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

Rooftops globally are millions of acres of under tapped surface area prime for solar conversion. The structures are, in most cases, connected to the grid's of their respective countries, so energy distribution is built in. Many large companies are making the installation a standard for their sunniest stores. A certain new partnership seeks to make long roofing panels with integrated solar elements an option to traditional materials.

One of the world's top 10 steel manufacturers Tata Steel Corporation has partnered with a leading supplier of 3rd generation solar technology, Dyesol, in creating the world's largest dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC)thin-film panel. The module measures over 3 meters in length and is 1 square meter in overall photovoltaic surface area. The innovative manufacturing process allows the Tata/Dyesol collaboration to print the solar cells directly to the steel. This allows for the manufacture of large volumes of cost effective cells to be made to exactly fit the shape of the structure. Tata Steel Operations Manager states that they have already "successfully produced hundreds of meters of printed steel and polymer film" used in the prototypes.

Dye-sensitized cell construction is printed in the following layers. The top layer, anode, is made of tin dioxide (SnO2:F) deposited on the back of glass. Below this is a layer of iodide electrolyte, sometime platinum, and is sealed with the next layer to prevent leaking. The next, and final, is a conducting layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2), dipped in a photosensitive dye, ruthenium-polypyridine.

The possibility for an electron to re-enter the dye after absorption is quite slow compared to the transfer from the platinum layer to the electrolyte. This differential is favorable allowing the cell to work in low light and cloudy day conditions. Even though DSSC panels have a 5%-12% efficiency rating the ability to charge for longer periods of time may make the cells more productive than their silicon counterparts (silicon cells rate at 12%-15%).

Tata/Dyesol finished the 3 year joint project in this June, 2011. 20 more people are needed for the team while they prepare for the pre-industrialization phase of the project. Like not recycling, the ease of the Tata/Dyesol panels make it almost a crime not to use rooftop solar collection. Great job Tata and Dyesol.

Eavesdropper

Picture via Tata/Dysol

Xindi Yu, Professor Paul V. Braun and Huigang Zhang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A step toward phones and laptops charging in seconds has been announced by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Paul Braun and his team at UIUC have created batteries that charge quick and retain a high energy density. Li-ion and NiMH, when rapidly charged, degrades the energy storage significantly over time. With Braun's battery, this is no longer an issue. The team have taken thin-film active material, like found in lithium-ion batteries, and wrap it into a three dimensional shape, which achieve high attractive volume and high current capabilities. Demonstrations in their lab have shown charge times in seconds. "10 to 100 times faster" than normal bulk electrodes, but perform exactly the same in existing devices.

The 3-D nano-structure of Braun's battery in self-assembling. Creating the material goes as such, a surface is coated with "tiny spheres" (Styrofoam) tightly packed to form a lattice. The space in between the spheres are filled with metal, then the spheres are melted (dissolved) to form a porous 3-D scaffold. Electropolishing uniformly etches the surface of the material, enlarging the pores, and making an open framework. Finally the frame is coated with a thin film active material. The result is a "bicontinuous electrode surface with small interconnects where lithium ions can move rapidly. The active material make the diffusion kinetics rapid. The metal framework makes for good conductivity.

Everyone would cheer if our gadgets charge in seconds using this battery form. But Braun has his eyes on automotive uses. Braun said, "If you had the ability to charge rapidly, instead of taking hours to charge the vehicle you could potentially have vehicles that would charge in similar times as needed to refuel a car with gasoline. If you had five-minute charge capability, you would think of this the same way you do an internal combustion engine. You would just pull up to a charging station and fill up." He is correct, the electric car would completely take over if the charge time was under 10 minutes.

Braun goes on, " We like that it's very universal, so if someone comes up with a better battery chemistry, this concept applies. This is not linked to one very specific kind of battery, but rather it's a new paradigm in thinking about a battery in three dimensions for enhancing properties."

Eavesdropper

pic L. Brian Stauffer, UIUC

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.

Eavesdropper

Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a completely tree-powered electrical circuit. The nano-scale device, approximately 130 nanometers in size, consumes just 10 billionths of a watt (10 nanowatts). Unlike the legendary science fair experiment in which a potato-based electric circuit is created using two electrodes (each electrode being a different metal, which react with the starch, causing a potential difference and thus a current), the UW device utilizes electrodes comprised of the same metal, and is able to generate (output) 1.1 volts. “As far as we know, this is the first peer-reviewed paper of someone powering something entirely by sticking electrodes into a tree,” according to paper co-author Babak Parviz, associate professor of electrical engineering at the UW. Recently researchers at MIT discovered that a constant current of about 200 millivolts is generated between plant and soil. But that work did not involve attempting to power any device or circuit, which would require making a device capable of running (performing some function) on exceedingly low voltages. The UW researchers sought to apply this knowledge to power an actual device. In seeking an ideal candidate power source under-graduate student Carlton Himes discovered that the broad-leaf Maple tree (common in the area) supplied a steady voltage of a few hundred millivolts. Despite this, the researchers realized that they would need a bit more juice to power such circuit. To solve this challenge, co-author and UW assistant professor of electrical engineering Brian Otis led a team that developed a ‘boost converter’ which takes the low incoming voltage and stores it to produce a stronger output. The device is able to work with voltages as low as 20 millivolts and can output 1.1 volts–enough to power a small sensor that can be used to take the ‘pulse’ of the tree (its periodic pulsing of electrical energy) which may indicate its overall health.

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