Jul

31

Micro Power Is Getting Bigger and Smaller

July 31, 2009 | 4 Comments

Driven by the vision of our society one day being basically self-propelled, a team of University of Houston scientists has set out to both amplify and provoke that potential in materials known as piezoelectrics, which naturally produce electricity when literally subjected to strain. Engineers at Leeds in the U.K. are developing a way to capture [...]

Jul

30

Another Idea On Where the Oil and Gas Came From

July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The conventional idea is the oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth’s crust.  It’s a sound idea that can be replicated and observed.  The new idea, which has a been around for decades particularly [...]

Jul

29

Getting Natural Gas Faster

July 29, 2009 | 8 Comments

Sometimes you have to love the big corporation, not often, but sometimes there are breakthroughs. ExxonMobil’s Randy Tolman, the company’s project coordinator for the Piceance Basin has invented a new method of fracturing, or “fracing,” the underground layers of rock and sand to unlock natural gas.  ExxonMobil aims to export the new process to the [...]

Jul

28

All Are Agog at Joule Helioculture

July 28, 2009 | 22 Comments

Monday saw Joule Biotechnologies, based in Cambridge, Mass., introduce their new “Helioculture” process.  Helioculture seems very similar to approaches that make biofuels using algae, although the company says it is not using algae. The company’s microorganisms are grown inside transparent reactors, where they’re circulated to ensure that they all get exposed to sunlight, and they [...]

Jul

27

Taking From You Giving to Others With Cap & Trade

July 27, 2009 | 1 Comment

Whether you harbor a” cap and trade” or the “cap and tax” label for the carbon targeted by the activists in control now of governments, uncertainty is the prime result.  That uncertainty is followed, if not mixed, with a great deal of mistrust.  It’s not lost on those with lifetimes of work and investment in [...]

Jul

24

Geothermal Energy Is the Most Efficient Renewable Energy Alternative and Improves Fastest

July 24, 2009 | 6 Comments

NYU Stern Professor Melissa Schilling, an expert in strategic management and technology and innovation management, and Melissa Esmundo are finding that the cost of generating electricity with geothermal or wind energy is a fraction of the cost of solar energy. More importantly the performance of both is improving much more per dollar of R&D invested [...]

Jul

23

A Peek Inside the ExxonMobil/Craig Venter Algae Project

July 23, 2009 | 8 Comments

I nudged the wonderful Jane Van Ryan at the API last week shortly after the press release came out about ExxonMobil and Craig Venter’s SGI setting out with $600 million to try to get algae sourced oils into the market.  Even at ExxonMobil, $600 million is a sizeable amount of money, with a certain amount [...]

Jul

22

There Might Be an eScooter in Your Future, But the New Electric Motors Surely Will

July 22, 2009 | 3 Comments

I don’t mean the infamous scooters sold for those with infirmities meant for moving about within a home or other facilities.  Rather, what the rest of world outside of the U.S sees as an electric bike (ebike). A U.S firm is about to break out into a major market outside of China.  Now China is [...]

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