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A new kind of fuel cell that can turn urine into electricity could revolutionize the way we produce bioenergy, particularly in developing countries. The research, published in Electrochimica Acta, describes a new design of microbial fuel cell that's smaller, cheaper and more powerful than traditional ones. The world's supply of fossil fuels is being depleted, and there is increasing pressure to develop new renewable sources of energy. Bioenergy is one such source, and microbial fuel cells can produce it. In their study, researchers from University of Bath, Queen Mary University of London and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory describe a new...

The gas age is good news Published on Saturday, March 16, 2013, updated Saturday, March 16, 2013 Methane hydrate joins shale gas and deep sea gas I have the following article in the Times on 15 March:   Move over shale gas, here comes methane hydrate. (Perhaps.) On Tuesday the Japanese government’s drilling ship Chikyu started flaring off gas from a hole drilled into a solid deposit of methane and ice, 300 metres beneath the seabed under 1000 metres of water, 30 miles off the Japanese coast.   The real significance of this gas flare probably lies decades in...

Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Date: 2003-02-26 Fossil Records Show Methane In Seafloor Sediments Released During Periods Of Rapid Climate Warming Scientists have found new evidence indicating that during periods of rapid climate warming methane gas has been released periodically from the seafloor in intense eruptions. In a study published in the current issue of the journal Science, Kai-Uwe Hinrichs and colleagues Laura Hmelo and Sean Sylva of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) provide a direct link between methane reservoirs in coastal marine sediments and the global carbon cycle, an indicator of global warming and cooling. Molecular fossils from...

University of Delaware researchers have broken new ground that could bring more environmentally friendly fuel cells closer to commercialization. Credit: Graphic illustration by Jeffrey C. Chase ========================================================================= University of Delaware (UD) engineers have demonstrated a way to effectively capture 99% of carbon dioxide from air using a novel electrochemical system powered by hydrogen. It is a significant advance for carbon dioxide capture and could bring more environmentally friendly fuel cells closer to market. The research team, led by UD Professor Yushan Yan, reported their method in Nature Energy on Thursday, February 3. Game-changing tech for fuel cell efficiency Fuel cells...

The Lavo home hydrogen battery is not a battery, it's an electrolysis system, hydrogen storage array and fuel cell power system rolled into one attractive cabinetLavo VIEW 3 IMAGES To get off the grid with home solar, you need to be able to generate energy when the Sun's out, and store it for when it's not. Normally, people do this with lithium battery systems – Tesla's Powerwall 2 is an example. But Australian company Lavo has built a rather spunky (if chunky) cabinet that can sit on the side of your house and store your excess energy as hydrogen. The...

While the vision of whisking passengers between rooftops in aircraft capable of vertical takeoff has largely solidified in the general shape of multiple rotors, some with airfoils and others without, the question of how to power this new kind of aircraft is less so. Some envision pure electric with lots of high-capacity batteries; others believe batteries alone will never be ready to produce the power required, and pitch hybrid designs—with a fossil-fueled engine producing electricity to assist the motors during some or all phases of flight. However, one recent entrant in the field of some 150 such aircraft being...

The Rubin Design Bureau and Krylov State Research Center will start developing a prototype submarine air-independent propulsion (AIP) plant and an associated floating test bench, Igor Landgraf, deputy director/chief designer of Krylov’s affiliate TsNII SET said. According to Landgraf, the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry is considering Rubin and Krylov’s proposal for the Development of an AIP Plant Prototype and an Associated Floating Test Bench development work. The proposal had resulted from a resolution by the September 12, 2015 governmental meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. The proposal was approved by the Russian Navy’s leading research institute. The...

It’s Official! Toyota Mirai Goes the Distance Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Sets Record 312 miles = Longest Driving Range of ANY Zero Emission Vehicle on the Market Toyota announced at the Aspen Ideas Festival that the new Toyota Mirai will offer an EPA-estimated 67 miles per gallon equivalent city/highway/combined, and an EPA-estimated driving range rating of 312 miles on a single fill of hydrogen – the longest driving range of any zero emissions vehicle on the market. (Photo: Business Wire) Toyota announced at the Aspen Ideas Festival that the new Toyota Mirai will offer an EPA-estimated 67 miles per...

ehicles, as did concern about global warming. But now gasoline prices have plunged to their lowest level since the Great Recession, averaging $2.50 nationwide for a gallon of regular. If gas prices stay low — granted, a very big “if” — one of the most powerful arguments for alternative fuel cars will be wiped out. “You have an early-adopter group that’s much more interested in these vehicles as a way of doing something 'green,’ and the cost of fuel is not going to be a big factor for them,” said John O’Dell, a senior editor at the Edmunds.com auto information...

Japan is backtracking on battery electric-car development, as even Nissan’s vice chairman, the so-called “father of the Prius,” announced plans to copy Toyota and pursue fuel-cell cars that convert hydrogen to electricity. “Because of its shortcomings — driving range, cost and recharging time — the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement for most conventional cars,” said Nissan’s vice chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada,..

Before the clean energy world knew about fuel cells, United Technologies knew about them. UTC pioneered the modern fuel cell for NASA beginning with the Apollo space program in the 1960s through the end of the shuttle program last year. But UTC's love affair with fuel cells could be about to end. In the last several weeks UTC's CEO and CFO have made statements indicating that the sale of its storied fuel cell unit, UTC Power, is under consideration to raise capital for its purchase of Goodrich. While UTC has declined to comment further on the subject, the situation has...

Researchers at Cornell University in the US have challenged prevailing fuel cell wisdom by throwing out three standard characteristics of today's mainstream systems to drive down their cost. Héctor Abruña and Abraham Stroock's team changed the fuel and oxidant chemicals used and the cell design that keeps them apart, getting power densities above 0.25 W/cm2. 'What we attain is extraordinary for a device that simple,' Abruña  tells Chemistry World.  'Fuel cells for automotive applications are typically around 1-2W/cm2. It's not that far off.'   The microfluidic fuel cell doesn't need an expensive Nafion membrane to keep the fuel and oxidant separate © Cornell...

Enlarge Image Artificial leaf. A new device absorbs sunlight (blue) and sends that energy to catalysts that split water (green) and generate hydrogen gas (black). Credit: S. Y. Reece et al./Science Two independent research teams report today in Science that they've taken key strides toward harnessing the energy in sunlight to synthesize chemical fuels. If the new work can be improved, scientists could utilize Earth's most abundant source of renewable energy to power everything from industrial plants to cars and trucks without generating additional greenhouse gases. Today, humans consume an average of 15 trillion watts of power, 85% of...

Researchers led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera have produced something they’re calling an “artificial leaf”: Like living leaves, the device can turn the energy of sunlight directly into a chemical fuel that can be stored and used later as an energy source. The artificial leaf — a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded onto its two sides — needs no external wires or control circuits to operate. Simply placed in a container of water and exposed to sunlight, it quickly begins to generate streams of bubbles: oxygen bubbles from one side and hydrogen bubbles from the other. If...

A team of USC scientists has developed a robust, efficient method of using hydrogen as a fuel source. Hydrogen makes a great fuel because of it can easily be converted to electricity hydrogen is that, because it is a gas, it can only be stored in high pressure or cryogenic tanks. In a vehicle with a tank full of hydrogen, "if you got into a wreck, you'd have a problem," said Travis Williams, assistant professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College. A possible solution is to store hydrogen in a safe chemical form. Earlier this year, Williams and his...

What is said to be the world’s first zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell class 8 truck rolled through roads in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently. Vision Industries delivered the truck to Total Transportation Services, a national trucking company, at the end of July to be tested in California ports. The truck will do short-haul routes typical of the other trucks currently operating in the ports in the coming six months.

Carbon nanotubes are wrapped in TNA © Nature Materials A fundamentally new type of power generation may be on the horizon thanks to researchers in the US and Korea who have created a nanotube 'fuse' that harnesses the energy from chemical reactions. The device converts chemical energy into electrical energy, yet is so small compared with traditional batteries that it opens the door to applications such as floating sensors or new fuel cells. Carbon nanotubes are known to have unusually high thermal conductivity because of a streamlined way in which packets of heat energy, known as phonons, can travel through...

Set to be unveiled today, the much anticipated Bloom Box—a residential "power plant" about the size of a mini-fridge—could provide cheap, environmentally friendly electricity to U.S. households within ten years, according to Bloom Energy, the company behind the fuel cell based invention. But what, besides its hype, makes the Bloom Box special? Could it really revolutionize how we power our homes? And do Bloom Energy patents point to a secret killer app? In an interview with CBS TV's 60 Minutes Sunday night, K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, said that, for one thing, the Bloom Box fuel cell system is...

As our Larry Dignan notes, last night’s 60 Minutes featured a piece launching the latest over-hyped energy breakthrough — the Bloom Box. While inventor K.R. Sridhar was still being coy with CBS, the device appears to be a fuel cell, composed mainly of a ceramic and custom inks (probably containing zirconium), that can produce electricity from any hydrocarbon feedstock at high efficiency. (The picture is by Thomas Hawk, from Flickr. The man on the left is legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr.) The official launch is not until Wednesday, but this has not slowed the speculation, or the skepticism....

Fuel cell box powered by secretive tech, many questions remainIt's a shiny box with a whole lot of mystery that's receiving a whole lot of attention this week.  The "Bloom Box" a roughly cubic structure has already been embraced by eBay, Google, Staples, FedEx, and Walmart, which extol its savings.  But is the new box the solution to all of mankind energy problems or a snake oil remedy for the world's fossil fuel habit? In an exclusive interview on the CBS television program 60 Minutes, company K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, gave the public a tantalizing first peak at the secret alternative energy...