USC liberation method (via USC)

A problem with hydrogen for use as a fuel comes when the vehicle is in a crash. The hydrogen leaks out, and any sparks or fire will ignite the gas. Another problem is a hydrogen fire is invisible. (I toured a manufacturing facility once where they had hydrogen tanks for use in the factory. They had the "broom test" for testing if there is a hydrogen fire. People would walk down a hallway waiving brooms in front of them to see if the bristles catch fire. It is a scary thought. The same would happen with hydrogen vehicles.)

The use of hydrogen as a fuel is still on its way to reality. A common method of making hydrogen safe for transport is placing it into a harmless chemical. One method is a formic-acid storage. Another popular option is ammonia borane, a nitrogen-boron complex.

The University of Southern California (USC) has developed a way to extract hydrogen from ammonia borane. They took their research further and devised a way to extract the hydrogen at a rate that is usable as a fuel.  Unlike other boron and metal hydride hydrogen storage and release systems, the USC system is air-stable and re-usable. Read more of their findings at the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

You have liberated hydrogen, now you have to safe place to store it, and a great way to use it.

Eavesdropper

Sudden discoveries have lead to many different world changing technologies. For example, Penicillin came about through a cross contamination of two mold cultures in Dr. Alexander Flemings lab. X-rays were a surprise to researcher Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for not putting a screen in front of a cathode ray tube he was studying. The list goes on and on.

The company SunCatalytix has made a discovery that has shown that the sun can be used to split water, and harvest the hydrogen. Researcher Daniel Nocera, from MIT, said that a jar of water could power a house. He also said that a swimming pool of water could meet the entire planet's electricity demand.

The idea works like photosynthesis. Sunlight gets absorbed and separates water. An artificial leaf made of Cobalt and Phosphate coated silicon is placed inside a jar of water, and the power output surpasses the best solar panel to date. It is discoveries like this that change the world. We will see more of this in the near future.

The Tata Group, a collection of companies that work to bring innovation to the world and the less fortunate, has partnered with SunCatalytix for an undisclosed amount. And they are receiving funding from other organizations to push the technology along.

See the SunCatalytix site for peer review links.

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Applied Sciences is a group that has done a hand full of projects ranging widely, from making a top hat to a game console dance pad. Their latest project is a home build (DIY) wind turbine. The best part, the project is open source.

Called the Zoetrope, it functions as a vertical-axis wind turbine. Built from parts easily bought from hardware and home improvement stores, the turbine is able to produce up to 200W. In the Applied Science's guide for building this turbine, the energy generation comes from a self build alternator. Detailed descriptions on how to build a custom Stator in conjunction with the magnetic rotor. Some approximations are made in the number of turns and output voltage. EX: 320 turns 24 ga. ~= 100V @ 120RPM.

Originally the Zoetrope was designed to run to supplement a water heater system. A high voltage is produced that the heating element could use. The Zoetrope outputs 3-phase AC which then needs to be converted to DC, which could power devices or charge batteries, or converted back into usable, single phase for example, AC.

Attached to this post in the design guide.

Some suggested improvements:

1. Make it safe to touch.

2. Enclose the alternator area.

3. Double the size of everything.

Great job Applied Sciences. I may just build one myself.

Eavesdropper

Zoetrope fun fact: The name of the turbine comes from an early

animation device that used a rotating cylinder with

slits in the side to give the illusion of moving

pictures. At certain speeds, the wind turbine gives

a similar effect.

At the Florida Power & Light Co., 190,000 mirrors are used to concentrate the suns energy to heat synthetic oil to ~750 degrees. The oil is then used to boil water, creating steam to turn turbines. The $400 million dollar plant can generate 75 megawatts on peak days. This powers 11,000 homes. The plant in Indiantown, Florida, is the world first to combine solar thermal energy harvesting to a combined-cycle natural gas power station. The construction came in $75 million dollars under budget. The plant is not as ideal as it may sound. The plant needs 500 acres of land. Solar based systems always take up more land that its competitors. Despite being in the hurricane ally of the Gulf of Mexico, FPL claims their plant was tested and can withstand up to 130mph winds.

The team at Florida Power & Light Co. wants to build an additional 300 - 500 megawatt solar installation. Vice president of FPL, Eric Silagy said, "We believe that solar is a great addition to the fleet at FPL. We are the Sunshine State. We have proven that it works very well." That is an additional 73,000 homes powered. Still far shy of the 4.5 million customers FPL had, but it is a major step in the right direction.

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Developed originally at North Carolina State University, the Artificial Leaf uses a water-gel infused with plant chlorophyll to generate electricity when stimulated by light, similar to the way real plants generate sugars from light. With electrodes coated with carbon materials, a high efficiency and inexpensive solar panels can be produced. NC State's Dr. Orlin Velev says, "we believe that the concept of biologically inspired 'soft' devices for generating electricity may in the future provide an alternative for the present-day solid-state technologies."

Inspired by this technology, Nanyang Technological University has set up laboratories to convert water to hydrogen fuel. NTU President Bertil Andersson will use Artificial Leaf tech to use solar energy to separate oxygen and hydrogen. He claims that conventional methods to do the same thing require large amounts of energy to convert. With the greater efficiencies of the Artificial Leaf, this is proving to be the cheapest method for creation of the fuel. In other words, using free energy to create expensive fuel. NTU is hoping to fuel hydrogen-powered vehicles in 3 to 5 years from now.

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Professor Zei Zhai and postdoctoral Jianhua Zou from the University of Central Floridahave taken carbon nanotubes forward a notch. Using nanotubes similar to the form of aerogel, aka "frozen smoke" The team has developed what they are boasting as a good way to detect pollution, toxins, improve robotic surgery, and to store energy. Zhai and Zou worked with Professors Saiful Knondaker, Quanfang Chen, and Sudipta Seal from UCF to make the multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) aerogel structure. The result was the construction of large surface area within the structure, and the material conducts electricity well, and is a thermal insulator. Applications could include measuring changes in pressure or other electrical properties. And the increased surface area could allow for increased capacity in supercapacitors and batteries. More here.

The biggest hold up of wide adoption of carbon nanotubes is the cost. The base form is still at $45-150/kg. Like everything, it will come down in price eventually.

Eavedropper

Energy storage is a major issue when dealing with intermittent alternative energy such as wind or solar. With standard energy generation storage of energy is simple, let it sit in its raw form. Coal, oil, wood in its basic form is energy ready to burn. With a renewable source, energy has to be stored elsewhere. A tried and true way to store energy is via pumped-storage hydroelectricity. This works by pumping water to a high elevation. On demand the water can then be dropped through turbines, providing up to 85% efficiency. There is one major caveat, the location of the storage facility has to provide an elevation difference as well as a large area to hold water. This is not a convenient way to store other forms of renewable energy.

There are a few other options for storing energy from renewable sources. Batteries are simple method, but have proven to be quite expensive. Utsira, off the coast of Norway, use excess energy to separate hydrogen and oxygen to be stored in fuel cells. Precious metals in fuel cells make this option less attractive for most generation plants. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) uses energy generated to compress air placed in large storage tanks. CAES has been used in Huntorf Germany since 1978 and McIntosh Alabama from 1991. The size of these containers can be quite cumbersome and expensive to keep pressurized.

Now enters a new option. In Slough, UK, energy firm Scottish and Southern, at the Highview Power Storage facility, is storing energy from a 100-megawatt biomass plant in the form of liquid air, or cryogen. The generated energy from the plant is used to chill air to -190 °C and stored in a tank at regular atmospheric pressure, 1 bar. Then the energy is needed, the cryogen is pressurized to 70 bars and heated. The result is a high pressure gas used to spin turbines. On average the efficiency is 50%, but with using waste heat from another source efficiency goes up to 70%. This system is small enough to be placed anywhere, and the cost beats any other storage option.

A new liquefaction plant will be build on site, at Highview, in late march to produce its own cryogen. A large scale 2.5-megawatt station will be constructed by late 2012, and a 10-megawatt by 2014.

Eavesdropper

Pic via Jez Coulson at the Highview plant