Sep

23

Organizing Traffic Signals With New Ideas

September 23, 2010 | 4 Comments

Without doubt the single most aggravating system in metropolitan areas is the roadway control by traffic signals.  Traffic jams and road congestion do a lot more than disrupt the lives of millions of people every day – in the United States alone, delays linked to backed-up traffic cost nearly $100 billion each year, and waste […]

Sep

22

Silicon Nanowires In Lithium Batteries Gets Closer

September 22, 2010 | 9 Comments

Back in January of 2008 we had a look at silicon nanowires with suspicions of the then 10-fold increase in capacity claims.  Today Amprius is looking to get into the market with a doubling – still a huge improvement. Amprius says it has developed batteries capable of storing twice as much energy as anything on […]

Sep

21

Understanding the How in Gasification

September 21, 2010 | 1 Comment

Purdue University, funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, has developed a facility aimed at learning precisely how coal and biomass are broken down in reactors called gasifiers. Gasifiers are reactors in which biomass, coal or other carbon rich substances are heated and flooded with steam, oxygen or both.  Simply put, the […]

Sep

20

Changing Natural Gas Into Liquid Fuels & Chemicals

September 20, 2010 | 7 Comments

Perhaps one of our times most prolific scientists, Angela Belcher at MIT, came up with a system that cheaply and efficiently turns methane into liquid chemicals and fuels.  Belcher then developed it further in a startup called Cambrios Technologies, which she cofounded. The system was then spun out into Siluria in 2008, when Cambrios focused […]

Sep

17

Going For Green Jet Fuel

September 17, 2010 | 13 Comments

Of all the petroleum uses flight is the one where energy density, the weight of a fuel per the energy within, is crucial for performance.  At about 8% of the total use of petroleum, aviation fuel is a clear target.  Two biofuel companies are headed for taking a share from fossil oil. So far many […]

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