Green Technology

Daniel Nocera and his research team is developing the artificial leaf that harnesses sunlight to generate hydrogen gas, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.  The next phase of his research is to scale the device down, so that it mimics the behavior of algae and increases the generation of hydrogen.  …

…   “The device, Nocera explains, is made entirely of earth-abundant, inexpensive materials — mostly silicon, cobalt and nickel — and works in ordinary water.”   …

Via MIT: Silicon Leaf.

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And, MIT researchers may be on the right track, as the school’s battery research team has re-architected the traditional battery design of storage and discharge functions.  …

…   “The new battery relies on an innovative architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a carrier liquid and pumped through the system.”   …

Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology: New Battery Design.

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MIT researchers advance the state of fiber manufacturing to point of solar enabling fabrics.  …

…   “Or the fibers could then be woven, such as to make a solar-cell fabric, he says.  Fink says his research group has been working for more than a decade on expanding the kinds of materials and structures that can be incorporated into fibers.”   …

Via MIT: Electronic Fibers.

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Boston College and MIT collaborate to research improvements to the conversion efficiency of solar thermal panels. 

Nanotech materials and panel design techniques combine to boost the electric power conversion significantly.  …

…   “The team’s introduced two innovations: a better light-absorbing surface through enhanced nanostructured thermoelectric materials, which was then placed within an energy-trapping, vacuum-sealed flat panel.

Combined, both measures added enhanced electricity-generating capacity to solar-thermal power technology …”   …

Via Boston College: Solar Thermal Panels.

Boston College Professor of Physics Zhifeng Ren.

Research focus areas.

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MIT scientists have found a novel way to use virus' to improve the efficiency of PV cells.   The virus' " ... perform detailed assembly work at the microscopic level ... based on findings that carbon nanotubes ... can enhance the efficiency of ... solar cell's surface."

The virus' are used to " ... control the arrangement of the nanotubes ... so they can’t short out the circuits ..."

Improvements in power conversion efficiency are close to 1/3.

Via:  MIT LINK

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The Department of Energy launched its America’s Next Top Energy Innovator program as part of the Obama Administration's Startup America Initiative. The program will:

• Deliver streamlined template option agreement online for entrepreneurs to submit to Laboratories;
• Make 15,000 unlicensed patents and patent applications held by the National Laboratories available;
• Reduce the total upfront cost of licensing DOE patents;
• Delay royalty payments until the company grows and achieves commercial success;
• Establish a standard set of terms for licensing agreements;

Here are some DOE technology commercialization success stories (PDF).  …

…   “The program allows startups to license up to three National Laboratories patents for just $1,000 each, between May 2 and Dec. 15.

Normally those patents cost from $10,000 to $50,000 to obtain. The plan would also simplify the technology-licensing process …”   …

Via MIT News: Department of Energy Startup Licensing Program.

US Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu discusses the United States energy situation at the Energy Innovation Summit.

Secretary Steven Chu's slides on the clean energy innovation race (slides).

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MIT researcher Daniel Nocera discusses the results of his team’s artificial leaf at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.  The research team has created an advanced solar cell, based on bio-mimicry of the photosynthesis process used by plants. 

The leaf-like cell chemically splits water into hydrogen and oxygen for storage in a fuel cell for supplying power needs.  The Nocera solar leaf is constructed of inexpensive nickel and cobalt catalysts and material. 

The chemical reaction does not require extreme conditions of temperature or pressure to achieve its photosynthesis efficiency.  Nocera’s team will continue to seek methods to increase the solar conversion efficiency.  …

…   “The device bears no resemblance to Mother Nature's counterparts on oaks, maples and other green plants, which scientists have used as the model for their efforts to develop this new genre of solar cells.

About the shape of a poker card but thinner, the device is fashioned from silicon, electronics and catalysts, substances that accelerate chemical reactions that otherwise would not occur, or would run slowly.

Placed in a single gallon of water in a bright sunlight, the device could produce enough electricity to supply a house in a developing country with electricity for a day, Nocera said.

It does so by splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen. 

The hydrogen and oxygen gases would be stored in a fuel cell, which uses those two materials to produce electricity, located either on top of the house or beside it.”  …

Via Eureka Alert: Artificial Leaves, ACS Press Release.

American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute.

Daniel Nocera at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Daniel Nocera research team.

Fuel cells.

Bio-mimicry.

Green Chemistry.

The hydrogen economy.

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" ... producing clean power at a cost that is competitive with non-renewable resources."

" ... allow Altaeros to reduce the levelized cost of offshore wind energy by 60 percent."

Via:  Altaeros  LINK

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through the research of professor Tonio Buonassisi where nanowire production is tightly controlled.  These concepts are being proven in the lab prior to scale-up and commercialization.  …

…   “The spacing of the wires is controlled by textures created on the surface — tiny dimples can form centers for the copper droplets — but the size of the wires is controlled by the temperatures used for the diffusion stage of the process. Thus, unlike in other production methods, the size and spacing of the wires can be controlled independently of each other, Buonassisi says.”   …

Via MIT: Micro Wires.

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Can we emulate nature’s use of solar energy?  MIT researchers are inspired by biological mechanisms in their project on photosynthesis.  Project team members Cao and Ji-Hyun Kim are studying the capabilities and configurations of chromophores, nature’s light sensors, to efficiently convert light to energy.  …

…   “The hope, being pursued by various research teams around the world, is to be able to eventually produce synthetic chemical systems that mimic nature’s process of photosynthesis and thereby produce a more efficient way of harnessing the sun’s energy than today’s photovoltaic panels, and that can be used to produce some kind of fuel that can be stored and used when needed, eliminating the intermittency problems of solar power. ”   …

Via MIT: Photosynthesis.

Chromophores.

Control chromophore orientation.

Posted by Green Tech at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dog waste is often picked up in plastic bags and dropped in the trash - to spend eternity in a landfill.  What a waste of waste ...

Here is a novel idea to turn dog waste into methane ...   "dog waste ... decomposes over time. The anaerobic conditions inside the digester create methane gas ... "  The methane gas lights a gas lamp.

If successful this could be deployed to larger dog parks across the country.

Funded by MIT and located in Cambridge, Mass the digester shows a creative use for waste .. a great "reuse" idea.

Via:  TerraPass Blog  LINK

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The CityCar is an EV designed to take up minimum space while parked.  This is achieved by "folding" the car.  Instead of the engine and drive train of a gas powered car the drive components are in each wheel eliminating the need for a long rigid structure for the exhaust pipe or drive train components.

" ... weighs less than a thousand pounds, get the equivalent of 150 to 200 miles per gallon of gasoline. ... no tailpipe emissions."

" .. powered by four in-wheel electric motors ... enables maneuvers like spinning on its own axis ... moving sideways ... "

" ... park nose-in to the curb in ... possible to park three or four CityCars in the length of a traditional parking bay."

Via:  MIT LINK

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Carbon nanotubes in antenna form are used to concentrate the sun’s energy more efficiently than a solar panel.  …

…   “MIT chemical engineers have found a way to concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic cell. ”   …

Via MIT: Solar Funnel.

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Multiple solar powered houses integrated to a micro smart grid can share power efficiently and effectively.  …

…   “The idea is to pick a neighborhood and bring in a thousand solar panels and transformers to share energy.

One transformer would be shared by five houses. ”   …

Via MIT Tech: Draper Solutions.

Draper Labs.

Posted by Green Tech at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "There’s a third category, and that’s where the most interesting stuff happens.

These are materials that have a narrower gap between the two bands, and they are called semiconductors. " ...

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... "Ian Rousseau, a native of South Hero, Vt., who is completing undergraduate studies in physics, will study Novel Solar Energy Conversion via Terahertz Rectification in Germany. " ...

Continue reading "Fulbright enables Solar Studies" »

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"MIT ... two new airplane designs ... create more environmentally friendly planes ... quieter ... can take off from shorter runways ... ..."

" ... “D” or “double bubble,” would use 70 percent less fuel than a Boeing 737, according to MIT. Note the long, skinny wings and the small tail."

"NASA will pick two of the six teams to move forward, probably within the next few months. ... these planes won’t be ready to fly until 2035. ..."

Via:  SmartPlanet LINK

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Stanford Univ C3Nano team wins the MIT Clean Energy Prize for their carbon nanotechnology based solution for thin film electrodes which permits sunlight to flow through.  …

…   “The team of PhD chemical engineering students has developed a carbon nano-based transparent electrode that will increase the efficiency of thin film photovoltaic solar panels by allowing up to 12 percent more sunlight to penetrate the panels.

The electrode – a conductor through which electric current is passed – is also less expensive, more lightweight and flexible than electrodes made out of conventional materials. ”   …

Via NStar: Electrode Design to Improve Solar Panel Performance.

In the clean energy competition, C3Nano has developed a new transparent electrode material that they believe will make photovoltaic solar panels both cheaper and more efficient.

The MIT Clean Energy competition:  MIT CEP is organized and run by students enrolled in MIT’s science and engineering schools and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

C3Nano team developed proprietary transparent electrode that outperforms leading transparent electrodes and delivers efficiency of photovoltaics by 1%.

Posted by Green Tech at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "Plants use solar energy to split water molecules into their component hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Scientists dream of efficiently replicating that process, then storing the resulting gases for later use in fuel cells or liquid fuels. " ...

Via Calvin College: Mimic plant energy use

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... "The researcher will work with the company to map the supply chain and business operation, and help the company access knowledge both inside and outside MIT, working toward a sustainability strategy. " ...

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A MIT spin-off has created a solar powered refrigerator that can bring cooling to those far from the electric grid - especially those in developing countries like India and China.

"Promethean Power Systems has developed a solar-powered refrigeration system for commercial cold-storage applications in off-grid and partially electrified areas of developing countries. ... store and preserve perishable food items ... without the need for expensive diesel-powered generators"

" ... a for-profit enterprise. We believe that creating a cost-effective solution for cold-chain food distribution in emerging markets is an excellent business opportunity that could deliver enormous social and environmental benefits."

" ...  study revealed a large business opportunity in India for an efficient cold-storage solution targeted to the dairy industry ... Cold-storage at the village level minimizes the number of collection trips and reduces transportation cost in half. Today, the only alternative is to use commercial refrigerators with diesel-powered backup generators, a no-win situation that further exposes the dairies to escalating energy prices. "

Via:  Coolectrica  LINK

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IBM has the perfect Green Gift ... bringing together both GREEN and Six Sigma. 

" ... author, Eric Olson, is an IT strategist ... wields degrees from the likes of Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ... approach...  emphasizes practical steps for setting a specific “environmental stewardship” plan in motion ... draws heavily on IBM’s Green Sigma approach for running a green business ... might be just the ticket for someone who is sick of hearing ideas OR someone who might need proofpoints to get their own managers to buy into green."

Download a sample chapter - LINK.

Via:  ZDNet.com  LINK

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White roofs are the "hot" thing in roofing ... allowing for a lowed burden on a/c systems.

But dark colored roofs can bring solar gain to warm buildings ... if only roof tiles were smart enough to know ...

The next "hot" thing in roofing might be roofing that can change color based on outdoor temperature to maximize or minimize solar gain.

"MIT researchers have developed roof tiles that change color based on the temperature, turning white when it’s hot to deflect heat and turning black when it’s cold to absorb it ... the tiles can reflect about 80 percent of sunlight when they’re white and 30 percent of sunlight when they’re black. ... white state ... could save as much as 20 percent of present cooling costs ..."

" ... system ... made of a ... polymer in a water solution ... encapsulated between flexible plastic layers, with a dark layer at the back. When the temperature is above a certain level ... the polymer  ... produce a white surface and scatter light.  ... Below that temperature, the polymer stays dissolved, revealing the tile’s black backing and absorbing the sun’s heat ..."

Via: SmartPlanet LINK

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Concrete is everywhere and is a key component of modern infrastructure .... used in roads, buildings, bridges, etc.  It is also anything BUT green.  Not only is it typically gray - its manufacturing process is quite dirty.

"MIT Prof. Franz-Josef Ulm is obsessed with concrete and how to make it greener ... behind the reinvention of this backbone material ... that  happens to contribute up to five per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. "

" ...  25 billion tons of concrete are produced annually on a worldwide basis versus 3.3 billion tons of lumber. ... production ... emits carbon dioxide (CO2) in two ways. Cement forms the glue in concrete and is made from limestone. However, limestone isn’t cement until the CO2 is baked out, a process that makes up half of concrete’s carbon emissions. ... other 50 per cent ... comes from fossil fuels used to heat the limestone up to 1,300 degrees Celsius. ..."

Posted by Green Dude at 06:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Green Wheel is a cross between a regular bicycle and a motorcycle developed by scientists at MIT.

" ... GreenWheel ... will turn any pedal bicycle into an electric hog. ... has the radius of a small dinner plate and is about 2 inches thick. Inside the aluminum frame sits the three major GreenWheel components: an electric generator, batteries and an electric motor."

" ... a bike powered solely by a single GreenWheel ... has an estimated range of 25 miles. ... bike can be charged by pedaling or by plugging it into the electric grid.

" ... estimates its range at 40,000 miles, or about eight years work of travel at an estimated 20 miles per business day. ...

" ... getting people out of cars and onto bikes ... GreenWheel designers hope to reduce the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions. ... GreenWheel is also made from environmentally friendly processes by companies like A123 Systems, which manufactures the lithium ion batteries used in the GreenWheel."

Via:  msnbc.msn.com  LINK

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... "For Soft House, Kennedy transformed household curtains into mobile, flexible energy-harvesting surfaces with integrated solid-state lighting. Soft House curtains move to follow the sun and can generate up to 16,000 watt-hours of electricity--more than half the daily power needs of an average American household. " ...

Posted by Green Tech at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "I’ve been working with Prof. Vladimir Bulovic in electrical engineering to put these quantum dots in both light-emitting devices as well as to look at solar photovoltaic applications, which is very a propos. " ...

Posted by Green Tech at 08:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night. " ...

Posted by Green Tech at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells (the semiconductor devices that transform sunlight into electricity), the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell by a factor of over 40 ... " ...

Continue reading "Solar Energy Window Boosts Power" »

Posted by Green Tech at 08:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "The Eni-MITEI Solar Frontiers Research Program will include six areas of focus: Nano-structured thin film photovoltaics; Luminescent solar concentrators; Self-assembling photovoltaic materials; Water splitting; Materials for solar energy capture and storage; Maximizing the return on investment for solar thermal plants; " ...

Continue reading "Collaborative Solar Technology Research Program Targets Advanced Capabilities" »

Posted by Green Tech at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "Nocera's laboratory is seeking a future alternative fuel source by studying the principles that govern the conversion of photon energy into chemical potential during photosynthesis. The trick is to design a system in which the energy needed to break the chemical bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen in water is compensated by the absorption of a photon. The payoff: an alternative, clean fuel source - hydrogen - produced with the help of sunlight. " ...

Via MIT: Chemistry Research

See also International Society of Photosynthesis Research.

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A Given:  Wind Power is one solution to our energy needs.
 
Good:  Off Shore Windmills
Better:  FAR off shore Windmills where the winds are stronger and the windmills are not visible?

A Problem:  NIMBY (who can blame them?)

The Solution:  Part windmill.  Part floating platform. 

"Offshore wind turbines are an excellent source of power that could potentially serve hundreds of thousands of consumers ... (using) floating platforms hundreds of miles out to sea, where the winds are even stronger? That is where Paul D. Sclavounos comes in. The MIT professor of mechanical engineering and naval architecture spent decades designing and analyzing large floating structures for deep-sea oil and gas exploration."

"... could work in water depths ranging from 30 to 200 meters, Sclavounos said. In the Northeast, they could be 50 to 150 kilometers from shore. And the turbine atop each platform could be big, which is an economic advantage in the wind-farm business. The MIT-NREL design assumes a 5.0 megawatt (MW) experimental turbine now being developed by industry. (Onshore units are 1.5 MW; conventional offshore units are 3.6 MW.)"

"  ... Computer simulations show in hurricane conditions the ... bottom of the turbine blades would remain well above the peak of even the highest wave."

"... Because of the strong offshore winds, the floating turbines should produce up to twice as much electricity per year (per installed megawatt) as wind turbines now in operation. And because the wind turbines do not permanently attach to the ocean floor, they are a movable asset. If a company with 400 wind turbines serving the Boston area needs more power for New York, it can unhook some of the floating turbines and tow them south."

Via:   ISA     Link  and
         MIT    Link

Posted by Green Dude at 07:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... "The New England Energy Innovation Collaborative (NEEIC), one of the conference's platinum sponsors, announced that StarSolar Corp, an MIT-led team commercializing a technology that increases the efficiencies of photovoltaic cells, won its $150,000 Energy Business Creation Competition. " ...

Via MIT: MIT Energy 2.0

Posted by Green Tech at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)