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.

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Starting out as a joke about a beer chilling bikini, Andrew Schneider from New York University has created a solar power bikini that actually works. A melding of textile work and electrical engineering, 1" x 4" photovoltaic thin film solar cells have been sewn together with conductive thread. The power is then funneled through a 5V regulator and terminated into a standard female USB port. A thin connector bridges between the top and bottom of the suit to collect all power to one source. The overall power output is enough to charge a single MP3 player or cell phone, mostly due to the fact that overall surface area is rather skimpy. Although geared towards education, the Solar Bikini is currently being sold through the Solar Coterie website. Each one is custom, only $200 USD , so act fast.

Keep in mind, the number one issue with solar cells, even with thin film, is the buildup of heat in the cells themselves. Also, with the conductive thread, this suit can not get wet at all. So, no swimming or sweating allowed.

To actually deliver his original joke of cooling a beer, a male version of the solar suit will be made into a pair of board-shorts. The solar collector, with more surface area, will be able to charge a device as well as power a Peltier cooling device for chilling one drink.

Will these ever be able to enter the water? Schneider is hard are work to make it happen.

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Pictures via Andrew Schneider

Where fresh water meets saltwater there is a potential to harvest energy. Stanford University researchers have developed a device that can use this use the mixing of the two water types and pull out more energy that they put in. A container holds fresh water, with positive and negative electrodes at either end, is charged and then submerged in saltwater. The device allows the two waters to mix. Since  saltwater contains more ions of sodium and chlorine, the electrical potential between the electrodes increases.

Researcher Yi Cui elaborates, "The voltage really depends on the concentration of the sodium and chlorine ions you have. If you charge at low voltage in freshwater, then discharge at high voltage in sea water, that means you gain energy. You get more energy than you put in."

His idea is to place these devices when rivers, or other fresh water supplies, meet saltwater bodies, like the ocean. He claims that is every river mouth, estuaries, were tapped, 13% of the worlds electricity need would be met. (2 terawatts)

The battery could be 85% efficient, says Cui. To achieve this rating, the positive electrode is made of nanorods of manganese dioxide. This allows more surface area for the sodium ions to interact, move in and out, and speed up the process. This is not the first time electricity has been produces from the mix of saltwater and fresh water. However, this time both sodium and chlorine ions are used to generate power.

The next step for the team is to try this process with sewage water.

For the record, funding for Yi Cui's project has come from The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the U.S. Department of Energy.

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A recent research project wants British soldiers to wear solar photovoltaic cells and a thermoelectric system to harness light or heat for 24/7 power. The goal is to lighten the packs soldiers carry by 50% and reduce the number of return trips to the base for recharging. An added benefit of the system is that after the various sources absorb all the energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, the soldiers will appear less obvious to infra-red surveillance equipment.

This project is a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Strathclyde, Leeds, Reading, Loughborough, and Brunel Universities. Funding support is also coming from The Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Many different disciplines are at work on this project, including chemists, material science, process, electrical, and design engineers. As you can see, everyone is quite serious about this endeavor.

Solar PV will harness light in the day, and thermoelectric devices will take over the same task at night. "Advanced" storage schemes will be used to store excess energy while still providing continuous power. Side note; the thermal harvesters should run 100% of the time. Daytime heat and the active soldier will generate much more power than in the evening, but the team will discover this soon.

Professor Ducan Gregory of Glasgow said they are planning to have a prototype within 2 years. He hopes the technology will filter into other categories, like medical transportation, satellites, or other space applications.

Good luck, see you all in 2 years.

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I am conflicted. I want this to the future, and I also do not.

Ohio University's Geradine Botte, has demonstrated that "the most abundant waste on earth" can produce hydrogen with less than half the energy need with water. “During the electrochemical process the urea gets adsorbed on to the nickel electrod= surface, which passes the electrons needed to break up the molecule,” said Botte. The breakthrough comes in urine's constituent "urea." In which 4 loosely bonded hydrogen atoms are present per molecule. The required energy to break the molecule of Urea is 0.37V, while water needs 1.23V to split.

Botte wants to upscale the idea to be used in treating waste water. I wonder if Newcastle University included this sizeable volume of waste water in their calculations.

See more at the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Communications.

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image via RSC Publishing

wastewater facility

Newcastle University in the U.K. is making new with their latest claim. The “United States flushes 12.5 Trillion gallons of energy down the drain.” They are referring to biofuels in sewage. Newcastle’s Elizabeth S. Heidrich says, “Instead of just processing and dumping this water, we suggest that in the future treatment facilities could convert its organic molecules into fuels, transforming their work from an energy drain to an energy source. Based on our research, we estimate that one gallon of wastewater contains enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for five minutes.” A quick internet search offers up thousands of "make your own biofuels at home" links. There are many vehicles that can run on the biofuel, biodiesel. With an ample source of sewage everywhere, biofuels is an option worth exploring. Thanks Newcastle.

micro-algae

One method of using wastewater to generate a biofuel from waste water is from algae. Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, for example, use microalgae as a "renewable feedstock" in the process of making biodiesel. As the algae absorbs some of the wastewater elements they produce a tiny bit of biodiesel. One of the researchers, Jeff Lodge, explains further, " Algae will take out all the ammonia—99 percent—88 percent of the nitrate and 99 percent of the phosphate from the wastewater — all those nutrients you worry about dumping into the receiving water. In three to five days, pathogens are gone... We can start a new batch of algae about every seven days. It’s a more continuous source that could offset 50 percent of our total gas use for equipment that uses diesel." The team eventually extracts the lipids from the single cell algae Scenedesmus to make the biodiesel. Currently the team is only producing 100 gallons at a time, but hope to expand to 1000 by spring. Apply this  technique to trillions of gallons, and offseting fuel shortages it will. Good luck R.I.T.

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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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Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has created a flexible battery based on grapheme that has very high potential. The cathode was “grown” onto a sheet of grapheme using pulsed laser reposition, material composition of V₂O_5.  The anode is lithium coated graphene. Lead developer Kisuk Kang said, “The electrode exhibits significantly improved electrochemical performance in almost all aspects of electrochemical properties, such as higher energy density, power density and better cycle life, compared with non-flexible conventional electrodes.”

The tech promises greater energy density and longer life performance. The target application is for flexible devices such as clothing, bendable displays and e-readers. More info at the abstract page.

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