Dec

30

The Case For Better and Cheaper Batteries

December 30, 2011 | 1 Comment

Nothing is more persuasive than consumer expectations for determining planning and investment.  To help with that Pike Research conducted a web-based survey of 1,051 U.S. consumers in the fall of 2011 using a nationally representative and demographically balanced sample to consumer demand, preferences, and price sensitivity for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and electric vehicle charging [...]

Dec

29

Iran Could Be an Oil Price and Environmental Threat

December 29, 2011 | 3 Comments

It’s easy to see the Iranian Mullahs and their allied minions as a world threat.  The country is a significant source of crude oil, has a strategic location over the Strait of Hormuz, seems to be busily building an atomic arsenal with missile delivery systems, supports radical and violent extraterritorial groups and many believe is [...]

Dec

28

Where The R&D Money Is At

December 28, 2011 | 2 Comments

Battelle with R&D Magazine has its annual Global R&D Funding Forecast out suggesting global research and development (R&D) spending will grow by about 5.2%, to more than $1.4 trillion in 2012. Battelle/R&DMag has it that R&D funding growth will largely be driven by the Asian economies that will see an increase in spending of nearly [...]

Dec

27

Keeping An Eye On ExxonMobil

December 27, 2011 | 2 Comments

For nearly a year and two hundred plus posts we’ve looked at the leading edges of the energy and fuels context coming at us.  The leading one for half a century is petroleum and its not going away.  With fusion, man made alternatives, solar and geothermal in an even longer list, the one we need [...]

Dec

26

At The Threshold of New Kinds of Chemical Reactions

December 26, 2011 | 1 Comment

For 84 years chemists have suspected the conservation of angular momentum (CAM) had direct applications in chemistry.  December 22, 2011 saw Michigan State University (MSU) researchers first report that CAM in chemistry is in fact at work and the demonstration offers that scientists can use it to control and predict reactions in general.  This is [...]

Dec

23

A Partial Fix For the Fuel Cell Problem

December 23, 2011 | 2 Comments

Most folks don’t realize the depth of the economic problem that fuels cells pose for mass adoption.  Often there are price quotes running in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.  That’s because the catalysts of choice are the noble metals platinum or palladium.  These are very rare metals, more so than gold and [...]

Dec

22

A Claim for 100%+ Solar Cell Efficiency

December 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment

A research team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report in Science the first photovoltaic solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100% when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum. For comparison external quantum efficiency for photocurrent is usually expressed as [...]

Dec

21

SRI International Develops a New Coal To Liquid Fuel Process

December 21, 2011 | 7 Comments

Make no mistake here; SRI International has the brainpower and skill set to come up with workable and commercial ideas that have scale in mind from the start.  Robert Wilson, Ph.D., director, Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, SRI International said in the press release, “The implications of this research are expansive, including enhancing US energy [...]

keep looking »