While on cars and fuels, Tulane University scientists have discovered a novel bacterial strain, dubbed "TU-103," that can use paper to produce butanol, a biofuel that can serve as a substitute for gasoline.
TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound.
Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many. In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials are known that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year.
TU-103 is the only known butanol-producing clostridial strain that can grow and produce butanol in the presence of oxygen, which kills other butanol-producing bacteria. Having to produce butanol in an oxygen-free space increases the costs of production.
As a biofuel, butanol is superior to ethanol (commonly produced from corn sugar) because it can readily fuel existing motor vehicles without any modifications to the engine, can be transported through existing fuel pipelines, is less corrosive, and contains more energy than ethanol, which would improve mileage.
So, pick your choice, hydrogen or butanol?
Monday, August 29, 2011
Hydrogen filling stations soon
Germany will become the first country completely accessible to fuel cell vehicles in 2015, when carmaker Daimler and the Linde technology group will build 20 new hydrogen filling stations.
The result will quadruple the number of public stations available and make it possible for a fuel cell vehicle to reach any location in the country. Installation of the hydrogen refueling pumps will begin next year at existing gas stations currently operated by various oil companies.
Fuel cell vehicles are essentially a different kind of electric car. Fuel cells generate electricity in a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, which yields only pure water vapor. In a battery electric, the electricity is already stored in the battery. In both cases, the electricity powers the vehicle's engine.
Daimler is building 200 cars for Germany, Norway and the United States this year. Seventy of those will be Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL vehicles going to California. Daimler began manufacturing a small series of this model in late 2009, then quickly decided to make it the first fuel cell passenger car it would mass-produce.
So who said fuel cells are topics of fiction and james bond movies?!
The result will quadruple the number of public stations available and make it possible for a fuel cell vehicle to reach any location in the country. Installation of the hydrogen refueling pumps will begin next year at existing gas stations currently operated by various oil companies.
Fuel cell vehicles are essentially a different kind of electric car. Fuel cells generate electricity in a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, which yields only pure water vapor. In a battery electric, the electricity is already stored in the battery. In both cases, the electricity powers the vehicle's engine.
Daimler is building 200 cars for Germany, Norway and the United States this year. Seventy of those will be Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL vehicles going to California. Daimler began manufacturing a small series of this model in late 2009, then quickly decided to make it the first fuel cell passenger car it would mass-produce.
So who said fuel cells are topics of fiction and james bond movies?!
Irene - a child of nature, or man?
With Irene blown over, the discussion she has left in her wake is if hurricanes are getting worse because of human-induced climate change?
Not very sure, say scientists but many of them do believe that hurricanes will get more intense as the planet warms, and they see large hurricanes like Irene as a harbinger.
However, while some see compelling evidence in the link, others say it has occurred in too short a time to link to climate change and not natural variability.
Storms are one of nature’s ways of moving heat around, and high temperatures at the ocean surface tend to feed hurricanes and make them stronger. That appears to be a prime factor in explaining the power of Hurricane Irene, since temperatures in the Atlantic are well above their long-term average for this time of year.
The ocean has been getting warmer for decades, and most climate scientists say it is because greenhouse gases are trapping extra heat. Rising sea-surface temperatures are factored into both sides of the analyses, but they disagree on the effect that warming in remote areas of the tropics will have on Atlantic hurricanes.
Air temperatures are also rising because of greenhouse gases, scientists say. That causes land ice to melt, one of several factors leading to a rise in sea level. That increase, in turn, is making coastlines more vulnerable to damage from the storm surges that can accompany powerful hurricanes.
Not very sure, say scientists but many of them do believe that hurricanes will get more intense as the planet warms, and they see large hurricanes like Irene as a harbinger.
However, while some see compelling evidence in the link, others say it has occurred in too short a time to link to climate change and not natural variability.
Storms are one of nature’s ways of moving heat around, and high temperatures at the ocean surface tend to feed hurricanes and make them stronger. That appears to be a prime factor in explaining the power of Hurricane Irene, since temperatures in the Atlantic are well above their long-term average for this time of year.
The ocean has been getting warmer for decades, and most climate scientists say it is because greenhouse gases are trapping extra heat. Rising sea-surface temperatures are factored into both sides of the analyses, but they disagree on the effect that warming in remote areas of the tropics will have on Atlantic hurricanes.
Air temperatures are also rising because of greenhouse gases, scientists say. That causes land ice to melt, one of several factors leading to a rise in sea level. That increase, in turn, is making coastlines more vulnerable to damage from the storm surges that can accompany powerful hurricanes.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Trapping waste energy
Adding solar cells to liquid-crystal displays could help recover a significant amount of energy that's ordinarily wasted in powering them. For example take LCD in a computer. Over 90 percent of the displays sold this year will use liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology. LCDs are, however, tremendously inefficient, converting only about 5 percent of the light produced by a backlight into a viewable image. The LCD in a notebook computer consumes one-third of its power.
Polarizers filter out light that is incompatible with the liquid-crystal shutters in an LCD pixel, accounting for 75 percent of the total light wasted by LCD screens, and conventional color filters toss out two-thirds of the light that hits them. The two research groups have created plastic photovoltaic versions of these two display components, which convert light into electricity.
We want to take an energy-wasting component that everybody uses and turn it into an energy-saving one," says Yang Yang, professor of materials science and engineering at UCLA. Yang's group created plastic solar cells that can act as polarizers. The researchers simply rub one layer in the solar-cell film with a cloth to align all the molecules in one direction. This alignment turns the cell into a polarizer that converts into electricity some of the light that doesn't pass through. the team reports that its polarizer can convert into electricity 3 or 4 percent of the light that's normally wasted by a filter. Yang expects to get this up to about 10 percent by tinkering with the materials used.
The other combined a common polymer solar-cell material with a kind of color filter that his group invented last year. The photovoltaic color filter converts into electricity about two percent of the light that would otherwise be wasted. They estimate that full displays incorporating this photovoltaic filter could generate tens of milliwatts of power, enough to make a difference to the life of a cell phone battery!
Polarizers filter out light that is incompatible with the liquid-crystal shutters in an LCD pixel, accounting for 75 percent of the total light wasted by LCD screens, and conventional color filters toss out two-thirds of the light that hits them. The two research groups have created plastic photovoltaic versions of these two display components, which convert light into electricity.
We want to take an energy-wasting component that everybody uses and turn it into an energy-saving one," says Yang Yang, professor of materials science and engineering at UCLA. Yang's group created plastic solar cells that can act as polarizers. The researchers simply rub one layer in the solar-cell film with a cloth to align all the molecules in one direction. This alignment turns the cell into a polarizer that converts into electricity some of the light that doesn't pass through. the team reports that its polarizer can convert into electricity 3 or 4 percent of the light that's normally wasted by a filter. Yang expects to get this up to about 10 percent by tinkering with the materials used.
The other combined a common polymer solar-cell material with a kind of color filter that his group invented last year. The photovoltaic color filter converts into electricity about two percent of the light that would otherwise be wasted. They estimate that full displays incorporating this photovoltaic filter could generate tens of milliwatts of power, enough to make a difference to the life of a cell phone battery!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Vehicles cross 1 billion!
Hold your breath (yes, thanks to the smog!)according to the auto trade journal Ward's, there are now over one billion cars, light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks on roads around the world, up from 980 million at the end of 2009.
The U.S. is still has the biggest population of cars and trucks -- one for every 1.3 people in the country. But the American fleet is not growing much, only about 1 percent a year. The explosion in automobile deployments is coming from China, where registrations grew by 27.5 percent, bringing the country's vehicle population to 78 million.
That increase was more than half of the total global expansion, according to Ward'. India's vehicle population underwent the second-largest growth rate, up 8.9 percent to 20.8 million units, compared with 19.1 million in 2009.
According to the International Transport Forum the global vehicle fleet could reach 2.5 billion by 2050. No doubt those cars and trucks will be much more efficient than today's vehicles, especially with China and America setting tighter fuel standards. And many of them will be electric-drive vehicles. But another doubling of the global market -- even with an increase in efficiency -- means massive increases in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Good for auto industyr, not so for the planet!
The U.S. is still has the biggest population of cars and trucks -- one for every 1.3 people in the country. But the American fleet is not growing much, only about 1 percent a year. The explosion in automobile deployments is coming from China, where registrations grew by 27.5 percent, bringing the country's vehicle population to 78 million.
That increase was more than half of the total global expansion, according to Ward'. India's vehicle population underwent the second-largest growth rate, up 8.9 percent to 20.8 million units, compared with 19.1 million in 2009.
According to the International Transport Forum the global vehicle fleet could reach 2.5 billion by 2050. No doubt those cars and trucks will be much more efficient than today's vehicles, especially with China and America setting tighter fuel standards. And many of them will be electric-drive vehicles. But another doubling of the global market -- even with an increase in efficiency -- means massive increases in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Good for auto industyr, not so for the planet!
CSP in India: mixed prospect
Is CSP a good option for India? Maps from NASA and Meteonorm show a range of approximately 1800-2200 kWh/m2/year for DNI across India, an annual DNI resource comparable to the best European sites such as Spain, though lower than the best sites in the USA and Australia. The northwest of India is widely recognised as having the best sites in the country. Jodhpur, on the edge of the Thar desert, is almost exactly comparable on an annual average basis to Granada, one of the best Spanish sites.
However, the Indian Renewable Energy Status Report notes that there is no established capability in India for CSP manufacture and there is a gap in Engineering, Procurement and Construction capability for setting up and running CSP plants. In examining the barriers to technology transfer for renewable energy technologies for India, the report identifies: product suitability to Indian conditions, difficulty in accessing market information for foreign companies, limitations in infrastructure availability, and difficulty of financing.
Published cost estimates for India vary by a factor of nearly 80 percent from lowest to highest. High current costs are an immediate barrier. Prior to the closing of the Solar Mission's phase 1 applications in December 2010, potential developers suggested that the Solar Mission CSP tariff was not sufficient. The fact that the Request for Selection was oversubscribed and that the shortlist of developers offered discounts on the tariff ranging from around Rs.3 to 5 off the Rs.15.3/kWh cap would suggest that some developers believe that cost is not an insurmountable barrier.
The World Bank's analysis of CSP costs versus the Solar Mission phase 1 tariff cap concluded that with either tower or trough technology and either wet or dry cooling, projects would not be viable even under the maximum allowed tariff. If this is the case, then cost remains a large barrier to CSP in India. On a positive note, a range of financial and regulatory incentives were analysed and it was concluded that all measures taken together were sufficient to make projects viable.
However, the Indian Renewable Energy Status Report notes that there is no established capability in India for CSP manufacture and there is a gap in Engineering, Procurement and Construction capability for setting up and running CSP plants. In examining the barriers to technology transfer for renewable energy technologies for India, the report identifies: product suitability to Indian conditions, difficulty in accessing market information for foreign companies, limitations in infrastructure availability, and difficulty of financing.
Published cost estimates for India vary by a factor of nearly 80 percent from lowest to highest. High current costs are an immediate barrier. Prior to the closing of the Solar Mission's phase 1 applications in December 2010, potential developers suggested that the Solar Mission CSP tariff was not sufficient. The fact that the Request for Selection was oversubscribed and that the shortlist of developers offered discounts on the tariff ranging from around Rs.3 to 5 off the Rs.15.3/kWh cap would suggest that some developers believe that cost is not an insurmountable barrier.
The World Bank's analysis of CSP costs versus the Solar Mission phase 1 tariff cap concluded that with either tower or trough technology and either wet or dry cooling, projects would not be viable even under the maximum allowed tariff. If this is the case, then cost remains a large barrier to CSP in India. On a positive note, a range of financial and regulatory incentives were analysed and it was concluded that all measures taken together were sufficient to make projects viable.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Migrating species
Once heard only rarely outside the north Kent marshes, the loud voice of the Cetti's warbler is now delighting a whole new set of listeners, from the isle of Anglesey to the banks of the Humber. The bird has moved 150 kilometres further north within the UK in the last 40 years, in response to the changing climate.
These changes, in response to global warming, have happened two to three times faster than was previously expected, according to a new study from the biology department of York University, published on Thursday evening in the peer review journal Science. Although such responses to global warming have been predicted, the study is the first to show that animal and plant species have moved furthest in the regions where the climate has warmed the most.
The team leader compares these changes as equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the equator at around 20 centimetres per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year. This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of this century.
One can be prompted to ask 'does it matter' unless you sit back to think what happens if birds and bees were to desert our areas. Think it out!
These changes, in response to global warming, have happened two to three times faster than was previously expected, according to a new study from the biology department of York University, published on Thursday evening in the peer review journal Science. Although such responses to global warming have been predicted, the study is the first to show that animal and plant species have moved furthest in the regions where the climate has warmed the most.
The team leader compares these changes as equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the equator at around 20 centimetres per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year. This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of this century.
One can be prompted to ask 'does it matter' unless you sit back to think what happens if birds and bees were to desert our areas. Think it out!
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