Using a common metal most famously found in self-cleaning ovens, Haile hopes to change our energy future. The metal is cerium oxide — or ceria — and it is the centerpiece of a promising new technology developed by Haile and her colleagues that concentrates solar energy and uses it to efficiently convert carbon dioxide and water into fuels.

“What is special about the material is that it doesn’t release all of the oxygen. That helps to leave the framework of the material intact as oxygen leaves,” Haile explains. “When we cool it back down, the material’s thermodynamically preferred state is to pull oxygen back into the structure.”

Specifically, the inhaled oxygen is stripped off of carbon dioxide (CO2) and/or water (H2O) gas molecules that are pumped into the reactor, producing carbon monoxide (CO) and/or hydrogen gas (H2). H2 can be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells; CO, combined with H2, can be used to create synthetic gas, or “syngas,” which is the precursor to liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Adding other catalysts to the gas mixture, meanwhile, produces methane. And once the ceria is oxygenated to full capacity, it can be heated back up again, and the cycle can begin anew.

The design was one of two that the team, led by faculty from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, presented to NASA last month as part of a $2.1 million research contract to develop environmental and performance concepts that will help guide the agency’s aeronautics research over the next 25 years. Known as “N+3″ to denote three generations beyond today’s commercial transport fleet, the research program is aimed at identifying key technologies, such as advanced airframe configurations and propulsion systems, that will enable greener airplanes to take flight around 2035.

MIT was the only university to lead one of the six U.S. teams that won contracts from NASA in October 2008. Four teams — led by MIT, Boeing, GE Aviation and Northrop Grumman, respectively — studied concepts for subsonic (slower than the speed of sound) commercial planes, while teams led by Boeing and Lockheed-Martin studied concepts for supersonic (faster than the speed of sound) commercial aircraft. Led by AeroAstro faculty and students, including principal investigator Ed Greitzer, the H. Nelson Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the MIT team members include Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation and Pratt & Whitney.

“This study provides a simple and cost-effective technology for direct water splitting that may generate hydrogen fuels by scavenging energy wastes such as noise or stray vibrations from the environment,” the authors write in a new paper, published March 2 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. “This new discovery may have potential implications in solving the challenging energy and environmental issues that we are facing today and in the future.”

IF you understand this next part then you are a better man, and obviously quite a better woman (I’m male), than I am. I can probably use a dip bar more efficiently than you though.

The researchers, led by UW-Madison geologist and crystal specialist Huifang Xu, grew nanocrystals of two common crystals, zinc oxide and barium titanate, and placed them in water. When pulsed with ultrasonic vibrations, the nanofibers flexed and catalyzed a chemical reaction to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Researchers at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (CNRS) developed a biofuel cell that functions using the products of photosynthesis (glucose and O2) and is made up of two enzyme-modified electrodes.

The cell was then inserted in a living plant, in this case a cactus. Once the electrodes, highly sensitive to O2 and glucose, had been implanted in the cactus leaf, the scientists succeeded in monitoring the real-time course of photosynthesis in vivo. They were able to observe an increase in electrical current when a desk lamp was switched on, and a reduction when it was switched off. During these experiments, the scientists were also able to make the first ever observation of the real-time course of glucose levels during photosynthesis. This method could offer a new means of better understanding the mechanisms of photosynthesis.

The medical applications that they are planning to work on along side these findings are interesting as well. They plan to use the biofeul cell that could function autonomously under the skin (in vivo), drawing chemical energy from the oxygen-glucose couple that is naturally present in physiological fluids. It could thus provide power for implanted medical devices such as, for example, autonomous subcutaneous sensors to measure glucose levels in diabetic patients.
driveway alarm

Ocean wave energy is captured directly from surface waves or from pressure fluctuations below the surface. It is as simple as that. For more in depth reading on Ocean Wave Energy, just wander over here to a site dedicated to the process.

Most wave catchers had major issues in that the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the need to be tethered to the seafloor.

Now, a team of aerospace engineers is applying the principles that keep airplanes aloft to create a new wave-energy system that is durable, extremely efficient, and can be placed anywhere in the ocean, regardless of depth.

The researchers, from the U.S. Air Force Academy, will present their design at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics on Nov. 24, 2009, in Minneapolis, Minn.

“Our group was working on very basic research on feedback flow control for years,” says lead researcher Stefan Siegel, referring to efforts to use sensors and adjustable parts to control how fluids flow around airfoils like wings. “For an airplane, when you control that flow, you better control flight–for example, enabling you to land a plane on a shorter runway.”

Also, an interesting development is discussed in combination with the capturing of wave energy for the new system that is being developed. Since the system is designed to effectively cancel incoming waves, capturing their energy while flattening them out, there is an added application as a storm-wave breaker.

Younan Xia, Ph.D., the James M. McKelvey Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University led a team of scientists at Washington University and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in developing a bimetallic catalyst comprised of a palladium core or “seed” that supports dendritic platinum branches, or arms, that are fixed on the nanostructure, consisting of a nine nanometer core and seven nanometer platinum arms.

“There are two ways to make a more effective catalyst,” Xia says. “One is to control the size, making it smaller, which gives the catalyst a higher specific surface area on a mass basis. Another is to change the arrangement of atoms on the surface. We did both. You can have a square or hexagonal arrangement for the surface atoms. We chose the hexagonal lattice because people have found that it’s twice as good as the square one for the oxygen reduction reaction.

“We’re excited by the technique, specifically with the performance of the new catalyst.”

During the oil crisis of the 1970′s the U.S. government provided funding for research evaluating the prospects of new fuel sources derived from terrestrial plants such as corn and soybeans, as well as algae. When prices dropped, and the uproar started to die down, so did the funding for such research.

Now that we are all experiencing outrageous gas prices again, as well as everyone becoming even more Earth conscious, the screaming for alternative fuels is once again at a high. In particular biofuel development is shifting more from soil-based plants to the sea in the form of algae.

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and researchers from UCSD’s Division of Biological Sciences, are part of an emerging algal biofuel consortium that includes academic collaborators, CleanTECH San Diego, regional industry representatives, and public and private partners.

Scripps’ researches consider algae to be something of a “green bullet”, or as I like to call the current all-in-one super source of ultimate energy independence, the next “miracle fuel”. They believe that both science and society’s best hope for a clean bioenergy source that will help loosen broad dependence on fossil fuel, counteract climate warming, and power the vehicles of the future. Like I said, “miracle fuel”.

Scripps biologist Greg Mitchell is what you would call a plant freak. His entire career has been dedicated to the study of photosynthesis. As he relaxes in a room under Moroccan lanterns, he had dreamed of the days when algae would once again be considered as an ultimate biofuel source. He has kept close tabs on any experiments that were working on the area. Even after funding began to slow down in the 1990′s.

Mitchell points out that marine algae are the most efficient organisms on Earth for absorbing light energy and converting it into a natural biomass oil product, the biofuel equivalent of crude oil.

“Algae yields five to 10 times more bioenergy molecules per area, per time, than any terrestrial plant,” said Mitchell, a native of oil-rich Houston, Texas. “Nothing else comes close.”

Since algae requires carbon dioxide for growth, algae are inherently carbon neutral, and they can suck up CO2 directly from industrial pollution sources. Algae can feed off the nutrients in discarded wastewater. Adding yet another layer to their allure, the rich protein left over from algae harvests can be converted to animal feed. “Miracle fuel”. Wouldn’t be surprised if it were able to pick out the coolest Moroccan lanterns for you either the more I read about it.

“There is still a lot of work to do, but algal-derived biofuels have the potential to become a major source of transportation fuel,” says Bernard Raemy, executive vice president of Carbon Capture Corporation, a company growing algae in ponds for biofuel research in California’s Imperial Valley desert.

“Given their advantages, I believe marine algae are not only the most promising option for bioenergy fuel, but the only option that can scale up massively at the global level,” said Mitchell. “Most scientists who understand these processes are concluding that algae has the best chance. There is no silver bullet when it comes to energy, but there is a green bullet, or rather a green missile.”

“Green Missile” now is it? All these violent terms. Tsk, tsk.

For more on this and other things associated with Oceanography check out the Scripps Institution of Oceanography site.

Michael Bernitsas, a professor in the U-M Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, has developed a machine called VIVACE, which stands for Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy. It doesn’t depend on waves, tides, turbines or dams. It’s a unique hydrokinetic energy system that relies on “vortex induced vibrations.”

The machine called VIVACE is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2 miles per hour.) Most of the Earth’s currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently.

Vortex induced vibrations are undulations that a rounded or cylinder-shaped object makes in a flow of fluid, which can be air or water. The presence of the object puts kinks in the current’s speed as it skims by. This causes eddies, or vortices, to form in a pattern on opposite sides of the object. The vortices push and pull the object up and down or left and right, perpendicular to the current.

These vibrations in wind toppled the Tacoma Narrows bridge in Washington in 1940 and the Ferrybridge power station cooling towers in England in 1965. In water, the vibrations regularly damage docks, oil rigs and coastal buildings.
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“For the past 25 years, engineers—myself included—have been trying to suppress vortex induced vibrations. But now at Michigan we’re doing the opposite. We enhance the vibrations and harness this powerful and destructive force in nature,” said VIVACE developer Michael Bernitsas.

“VIVACE copies aspects of fish technology,” Bernitsas said. “Fish curve their bodies to glide between the vortices shed by the bodies of the fish in front of them. Their muscle power alone could not propel them through the water at the speed they go, so they ride in each other’s wake.”

Bernitsas doesn’t believe that this will solve all of our energy needs, but it can help provide quite a bit of energy if we can harness some of the ocean’s unlimited energy.

“There won’t be one solution for the world’s energy needs,” Bernitsas said. “But if we could harness 0.1 percent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people.”

We certainly can use all the options we can get when it comes to re-usable energy sources. I have to say this is a pretty interesting, and ingenious study. Certainly good thinking on his part to come up with the machine using known observations in nature. I always wonder what kinds of weird projects guys like this have stored on their external hard drive when I see these kinds of stories. Just the way inventors think is amazing to me. I have so many little things in my documents folders that occur to me from time to time and always wonder what kind of strange ideas other people have…lol