Aug
17
Looking For a Better Plastic Solar Cell
August 17, 2011 | 1 Comment
Lehigh University physicists Ivan Biaggio, professor of physics, and Pavel Irkhin, a Ph.D. candidate, have developed an imaging technique that makes it possible to directly observe light-emitting excitons as they diffuse in a new material that is being explored for its extraordinary electronic properties. The problem for low cost plastic based solar cells the absorption […]
Aug
16
Fast Hydrogen Production Without Platinum
August 16, 2011 | 6 Comments
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest Lab (PNL) have used a common protein to guide the design of a material that can free hydrogen gas to store energy. The synthetic material works 10 times faster than the original source protein found in water-dwelling microbes. A common microbe stores energy in the bonds of hydrogen gas with […]
Aug
15
Genetic Engineering Runs High Speed Metabolism In Reverse
August 15, 2011 | 1 Comment
They must have some interesting brains storming sessions at Rice University. Bioengineering researchers at Rice have unveiled a new method for rapidly converting simple glucose, sugar, into biofuels and petrochemical substitutes. Rice’s team describes with a paper published online in Nature, how it reversed one of the most efficient of all metabolic pathways — the […]
Aug
12
Better Rooftop Hydrogen Production
August 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Duke assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, Nico Hotz, proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop. Using two catalytic reactions, the system produces hydrogen much more efficiently than current technology without […]
Aug
11
Plastic Recycled Back to Oil Jumpstarts
August 11, 2011 | 9 Comments
JBI of Thorold, Ontario Canada has entered into an agreement with Rock-Tenn Company to convert Rock-Tenn’s mill by-product waste into petroleum products using JBI’s Plastic2Oil™ technology. JBI’s Plastic2Oil™ can use unwashed, mixed waste plastics. JBI developed and scaled up the original processor, then enhanced and commercialized a process that converts difficult to recycle waste plastics […]