Energy

Energy Density: Why Gasoline Is Here To Stay

Like people who approach geopolitics with the attitude of "If people would just talk to each other, we would all along", there are a lot of naïve assumptions about just dumping gasoline. We know it causes emissions, and emissions are bad, we know ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Aug 3 2012 - 5:20am

New Loo Changes Poo Into Power

A new toilet system can turn human waste into electricity and fertilizers and even reduce the amount of water needed for flushing by up to 90 percent The inventors in Singapore call it the No-Mix Vacuum Toilet and it has two chambers that separate the liqu ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2012 - 11:11am

Abound Solar Saves Taxpayers $330 Million By Declaring Bankruptcy

Sometimes declaring bankruptcy is a good thing. In the case of  Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that had American taxpayers on the hook for $400 million, the good thing is they closed the doors after only losing us $70 million in Department of ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jun 29 2012 - 12:26am

Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell: Hydrogen Energy Plus A Battery

Materials scientists at Harvard have demonstrated a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that converts hydrogen into electricity but can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2012 - 10:03am

Illuminated Cyanobacteria Shed Light On Biofuel Production

Cyanobacteria are small organisms with huge importance. Ancient cyanobacteria created the oxygen atmosphere, and modern cyanobacteria produce a significant amount of the air we breathe. Now, these tiny organisms are helping us again by providing clues to i ...

Article - Ysabel Yates - Jul 6 2012 - 6:16pm

Supercapacitors: Making Renewable Energy Viable

No matter how much spin you hear and read from highly-paid lobbyists and clueless advocates, green energy is not viable. It will be, though science would get there faster if the Department of Energy would stop throwing money at solar panel companies and in ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 11 2012 - 5:00pm

Microbes Plus Organic Waste Means 73% Energy Recovery In Biofuels

Microbes have been evolving for millions of years to efficiently digest organic material. Now researchers are tapping these natural processes to maximize energy output from the breakdown and use it to power farms and even waste facilities. One process, dev ...

Article - Ysabel Yates - Jul 18 2012 - 10:55am

Methanogens: Microbes Make Eco-Friendly Methane

Most methane comes from natural gas- natural gas used to be loved but once it got popular it got lumped in with mean old fossil fuels so the search is on to find a new, green approach to methane, using microbes that can convert renewable electricity into c ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 1 2012 - 11:16am

The Wildcard Of Renewable Energy

One renewable energy source is easily available as waste from from construction, agriculture, landscaping, logging and sawmills. And it's already used in domestic and district-level heating systems. It is the main solid biomass fuel source used for co ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2012 - 1:11pm

Kite Energy- Leveraging The Jet Stream For Renewable Power

There’s a band of people in the northwest hills of Italy who are fishing for the big one in the sky. They’re not a religious sect trawling for a deity. They’re part of a Turin-based startup called Kite Gen Research and, as their name implies, they want to ...

Article - Mark Halper - Aug 15 2012 - 11:20am