so that their ability to carry an electric current changes in the presence of a particular gas.
Pieter Elshout and fellow environmental scientists at Radboud University have demonstrated how long it takes for the advantages that biofuels offer over fossil fuels to earn a return on this initial emission On the global scale,
spatially-explicit overview of biogenic gas emission resulting from crops used to produce biofuels. In developing this model,
our calculations of the durations of payback times took account of the entire production chain for fossil fuels and biofuels with the accompanying greenhouse emissions.
The new Georgia Tech algorithm that fuels this system demonstrates the potential of easily controlling large teams of robots,
"said Magnus Egerstedt, Schlumberger Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer engineering.""Instead, the operator controls an area that needs to be explored.
The scientists coat gold nanoparticles of a few thousand atoms each with an oil-like organic molecule that holds the gold particles together.
and convert carbon dioxide to make fuel Capture and convert--this is the motto of carbon dioxide reduction,
a liquid fuel and the focus of a recent study conducted at the U s. Department of energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory("Carbon dioxide Conversion to Methanol over Size-Selected Cu4 Clusters at Low pressures").
But compressing gas into a high-pressure mixture takes a lot of energy. The benefit of enhanced binding is that the new catalyst requires lower pressure
and burned for fuel. Of course the catalyst still has a long journey ahead from the lab to industry.
and also shows the strongest methane signature ever detected on an alien planet, which should yield additional clues as to how the planet formed.
whereas others are around 700 C and features the strongest atmospheric methane signal on record.
Previous Jupiter-like exoplanets have shown only faint traces of methane, far different from the heavy methane atmospheres of the gas giants in our solar system.
"In the atmospheres of the cold giant planets of our solar system carbon is found as methane,
Since the atmosphere of 51 Eridani is also methane rich, it signifies that this planet is well on its way to becoming a cousin of our own familiar Jupiter,
#Black phosphorus surges ahead of graphene A Korean team of scientists tune BP's band gap to form a superior conductor,
affiliated with the Institute for Basic Science's (IBS) Center for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic systems (CALDES), reported a tunable band gap in BP,
Like graphene, BP is a semiconductor and also cheap to mass produce. The one big difference between the two is BP's natural band gap
allowing the material to switch its electrical current on and off. The research team tested on few layers of BP called phosphorene
which is an allotrope of phosphorus. Keun Su Kim, an amiable professor stationed at POSTECH speaks in rapid bursts when detailing the experiment,
therefore we tuned BP's band gap to resemble the natural state of graphene, a unique state of matter that is different from conventional semiconductors."
pockets of water vapor or gas accumulate in them by underwater evaporation or effervescence, just like a drop of water evaporates without having to boil it.
These gas pockets deflect water, keeping the surface dry, "he said. In a study published today (Aug 18) by the journal Scientific Reports("Sustaining dry surfaces under water),
where dissolved gas was removed from the ambient liquid, and they also remained dry.""It was amazing and
allowing gas to be retained between the hairs.""These gas-retaining insects have surface properties consistent with our predictions,
allowing them to stay dry for a long time, "said Paul R. Jones, the study's first author.
nearly 70-percent of the electricity generated in this country continues to come from fossil fuels. Low-cost alternatives to todays photovoltaic solar panels are needed for the immense advantages of solar power to be realized fully.
It is believed this new process will have significant environmental benefits by improving the yield of biodiesel in a sustainable way that doesn't require the use of additional fossil fuels
By 2020, the EU aims to have 10 per cent of the transport fuel of every EU country come from renewable sources such as biofuels.
Fuel suppliers are required also to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the EU fuel mix by 6 per cent by 2020 in comparison to 2010.
At present, biodiesel is produced by combining fats and oils with methanol, which is derived usually from fossil fuels.
A waste product from this process is crude glycerol which is formed on a large scale and contains many impurities that make it costly to purify
"Biodiesel manufacture is a growing part of the EU fuel pool, with statutory amounts being required to be added to diesel that is derived from fossil fuels."
"We've provided unprecedented chemistry that highlights the potential to manufacture biodiesel in a much more environmentally friendly,
and seriously improve the quality of life by reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels and encourage efficient use of resources."
They specifically concentrated on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on metal electrodes ecause of the current interest in this process for sustainable production of fuels and value added chemicals,
used in everything from fire extinguishers to oil recovery to carbonated beverages, but it is also a major greenhouse gas.
such as reducing carbon dioxide to convert it into a usable fuel, Surendranath says. This could reduce emissions of a principal greenhouse gas that fosters climate change,
and transform it into a useful, renewable fuel. The initial finding described in this paper is ust one piece of
and electricity at a low cost from fuel found in water. Both heating generators and generators for electricity could be developed within a few years,
using high efficiency solar cells to power water electrolysis("A 24.4%solar to hydrogen energy conversion efficiency by combining concentrator photovoltaic modules and electrochemical cells").
"This is a significant step toward the substitution of fossil fuels with solar hydrogen. Increased demand for hydrogen as a clean fuel for vehicles and other applications is anticipated,
but it is produced currently from fossil fuel. In order to increase Japan use of renewable energy at a substantial fraction in the total energy demand, it is vital to develop technologies for the high efficiency
and low cost production of hydrogen using solar energy. Conventional approaches to solar hydrogen production using photocatalysts achieved a solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency of less than 10,
%requiring improvements for real-world applications. The research group of Associate professor Masakazu Sugiyama and Project Professor Katsushi Fujii (Graduate school of Engineering
%The researchers also reduced energy loss by improving the connection between the CPV modules and electrolyzers, resulting in a solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency above 24%.
which blocks fire's access to its fuel source--the polymer. The synergistic combination of both these processes makes polydopamine an attractive and powerful flame retardant.
alerting the wearer by turning on an LED light("Ultrasensitive and Highly Selective Graphene-Based Single Yarn for Use in Wearable Gas Sensor").
a pollutant gas commonly found in vehicle exhaust that also results from fossil fuel combustion. Prolonged exposure to nitrogen dioxide can be dangerous to human health,
and filter harmful gas from air. his sensor can bring a significant change to our daily life
unlike the gas sensors invariably developed with the existing solid substrates, says Dr. Hyung-Kun Lee,
This technique flows a mixture of methane, hydrogen and argon gases into a tube furnace.
At high temperatures, methane decomposes into carbon atoms that settle onto the germanium's surface to form a uniform graphene sheet.
including water, oil, highly corrosive media, biological fluids containing bacteria and blood. Not only did the material repel all the liquid
Potentially, hydrogen could be transported to other locations and burned as fuel.""In theory, this should be a self-sustaining energy source,
and you do need not a large amount to capture enough sunlight to carry out fuel generation
#Ultrasensitive sensors made from boron-doped graphene Ultrasensitive gas sensors based on the infusion of boron atoms into graphene--a tightly bound matrix of carbon atoms--may soon be possible, according to an international team of researchers
from six countries. Graphene is known for its remarkable strength and ability to transport electrons at high speed,
but it is also a highly sensitive gas sensor. With the addition of boron atoms, the boron graphene sensors were able to detect noxious gas molecules at extremely low concentrations, parts per billion in the case of nitrogen oxides and parts per million for ammonia
the two gases tested to date. This translates to a 27 times greater sensitivity to nitrogen oxides
reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences("Ultrasensitive gas detection of large-area boron-doped graphene),
Once fabricated, the researchers sent boron graphene samples to researchers at the Honda Research Institute USA Inc.,Columbus, Ohio, who tested the samples against their own highly sensitive gas sensors.
"This multidisciplinary research paves a new avenue for further exploration of ultrasensitive gas sensors, "said Avetik Harutyunyan,
just like checking oil levels in a car. The dipstick is already available and can save lives,
#ipstickin the brain could predict damage just in time TO CHECK a car oil levels, use a dipstick.
Although fracking has unlocked new fuel sources and slashed energy prices, there is a risk that toxic compounds in the fracking fluid can get into shallow aquifers via fractures in the bedrock.
Instead of chemical fuel, which is heavy and inefficient, they use an ionic liquid, made entirely of positively or negatively charged ions.
it is safer and simpler to take it into space than a plasma or gas.
using up all the fuel without corroding the spacecraft. his is one of the other show stoppers we had at the beginning:
Liquid fuel and a liquid oxidizer combine within a combustion chamber and ignite. Ultimately its this combustion that thrusts the rocket forward.
requiring extra hardware and additional fuel. But with Rutherford, the engines turbopumps get a much more condensed energy source.
versus the 60 percent efficiency of the gas motor. The idea of electric propulsion is nothing new;
Using the sun instead of fossil fuels to power a desalination plant isn't a totally new idea.
but the design is written broadly enough that it can potentially protect everything from ships to submarines, offshore platforms, ground vehicles, buildings,
"including the insertion of the aluminum"fuel"(b) and movement/fusion of gallium alloy droplets (e). Tsinghua University scientists led by Jing Liu,
the aluminum reacts with the sodium hydroxide to release hydrogen gas, while placing the aluminum in the liquid metal drop's rear creates differences in electrical charges across the liquid metal.
The ability of liquid metal with its own embedded power source could even one day be the basis to build self repairing armor on tanks and changing aircraft fuselages for fuel efficiency and speed.
Morocco environment minister, Hakima el-Haite, believes that solar energy could have the same impact on the region this century that oil production had in the last.
she said. e are not an oil producer. We import 94%of our energy as fossil fuels from abroad
and that has big consequences for our state budget, el-Haite told the Guardian. e also used to subsidise fossil fuels
which have a heavy cost, so when we heard about the potential of solar energy, we thought;
The HTF is made up of a synthetic thermal oil solution that is pumped towards a heat tank containing molten sands that can store heat energy for three hours
This technique flows a mixture of methane, hydrogen, and argon gases into a tube furnace.
At high temperatures, methane decomposes into carbon atoms that settle onto the germanium's surface to form a uniform graphene sheet.
Already envisaged scenarios include its use as fuel for vehicles or for producing carbon-based energy carriers.
useful in applications ranging from medical imaging of soft tissue to oil prospecting. The most sensitive commercial magnetic sensors require a single SQUID kept at 4. 2 Kn incredibly chilly temperature that is usually maintained with expensive and difficult to handle liquid helium.
#A better way to pack natural gas into fuel tanks A new and innovative way to store methane could speed the development of natural gas-powered cars that don require the high pressures
or cold temperatures of today compressed or liquefied natural gas vehicles. Natural gas is cleaner-burning than gasoline,
and today there are more than 150,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles on the road in the U s, . most of them trucks and buses. But until manufacturers can find a way to pack more methane into a tank at lower pressures and temperatures,
allowing for a greater driving range and less hassle at the pump, passenger cars are unlikely to adopt natural gas as a fuel.
UC Berkeley chemists have developed now a porous and flexible material so-called metal-organic framework (MOF) or storing methane that addresses these problems.
The flexible MOF collapses when the methane is extracted to run the engine, but expands when the methane is pumped in at only moderate pressure,
within the range produced by a home compressor. ou could potentially fill up at home, said Jeffrey Long,
a UC Berkeley professor of chemistry who led the project. The flexible MOF can be loaded with methane
the main ingredient of natural gas, at 35 to 65 times atmospheric pressure (500 to 900 psi),
whereas compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles compress natural gas into an empty tank under 250 atmospheres (3, 600 psi).
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) vehicles operate at lower pressures but require significant insulation in the tank system to maintain the natural gas at minus-162 degrees Celsius (minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit)
so that it remains liquid. Next-gen NG vehicles Long said that next-generation natural gas vehicles will require a material that binds the methane and packs it more densely into the fuel tank, providing a larger driving range.
One of the major problems has been finding a material that absorbs the methane at a relatively low pressure,
such as 35 atmospheres, but gives it all up at a pressure where the engine can operate,
between 5 and 6 atmospheres. MOFS, which have a lot of internal surface area to adsorb gaseshat is,
for gas molecules to stick to the internal surfaces of the poresnd store them at high density,
are one of the most promising materials for adsorbed natural gas (ANG) storage. his is a big advance both in terms of capacity and thermal management,
Long said. ith these new flexible MOFS, you can get to capacities beyond what was thought possible with rigid MOFS.
is that they do not heat up as much as other methane absorbers, so there is less cooling of the fuel required. f you fill a tank that has adsorbent, such as activated charcoal,
when the methane binds it releases heat, he said. ith our material, some of that heat goes into changing the structure of the material,
so you have less heat to dissipate, less heat to manage. You don have to have as much cooling technology associated with filling your tank.
The flexible MOF material could perhaps even be placed inside a balloon-like bag that stretches to accommodate the expanding MOF as methane is pumped in
Improving onboard natural-gas storage Natural gas from oil wells is one of the cheapest and cleanest fossil fuels today,
however, because of the expensive and large onboard compressed fuel tanks. In addition, gasoline packs over three times the energy density per volume as natural gas
even when compressed to 3, 600 psi, which results in natural gas vehicles with a shorter driving range per fill up.
In order to advance onboard natural gas storage, Ford motor company teamed up with UC Berkeley on this project, with funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agencynergy (ARPA-E) of the U s. Dept of energy.
Ford is a leader in CNG/propane-prepped vehicles with more than 57,000 sold in the U s. since 2009, more than all other major U s. automakers combined.
station compressors and fuel along with serving to increase natural gas-powered vehicle driving range within the limited cargo space. atural gas storage in porous materials provides the key advantage of being able to store significant amounts of natural gas at low pressures
than compressed gas at the same conditions, said Veenstra, the principal investigator of this ARPA-E project. he advantage of low pressure is the benefit it provides both onboard the vehicle and off-board at the station.
In addition the low-pressure application facilitates novel concepts such as tanks with reduced wall thicknesses along with conformable concepts
Long has been exploring MOFS as gas adsorbers for a decade, hoping to use them to capture carbon dioxide emitted from power plants or store hydrogen in hydrogen-fueled vehicles,
or to catalyze gas reactions for industry. Last year, however, a study by UC Berkeley Berend Smit found that rigid MOFS have limited a capacity to store methane.
Long and graduate student and first author Jarad Mason instead turned to flexible MOFS noting that they behave better
when methane is pumped in and out. The flexible MOFS they tested are based on cobalt and iron atoms dispersed throughout the structure, with links of benzenedipyrazolate (bdp).
Most people know the ice, liquid and gas phases, and some are familiar with the different magnetic phases that store data in our electronic devices
and hydrogen fuel cells,"said Yugang Sun, a nanoscience scientist in Argonne's Nanoscience and Technology Div."
Mos2 is a common industrial catalyst that is used as a dry lubricant and in petroleum refining.
but its high-cost and scarcity limit its widespread use for hydrogen production and in hydrogen fuel cells.
Such a high energy density would be comparable to that of gasoline -and would enable an electric car with a battery that is a fifth the cost and a fifth the weight of those currently on the market to drive from London to Edinburgh on a single charge.
there are several practical challenges that need to be addressed before lithium-air batteries become a viable alternative to gasoline.
inexpensive fuel from water An inexpensive method for generating clean fuel is the modern-day equivalent of the philosopher's stone.
and oxygen and then harvest the hydrogen for use as fuel. But splitting water efficiently turns out to be not so easy.
while flowing nitrogen gas is known to extract oxygen atoms from the bismuth vanadate, creating"defects."
-based ethanol into hydrocarbon blend-stocks for use as fossil fuel alternatives. Scientists have experimented for decades with a class of catalysts known as zeolites that transform alcohols such as ethanol into higher-grade hydrocarbons.
As ORNL researchers were developing a new type of zeolite-based conversion technology, they found the underlying reaction unfolds in a different manner than previously thought."
"For 40 years, everyone thought that these reactions must go first from ethanol to ethylene,
"It has been assumed that you must go from ethanol to ethylene, which is endothermic and requires energy.
"Our method of direct conversion of ethanol offers a pathway to produce suitable hydrocarbon blend-stock that may be blended at a refinery to yield fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel or commodity chemicals,
and accounts for a significant portion of U s. methane emissions. Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the United states. Furthermore,
experts have projected that reducing food losses by just 15 percent would provide enough food for more than 25 million Americans every year,
By reducing wasted food in landfills, we cut harmful methane emissions that fuel climate change, conserve our natural resources,
One day he realized that no matter how fuel efficient or how few tailpipe emissions the modern car has,
Even the most fuel efficient car has a large carbon footprint before ever leaving the plant. Czinger and his team's approach was to take the large plant out of the equation.
The Blade is fitted with a 700 horse power engine that runs on natural gas, reducing its carbon footprint even further.
and the University of Bristol in the UK studied the response of cancer cells to reduced availability of glucose, the main fuel source for most cancer cells.
Alternative fuels for cancer cells The group also found evidence of increased PEPCK levels in tissues from lung-cancer patients."
"Our work shows that cancers can use alternative fuel sources to help drive their growth under stressful conditions,"notes Prof.
as well as producing'electrolyte fuels'that might be used to power future electric vehicles,"one of the team,
and natural gas, giving up coal isn't as big a deal as it would be for other countries(*cough*Australia, the United states*cough),
The power station itself will continue to run on natural gas for the foreseeable future. Over the past year and a half, New zealand has increased significantly the amount of electricity it produces from renewable energy,
and for the first time in 40 years, geothermal electricity generation contributed more electricity than natural gas during 2014, "Bridges announced to the press."
Immediately the water in the acid solution began to break down into hydrogen and oxygen gas.
they'd actually managed to ionise the gas into plasma.""This method is probably an easy and original way to make a plasma,
#The UK is trialling a new road surface that charges your electric car as you drive One of the problems with being on the cutting edge of electric car technology is you're not as sure of being able to find a filling station as all the petrol-burning drivers around you.
and cut down on fuel costs for drivers at the same time. With the European union imposing fines for countries that don't meet emission targets
say researchers Figures indicate that the world uptake of renewable energy has eclipsed finally its demand for fossil fuel sources,
clean and renewable source of hydrogen as the ultimately sustainable fuel, said Leone Spiccia, lead author of the research,
and we can have distributed food and fuel across the planet, he told Hall at the ABC
and theyl be installing six new gas engines to replace existing boilers, which will provide cheaper, cleaner power for their trains.
I guess until the rest of the world catches up with Sweden-which btw is also making moves to become the world's first fossil fuel-free nation-we'll all just have to move there v
to produce net zero emission fuels, "company chief executive Adrian Corless told the AFP. Funded by private investors,
including billionaires Bill gates and oil sands financier Murray Edwards, Carbon Engineering is not the only company in the world intent on solving our carbon dioxide problems,
direct air capture works just like these new solar cells that split water into a hydrogen fuel-the CO2 recycling plant extracts CO2 from the air using a giant complex of fans,
and either heated to between 800 and 900 degrees Celsius to release pure carbon for use as fuel,
According to CBC News, the larger plant should be able to produce up to 400 litres of gasoline
because it turns the CO2 into fuel, no change in infrastructure will be needed to power big fuel-guzzlers such as ships, planes,
and long-haulage trucks. Even existing petrol pumps can work with the fuel. A major limitation of solar and wind technologies, on the other hand, is that they require specific technologies to capture
and disperse energy.""The nice thing about the technology is that there are no real limitations for it to ultimately,
in theory, displace all of the existing fossil-based transportation fuels, "Corless said. Going forward, the most important thing for Carbon Engineering to figure out is how to be commercially viable.
"said Lonnie O. Ingram, director of the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals and Fuels at the University of Florida,
Unlike other hydrogen fuel production methods that rely on highly processed sugars, the Virginia Tech team used dirty biomass--the husks and stalks of corn plants--to create their fuel.
This not only reduces the initial expense of creating the fuel it enables the use of a fuel source readily available near the processing plants,
making the creation of the fuel a local enterprise. Rollin used a genetic algorithm along with a series of complex mathematical expressions to analyze each step of the enzymatic process that breaks down corn stover into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
He also confirmed the ability of this system to use both sugars glucose and xylose at the same time,
which increases the rate at which the hydrogen is released. Typically in biological conversions, these two sugars can only be used sequentially, not simultaneously
One of the biggest hurdles to widespread hydrogen use is the capital cost required to produce the fuel from natural gas in large facilities.
The dominant current method for producing hydrogen uses natural gas, which is expensive to distribute and causes fossil carbon emissions.
enzymatic reactions such as those being used in this system generate high-purity hydrogen, perfect for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
"We believe this exciting technology has the potential to enable the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles around the world
and displace fossil fuels, "Rollin said d
#First metal-free catalyst created for rechargeable zinc-air batteries Zinc-air batteries are expected to be safer, lighter, cheaper and more powerful and durable than lithium-ion batteries common in mobile phones and laptops and increasingly used in hybrid and electric cars.
Low temperature plasmas are formed by applying a high electric field across a gas using an electrode, which breaks down the gas to form plasma.
This creates a complex, unique reactive environment containing high concentrations of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS).
However, in prostate cancer cells, Runx2 triggered genes that fuel tumor growth and metastasis."It's unusual that a protein
including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels. Scientists with the U s. Department of energy (DOE)' s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have created a hybrid system of semiconducting nanowires and bacteria
and oil industry in that we can produce chemicals and fuels in a totally renewable way, rather than extracting them from deep below the ground."
Atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least three million years, primarily as a result of the burning of fossil fuels.
Yet fossil fuels, especially coal, will remain a significant source of energy to meet human needs for the foreseeable future.
The yields of target chemical molecules produced from the acetate were also encouraging--as high as 26-percent for butanol, a fuel comparable to gasoline, 25-percent for amorphadiene, a precursor to the antimaleria drug artemisinin,
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011