May

18

The Scots Get Tidal Power Underway

May 18, 2012 | 1 Comment

Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) installation of a 1MW HS1000 tidal turbine developed by Andritz Hydro Hammerfest, installed in December 2011 has since been undergoing tests in the tidal waters around Orkney. The test device located off Orkney is providing electricity for homes and businesses on the northern Orkney island of Eday to prove that the [...]

Apr

13

CO2 Plus Gold and Copper Equals Methane or Methanol

April 13, 2012 | 2 Comments

Researchers at MIT have come up with a solution of copper and gold when fashioned into an electrode and stimulated with voltage the copper acts as a strong catalyst, setting off an electrochemical reaction with carbon dioxide that reduces the CO2 to methane or methanol. Copper – the stuff of pennies and electrical wiring – [...]

Apr

4

Two New CO2 Absorber Materials

April 4, 2012 | 2 Comments

TechOn at the Nikkei site in Japan reports that the huge internationally known firm Hitachi has developed a solid form carbon dioxide absorbent material and a new amine fluid CO2 absorber. (From here on we’re going to adsorption over absorption – adsorption refers to the transfer of a volume onto a surface, while absorption refers [...]

Mar

8

A Solar Powered Nanostructure Generates Hydrogen

March 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

Using silicon and zinc oxide a University of California San Diego team has built a forest of nanowires that split hydrogen free from water. Deli Wang, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering quoted in the University press release said, “This is a clean [...]

Mar

5

Oil In a Fight With Itself

March 5, 2012 | 3 Comments

The renewable fuel producers are about to up the pressure on the world oil industry, and for consumers it’s not a moment too soon. First off, South Dakota’s government has approved a subsidy of 20 cents per gallon for ethanol plants to transition over to butanol.  The cap for the subsidy is $4 million per [...]

Feb

2

Cold Fusion Has a Good Week

February 2, 2012 | 12 Comments

Last week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Electrical Engineering Prof. Peter Hagelstein taught an Independent Activities Period course titled “Cold Fusion 101: Introduction to Excess Power in Fleischmann-Pons Experiments.”  For many, the news that an MIT professor holding a cold fusion class at MIT is astonishing because decades ago former MIT people went [...]

Jan

30

A Reduced Energy Way To Distill Alcohol

January 30, 2012 | 10 Comments

University of Manchester (UM) academics won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 demonstrating graphene’s remarkable properties.  Now Professor Sir Andre Geim’s team in a report published in Science shows that graphene-based membranes are impermeable to all gases and liquids as vacuum-tight.  Except – The new finding gives graphene’s potential a most surprising dimension – [...]

Jan

27

A Government Divided Against Itself Is a Mess

January 27, 2012 | 5 Comments

World Nuclear News is reporting that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to help push forward the manufacture of small modular nuclear reactors. This contrasts with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) standing record of never approving a new reactor design.  The December 2011 “approval” by the NRC of the Westinghouse AP1000 is not a [...]

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