An American software engineer has developed an 'Energy EGG' which is smart enough to sense when a room is empty and saves power by turning off electrical devices not in use. 37-year-old Brian O'Reilly hatched an idea for the 'Energy EGG' in his workshop in order to curb his family's extravagant electricity usage, the Daily Mail reported. The 'Energy EGG' uses motion sensors to detect whether someone is in the room, similar to the functioning of household alarm systems. The egg-shaped device is linked wirelessly to a control adaptor, similar to a multi-plug, into which multiple electrical goods are connected. "I've always been quite concerned about energy efficiency and recycling, which is our main focus, and I found it quite difficult with my wife and kids to get everything switched off," Brian was quoted as saying by the paper. Brian who worked as a software engineer, left his job to market his winning innovative product. He has signed a deal to distribute an initial 1,00,000 Energy EGGS to hundreds of stores in the US. The technology, which was developed along with the University of Strathclyde where Brian's company 'TreeGreen' is based, also gives a one minute warning before cutting power. The inventor is also in the process of launching the 'Smart Phone Charger' and the 'Smart Light Switch', which automatically turns off lights when a room is empty but unlike other systems, which only come on in the dark, is not confused by sunlight. "For me it's just great to know we're not wasting energy needlessly. My mum and dad's generation grew up switching stuff off and I think that's starting to come back now people are more aware of the need to save energy," Brian said, Source: Deccan Chronicle
Now, an 'Energy EGG' that turns off unused electrical items
Energy-dense biofuel from cellulose close to being economical
A new Purdue University-developed process for creating biofuels has shown potential to be cost-effective for production scale, opening the door for moving beyond the laboratory setting. A Purdue economic analysis shows that the cost of the thermo-chemical H2Bioil method is competitive when crude oil is about $100 per barrel when using certain energy methods to create hydrogen needed for the process. If a federal carbon tax were implemented, the biofuel would become even more economical. H2Bioil is created when biomass, such as switchgrass or corn stover, is heated rapidly to about 500 degrees Celcius in the presence of pressurized hydrogen. Resulting gases are passed over catalysts, causing reactions that separate oxygen from carbon molecules, making the carbon molecules high in energy content, similar to gasoline molecules. The conversion process was created in the lab of Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. He said H2Bioil has significant advantages over traditional standalone methods used to create fuels from biomass. "The process is quite fast and converts entire biomass to liquid fuel," Agrawal said. "As a result, the yields are substantially higher. Once the process is fully developed, due to the use of external hydrogen, the yield is expected to be two to three times that of the current competing technologies." The economic analysis, published in the June issue of Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, shows that the energy source used to create hydrogen for the process makes all the difference when determining whether the biofuel is cost-effective. Hydrogen processed using natural gas or coal makes the H2Bioil cost-effective when crude oil is just over $100 per barrel. But hydrogen derived from other, more expensive, energy sources - nuclear, wind or solar - drive up the break-even point. "We're in the ballpark," said Wally Tyner, Purdue's James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics. "In the past, I have said that for biofuels to be competitive, crude prices would need to be at about $120 per barrel. This process looks like it could be competitive when crude is even a little cheaper than that." Agrawal said he and colleagues Fabio Ribeiro, a Purdue professor of chemical engineering, and Nick Delgass, Purdue's Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor of Chemical Engineering, are working to develop catalysts needed for the H2Bioil conversion processes. The method's initial implementation has worked on a laboratory scale and is being refined so it would become effective on a commercial scale. "This economic analysis shows us that the process is viable on a commercial scale," Agrawal said. "We can now go back to the lab and focus on refining and improving the process with confidence." The model Tyner used assumed that corn stover, switchgrass and miscanthus would be the primary feedstocks. The analysis also found that if a federal carbon tax were introduced, driving up the cost of coal and natural gas, more expensive methods for producing hydrogen would become competitive. "If we had a carbon tax in the future, the break-even prices would be competitive even for nuclear," Tyner said. "Wind and solar, not yet, but maybe down the road." The US Department of Energy and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded the research. Agrawal and his collaborators received a US patent for the conversion process.Source: Renewable Energy Magazine
Phones could be powered by user's body heat
Dead cellphones could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a new technology that can harvest enough juice for another call from the user's own body heat. Developed by researchers in the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University, Power Felt is based on tiny carbon nanotubes encased in flexible plastic fibers and uses temperature differences – room temperature versus body temperature, for instance – to create a charge. "We waste a lot of energy in the form of heat. For example, recapturing a car's energy waste could help improve fuel mileage and power the radio, air conditioning or navigation system," says graduate student Corey Hewitt "Generally thermoelectrics are an underdeveloped technology for harvesting energy, yet there is so much opportunity." Potential uses for Power Felt include lining automobile seats to boost battery power and service electrical needs, insulating pipes or collecting heat underroof tiles to lower gas or electric bills. It could also be used to lineclothing or sports equipment to monitor performance, or to wrap IV or wound sites to better track patients' medical needs. "Imagine it in an emergency kit, wrapped around a flashlight, powering aweather radio, charging a prepaid cell phone," says David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. "Power Felt could provide relief during power outages or accidents." The reason thermoelectrics haven't been used more widely in the past is simple - cost. Standard thermoelectric devices use a much more efficient compound called bismuth telluride to turn heat into power in products including mobile refrigerators and CPU coolers, but can cost $1,000 per kilogram. But the Wake researchers are confident that, in bulk, their system could costs as little as $1 to add to a cellphone cover. Currently, 72 stacked layers in the fabric yield about 140 nanowatts of power. The team is evaluating several ways to add more nanotube layers and make them even thinner to boost the power output. There's more work to do, but Wake Forest says it's in talks with investors to produce Power Felt commercially. Source: The Ultimate UpdateBSR developing biogas plant to fuel garbage truck fleet
Having gained consent from Berlin’s Senate Department for Health, Environment and Consumer Protection in July, the German waste collection service provider, BSR Ruhleben, has commenced construction of a biogas plant in Berlin-Westend. The facility will ferment organic waste to produce biomethane to power its fleet of refuse collection trucks. Berlin’s Senator for Health, Environment and Consumer Protection, Katrin Lompscher; Spandau district councillor Carsten-Michael Röding (Department of Building, Planning and Environmental Protection); and BSR CEO Vera Gade-Butzlaff attended the recent ground-breaking ceremony of a new biogas plant in Berlin being constructed by BSR Ruhleben to provide biomethane to power its fleet of compressed natural gas (CNG) powered refuse collection vehicles. Vera Gade-Butzlaff, CEO of BSR, says the new plant will be capable of displacing 2.5 million litres of diesel per year. “About half of all collective kilometres of BSR in the future will be accomplished as climate-neutral. This usage also makes us less dependent on – predictably upward trending – price development of fossil fuels,” Gade-Butzlaff explains. By the end of 2012, and every year thereafter, the biogas generated from organic waste by BSR will be the equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5,000 tonnes. When utilised as a diesel-substitute, the company reveals that the biomethane (upgraded biogas) it will produce will be tax free until the end of 2015. During her speech at the ground-breaking ceremony, Senator Lompscher said the use of biomethane to power the company’s fleet will also contribute to reducing noise and dust pollution, since “the biogas garbage trucks emit no diesel and they are clearly quieter than conventional diesel vehicles”. In a climate protection agreement set for the 2005 – 2010 period, BSR was hired by Berlin city council as the first municipal company to set ambitious climate targets. The company aimed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 121,000 tonnes and build a fleet of fully equipped low emission waste collection vehicles. As the final report of this agreement showed, the goal was not only met but exceeded, with the saving equivalent to 130,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being achieved. BSR has operated a fleet of 50 Daimler CNG waste collection trucks, a filling station and a CNG fast filling a mobile station that has been operational since 2002, also adding another 30 vehicles and a second Fast Fill station in 2010. It plans to expand the fleet of 140 CNG vehicles and build another fast-fill CNG station in 2012. Source: Renewable Energy Magazine
US lab discovering the keys to improved biofuel catalysts
Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are learning more about how nano-scale catalytic systems work, and their research could be the key to improved processes for refining biofuels and producing other chemicals. Nanospheres, tiny spheres of silica with a honeycomb of tunnels, or pores, throughout their structure and embedded with catalytic groups, were developed in the last decade
as a solution to finding a reusable catalyst for converting biomass into fuel. While scientists are now able to produce these nanospheres in ways that control the size of the pores and the type and position of the catalytic groups, understanding precisely how these chemical reactions take place will allow further fine-tuning and predictable control of catalytic processes. A collaborative team of scientists at the laboratory’s Division of Chemical and Biological Sciences have determined that though these particles were designed with hollow passages specifically to maximize the surface area available for chemical reactions, these reactions don’t happen uniformly across the entire surface area of the particle. These issues prompted James Evans to develop a new theoretical model which allows better predictions of how these complex systems will behave. Evans is an Ames Laboratory faculty scientist and Professor in Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University who specializes in theoretical and computational tools for understanding non-equilibrium processes, including catalysis. He described the reaction behavior as being similar to a busy grocery store, where customers roam multiple aisles, grabbing items off the shelves. Because the aisles get pretty full of customers throughout, most of the action will occur near the ends of the aisles, where shoppers can get in easily, grab items, and leave easily. Shoppers in the middle of the aisles will have a harder time passing each other and getting out of the aisle with their items. In the same way, the chemical reactions deep within the pores are limited. “The catchphrase we use to describe restricted passing in narrow pores (or aisles) is single file diffusion. In this situation, reaction is controlled by the random or stochastic nature of molecular motion near the pore openings. So traditional reaction-diffusion equations which do not incorporate these stochastic features fail completely to describe reaction behavior,” Evans said. “Suitably refining traditional equations to incorporate stochastic behavior provides an efficient and reliable model to describe dependence of reaction behavior on key system parameters and guides the experimentalist in thinking about the design of nanoporous materials,” he added. Evans and graduate students David M. Ackerman and Jing Wang published their findings in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters. Igor Slowing, a scientist at the laboratory who synthesizes the particles and performs reaction studies demonstrated a dramatic decrease in catalytic yield with decreasing pore diameter. This is consistent with general expectations of transport limitations in these reaction systems for narrow pores, and with the perception that most of the "action" occurs near pore openings. “What Jim has done is develop a model to help us understand better what key properties we need to change in the material to get the desired results,” Slowing said. “You can imagine there are several possible remedies for what we are observing,” said Marek Pruski, the Ames Laboratory scientist who heads up the research team. Pruski specializes in the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of the nano-scale particles. “You can adjust the pore diameter to facilitate passing, or reduce the aspect ratio so that pores are better utilized.” The limitations in reaction efficiency predicted by the model developed by Evans and his co-workers were confirmed in a recent Ames Laboratory study oriented to optimize a reaction routinely used in chemical manufacturing and biofuel production. This study combined new NMR methods with kinetic and surface analyses to detect the formation of catalyst inhibitors that tend to reduce the size of the pores, down to a point they behave similar to a case of single file diffusion. The researchers found that increasing the pore size by less than one nanometer improved the activity more than twenty times. Further modifications to the catalyst allowed the researchers to prevent the formation of inhibitors, which eliminates the bottleneck without making the pore wider. The study, written by Slowing, Pruski, and a team of scientists from Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University’s Chemistry Department, was published in the Journal of Catalysis. “What really inhibits the performance of these systems is poorly understood or misunderstood, and that’s why the research being done here is so fundamentally important,” said Pruski. “Ultimately, if we want to improve the catalysts, we need to have a clear understanding of the basic phenomena taking place within the pores. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Source: Renewable Energy Magazine
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