Jun
30
A Fuel Cell Breaks Out
June 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The U.S. Department of Defense has adopted the Dupont and SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG product as the “M-25” with the announcement that the M-25 is already deployed. The M-25 is a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) that uses the Dupont fuel cell technology with the expertise of SFC in manufacturing and fuel cell control [...]
Jun
27
An Answer for the Oil Speculators
June 27, 2008 | 1 Comment
Surfing the net has some rewards. Depending on your economic condition and your views about energy and fuels the observations that follow offer cause for fear or just fun. But reality will bite all but the most wealthy soon, and they have the most to lose. They’ll get on board when the [...]
Jun
26
Going Beyond Quantum Physics for Energy
June 26, 2008 | 8 Comments
There’s a devil for the current physics thinking being developed in New Jersey. The new thinking is to release the energy from the electron spin of an atom rather than try to manipulate the nucleus by splitting it in fission or merging them in fusion. Simply put, the notion is harvest the release of the [...]
Jun
25
A Better Kind Of Number For Decisions
June 25, 2008 | 1 Comment
Professors Richard Larrick and Jack Soll at Duke University assert in their article in Science on June 20 2008 that gallons per mile has more value than miles per gallon.
I agree, as I’ve figured that way and look to what it costs to get the miles we need traveled. Miles per gallon just confuses things [...]
Jun
24
If Fuel Efficiency Gained Like Processing Power
June 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Professor Steve Furber, professor of computer engineering at the University of Manchester had an idea to support his lecture last Friday. The lecture is entitled the “Relentless March of the Microprocessor” for the inaugural Kilburn Lecture to mark the 60th anniversary of the “Baby” computer built at the university in 1948. He compared the rate [...]
Jun
23
A Better Way to Make Carbon Pay
June 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It’s been over 110 years since William Jacques, an American electrical engineer and chemist, first described the Direct Carbon Fuel Cell back in 1896 in his original patent application. The DCFC was explored over the years in efforts to overcome the problems until the 1970s when SRI International of Menlo Park California verified the original [...]
Jun
20
Storing The Power Of The Wind
June 20, 2008 | 1 Comment
The wind blows at its own time and not necessarily when people need the power from the turbine. That makes energy storage for wind power production an important field. Wind turbines are going up at incredible rates worldwide and offer another problem besides the storage issue – the intermittentcy in very widely disbursed wind farms [...]
Jun
19
Iowa Floods – You Might Pay More
June 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The flip side to food vs. fuel is that the corn crop may come up short enough to drive ethanol in part off the market for gasoline addition. Estimates are putting the price increase at 15% or nearly 60 cents per gallon. At 10% in E-10 mixes that could be high but even at a [...]
Jun
18
The Riposte Worth Reading
June 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Last month the Wall Street Journal alleged Vinod Khosla was advocating subsidies for food-based ethanol. The WSJ story opined that Mr. Khosla should “take a vow of embarrassed silence,” in that Mr. Khosla has a position of claiming that ethanol is “overblown” in its role to the food price and rice and wheat shortages.
Mr. Khosla [...]
Jun
17
Bussard’s Machine Runs Great!
June 17, 2008 | 1 Comment
I should have read the emails sooner – last Thursday night saw Alan Boyle put up his report about his conversation with Richard Nebel at EMC2. Quoting Mr. Nebel saying, “We’re fully operational and we’re getting data. The machine runs like a top. You can just sit there and take data all afternoon.”
Whew, what a [...]
