I had the opportunity last week to talk to Dr. Xudong Wang from the University of Wisconsin about his research into energy harvesting using nanfibers.  By coincidence this came just a week after I talked to Dr. Krupenkin about his energy harvesting technology.  They are similar in that they generate energy using the electrostatic force to move current rather than by moving a wire through a magnetic field as in a traditional generator.

Nanofiber energy harvesting uses materials that develop a charge when mechanical compression deforms their crystalline structure.  This happens in materials made of atoms with a high disparity of charge.  The compression causes one side of the material to have more atoms of a positive charge while the other side has more negatively charged atoms.  PVDF is common material with this property.  It can develop several volts when compressed.

Dr. Wang is researching ZnO because it can be grown into nanofibers and it is not toxic to the human body, so it may therefore lend itself to powering medical implants.  Nanofibers can be located in an assembly in which wires or other nanofibers brush against them, causing them to develop a charge.  This charge can be collected and stored in a battery or capacitor. 

The ZnO nanofibers typically only develop hundreds of millivolts, which makes it harder to harness than energy from PVDF.  How to collect charge efficiently from low-voltage sources is outside Dr. Wang's focus.

The energy from airflow can be harvested from a thin film using this property by allowing the film to oscillate in the wind.  This has been demonstrated with PVDF.  If researchers can make this work with very thin films using nanotechnology, tiny amounts of power could be harvested from the airflow associated with respiration.  It would be good to see a productive use for a phenomenon that has become a metaphor for general engineering failure owing to the case of Galloping Gertie.   

This technology touches me personally because my mother-in-law has a pacemaker.  Her doctors are monitoring its battery's charge.  Replacing the battery requires surgery, which can always be risky in people with health problems.  So deciding at which point to change the battery becomes tricky decision.  One application Dr. Wang talked about was pacemakers.  The heart undergoes a lot of motion from which energy could be harvested.  If this technology could provide even some of the power for a pacemaker, it would be a huge benefit to patients. 

As with all energy harvesting, my impression is someone needs to find a "killer app" for it.  I'm not clear whether enough charge could be collected from nanofibers to put a dent in a pacemaker's energy budget.  It will likely find applications that the reasearchers haven't even considered. 

(via Microsoft)

With the recent uncovering of toxic e-waste destroying the environment in Guiyu China, it was only a matter of time before huge companies started to rethink of what it actually means to be ‘green’. One such company is taking it rather seriously and is stepping up, becoming more environmentally conscious in every aspect of their business; Microsoft. The company will become completely carbon neutral by the beginning of the fiscal year, which starts on July 1^st of this year (2012).

To do so, the company says that they are implementing an internal ‘carbon fee’ for each of their operations buildings in over 100 countries. Meaning each representative institution will be required to pay a fine (to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond) for carbon emissions based on renewable energy and carbon offsets. This will create an incentive among the data centers, office buildings and development labs to reduce or eliminate their carbon emissions. Some of the steps taken by Microsoft to become more environmentally friendly include ‘a smarter buldings pilot’ which entailed using software and technology to make Microsoft’s Redmond campus more energy efficient. Another step included using Carbonsystems Enterprise Sustainability Platform (ESP), which is an application that collects data from smart-meters, energy suppliers, waste processors and internal business systems to learn ways of reducing the global impact of carbon waste. Microsoft is even going as far as purchasing more renewable power agreements from various green conscious power companies and reducing air travel for business trips through based on the benefits incurred as each flight produces 1000kg of carbon emissions per trip. So far Microsoft is leading the way for a greener future , but we will have to wait and see if other companies follow suit in carbon-emission reduction.

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Large and small fuel-cell charger (via Lilliputain)

Lilliputian Systems has recently announced their partnership with Brookstone (retailers of everything) to sell their portable Silicon Power Cell system that is capable of re-charging just about every mobile device with one butane cartridge, for several weeks at a time. The smaller charger can supposedly handle recharging a smartphone 10 times, and the larger charger can handle 20 times (3W output on both). The portable charger, a little bigger than a pack of cigarettes, houses a chip that takes advantage of a solid oxide fuel cell which converts butane into electricity with only a tiny amount of CO2 and water-vapor as a by-product. Although the internal temperature reaches 750 °C (1380 °F), the heated core is insulated so well that it can be touched. Conveniently, the butane cartridges are about the size of a cigarette lighter and come in various sizes with the smallest being able to provide ten charges before needing to be replaced.

A series of LED’s lets you know what’s happening with the device: Green lets you know your device is charging, Red to let you know your low on fuel, and Blue to inform you that a new cartridge has been inserted and ready to go. The portable charger is equipped with a USB port that allows for just about any mobile device such as phones, tablets, MP3 players and cameras to get a boost when you need it (especially at trade shows). There’s no word yet on the exact MSRP will be, but the charger is rumored to run anywhere from $150 US to $200 with the recyclable recharging butane cartridges going for $2 to $5 US depending on the size. An interesting sidenote is that the company states that you will be able to carry these butane filled chargers on airplanes, but regular lighters are still not allowed. It’s unknown at this time as to exactly when Lilliputian’s Silicon Power Cell will be available , but chances are that it will be out within a few months.

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With all the smart-devices in our homes it only makes sense that Microsoft would come up with a way to control them all within a centralized hub. Devices like smart-fridges, automated coffee makers, motion sensors and mobile phones can all be manipulated through the use of Microsoft’s HomeOS software which turns your home into a sort of smart-house. Researchers designed the software using what they call ‘PC-like abstraction’ which is a fancy term for their specialized software kernel (written using C# and Net 4.0) that gives our appliances the ability to communicate to a computer as well as being remotely-operated through mobile devices. For the past 8 months, researchers have been testing HomeOS in 12 homes with promising results according to Microsoft. In fact over 50 students have already been writing various apps for the software with some letting the user control gaming consoles and Blu-ray players directly from your mobile phones and tablets which will be available on Microsoft’s HomeStore in the near future. As of now, the HomeOS SDK is available for free to any academic institutions (schools) to encourage teaching on automated homes with no word yet as to when it will become available to the general public.

HomeOS logo (via Microsoft)

Eavesdropper

See some other "smart-home" tech:

Health monitoring home

Nissan's alternative energy home

Sapping the energy out of wind usually involves wind turbines that stand between 27 and 94 meters from the earth's surface. Altaeros Energies thinks that’s not high enough to capture significant wind energy, so they’re looking to ‘float’ a newly designed wind turbine to new heights.

The energy company (created by former students from both MIT and Harvard) has designed a new prototype turbine that collects wind energy from altitudes at over 305 meters (~1000 ft) high where the wind is often stronger. Called the ‘Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine,' the renewable energy generator uses a helium filled shell composed of aerostats (same material used for passenger blimps) that houses a Southwest Skystream wind turbine in its center  suspended by cabling. The whole inflatable structure is tethered by cables to the towable docking trailer that collects the energy for powering mobile diesel generators.

Turbine by Altaeros Energies

The company recently tested the AWT at an altitude of 106 meters (350 ft) where it produced twice the power of comparable size generators found on the ground. After which, it landed safely all through a successful automated cycle. The only problem I can foresee with this novel approach at harnessing wind energy is interference from low-flying airplanes, which limits where the AWT can be deployed. Other than that, it seems like an ingenious idea.

For those who have read helium is becoming scarce and now question Altaeros Energies' turbine usefulness for the planet, the company has released this statement: "Helium is found in natural gas deposits. Industry leader CryoGas International reported in Oct 2011: "substantial world helium reserves exist in North America, the Middle East, Africa and Russia and that these could sustain the helium industry for hundreds of years." Over time, prices will likely rise, but helium is less than 5% of the cost of an Airborne Wind Turbine, and this will not significantly impact the product cost."

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Amorphous metal core motor (via Hitachi)

In an effort to reduce the intake of rare metals, Hitachi has designed a 11kW industrial axial-gap motor that uses no rare-earth magnates. Traditional motors are typically made from neodymium or dysprosium. In order to accomplish this milestone, researchers at Hitachi designed the new double-rotor motor using a ‘stratified amorphous (iron) metal core’ that’s surrounded by laminated low-magnetic ferrite material. This creates a magnetic flux that passes through the narrow gap between the two rotors which apparently gives the motor a 93% energy efficiency rating and a reduction in overall size over other motors in the same 11kW class.

This amorphous metal exhibits unique characteristics over conventional crystalline material which enables the higher efficiency rating according to IE4 (International Electrotechnical Commission standard), however Hitachi isn’t saying how they created the amorphous steel (aliens?) which gives the motor its efficiency. The company has also used 3D magnetic-field analysis software as well as 3D thermal analysis ‘technologies’ that helped them design a working prototype. Hitachi plans on using the 11kW axial-gap motor for various fans and drive pumps and is expected to be released to the public sometime in 2014.

Based on the characteristics of the Hitachi motor, a landslide of copy-cats will produce similar devices. The stranglehold of the rare-earth market will soon loosen. Let's hope this tech scales, electric vehicles would benefit greatly with a lighter, cheaper, and more efficient motor.

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M Azzuro messenger bag (via so-fi)

On element 14, we have seen various attempts to merge technology with fashion. Finally, an attempt to merge these worlds has been recognized with a prestigious Red Dot Award for Product Design in the category of fashion, lifestyle and accessories. The winner was the M Azzurro messenger bag by so-fi ®. This bag’s special capabilities are harnessing solar power to charge smart phones, tables, MP3’s, digital cameras and other portable devices via a USB port located inside the bag.

Apart from this empowering feature, the award was won because of its sleek design, remarkable craftsmanship. The M Azzurro is made of high-density nylon and has a flexible, waterproof, crushproof solar panel made by UNI-SOLAR. The built in USB port stabilizes at 5.3 volts and delivers up to 550 mA of current. At this voltage, portable devices take between 2 to 4 hours to fully charge. However, the bag is capable of delivering power to any device as the sun is shining. The bag features 2 inside pockets, a zipper-pocket inside and one outside and one snap closure outside pocket.

The bag can be purchased from the so-fi website for around $200 dollars. Once you have it, you wont have to worry about forgetting your phone charger again, as long as it is sunny.

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>Click the image<

We are not  talking about food here, it is the "organic electronics" that are  finding their way into our electrical lives. It is not just a label, but  a growing industry with potential to bring us new-age efficiency and  creativity. Organic electronics do not grow from the earth. Instead, the  components involve a lot of chemistry, generally stemming from carbon  based compounds, and how it bonds with oxygen and hydrogen to create  unique substances like conductive polymers. Carbon-based (Organic)  molecules are not generally known for their conductivity, but rather  their properties such as low cost to produce, flexibility, and light  weight.

Prototype flixible organic displays, showing the potential of organically derived electronics.

"Melanin" switch, an active organic polymer voltage-controlled device (circa 1974 in the Smithsonian collection)

Organic compounds used in electronics dates back to 1862. Henry Letheby made a partly conductive material, polyaniline, by anodic oxidation of aniline in sulfuric acid. The 1950s and 60s brought more experimentation in conductive compounds. In 1973, the journal Science reported that a organic-polymer electrical device was possible. Flash forward to the year 2000,a group of researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the "discovery and development" of conductive polymers. It seems the team may have been riding on the shoulders of generations that proceeded. Their compound was an oxidized and iodine-doped polyacetylene.

Currently, organic materials are being used to create electronics such as LEDs, semiconductors, transistors, and solar cell products. OLEDs, organic light emitting diodes, consist of thin layers of organic compounds placed between two electrodes. OLEDs remove the need for backlighting, achieving deeper colors and higher contrast ratios. Many new televisions, monitors, and smart phone displays currently use them. Additionally, semiconductors created from organic materials create a more energy efficient product. A combination of p-type positive charge carriers or holes and n-type negative charge carriers or electrons transmit a current only when their bits are flipping. Organic semiconductors also possess similar characteristics as non organic semiconductors which allow for doping by an oxidization-reduction process.

The future of organic electronics will lead to many innovations to sustainably meet consumer demands. Affordable costs will lead to the development of everyday products with smart functionality. The more immediate applications we may see include photovoltaics (solar cells), radio frequency identification tags (RFID), and printed electronics. One thing we can count on is organic technologies bringing people together in hopes to extend the planet's resources while making a profit.

In order to progress in this field chemists, electrical engineers, material engineers, and others within the electrical design and fabrication communities have to work together.

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See more Engineering On Friday comics in the Engineering Life group.