#Why Coconuts Could Be the Hydrogen Storage Material of the Future Hydrogen is a potential renewable fuel
The hope is that it could also be distributed using the same global network of liquid fuel transport that moves petrol around the planet.
Hydrogen gas has a poor energy density by volume compared to petrol. In fact, there is at least 60 percent more hydrogen in a liter of gasoline then there is in a liter of pure liquid hydrogen.
In other words hydrogen will always require bigger tanks. So finding ways to store more of it is a huge challenge.
Now Viney Dixit and buddies at the Hydrogen energy Center of Banaras Hindu University in India say they have discovered that carbonized coconut flesh is particularly good at this task.
which can be used as a fuel and is stored easily. Michael Graetzel, who directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne
The particles they want to assemble are tiny droplets of fluorinated oil placed in water. These droplets are 50 micrometres in diameter
and even high cholesterol in its development pipeline and has three in human trials progress that led the pharmaceutical company Sanofi to make a $700 million investment in the company last winter.
and solar power in recent years is launching more than 20 demonstration projects that involve storing energy by splitting water into hydrogen gas and oxygen.
and distribution infrastructure already used for natural gas and eventually turned back into electricity via combustion or fuel cells.
Germany isn t the only country investing in hydrogen energy storage. Canada is getting in on the action too with a major demonstration facility planned for Ontario.
and the hydrogen can be used to replace fossil fuels not only in electricity production but also in industry and transportation
When it opens next year it will have the capacity to produce 650000 kilograms of hydrogen a year the energy equivalent of 650000 gallons of gasoline.
Hydrogenics which has supplied electrolyzers for many of the biggest projects in Germany is designing a 40-megawatt system that will produce the equivalent of 4. 3 million gallons of gasoline a year.
Electrolysis remains more expensive than producing hydrogen from natural gas at least in the United states where natural gas is cheap.
That s a reality that businesses must embrace to attract the best employees and leverage their talents to fuel true innovation.
This could clear the way for slimmer longer-lasting smart watches as well as electric cars with a range similar to gas-powered ones.
#China s Shale gas Bust China is finding it harder than it expected to unlock a shale gas boom like the one in North america,
calling into question its lofty goals to use natural gas to help clean up its air and control the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.
the Chinese government has cut its ambitious 2020 target for shale gas development roughly in half.
In 2013 China became the third biggest user of natural gas behind the United states and Russia, consuming 166 billion cubic meters (bcm).
By 2019, the International Energy Agency expects China annual natural gas consumption to grow 90 percent, to 315 bcm.
Half of that increase is expected to be supplied by domestic gas production, which would come from multiple sources,
That IEA estimate for gas consumption is much lower than the production target China had set for itself:
420 bcm of natural gas annually by 2020, with hydrofracturing, or fracking, being used to get 60 to 80 bcm from shale.
China is estimated to hold the largest technically recoverable reserves of shale gas in the worldearly twice as much as the U s
Most projects are still in the exploration Phase in many cases the formations that hold gas are deeper than in North america
which is an obstacle to extraction (see hina Has Plenty of Shale gas, But It Will be Hard to Mine.
These challenges led the government last week to reduce the 2020 shale gas target to 30 bcm.
Of the 117 bcm of natural gas that China produced in 2013, only 0. 2 bcm came from shale.
If China is going to meet its goals for using natural gas, it probably will have to rely more on imports.
and storing imported natural gas r
#Turning a Regular Smartphone Camera into a 3-D One Microsoft researchers say simple hardware changes
#Stacking Cells Could Make Solar as Cheap as Natural gas When experts talk about future solar cells they usually bring up exotic materials and physical phenomena.
The wafer can then be removed and heated up so that the hydrogen ions form hydrogen gas, which expands and causes a 26-micrometer-thick layer of sapphire to lift off.
#How to Clean the Gas and Oil industries Most Contaminated water In a nondescript site in Midland, Texas, an inexpensive new process is cleaning up some of the most contaminated water aroundhe extremely salty stuff that comes up with oil at wells. By the end
or fracking, for oil and natural gas production (see atural Gas Changes the Energy Map. The technology may provide a way to deal with the increasing amounts of contaminated water the fossil fuel industry is generating as it pursues more and more difficult-to-reach deposits.
Many oil formations can produce as much as five barrels of contaminated water for every one barrel of oil.
And the volume of this so-called roducedwater is rising as the industry pumps water into nearly depleted wells to enhance oil recovery.
In the Midland plant, the technology is proving more economical than the existing strategy: re-injecting the wastewater back into the wells,
Right now, gas producers tend to store water that comes back up during the process in man-made ponds
The water is pretreated to remove oil and grease residue and solid particles. The company heats the saline water
The processhich the company calls carrier gas extractionecycles up to 85 percent of the heat needed to keep the system running.
The project is being done with Pioneer Natural resources, an oil company in Texas. Anurag Bajpayee, president and CEO of Gradiant who co-developed the technology with the company CTO,
Prakash Govindan, says the initial focus is on the booming petroleum and natural gas industry in the United states and elsewhere. ater issues have been a point of a lot of controversy for the industry,
he says
#How An Intelligent Thimble Could Replace the Mouse In 3d Virtual reality Worlds The way in
and make fossil fuels expensive in comparison. High-efficiency solar cells would lower the cost of installation
a strategy he claims will make solar power ay cheaperthan power from fossil fuels. Solar City is one of the country largest and fastest-growing solar installers,
The weight savings could reduce fuel consumption by 10 percent, according to an auto industry consortium. As the company scales up production, one key question will be
the computer controlled the gas and brakes to pull to within 10 meters (roughly three car lengths) of the truck ahead.
and could therefore save trucking companies millions of dollars in fuel every year. The trucks were fitted with technology developed by a startup called Peloton Tech (elotonis The french word for platoon.
Joshua Switkes, CEO of Peloton Tech, says the fuel savings are 4. 5 percent for the front truck and 10 percent for the rear truck.
and streams vehicle data to a smartphone app to help users track their driving, their fuel economy,
but some experts worry that the gas will leak back out. Research described in the journal Science points to a more secure way of storing its rock.
it ould probably necessitate transport of CO2 in pipelines for thousands of miles. Yet Zoback
whose research suggests that earthquakes could cause carbon dioxide gas to leak out of underground storage sites,
The methods developed to create the designer genomic structure could help synthetic biologists better use the single-celled fungi as biological factories for chemicals like biofuels and drugs.
creating living factories for medicines, biofuels, and more (see icrobes Can Mass-produce Malaria Drugand iofuel Plant Opens in Brazil.
or perhaps be better factories for useful molecules like fuels and drugs. Already the researchers have shown that inducing mutation in yeast using the designer sites led to some cells that grow more slowly,
That fountain of variability could be key to finding ways to push our fermenting friends to more efficiently create biofuels and other chemicals f
Brazil state oil company, Petrobras, as well as Rousseff own cell phone. The big question in this MIT Technology Review business report is how the Snowden revelations are affecting the technology business.
-which is used already widely in the petrochemicals industry-could offer enormous benefits in other areas, at a"relatively low cost".
*The Airbus a380 passenger jet has a carbon fibre reinforced plastic fuselage for a lower fuel consumption. The researchers claim the new technology would allow wings to fix themselves in mid-flight,
-which is used already widely in the petrochemicals industry-could offer enormous benefits in other areas, at a"relatively low cost".
*The Airbus a380 passenger jet has a carbon fibre reinforced plastic fuselage for a lower fuel consumption. The researchers claim the new technology would allow wings to fix themselves in mid-flight,
polluting generators that require expensive fuel oil. The supply chains for such oil can be broken, making procurement unpredictable.
These problems gave the students the idea of designing a photovoltaic balloon inspired by inflatable balloons,
The electrolyser uses nine litres of water plus the solar energy collected, coupled with the batteries inside the housing, to produce the gas needed to inflate Zephyr in half a day.
polluting generators that require expensive fuel oil. The supply chains for such oil can be broken, making procurement unpredictable.
These problems gave the students the idea of designing a photovoltaic balloon inspired by inflatable balloons
The electrolyser uses nine litres of water plus the solar energy collected, coupled with the batteries inside the housing, to produce the gas needed to inflate Zephyr in half a day.
the researchers are also working on its application to monitor gas emissions from any source, be it an industry
or leakage of petroleum pipes going through fields or farms. The devices is developed by the Nagpur-based National Environmental engineering Research Institute (NEERI) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) of the Department
As for power, the Blade is equipped with a 700-horsepower bi-fuel engine that can use both compressed natural gas or gasoline,
into a channel filled with oil. Since oil is immiscible with water, a'string'was created of a number of blue, virtually identical, microdroplets.
Interesting things started to happen when such a droplet'train, 'flowing in oil of one type, was injected into a channel filled with another oil immiscible with the other two fluids,
"says Dr. Jan Guzowski (IPC PAS; currently at Princeton university. The surface tension of the liquid shell around the encapsulated droplets caused it to itself form a drop.
Initial tests reveal that BMARS delivers superior oxides of nitrogen (NOX) reduction on modern turbo-charged gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines compared to OEM catalysts,
rhodium (Rh) is the key PGM used to drive NOX conversion in gasoline three-way catalysts.
The auto industry's reliance on Rh has helped fuel significant price volatility in the past, with prices ranging from $890 to $10, 100 per troy ounce during the past 10 years.
and as OEMS move toward more fuel efficient turbo-charged GDI engines and hybrids. Benchmark testing of BMARS technology was conducted on a model year 2014 Buick vehicle with a 2. 0 liter engine
and with many others in the pipeline we are excited at the facilitating role our unique materials are able to contribute says Canatu VP Marketing and Sales, Dr. Erkki Soininen.
pyrrole, ferric chloride (Fecl3), ethanol and water--which makes it cheap enough and enables large-scale fabrication,
"Mitra's distillation process runs on energy-efficient fuels such as waste heat, an industrial by-product, and solar energy.
In the case of fracking, the fresh water and chemicals that are pumped into the ground to release natural gas trapped beneath rocks absorb high concentrations of salt from the soil they pass through before returning as polluted water in need of treatment.
and sandwiched a layer of oil in between. Then they carefully injected into the mix individual water droplets that had been infused with tiny magnetic nanoparticles.
very similar to having oil separated from water. The new research shows how simple changes in the channel size can be used to create very small structures,
captures harmful gas and weaves transistors into shirts and dresses. otton is one of the most fascinating and misunderstood materials,
can be manipulated at the nano level to build nanoscale cages that are the exact same size as the gas they are trying to capture. e wanted to harness the power of these molecules to absorb gases
RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. e recognized that the microscopy part of the drug development pipeline was much slower than it could be designed
The Challenge of Big Datathis novel approach initially presented a challenge in the data pipeline.
or make better and more economical use of fossil fuels, Elmlund said
#Simpler Thermodynamic Approach Could Help Improve the Performance of Graphene-Based Nanoelectronic Devices The researchers found that the energy of ultrafast electrical currents passing through graphene is converted very efficiently into electron heat,
making graphene electrons behave just like a hot gas. he heat is distributed evenly over all electrons.
#Gallium Phosphide Nanowires Significantly Increase Efficiency of Solar fuel Cells The solar cell made of gallium phosphide (Gap) generates clean fuel hydrogen gas from Water gap is a compound containing phosphide and gallium which also acts
If these reactions produce fuel, then solar fuels would become a promising alternative for polluting fuels.
In case of oxygen, this generates hydrogen gas which can be combusted in fuel cells or can be utilized as a clean fuel source in the chemical industry, for instance in cars to drive engines.
One efficient solution is to link a current silicon solar cell to a battery which is capable of splitting the liquid water;
acting as a form of solar fuel cell. The research team at FOM and TU/e found their desired candidate in Gap,
In short, for a solar fuels future we cannot ignore gallium phosphide any longer. y
#Sticky-Flare Nanotechnology Reveals RNA Misregulation in Living Cells A new technology--called"Sticky-flares"--developed by nanomedicine experts at Northwestern University offers the first real-time method to track
In that case, both the plastic and the oil-based sauce are hydrophobic and interact together.
and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carcinogenic compounds formed from incomplete combustion of fuels, from contaminated soil. The process is irreversible
#New Technique Probes the Sea floor Using Ocean's Weak Seismic Waves A technology developed by Stanford scientists for passively probing the seafloor using weak seismic waves generated by the ocean could revolutionize offshore oil and natural gas extraction
Currently, many energy companies use a technique called time-lapse reflection seismology to monitor offshore oil
and gas deposits to optimize production and look for hazards such as hidden gas pockets. Reflection seismology involves ships towing arrays of"air guns"that explode every 10 to 15 seconds to produce loud sound pulses.
The pulses bounce off the seafloor and geological formations beneath then journey back to the surface,
Our technique provides the first large-scale application to harness it for oil and gas production."
The scientists worked with the energy companies BP and Conocophillips to study recordings from existing sensor arrays in the Valhall
and Ekofisk oil fields in the North sea that are capable of recording ambient seismic waves. The proof-of-concept experiment has been successful,
and the scientists have demonstrated that they can image the subsurface at Valhall down to a depth of nearly 1, 000 feet."
and is coated in oil, thus keeping it from ever contacting the internal components. Once samples are loaded,
often specified for gas and petrochemical processing applications. Michell QMA601 process moisture analyzer uses the latest generation of this technology,
which gives it a lower detection limit of 0. 1ppmv and an upper range of 2000ppmv.
#FLIR GF320 Thermal Camera for Offshore Oil & Gas Leak Detection The FLIR GF320 thermal camera from FLIR Systems is a preventative maintenance tool purpose designed to spot leaks in piping
Offshore oil and gas facilities require state of the art technology to achieve results that are safe for the environment and safe for business.
FLIR GF-Series optical gas imaging cameras have been developed together with oil industries and the American Petroleum Institute (API) to meet their requirements for detecting
and minimizing gas leaks. The use of optical gas imaging cameras has already become a standard practice in many oil
and gas companies Using the FLIR GF320 provides a proactive way to identify sources of Volatile Organic compound (VOC) emissions
and repair leaking components before it's too late. By using the most advanced VOC detection,
Offshore oil and gas facilities will improve safety and productivity and minimize emissions. Using a FLIR GF320 optical gas imaging camera literally thousands of components can be scanned for gas leaks per shift without the need to interrupt the process.
It reduces repair downtime and provides verification of the process. Above all it is exceptionally safe,
allowing potentially dangerous leaks to be monitored from several meters away. The FLIR GF320 will significantly improve your work safety
or hot spot. For further information on offshore oil and gas leak detection please visit www. flir. co. uk/ogi/display/?
AIS's portfolio of Smart HMI solutions are deployed currently in IIOT, Smart cities, Smart Transportation, Smart Factories, Smart buildings and Digital Oil fields.
#Sweet source for aviation biofuel Researchers have identified a new way to produce aviation fuel from sugarcane biomass that could deliver substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
They added the development of renewable liquid fuels was critical to reduce global reliance on petroleum
Biofuel sweetspot"We've identified a new route of chemistry with its source from sugars in sugarcane plus some of the so-called waste material called bagasse"
The development of a reliable biofuel that can be scaled up to a level that be used by the world's commercial airlines has proved somewhat elusive.
when it came to aviation fuel.""The first one is that there must be no oxygen content,
and you'd like to pack in as much energy in the form of burnable fuel as possible,
the fuel must have the right boiling point distribution, and then it has to have called properties lubricity,
which means the temperature at which the fuel becomes gelatinous and therefore no longer flows. When you are up in the stratosphere,
so you do not want your fuel gelling up on you.""He added:""What we have developed meets all of those criteria."
The search for aviation biofuels broke on to the public stage in the late 2000s
when there were a number of test flights using a blend of conventional fuel and biofuel. In February 2008, the first commercial flight partly powered by biofuel (derived from a mixture of babassu nuts
and coconuts) took off from London's Heathrow airport. After a lengthy review by aircraft makers, engine manufacturers and fuel producers, biofuels were approved for commercial use in 2011.
Prof Bell said the team were hopeful that their findings would ultimately be adopted by commercial fuel producers."
"Our sponsors, BP, have encouraged us to apply for a patent, which we have on this technology,
"he revealed.""Where they see the likely commercial interest for themselves and others is that the lubricants would be first as the profit margins are largest,
next would be aviation fuel because of the growing US and European regulations requiring a'green'component of aviation fuel."
"Food v fuel In recent years, political support for biofuels has waned as concern grew that global demand for biofuels would result in a switch away from food production to biofuel production, exacerbating food security worries.
Prof Bell acknowledged that certain crops as feedstock for the sugar-derived process would be problematic:"
"If, for example, we were to use sugar beet instead of sugarcane then there would be a potential conflict over fuel versus food."
"Prof Bell said that the process to make the aviation biofuel outlined in his team's paper would use waste biomass to generate the energy required operate the refinery,
and so improve fuel efficiency, he says. And making one 3d part often replaces the need to combine several smaller parts,
not straight to the tumour. his latest method ncases the drug in a bubble like a soap bubble. he bubble consists of a shell of phospholipids surrounding a gas core made of fluorocarbons gases of very high molecular weight
The inert bubble is administered via injection. ecause it full of gas it squishy and compressible, said Stride. hen we expose it to ultrasound that will break the shell and release the drug. ew dawn for ADCS,
The team also has other devices in the pipeline that they are currently testing and comparing their performance against lab instruments that are approved FDA.
Other diseases have appeared to take precedence in the research pipeline in recent years. Ebola research, including vaccines and treatments, dominated headlines worldwide in the wake of the outbreak of the virus in multiple West african nations last year.
much like the coalescing of oil droplets in water, with the hydrophobic ends pointing inward
of a sample of gas. ur device will use broadband cavity-enhanced frequency-comb spectroscopy to achieve sensitivities to molecular concentrations in the low parts-per-million,
Ruder also envisions droids that could execute tasks such as deploying bacteria to remediate oil spills. The findings also add to the ever-growing body of research about bacteria in the human body that are thought to regulate health and mood,
who studies phyto-engineering for biofuel synthesis. e hope to help democratize the field of synthetic biology for students and researchers all over the world with this model,
#Oil Droplets Into Human Cells, Harvard Medical school Study Scientists have turned individual cells into miniature lasers by injecting them with droplets of oil
or oil within a cell to reflect and amplify light, generating a laser. Yun had reported previously a method for generating laser light by engineering cells to express a fluorescent jellyfish protein,
rather than injected droplets of oil or fat. In theory, using different combinations of beads and dyes with different spectral properties should make it possible to individually tag almost as many cells as exist in the human body. t will be fun
#Biodiesel production from Sugarcane A multi-institutional team led by plant biology professor Stephen P. Long from the University of Illinois reports that it can increase sugarcane's geographic range boost its photosynthetic rate by 30 percent
and turn it into an oil-producing crop for biodiesel production. These are the first steps in a bigger initiative that will turn sugarcane
and sorghum two of the most productive crop plants known into even more productive oil-generating plants.
But soybean isnt productive enough to meet the nations need for renewable diesel fuels Long said.
and mustard) and later with sugarcane the team introduced genes that boost natural oil production in the plant.
They increased oil production in sugarcane stems to about 1. 5 percent. The team hopes to increase the oil content of sugarcane stems to about 20 percent he said.
Using genetic engineering the researchers increased photosynthetic efficiency in sugarcane and sorghum by 30 percent Long said.
In fact, the first patented genetically engineered microbe was designed to clean up oil spills. Today, biotechnology enables manufacturers to make sustainable products with renewable material, instead of oil,
and to use less energy in the manufacturing process A recent Roundtable discussion hosted by the Industrial biotechnology Journal
#Flight Flies on 100 Percent Biofuels This week saw the first-ever completely biofuel-powered flight take place.
drop in biofuel on its Falcon 20 jet, according to oilprice. com, marking a huge milestone for the aviation and renewable energy industries.
and transformed by Applied Research Associates into a complete replacement fuel for conventional jet fuel. Previously, flights on biofuels had been limited to a 50 percent blend with petroleum making this a major breakthrough.
Industrial biotechnology continues to enable solutions to energy challenges and building a biobased economy is key to reducing dependence on foreign oil enhancing our nation economic and energy security.
Production and use of advanced biofuel could displace at least 15 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel the equivalent of 475 million barrels of oil each year by 2022, reducing oil imports by $70 billion
each year according to Bio-ERA. The U s. Navy has recognized long the importance of reducing dependence on foreign oil as it strives toward its goal of cutting petroleum use 50 percent by 2020.
Last week, the U s. Navy signed an agreement with biotech company Biodico to collaborate on developing advanced biofuels and bioenergy refineries throughout the globe for the U s. military.
Included in the agreement Biodico will build a sustainable biorefinery at the U s. Naval Base in Ventura County,
California that will produce biofuels and bioenergy at prices competitive with unsubsidized conventional fuel and power.
The California Energy Commission will partially fund the construction through grants. ur objective is to privately fund sustainable biorefineries at Dod facilities around the world at no cost to the U s. taxpayer,
and to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, says JJ Rothgery, Biodico Chairman of the board in a Sustainablebusiness. com article.
For every $0. 25 rise in the price of jet fuel the Department of defense (Dod) must come up with an extra $1 billion annually,
which must be diverted from training, maintenance, and other mission-essential programs. The Pentagon spent $17. 3 billion on petroleum in 2011, a 26 percent increase from the previous year with practically no change in the volume purchased.
In fiscal year 2012 alone, the $30 increase in prices of oil resulted in more than $3b in additional, unplanned costs to Dod.
Progress in biofuel-powered flights and the Navy continued pursuit of alternative energy are great steps to help the United states build a biobased economy
and meet its responsibility to reduce reliance on foreign oil. A domestic biofuel industry means we grow fuels at home instead of importing them from abroad o
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