Feb

16

Biomass to Gasoline On the Cheap?

February 16, 2011 | 4 Comments

Steven D. Phillips has led a team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with a claim from their study of making gasoline via the methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) route using syngas from a 2,000 dry metric ton per day (2,205 U.S. ton/day) biomass-fed facility for unit sale price of prices for gasoline at $1.95/gallon ($0.52/liter) and [...]

Feb

15

Bioengineering Improved Switchgrass Makes More Ethanol

February 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment

A team led by Zeng Yu Wang of The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma and Jonathan Mielenz, a co-author and member of the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has designed a transgenic version of switchgrass that produces about one-third more ethanol by fermentation than conventional switchgrass. [...]

Feb

14

Use Air for Brake Regeneration Savings

February 14, 2011 | 2 Comments

According to Per Tunestål, a researcher in Combustion Engines at Lund University in Sweden, air compression and release hybrids would be cheaper to manufacture than an electrical generator, battery and motor arrangement. Whenever a vehicle slows or brakes, energy is released.  In current combustion engine vehicle designs the energy is not used, yet Tunestål’s new [...]

Feb

11

Nuclear Power On the Cheap

February 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

Gotta love Rod Adams and his Atomic Insights Blog. He has a knack for turning up the most worthwhile matters in the fission field of nuclear energy as it functions today.  Over the past weeks Rod has had a look at the Zion Nuclear Power Station. There in lies a story. It seems the Zion [...]

Feb

10

Can Diesel Hybrid Be the Transition to Full Electric Drive?

February 10, 2011 | 3 Comments

Volkswagen first showed its XL1 diesel plug-in hybrid electric vehicle prototype during the last week of January. The prototype, representing the third evolutionary stage of Volkswagen’s 1-liter car strategy features, according to VW, combined fuel consumption of 0.9 L/100 km (261 mpg US).  The plug-in hybrid system consists of a 0.8L two-cylinder TDI engine (35 [...]

Feb

9

Ethanol In Oil Patch

February 9, 2011 | 4 Comments

Jennifer Johnson at Wahpeton North Dakota’s Daily News has looked into ethanol smack in the midst of America’s prime oil boom of the Bakken oil field. For all the naysayers, ethanol is here and looks to stay. Ethanol fuel blends increased by 133 percent in North Dakota in 2010.  It seems to be because North [...]

Feb

8

Updating Rossi’s Cold Fusion

February 8, 2011 | 21 Comments

More than another week has passed since we had a look at the Rossi/Foldari cold fusion or more accurately – low energy nuclear reaction (LENR).  At that time most of the news was centered on the results offered by the professors at Bologna University who over saw the demonstration. Meanwhile others have offered that perhaps [...]

Feb

7

A New Solar Bio Photo Conversion System Makes Hydrogen

February 7, 2011 | 3 Comments

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a biohybrid photo conversion system – based on the interaction of photosynthetic plant proteins with synthetic polymers – that can convert visible light into hydrogen fuel.  This is another part of the first step to making solar panels for directly producing fuel. The research team’s work seeks to [...]

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