and biofuels the creators say. Researchers took tiny snippets of man-made DNA and joined them together to create a synthetic version of a chromosome the structure that contains DNA inside cells from brewer's yeast.
and biofuels and the ability to create custom-made yeast would provide useful too for the biotech industry.
Synthetic yeast could also churn out more efficient biofuels such as alcohol butanol or biodiesel which could enable humanity to transition off of a petroleum economy Boeke said.
and biofilms with enzymes that catalyze the breakdown of cellulose could be used for the conversion of agricultural waste into biofuels.
That is the conversion of waste n this case both locally sourced food waste and human sewage nto a methane-rich biogas.
Another complication is that soot from burning biofuels, widely used for cooking and heating in India and Africa,
Another application could be in wind turbines, where films of water on the blades can, if they freeze in cold weather, lead to catastrophic failures.
Exposed to the sun, a solar cell employing such nanowires can turn nearly 14 percent of the incoming light into electricity#a new record that opens up more possibilities for cheap and effective solar power.
but proponents of a hydrogen economy say that it could be produced in vast quantities from water using excess electricity from wind turbines and solar plants.
Long-term, large-scale storage of wind energy could best be achieved by simply storing compressed hydrogen underground. Where methanol-hydrogen systems might have a role,
but rely on harvesting renewable energy and storing it as hydrogen, and want to move the gas around."
and its inventors hope that it could be used to measure the performance of biofuel-producing organisms,
Other researchers are trying to repurpose the biochemistry of green algae to make biofuels, and Saraf thinks that his device could monitor how efficiently the new strains photosynthesize.
enhance battery technology and expand the use of biofuels, among other clean energy efforts. The ultimate goal:
Bigbelly streetside trash and recycling bins are already pretty smart they use solar power to compact certain materials
and future Earthlings enabling them to use renewable energy sources for making hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen fuel cells can power vehicles ranging from cars to submarines and rockets.
That means renewable energy sources like wind or sunlight which are often patchy are not reliable enough.
The whole process uses a single whack of power and patchy renewable energy will suffice for this says Cronin.
#Wind energy reaches greater heights Wind turbines across the globe are being made taller to capture more energy from the stronger winds that blow at greater heights.
and Alexander Slocum, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical engineering at MIT is developing a novel system that adapts a traditional pipe-making technology to churn out wind turbines on location,
while conducting an independent study on wind energy issues with Slocum. Running a consulting company for machine design after graduating from MIT
Smith was vetting startups and technologies in wind energy, and other industries, for investors. As wind energy picked up steam about five years ago, venture capitalists soon funded Smith, Slocum,
and other wind energy experts to study opportunities for cost savings in large, onshore wind turbines. The team looked, for instance,
at developing advanced drivetrain controls and rotor designs. ut out of that study we spotted tower transport as one of the biggest bottlenecks holding back the industry,
In the Midwest, wind energy has reached already grid-parity, undercutting even today low-cost natural gas but in areas like New england and the Southeast,
taller towers are needed to reach the strong winds that make wind energy economically feasible. nce youe at the heights wee looking at,
#New approach to boosting biofuel production Yeast are used commonly to transform corn and other plant materials into biofuels such as ethanol.
Toxicity is probably the single most important problem in cost-effective biofuels production says Gregory Stephanopoulos the Willard Henry Dow Professor of Chemical engineering at MIT.
They report the findings which they believe could have a significant impact on industrial biofuel production in today s issue of the journal Science.
What s also exciting to us is that this could apply beyond ethanol to more advanced biofuel alcohols that upset cell membranes in the same way Lam says.
what would be found in an industrial biofuel fermenter. If you really want to be relevant you ve got to go to these levels.
#How to make a perfect solar absorber The key to creating a material that would be ideal for converting solar energy to heat is tuning the material s spectrum of absorption just right:
When harnessing solar energy you want to trap it and keep it there Chou says; getting just the right spectrum of both absorption and emission is essential to efficient STPV performance.
Most of the sun s energy reaches us within a specific band of wavelengths Chou explains ranging from the ultraviolet through visible light and into the near-infrared.
which would add greatly to the complexity and expense of a solar power system. This is the first device that is able to do all these things at the same time Chou says.
and materials science to advance solar energy harvesting says Paul Braun a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was involved not in this research.
The work was supported by the Solid-state Solar Thermal energy Conversion Center and the U s. Department of energy y
and is exploring powering the device on solar energy an important consideration for poor rural areas. The research was funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation through SMART T
and provide a solution for future renewable energy. The work, which also included research scientist Jifa Qi, graduate student Matthew Klug and postdoc Xiangnan Dang, was supported by Italian energy company Eni through the MIT Energy Initiative y
The new material is able to convert 85 percent of incoming solar energy into steam a significant improvement over recent approaches to solar-powered steam generation.
if you can generate steam with solar energy, it would be very useful. Ghasemi and mechanical engineering department head Gang Chen,
But initiating this reaction requires very intense solar energy about 1, 000 times that of an average sunny day.
and retain solar energy. The structure bottom layer is a carbon foam that contains pockets of air to keep the foam afloat
They found they were able to convert 85 percent of solar energy into steam at a solar intensity 10 times that of a typical sunny day.
The research which also included MIT graduate student Daniel Preston and former postdoc Ryan Enright now at Lucent Ireland Ltd. was supported by MIT s Solid-state Solar-Thermal energy Conversion Center
It s really about expanding wind energy to all those places on the fringes where it doesn t really work today
the DOE Energy efficiency and Renewable energy Clean energy Prize, worth $100, 000, and the NSTAR MIT Clean energy Prize, worth $125, 000.
One finalist team was selected in each of three categories renewable energy (Thermovolt), energy efficiency (MF Fire), and infrastructure and resources (ulink) with each receiving $25, 000.
Winning in renewable energy (and also an Audience Choice Award) was Thermovolt which turns solar cells into cogeneration systems.
along with carbon dioxide to produce biogas at a rate of up to 100 cubic feet per minute.
improves biogas quality, and enables a higher degree of automation. The biogas enters a connected cogeneration system for power conversion.
Depending on several site factors, this produces anywhere from 30 to 400 kilowatts of electricity. Treated wastewater exits the reactor with 80 to 90 percent of pollutants removed,
#A molecular approach to solar power It an obvious truism, but one that may soon be outdated:
The problem with solar power is that sometimes the sun doesn shine. Now a team at MIT and Harvard university has come up with an ingenious workaround a material that can absorb the sun heat
or powering heat-based industrial processes this could provide an opportunity for the expansion of solar power into new realms. t could change the game,
not electricity, might be desired the outcome of solar power. For example, in large parts of the world the primary cooking fuel is wood or dung
and better photochromic compounds and composite materials that optimize the storage of solar energy in chemical bonds, Kanai says.
and especially in solar thermophotovoltaicsharnessing solar energy by using it to heat a material, which in turn radiates light of a particular color.
which could be useful for converting agricultural waste to biofuels. Other potential applications include diagnostic devices and scaffolds for tissue engineering.
In a new Nature Materials paper, the researchers report boosting plantsability to capture light energy by 30 percent by embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplast,
Among other things, she is now studying the financing of small-scale distributed solar power in areas of Kenya without either a formal grid or established banking systems;
hoists for workers at dams, buildings, bridges, and massive wind turbines; as well as for first responders. here a broad spectrum of users people who use rope access as part of their work for
Doug Arent, a research scientist at the National Renewable energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. who was involved not in this work,
and provide backup for renewable energy sources that produce intermittent output, such as wind and solar power. But Chiang says the technology is suited also well to applications where weight
which are candidates for low-cost next generation solar power. The researchers have used the technique to determine that materials with a highly organized structure at the nanoscale are not more efficient at creating free electrons than poorly organized structures#a finding
Solar energy is one of the most promising renewable energy resources and represents a clean and ultimate replacement for fossil fuels in the future.
Organic photovoltaic (OPV) has been regarded as one of the promising candidates for large-scale low-cost and efficient solar energy harvesting.
With open-circuit voltage of 0. 573 V and fill factor of 57.9%this nanobowl solar cell achieved a solar energy conversion efficiency of 3. 12
The renewable energy sources of tomorrow will often be found far away from the end user. Wind turbines, for example, are most effective when placed out at sea.
Solar energy will have the greatest impact on the European energy system if focus is on transport of solar power from North africa and Southern Europe to Northern europe."
"Reducing energy losses during electric power transmission is one of the most important factors for the energy systems of the future,
"says Chalmers researcher Christian Müller.""The other two are development of renewable energy sources and technologies for energy storage."
"Together with colleagues from Chalmers University of Technology and the company Borealis in Sweden, he has found a powerful method for reducing energy losses in alternating current cables.
Carbon nanoballs can greatly contribute to sustainable energy supply Wind turbines are most effective when placed out at sea.
Last year materials scientist Chunmei Ban and her colleagues at the National Renewable energy Laboratory in Golden Colorado and the University of Colorado Boulder found that they could cover silicon nanoparticles with a rubberlike coating made from aluminum glycerol.
And their energy storage abilities may help smooth out the power flow from alternative energy systems such as wind energy. They can power a defibrillator open the emergency slides on an aircraft
When associate professor Qi Hua Fan of the electrical engineering and computer science department set out to make a less expensive supercapacitor for storing renewable energy he developed a new plasma technology that will streamline the production of display screens.
if biochar a byproduct of the a process that converts plants materials into biofuel could be used in place of expensive activated carbon to make electrodes for supercapacitors.
Current panels can process only 20 percent of the solar energy they take in. By applying the nanowires the surface area of the panels would increase
and allow more efficient solar energy capture and conversion. The wires could also be applied in the biomedical field to maximize heat production in hyperthermia treatment of cancer.
#Nanoparticle technology triples the production of biogas Researchers of the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence,
which allows increasing the production of biogas by 200%with a controlled introduction of iron oxide nanoparticles to the process of organic waste treatment.
This additive substantially increases the production of biogas and at the same time transforms the iron nanoparticles into innocuous salt."
"We believe we are offering a totally innovative approach to the improvement of biogas production and organic waste treatment,
According to researchers, today's biogas production is not very efficient-only 30 to 40 per cent of organic matter is converted into biogas
thus favouring the use of this renewable source of energy, "affirms Eudald Casals, ICN2 researcher participating in the project.
thereby greatly increasing the production of biogas, a renewable energy which is growing steadily and is accessible to everyone,
they actually stimulated the production of biogas, "he adds. Researchers saw this discovery as the opportunity to begin a business project
thus becoming a useful technology in all industrial applications using heat transfer systems such as solar power plants, nuclear power plants, combined-cycle power plants and heating, among other.
and renewable energy storage, high-density energy storage systems are needed. Lithium-ion batteries, though mature and widely utilized, have encountered the theoretical limit
this area of research could revolutionise renewable energy production. Working in collaboration with researchers at the University of Sheffield,
and transport electrical charges generated from solar energy. Earlier this year, Dr. David Barbero and his research team at Umeå University,
#How to make a perfect solar absorber The key to creating a material that would be ideal for converting solar energy to heat is tuning the material's spectrum of absorption just right:
When harnessing solar energy you want to trap it and keep it there Chou says; getting just the right spectrum of both absorption and emission is essential to efficient STPV performance.
Most of the sun's energy reaches us within a specific band of wavelengths Chou explains ranging from the ultraviolet through visible light and into the near-infrared.
which would add greatly to the complexity and expense of a solar power system. This is the first device that is able to do all these things at the same time Chou says.
and materials science to advance solar energy harvesting says Paul Braun a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was involved not in this research.
Graphene research on the cusp of new energy capabilities (Phys. org) There remains a lot to learn on the frontiers of solar power research particularly
More research like this will be the key to harnessing graphene for solar power as Hunt explains.
#Used-cigarette butts offer energy storage solution A group of scientists from South korea have converted used-cigarette butts into a high-performing material that could be integrated into computers handheld devices electrical vehicles and wind turbines to store energy.
and using the optical gain from the semiconductor to amplify the light energy. Zhang said the amplified sensor creates a much stronger signal than the passive plasmon sensors currently available
#Simple inexpensive fabrication procedure boosts light-capturing capabilities of tiny holes carved into silicon wafers Increasing the cost-effectiveness of photovoltaic devices is critical to making these renewable energy sources competitive with traditional fossil fuels.
Ning's new hybrid n-and p-type material achieved solar power conversion efficiency up to eight per centmong the best results reported to date.
and painted or printed onto thin flexible surfaces such as roofing shingles dramatically lowering the cost and accessibility of solar power for millions of people.
The solar cell produced by the team has now been added to the National Renewable energy Laboratories'listing of record-high efficiencies for each kind of solar-cell technology.
Martin Joly, of the Laboratory of Solar energy and Building Physics, researched a novel process for the conversion of solar thermal energy.
One in Solar energy, on the black chromium-free components and their optical properties, won the best paper award from 2012013
In addition The team is interested also in testing these fibers for multifunctional applications including batteries solar cells biofuel cells
#The Quest To Harness Wind energy At 2, 000 Feet To be more precise it's a stabilizing fin part of a tube-shaped robotic airship designed to tap the power of high-altitude winds.
While typical wind turbines of similar scale require a large crew and several days to install the BAT is ready to fly
--because renewable energy systems are not economically feasible. In the Arctic for example there isn't enough sunlight to justify solar power for months at a time
and a combination of permafrost and snowed-in roads complicates the installation of standard wind turbines.
Many sites in Alaska fit this description and so the Alaska Energy Authority awarded Altaeros a $740000 grant to demonstrate its technology.
We're not trying to replace wind turbines Rein says. We're trying to expand wind energy to places where it doesn't work today.
In 2010 when Rein and cofounder Ben Glass were fresh out of MIT and building their first balsa-wood prototype high-altitude wind energy was still largely unknown.
Altaeros has grown now to a 10-person operation and a half dozen or so competitors are racing to market with roughly a dozen more working on designs.
and the future of wind energy it would seem floats in our fingertips. Altaeros has a handful of competitors.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund announced that it is dropping all of its investments in fossil fuels-about $60. 2 million or 7 percent of the total $860 million endowment in favor of renewable energy.
#An All-Liquid Battery For Storing Solar And Wind energy You could call it a rainy-day fund.
and wind turbines provide grids with steady electricity instead of surges during sunny or windy times so it's always there in case of high demand.
and wind energy given their unreliable natures. For example evenings can be a high-demand time for electricity
Additionally there can be an overproduction of solar energy during daylight hours meaning valuable electricity goes to waste frequently.
#Turning Old Lead Batteries Into New Solar energy Used car batteries can leech chemicals and create lead pollution
when used in solar cells made with organolead halide perovskite film a compound that is fast becoming competitive with silicon in solar power technology.
The group's work demonstrates that the perovskite created from the lead in just one old car battery could provide materials for 30 households-worth of solar energy cells.
A new technology creates steam by harnessing solar energy, using a relatively cheap sponge-like material,
This sponge converts 85 percent of the solar energy in sunlight it absorbs into heat, the authors wrote in the study,
#U k. Supermarket To Run on Electricity Made From Its Own Rotting Food One U k. grocery store plans to power itself using biogas harvested from its own unsold, rotting produce.
#Why we need renewable energy to end poverty More than 700 million people live in extreme poverty around the world.
It emphasizes the role of renewable energy in getting us to the finish line of reaching sustainable energy for all by 2030.
During an Oct 9 panel discussion at the World bank Group-IMF Annual Meetings in Lima, Peru, seven public and private experts converged to talk about renewable energy,
which has made great strides in renewables, especially hydropower, but struggles with distribution. frican villages are isolated quite.
Senegal Minister of Energy and Development of Renewable energies. e can resolve it without financing solutions to transportation and distribution issues.
We try to demonstrate that renewable energy is part of the solution. Jordan was able to turn a crisis into an opportunity. ur story is one of resilience and turning challenges into opportunities.
Without renewable energy, we cannot end poverty by 2030. enewable energy is the foundation of a modern economy,
Surprisingly, the researchers at MIT and Eni, the Italian energy company, achieved this new approach to solar energy not with high-tech materials
In 2008, Lloyd had published a paper demonstrating that photosynthetic organisms transmit light energy efficiently because of these quantum effects.
and to collect solar energy. oing whatever we want with light waves is said really exciting Kanté. sing this technology,
We can change the way light waves are being reflected at will and ultimately focus a large area of sunlight onto a solar power tower
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind energy and Energy system Technology IWES in Kassel, Germany, have developed a wireless charger system that not only recharges a battery but also feeds excess energy back into the electrical grid.
and nearly quadrupling its solar power generating capacity by 2020. Andrew Steer president of the World Resources Institute, a global natural resources think tank, said in a statement that Friday announcement lays a cornerstone for a global climate agreement in Paris in December. hese two countries have found common ground
Caves Full of Compressed air An unusual project that would store renewable energy in huge amounts of compressed air in two man-made caverns for use in energy generation has been lighted green by the European union.
would solve one of the major problems with wind and solar power. Both forms of renewable energy generation tend to fluctuate based upon
whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. But if a producer could store energy from those sources
and burning biofuels and storing the emitted carbon dioxide underground. These may sound farfetched, but the Intergovernmental panel on climate change concluded last year that reaching a key emissions goaloughly equivalent to limiting warming to 2°C by 2100ould rely on the deployment of one or several CDR technologies.
"Differences in the availability of state incentives for renewable energy also had noted an effect Haerer.""States with incentives have more growth,
New nanomaterials will boost renewable energy More information:""Soft Landing of Bare Nanoparticles with Controlled Size, Composition, and Morphology."
#Assuring solar modules will last for decades The Energy department's National Renewable energy Laboratory (NREL) is co-leading an international push to assure the reliability of solar panelsn assurance demanded by customers, manufacturers, lenders, and utilities.
or underperforming panels is very lowust 0. 1%per year according to new data of 50,000 systems analyzed by the Energy department's National Renewable energy Laboratory (NREL).
And renewable energy, which is subject to more fluctuations than more traditional sources, is not only here, it becoming an increasingly large source of power for many communities.
Giving renewable energy generation a boostenel, a Council Lead Partner, is making a big investment to boost the amount of energy generated from renewable sources in emerging markets,
Enel says those three countries are set to be renewable energy hotspots and its efforts not only provide more power,
but also help them achieve their renewable energy goals. The new capacity will go online this decade.
Enel also has its sights set on South africa where more than 6 GW of renewable energy capacity will eventually be auctioned.
Integrating renewable energy sourcesthe need for more timely information is driving a transmission project in Italy that does more to incorporate renewable energy while improving reliability.
thus bridge a gap between today's energy grid and sources of renewable energy.""This solar flow battery design can potentially be applied for grid-scale solar energy conversion and storage,
as well as producing'electrolyte fuels'that might be used to power future electric vehicles, "said Mingzhe Yu, lead author of the paper and a doctoral student at Ohio State.
thus bridge a gap between today's energy grid and sources of renewable energy.""This solar flow battery design can potentially be applied for grid-scale solar energy conversion and storage,
as well as producing'electrolyte fuels'that might be used to power future electric vehicles, "said Mingzhe Yu, lead author of the paper and a doctoral student at Ohio State.
#Now, a car powered by whisky residue Scientists in Scotland have become the first in the world to produce biofuel capable of powering cars from residues of the whisky industry.
Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables plans to build a production facility in central Scotland after manufacturing the first samples of biobutanol from by-products of whisky fermentation.
The company has been awarded £11 million to fund a new plant to make the biofuels. Transport minister Andrew Jones says advanced biofuels have the potential to save at least 60%of the greenhouse gas emissions from equivalent fossil fuel.
He said""The technique could transform the Scottish whisky industry and generate up to £100 million of transport fuel a year."
"The latest biofuels use low value waste products to produce high value fuel and will help power modes of transport that cannot be electrified in the future such as heavy trucks or even aircraft.
but this time for advanced biofuel production using entirely sustainable raw materials.""Julie Hesketh-Laird from the Scotch whisky Association said,
"The production of biobutanol from draff and pot ale is another example of the industry putting its by-products to a good use to promote sustainability and jobs."
"Celtic in partnership with Ghent-based Biobase Europe Pilot Plant produced the first samples of biobutanol earlier this month.
Biobutanol is recognized now as an advanced biofuel a direct replacement for petrol. The biofuel is produced from draff the sugar rich kernels of barley soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production and pot ale,
the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation. Scotland's distilleries currently produce around 750,000 tons of draff and 2 billion litres of pot ale annually
#Now, a car powered by whisky residue Scientists in Scotland have become the first in the world to produce biofuel capable of powering cars from residues of the whisky industry.
Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables plans to build a production facility in central Scotland after manufacturing the first samples of biobutanol from by-products of whisky fermentation.
The company has been awarded £11 million to fund a new plant to make the biofuels. Transport minister Andrew Jones says advanced biofuels have the potential to save at least 60%of the greenhouse gas emissions from equivalent fossil fuel.
He said""The technique could transform the Scottish whisky industry and generate up to £100 million of transport fuel a year."
"The latest biofuels use low value waste products to produce high value fuel and will help power modes of transport that cannot be electrified in the future such as heavy trucks or even aircraft.
but this time for advanced biofuel production using entirely sustainable raw materials.""Julie Hesketh-Laird from the Scotch whisky Association said,
"The production of biobutanol from draff and pot ale is another example of the industry putting its by-products to a good use to promote sustainability and jobs."
"Celtic in partnership with Ghent-based Biobase Europe Pilot Plant produced the first samples of biobutanol earlier this month.
Biobutanol is recognized now as an advanced biofuel a direct replacement for petrol. The biofuel is produced from draff the sugar rich kernels of barley soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production and pot ale,
the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation. Scotland's distilleries currently produce around 750,000 tons of draff and 2 billion litres of pot ale annually
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