Oct

30

Closer to Reforming Natural Gas Into Liquid Fuels

October 30, 2009 | 14 Comments

A research team at the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has made important progress in converting methane gas to methanol. The process would make natural gas more useful as a liquid fuel and as a source for making other chemicals. The team uses methane, the primary component of [...]

Oct

29

Developing a Cooler Fuel Cell

October 29, 2009 | 4 Comments

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Science Catalysis Science Program is supporting solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) development.  The SOFCs use an electrochemical process to produce electricity by oxidizing a fuel. As the name implies, SOFCs use a ceramic electrolyte, a material known as yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). But the material has three significant drawbacks: [...]

Oct

28

Fuel Cell Progress – A Better Way to Burn

October 28, 2009 | 2 Comments

Oxidizing fuels is problematic because combustion is so inefficient at producing usable energy. For example, when gasoline is used to power a vehicle, at least 80 percent of the energy produced is wasted as heat.  That’s reversed with vehicles that run on electricity.  Better than 80 percent of the energy supplied to the vehicle is [...]

Oct

27

More Natural Gas Hydrates and Glimmer of Research & Development Hope

October 27, 2009 | 1 Comment

The Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) has announced that natural gas hydrate samples had been discovered in northwestern China’s Qinghai province, the first land-based find of this kind in China.  This adds to the North American land based known locations. The discovery was made at an altitude of 4,062 meters above sea level [...]

Oct

26

Ever Cat Bio Diesel Goes Commercial

October 26, 2009 | 8 Comments

18 months ago Ever Cat was the subject of a post that examined the technology and the people behind what seemed to be a breakthrough method to get to diesel from bio oils and fats. The breakthrough seemed to deliver the possibility of making biodiesel in mere seconds from start to finish, reducing costs by [...]

Oct

23

Some People Do Make a Big Difference

October 23, 2009 | 7 Comments

One such ‘Big Difference’ person is Charles Barton who writes about nuclear energy at the Nuclear Green Blog.  By some wee bit of astonishment Mr. Barton has engaged Jesse Jenkins, the Director of Energy and Climate Policy of the The Breakthrough Institute, an active Energy/Environment Blogger, and an active participant on the Energy Collective, in [...]

Oct

22

The Canadian Boom Booms In The U.S.

October 22, 2009 | 6 Comments

The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) has a new study out that finds the economic impact of oil sands development in Canada will boom in the U.S. economy and is expected to lead to the creation of more than 342,000 new U.S. jobs between 2011 and 2015.  That’s up close timing and a serious number [...]

Oct

21

A Totally New Take On Battery Charging

October 21, 2009 | 11 Comments

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal near Karlsruhe envision a new type of redox flow battery that presents an innovative improvement and perhaps a huge advantage for electric vehicles. If the redox rechargeable batteries are low, the discharged electrolyte fluid can simply be exchanged at the “filling station” for recharged [...]

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