Oct
24
A Two Step Pyrolysis For Making Fuels
October 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment
Iowa State University (ISU) engineers Song-Charng Kong, left, and Nicholas Creager are studying and refining a new bio-oil gasifier where heat and pressure vaporize bio-oil to produce a combination of (mostly) hydrogen and carbon monoxide that’s called synthesis gas. The new gasifier is a second step in a two-stage pyrolysis process. The ISU team starts […]
Oct
23
A Startup To Convert Methane to Liquid Fuels
October 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment
The startup company Calysta Energy was formed in 2011 as a spinout of DNA2.0, the largest US-based provider of synthetic genes for industrial and academic customers. The new firm’s goal is for engineered organisms to use methane as a feedstock in producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels and high value chemicals that are cost-effective, scalable and reduce […]
Oct
22
A Solar Cell Breakthrough
October 22, 2012 | 2 Comments
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has engineered silicon solar cells using a new nanotechnology technique for an efficiency of 18.2% by cutting light reflection of the silicon solar cell surface. The “best” and most efficient solar cells are still built from silicon. But the costs have just crushed the buying interest even in the […]
Oct
19
The Best Non Platinum Catalyst So Far
October 19, 2012 | 1 Comment
Platinum as a catalyst is expensive, and it degrades over time, but it works great in many applications especially in hydrogen fuel cells. A Brown University chemist team has engineered a cheaper and more durable catalyst using graphene, cobalt, and cobalt-oxide – perhaps the best non platinum catalyst so far. The team’s paper has been […]
Oct
18
A Better Inverter To Change DC Current to AC
October 18, 2012 | 5 Comments
Professor Afshin Izadian, a researcher at the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has invented a power inverter that employs just a single switching transistor and generates infinite-level voltages. It’s an idea that has really turned heads and garnered attention. The breakthrough was once thought impossible, but the […]
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