A Singaporean Research team has come up with a novel and highly efficient energy storage system which looks certain to replace all known forms of energy storage once manufacturing is underway. Based on deposited polystyrene-based polymer technology, the soft, foldable fabric can, when charged by two metal plates, store charge at 0.2 farads per square centimeter.

Not only is the membrane made from organic waste materials but it is also bendable and foldable which means that it can be used in almost unlimited shapes and sizes unlike Lithium Ion batteries. However the project is partly funded by MIT so we have to be cynical that the technology will actually be brought to market or achieve anything like it is claimed to in real world tests. One thing going for it is that it is also being funded by the Singaporean Government. Surely a nation where energy consumption and efficiency is a very hot topic. After all necessity is the mother of invention and in Singapore they certainly need a way out of the quagmire that is the inevitable global energy crunch as the fossil fuels are completely consumed.

As usual there is no mention of how much energy it takes to create the membrane. However we can assume that it will scale fairly significantly based ont eh description of the base ingredients.

Tags: Circuits, Components, electricity, Energy Storage, recycle, renewable, Sustainable by Sparky
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MIT scientist Daniel Nocera has released new publicity around his solar leaf concept. The basic idea is that instead of converting sunlight to electricity and storing it in a battery, use the electricity to split hydrogen from water allowing the hydrogen to be used in a hydrogen fuel cell. An inherently lossy process which will require a system to keep hydrogen and oxygen separated until it can be directed into the fuel cell for conversion back to electricity. Theoretically it could provide an almost permanent supply of electricity and stored energy if combined with a rain water capture system. However due to the lossiness of the conversion process it does seem to be running at a significant disadvantage to normal electricity storage in the form of a Lithium Ion battery. However as it is using a fuel cell that probably requires at least some rare earth elements during the manufacturing process which will of course contribute greatly to the amount of energy consumed to completely make the system.

In the meantime a Japanese company has already taken the process to it’s inevitable conclusion and produced a full scale home sized hydrogen conversion system. They claim that with a solar panel, 1500 cc of water and their hydrogen conversion and storage system they can provide 5000 KwH of electricity which is around that amount that an average home would use during a night. 5000 KwH is approx enough stored energy to provide 16 hours of electricity to an average home PC with a 300 watt power supply. However if you add a refrigerator or washing machine into the mix you start to see some significant decreases in energy supply time. The main benefit of this system is that it can be run simply on water and solar. Once the investment is made it will provide around 50 years of constant supply of energy as long as you don’t need to use more than 5000 KwH of energy between charges. If connected to a rain water capture system it is theoretically a 50 year life cycle version of a perpetual mobile. It will no doubt be very useful as a replacement for fossil fuels in low energy consuming households. Combined with a larger solar hot water and electricity storage system and you would be able to live with a degree of energy security.

If Nocera has a better and cheaper more energy efficient system up his sleeve he is keeping the details to himself at the moment. No doubt he is still waiting for approval from MIT to do something actually useful for a change. The general rule of thumb with anything from MIT is that it never actually gets anywhere other than securing more funding for the scientists involved in the projects.

Tags: Circuits, Components, electricity, Energy Storage, Fuel, hydrogen, renewable, solar, Sustainable, water by Sparky
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In the past week there have been two major announcements of solar powered cars and the mainstream press is attempting to peddle the idea that they will be a hassle free and energy efficient way to charge a car. Perhaps if our cars are all made from air the solar panels on the roof will be able to run them efficiently. However as all modern cars are not made from air the idea that a solar rooftop will be able to provide enough energy to power a car through a minutes worth of travel let alone a whole day of driving is a completely ignorant and uneducated assumption to make.

Unfortunately for solar powered cars the math just doesn’t add up. Even the most efficient solar powered cars in the annual race across the Australian desert are light weight three wheel racing carts with single seat and no windscreens or doors. The entire vehicle is a solar panel on wheels and the chasis/frame is constructed of the lightest aluminium or carbon fibre framing available on the market. Sure they can get up to 80km/hour in the heat of the day in the middle of the desert but try driving one around in the city and you will soon realise that there is a massive jump from the current state of the art in solar cars to a normal city vehicle. Even the smallest cars on the market are at least a hundred times heavier than the most advanced and powerful solar cars. The wheels alone on a standard family vehicle are heavier than the entire solar vehicle.

One thing that will be useful from having a solar powered rooftop is that the battery will never be completely flat. Another thing is that you can leave the radio on for much longer as long as there is sunlight or depending on the type of solar panel at least ambient light to absorb.

Car manufacturers could increase vehicle battery charging efficiency more effectively by figuring out how to wirelessly absorb the radiant energy emitted by the all pervasive cellular network in major cities. Of course that won’t solve the actual energy crisis as it just takes power from the grid but at least car batteries would always be charging even if there was no sunlight to absorb. Of course the telecoms companies wouldn’t be so happy about having to shoulder the cost of charging everyones cars so they might put up their prices to offset that outlay.

Tags: Circuits, Components, e=mc2, electricity, Energy Storage, mobile, renewable, solar, supply, Sustainable, transport by Sparky
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This British company is working hard to put in place the infrastructure to enable wireless charging. It could enable all electric cars to run without ever needing to recharge manually. Just park over an inductive plate and you’re done.

Tags: Circuits, Components, electricity, Energy Storage, machine, transport by Sparky
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With the Toxic Plume of Death continuing to spew forth from the Fukushima Facility at least some Japanese people have setup realtime streams of the radiation level in their area. In addition authorities announced today the decision to cull all dying livestock in the 20 Km radius of the Fukushima Facility. At least they are admitting that the animals in the area are dying. Now if they would also admit the true extent of radiation poisoning throughout Japan and threat to human health of the continuing exposure to the Toxic Cloud of Death emitting from the facility.

Tags: Circuits, Components, cover up, disaster, e=mc2, environment, nuclear by Sparky
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Revisiting the concept of leaner fuel mixtures to run Internal Combustion Engines is a favorite topic here. Latest news released today has lasers as the solution to the problem of igniting leaner ratios ex. gasoline to water. The claims are that the new advance in laser technology enables smaller lasers to fit inside the space that is normally reserved for spark plugs. Whether they will be drop in replacements or not is yet to be released. Without saying what the comparison is the researchers discount plasma spark plugs saying the problem with plasma (or as they refer to them – “high energy”) spark plugs is wear on the tips due to the metal being worn away after a relatively short period of usage. We have documented such issues with plasma plugs built using conventional spark plugs tips but the Firestorm plugs claim to have solved that issue by using a non conventional metal for the tip.

However the really interesting aspect of using lasers for ignition (apart from the obvious reference to Stanley Meyers Water Vehicle) is in the following quote…

Lasers inject their energy within nanoseconds, compared with milliseconds for spark plugs. “Timing – quick combustion – is very important. The more precise the timing, the more efficient the combustion and the better the fuel economy”

With nanosecond control that would provide much greater efficiency for energy usage. The lasers will most likely need to be powered with battery technology so every possible energy saving that can be achieved will contribute to the mileage of the vehicle. Being able to run an engine at leaned out ratios of 80:1 or even greater would certainly make a big dent in the short term issue of global energy supply. It might even allow us the possibility of being able to grow or manufacture enough combustible fuel to replace oil and gas when it runs out. However the increase in efficiency will only result in another 3 – 4 times more mileage for the amount of fuel consumed. That definitely gives us all some more time but only if every vehicle was converted to use this new laser technology today. Unfortunately that is not going to happen.

Due to the way the current system structured and run it will be at least 10 years before every car in the world could be retrofitted with this technology and that is simply too little too late. At best the laser spark plug technology will provide a couple of years extension in the global fuel supply but as the only people who could afford to buy fuel anyway will be the ultra rich or governments and corporations that won’t mean anything to the average person.

However if for some amazing reason the technology turns out to be relatively easy to replicate and people are able to build and install their own components then we will see a very positive step for global transportation issues. Of course that doesn’t solve the issue of what to use for fertiliser on the mega farms that feed the world but at least the people who survive the coming period of mass starvation will be able to drive their cars literally on the smell of an oily rag.

Tags: Circuits, Components, e=mc2, Engine, Fuel, oil, replacements, supply, transport by Sparky
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New Details on the Focardi-Rossi Reactor have been made public by the Swedish Sceptics Society. They have observed the device in action and made calculations of the energy input and required output to achieve the amount of water to steam conversion required for the amount of water flowing into the system. For the latest test they used a smaller version of the device which has some improvements for the ignition process. It seems they are well on their way to the 1MW installation in Greece funded by newly formed Defkalion Green Technologies Energy Consortium.

The basic premise of the Focardi-Rossi Low Energy Nuclear Reactor (LENR) is that they are harnessing the energy released as heat in the transmutation process from converting Nickel to Copper. The Transmutation process is well known to Nuclear physicists and has the basic principals of Alchemy. In other words converting one base element to another. The basic physics principals are well documented however the actual process is not entirely understood. Transmutation results in many exotic and often dangerous isotopes being created. This means the Focardi-Rossi LENR is unlikely to be available to the general public. The idea of Joe public being in charge of a device that has the potential for creating Plutonium-239 or any number of highly toxic and unstable isotopes like those currently emitting from the Fukushima facility is not exactly a thrilling prospect. It’s bad enough that we are already going the way of the Roman Empire with their Lead water pipes in our quest for nuclear energy sources. Given that even highly bureaucratic and heavily monitored organisations like TEPCO can manage to completely screw up Nuclear safety, providing every man and his dog with that capability is a guaranteed sure fire way to wipe out humanity.

View the detailed report here

“Any chemical process should be ruled out for producing 25 kWh from whatever is in a 50 cubic centimeter container. The only alternative explanation is that there is some kind of a nuclear process that gives rise to the measured energy production.”

Their analyses showed that the pure powder consists of essentially pure nickel, while the used powder contains several other substances, mainly 10 percent copper and 11 percent iron.

“Provided that copper is not one of the additives used as catalyst, the copper isotopes 63 and 65 can only have been formed during the process. Their presence is therefore a proof that nuclear reactions took place in the process,” Kullander said

Tags: Circuits, Components, e=mc2, Energy Storage, Engine, hydrogen, machine, nuclear, renewable, Sustainable by Sparky
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Tags: Circuits, Components, disaster, machine, nuclear, transport by Sparky
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A unique way of cooling a solar collecting energy system is being deployed by Tata Power.

AUSTRALIAN solar power company Sunengy has partnered with Indian power utility Tata Power for a pilot plant of its floating-on-water solar technology.

Sunengy specialises in Liquid Solar Array technology, which has at its core a standard photovoltaic concentrator utilising lightweight plastic concentrator lens which floats on water, mounted on anchored rafts. These concentrators track the sun daily and seasonally.

The photovoltaic cells are housed in a container which sits in the water. The water, through convection action, cools these cells for improved efficiency. The lenses will also retreat under the water during hail or high wind weather events for protection.

This technology is said to utilise well-established solar and structural component technologies, while using relatively simple and less materials. The innovative use of water reduces the need for expensive supporting structures.

The pilot and demonstration system will be online by the end of 2011. Construction will start in August 2011.

Sunengy intends for the LSA technology to be located on and combined with hydroelectric dams to increase the power generation capacity of those sites. An LSA installation could match the power output of a typical hydro dam using less than 10 percent of its surface area. Other markets include mining sites as well as villages and remote communities reliant on diesel power generators.

Sunengy plans to establish a larger LSA system in the NSW Hunter Valley in mid 2012 before going into full production.

Tags: Circuits, Components, Energy Storage, renewable, solar by Sparky
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As usual with press releases from MIT they provide just enough information to make it sound good but not enough to actually tell us anything useful.

Solar Energy Conversion

Solar fuel reactions require the coupling of multielectron processes to protons, and they are energetically uphill, thus requiring a light input. The Nocera group has pioneered each of these areas of science. Examples of multielectron photoreactions originate from the research group with the generalization of the concept of the multielectron excited state, most prominent of which has a parentage of two-electron mixed-valency. The Nocera group has also created the field of proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) at a mechanistic level by timing the electron and proton with ultrafast lasers. With the frameworks of multielectron chemistry and PCET in place, the Nocera group has created the first HX (X = halide) splitting photocatalysts to produce hydrogen from homogeneous solution. The group has also created new H2O splitting catalysts. As has been widely discussed, the production of oxygen from water has been the primary barrier to efficient water splitting. The Nocera group has overcome this challenge with the discovery of cobalt and nickel catalysts that duplicate the solar fuels process of photosynthesis outside of the leaf – an artificial photosynthesis. Like the oxygen evolving catalyst (OEC) of photosynthesis, the new catalysts in the Nocera labs self assemble from water to form a partial cubane structure, they are self-healing and they split water to hydrogen and oxygen using light from neutral water, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The catalyst operates at 100 mA/cm2 at 76% efficiency. Moreover it can operate out of any water source including the Charles River in front of MIT. Finally, the ability to split neutral water has led to the discovery on an inexpensive H2 producing catalyst that operates at 1000 mA/cm2 at 35 mV overpotential. These catalyst discoveries have enabled the construction of inexpensive water splitting devices that may be coupled to either a photovoltaic panel or coupled directly to the surface of a semiconducting substrate (thus eliminating the module costs associate with a photovoltaic panel). This science discovery sets a course for the large scale deployment of solar energy by providing a mechanism for its storage as a fuel, especially for those in the non-legacy world.

So, what does it mean? The stored energy in water is converted to Hydrogen and Oxygen gas when sunlight is absorbed by the solar leaf. The solar panels integrated into the leaf create electricity which is then used to provide a current for the catalyst to breakdown the bonds holding the Hydrogen and Oxygen together. They say this provides enough energy to power a small home in rural Africa from a single Nocera leaf.

Will they also be required to store electricity in a battery? Will the leaf provide a constant stream of electricity for external use or is the current only useful for splitting water into hydrogen. In that case will it require a hydrogen storage tank?

So many questions abound and as usual MIT don’t provide the answers upfront. One would think that after so may years of making press releases they would have figured out by now how to make sure they get the correct information out and not just the information that sounds good.

Tags: Circuits, Components, e=mc2, Energy Storage, hydrogen by Sparky
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