls for the replacement of all coal- and oil-fired electricity generation with natural gas and renewable electricity. This could be done with 380 gigawatts of wind power, 250 gigawatts of solar power and 80 gigawatts of geothermal power. At the same time, efficiency measures are capable of reducing energy requirements by 33%.

By 2030, 90% percent of all new car sales would need to be hybrids and the average fuel efficiency of conventional vehicles would need to improved to about 5 litres per 100 kilometres (which many small European diesel cars already achieve). The current car fleet would need to be turned over more quickly to get the more efficient vehicles on the road.  This would require the average car to be driven for only 13 years, instead of the average of 19 years today.

According to Google, the cost of the proposal would be $4.4 trillion dollars over 22 years - but the company is quick to point out that the investment would result in even greater savings of $5.4 trillion over the 22 year life of the plan.

Google acknowledged that its plan would require a number of new policies, including a long-term national commitment to renewable electricity, increased transmission capacity, a "smart" electricity grid to better monitor and manage energy use and higher fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. But, in the process, it would would stimulate investment, create jobs, empower consumers and help address climate change.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know:

In the next 25 years, the world’senergy consumption is expected to increase by 50% and could almost double.

Most of the energy we use today comes from fossil fuels and, in some countries, nuclear.

Sustainable and renewable energy sources, which could replace fossil fuel use, include solar, wind, wave and tide geothermal, hydro, biomass and new forms of nuclear energy.

If you found this item interesting, please let others know: