Category: Technology

Want to understand why switching to renewable fuels is going to be so hard? This overview of alternative energy, fossil fuels and the climate challenge puts it all in perspective. Pay special attention to the chart.

Remember your first drive down the coast in your beat-up convertible, the ocean breeze tousling your hair, which at the time was still gloriously plentiful and, you hoped, desperately attractive to the person sitting next to you?

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Illustration by Nicolle Rager Fuller. Chart figures are courtesy of the energy and resources group at the University of California, Berkeley. Chart authors are Adam Brandt and the late Alex Farrell, with additional analysis by Daniel Kammen.

Manufacturers’ efforts to cut costs and reduce waste through so-called “lean” manufacturing techniques haven’t always taken the environment into account. That might be about to change.

Two researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology hope to show that manufacturers can be both lean and green by incorporating processes designed to conserve energy and minimize environmental impact with a lean manufacturing philosophy.

University of Utah engineers devised a new way to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium for use in the most efficient type of solar power cells. They say the new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor.

Expensive germanium solar cells now are used mainly on spacecraft, but with the improved wafer-slicing method, “the idea is to make germanium-based, high-efficiency solar cells for uses where cost now is a factor,” particularly for solar power on Earth, says Eberhard “Ebbe” Bamberg, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah. “You want to do it on your roof.”

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University of Utah mechanical engineers Dinesh Rakwal and Eberhard Bamberg watch as an electrified molybdenum wire cuts a thin wafer of germanium semiconductor, which is used in a solar power cells. Their new cutting technique promises to reduce the cost of the most efficient type of solar power cell.

Researchers here have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently. A new catalyst makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients.

Researchers here have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently. A new catalyst makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients. Umit Ozkan, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University, said that the new catalyst is much less expensive than others being developed around the world, because it does not contain precious metals, such as platinum or rhodium.

The first "Virtual Step Pyramid" is to be used by architects, restorers, and archaeologists as part of efforts to save and restore the Step Pyramid in the face of threats from centuries of erosion and the fragility of the stone and clay body of the pyramid, exposed after the protective outer casing was removed by stone robbers in ancient times.

Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc., the premier non-profit organization conducting original archaeological research and educational programs in Egypt, has collaborated with Egyptian and Japanese research and technology teams to generate the first 3-D model of Egypt's oldest pyramid, the Djoser Step Pyramid in Saqqara.

Researchers have developed the first detailed chemical analysis revealing what processing is needed to transform pig manure derived 'crude oil' into fuel for vehicles or heating. Mass production of this type of biofuel could help consume a waste product overflowing at U.S. farms, but it will require a lot of refining.

After a close examination of crude oil made from pig manure, chemists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are certain about a number of things.

Biofuels based on renewable sources are increasingly popular as a way to reduce fossil fuel dependence and limit greenhouse gas emissions, but new research shows that some of the most popular current biofuel stocks might have exactly the opposite impacts than intended.

Biofuels based on ethanol, vegetable oil and other renewable sources are increasingly popular with government and environmentalists as a way to reduce fossil fuel dependence and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Jonathan Sawyer spent $30 000 - and voided the warranty - to add a plug to his Prius hybrid.

Jonathan Sawyer wants to do his part for the environment--and then some. His roof is covered with solar panels, and he has a wind turbine as well. A decade ago he was one of the few people to lease a General Motors EV1, even though GM didn't sell them in Colorado, where Sawyer lives. Later, he bought an all-electric Toyota, the RAV4 EV. So it should come as no surprise that for Sawyer an off-the-line Prius hybrid isn't quite green enough. What he did about it, though, was remarkable.

A new processes promises to produce billions of gallons of ethanol from plant based garbage, from brewer's mash to paper trash.

University of Maryland research that started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay has led to a process that may be able to convert large volumes of all kinds of plant products, from leftover brewer’s mash to paper trash, into ethanol and other biofuel alternatives to gasoline.

Researchers have developed a low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide . Produced with a simple one-step chemical process, the material has a high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide – and can be reused many times.

Researchers have developed a new, low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants and other generators of the greenhouse gas. Produced with a simple one-step chemical process, the new material has a high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide – and can be reused many times.

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Georgia Tech graduate student Jeffrey Drese assembles a fixed-bed flow system by loading a tubular reactor into a heating chamber. The equipment is used to test the new adsorbent material.