Apr

18

A Major Step Forward for Plasma Research

April 18, 2013 | 2 Comments

University of Missouri (MU) engineer Randy Curry and his team have developed a method of creating and controlling plasma that could revolutionize American energy generation and storage. The secret to Curry’s success was developing a way to make the plasma form its own self-magnetic field, which holds it together while it travels through the air. [...]

Feb

19

Progress For Drop In Bio Fuel Gasoline Replacements

February 19, 2013 | 1 Comment

Renewable alternatives to gasoline like heavy alcohols such as isobutanol are promising candidates that are getting closer to your gas tank. The heavier alcohols have more carbon atoms than ethanol with two and methanol with just one.  They contain more energy than ethanol, but they are also more compatible with the existing gasoline-based infrastructure.  The [...]

Feb

13

The Hunt For Dark Energy Begins

February 13, 2013 | Leave a Comment

The matter we see around us such as houses and trees, people and pets, and all the stars and galaxies make up only a few percent of everything in our cosmos. If you could fill a bucket with the mass and the energy content of our universe, the visible matter would fill only a small [...]

Jan

2

Is 2013 the Year of Oil?

January 2, 2013 | 4 Comments

The free market of high oil prices for the past few years has made a Renaissance in this country for crude oil.  With no help and lots of barriers and new expenses the oil industry has powered right on lifting the U.S. to producing nearly 7 million barrels a day and going over and more [...]

Dec

24

A Strong Hint on Building Synthetic Hydrocarbons

December 24, 2012 | 2 Comments

Colleagues at Northwestern University and the University of Virginia are working to invent novel ways and catalytic materials to activate methane to produce ethylene.  The collaborating team published a paper in the online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry detailing the use of sulfur as a possible “soft” oxidant for catalytically converting methane into ethylene, [...]

Dec

12

On the Carbon Path From Star Stuff to You

December 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment

North Carolina State University researcher physicist Dean Lee has taken a “snapshot” of the way particles combine to form carbon-12, the element that makes all life on Earth possible.  Carbon is far more crucial than carbon hysteria would allow.  Without it there would be no you or your humble writer let alone fuels, diamonds and [...]

Oct

4

Choosing to Spend Billions or Make Trillions

October 4, 2012 | 3 Comments

Indefatigable ignorance is hard to deal with.  Maybe the numbers about the money will do the trick for some that still have a bit of reason.  For the rest of us it’s a difference of a thousand times of earnings verses expense. The topic is used nuclear fuel. Next week scientists from around the globe [...]

Sep

11

A 50% Efficient Turbine Solution

September 11, 2012 | 4 Comments

A steam turbine that drives a generator is usually only about 30% efficient.  Based on the Brayton-cycle system, developed by George Brayton more than 100 years ago, an air or steam system heats the air or water in a confined space and then releases the compressed air or steam to turn a turbine generator. The [...]

keep looking »