Sep

18

How to Protect Your Big Idea

September 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment

A new paper from North Carolina State University’s Dr. Stephen Schanz offers a “how-to” guide on intellectual property protection, laying out the options for budding entrepreneurs as they consider how to move forward.  The question at any stage of building out one’s idea is how should a person protect those ideas?  Schanz is offering a [...]

Sep

17

A Way to Get Very Deep Geothermal Drilling

September 17, 2009 | 10 Comments

Researchers at ETH Zurich are using heated oxygen, ethanol and water pumped into their reactor burner through various pipelines and valves and mix them under temperature and pressure conditions, which correspond to the supercritical state of water (see illustration below) in an effort to get to energy rich deep geothermal rock.  The researchers observe the [...]

Sep

16

A New High Efficiency Vehicle Electric Motor

September 16, 2009 | 5 Comments

Oxford University in the UK has spun-out a new company, Oxford Yasa Motors, set up to commercialize a lightweight energy efficient electric motor developed at the Department of Engineering Science. The new technology promises to help firms build more efficient electric vehicles. Astute readers will realize that power to weight and the size issues of [...]

Sep

15

The Automotive Generator Set Competition Starts Here

September 15, 2009 | 8 Comments

Lotus Engineering, a division of Lotus, one of the world’s renowned automotive consultants unveiled its Range Extender Engine at the 63rd Frankfurt International Motor Show.  Used in series hybrid vehicles, Range Extender Engines are coupled to an electrical generator to provide a highly efficient source of energy to power the electric motor directly or charge [...]

Sep

14

Bussard Fusion Gets Major Funding

September 14, 2009 | 6 Comments

Using Recovery Act funds the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake, Calif., is contracting with the late Dr. Robert Bussard’s firm Energy Matter Conversion Corp., (EMC2) of Santa Fe, N.M., for research, analysis, development, and testing in support of the Plan Plasma Fusion (Polywell) Project.  The Polywell and IEC or internal electrostatic [...]

Sep

11

The Cellulosic Ethanol Tipping Point

September 11, 2009 | 2 Comments

It’s been “four or five years” until cellulosic ethanol gets to viability for years now.  Commercial production has simply been elusive, but not anymore, the tipping point day might be now. Right now 300 million annual gallons of planned commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants are in various stages of planning and development across the country, according [...]

Sep

10

Energy Independence Is Real

September 10, 2009 | 2 Comments

A raft of prominent people seems to want the masses to believe there is no hope of energy independence.  Of late the Saudi’s Prince Turki Al Faisal checked in to the offer that the Western World and Saudi Arabia are inevitably tied together in the oil market.  The comments follow those such as former CIA [...]

Sep

9

Making the Most of Your Energy Density

September 9, 2009 | 7 Comments

Some studies have demonstrated that a simple parallel connection of an ultracapacitor to a low-cost alkaline battery can duplicate the performance characteristics of a lithium-ion battery.  Now on the market is an ultracapacitor kit for forklifts using lead acid for the energy density storage and Ioxus ultracapacitors for the power density. Better yet in many [...]

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