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It's not a laptop in first class or a cheap Chinese scooter smoking ominously in the plane's cargo hold. Nor is it a massive commercial ship packed to the gills with cars being transported across an ocean that has had one of the EVs parked onboard light off, and now the whole vessel is hopelessly ablaze. It's not another fiery EV in a driveway or garage or the solar panels on a rooftop, even though I have covered all of those. Comments regular Global Traveler turned me on to an ongoing drama in, of all places, San Diego County that...

It's rarely great news when an area gets blanketed in volcanic ash – but University of Barcelona researchers have discovered it has a rare combination of useful properties, which make it remarkably useful as an energy storage medium. We've written a number of times about super-cheap thermal energy storage, and a number of other times about highly efficient heat batteries operating at super-high temperatures. The cheapest of these 'brick toasters' use the most abundant of materials, and the most efficient can handle extraordinarily high temperatures using materials like liquid tin and carbon materials – but volcanic ash, as it turns...

United States exporters of thermal coal earned more than $5 billion in 2023 as they shipped out more than 32.5 million metric tons ... The thermal coal export earnings were the second-highest since 2017, following 2022's $5.7 billion. The total volumes were the highest since 2018 and came as U.S. power producers cut the amount of coal used in electricity generation to the lowest this century, ... The diverging trends between shrinking domestic coal use and robust coal exports open the United States to charges of hypocrisy .... Between 2013 and 2023, U.S. coal-fired power generation dropped by 57.5% from...

ATN’s Obsidian 4 app allows you to connect your smart phone to products like their X-Sight 4K Pro night vision or the ThOR 4 thermal optics. Snip Apple and Google have been ordered by the U.S. government to hand over names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of a single gun scope app, Forbes has discovered. It’s an unprecedented move: never before has a case been disclosed in which American investigators demanded personal data of users of a single app from Apple and Google. And never has an order been made public where the feds...

NASA looks at reviving atomic rocket program David Szondy August 10, 2017 A new engine being developed for NASA will use low-enriched uranium Cermet fuel rods (Credit: NASA) View gallery - 4 images When the first manned mission to Mars sets out, it may be on the tail of an atomic rocket engine. The Space Race vintage technology could have a renaissance at NASA after the space agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama signed a contract with BWXT Nuclear Energy to develop updated Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) concepts and new fuel elements to power them. The Apollo missions to...

Biofuels are often touted as an alternative to fossil fuels, but many depend on raw materials that would quickly become scarce if production were scaled up. As an alternative to these alternatives, the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has found a way to potentially produce 30 million barrels of biocrude oil per year from the 34 billion gal (128 billion liters) of raw sewage that Americans create every day. According to PNNL, the problem with using sewage as a source material for biocrude is it's too wet and requires drying before more conventional processes can handle...

Heat-vision cameras have been used widely in many industries for decades: Soldiers find targets through heat-vision rifle sights, police mount them on helicopters to search for people on the ground and contractors use the sensors to look for cold air seeping into homes. Now you can buy a simple smartphone attachment to reveal the widely varying temperatures of the people and things around you. Maybe you’re not up for hunting Arnold Schwarzenegger, like the heat-seeing alien hunter in the classic 1987 film “Predator.” There are many practical home uses for the latest thermal camera accessories from Flir and Seek, too:...

Thermal imaging devices have been available for sale online, relatively cheaply, for at least a couple of years. But now, an iPhone attachment will let you carry a thermal imaging camera in your pocket. FLIR Systems, a specialized camera company, plans to release its thermal camera and app for iPhone for less than $350 this spring. These devices — which show you the image of what you are looking at but with colors highlighting heat levels from objects — are getting easy to own and use. And that means consumers could use them to spot a water leak in the...

What the MIT boffins have found is a way of getting water droplets to jump off the cold pipes in the condenser and fall into the sump more quickly than they otherwise would, clearing room for new droplets to form. The condenser thus does its job of turning steam to water more efficiently. The method relies on the discovery that droplets forming on a certain type of advanced superhydrophobic coating can leave the surface with an electric charge. If a suitably charged plate is nearby, this will draw the droplets away from the coated tube - preventing them from falling...

An unlikely material, cubic boron arsenide, could deliver a thermal conductivity high enough to compete with the costly industry standard currently set by diamond, according to a report in the latest issue of the journal Physical Review Letters. Known for its brilliance and use in jewelry, diamond is the best-known thermal conductor - a role that grows increasingly important as smaller, faster and more powerful microelectronic devices pose the challenge of removing the heat they generate quickly. However, besides being rare and expensive, high quality synthetic diamond is difficult and costly to produce, prompting researchers to search for new materials...

Scientists Identify Massive Geothermal Hotspot In UtahConsumer Energy ReportOctober 3,2012 Following two full years of study, scientists have confirmed that they have identified a huge geothermal hotspot in Utah, presenting the possibilities of exploitation of the find for cheap energy production purposes. The area in question, covering an area of about 100 square miles, lies in Utah’s Black Rock Desert basin, south of Delta. During the two-year study, researchers drilled nine deep wells in the basin in an effort to confirm that water at very high temperatures was close enough to the surface to be manipulated, potentially allowing it to...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Iran Launches Production of 30 Hi-Tech Military Devices The Iranian news agency Fars reports that Iran yesterday launched production of 30 important military tools and equipment, including electronic, telecommunication and radar devices. The Fars report quoted Iranian Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying, "The exact and coherent planning by the defense industries, specially electronic industries of the defense ministry, in recent years caused the production of more qualitative and varied products by the defense industries of the defense ministry." "These new production lines and products are related to...

Researchers work to shrink technology that harnesses sun's energy to both heat and coolEvery day, the sun bathes the planet in energy--free of charge--yet few systems can take advantage of that source for both heating and cooling. Now, researchers are making progress on a thin-film technology that adheres both solar cells and heat pumps onto surfaces, ultimately turning walls, windows, and maybe even soda bottles into climate control systems. On July 12, 2006, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researcher Steven Van Dessel and his colleagues will announce their most recent progress--including a computer model to help them simulate the climate within...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - People will soon cool their homes with power from the searing desert sun, according to companies investing in a little-used solar technology. Deserts are becoming hot spots for solar thermal power in which futuristic troughs concentrate the sun's rays and create steam to run power-producing turbines at power plants. It is a different technology than rooftop solar panels. Tiny experimental plants built in the 1980s in California ran into problems when energy prices dropped. But as oil, natural gas and electricity costs soar, companies are racing to build commercial solar thermal plants that are the size...

Ancient Thermal City to Be Flooded in Turkey 23/06/2005The 1,800-year-old city of Allianoi will be flooded in November by the Yortanli Dam. [File] Archeologists, environmentalists and international NGOs are joining together to try to find a way to save an 1,800-year-old archeological site, due to be flooded this November by the waters from a new dam. By Allan Cove for Southeast European Times – 23/06/05 The world's oldest known ancient thermal city, Allianoi, stands to be flooded when the Yortanli Dam begins operation this November. Located in the very centre of the planned dam lake, it will be submerged under...

Finally - a breakthrough for oil? Craig Morris 06.12.2004 A conversation with Brian Appel of Changing World Technologies In 2003, Changing World Technologies made headlines in the United States and abroad with the announcement that it would be able to make oil out of just about anything. The company had been running a plant that processed seven tonnes of turkey offal per day into oil at a cost of around $15 per barrel. After a larger plant that processes 238 tonnes of turkey offal per day did not go into operation on time (due - the company says - to...

Link post: link provided to the thread in the FR chat section, where interested readers can view the images and post any commentary: Geology Pictures of the Week, October 24-31, 2004: Ghostly Gas, Bone Dry, Black Dragon's Caldron

I'm a big fan of hot springs and usually visit them purely for pleasure. But last month my soak at Chena Hot Springs was all business. Well, mostly. The Alaskan Geothermal Working Group's first "summit" at Chena focused on geothermal as a power source for Alaska. Over the two-day meeting the 75 participants learned a lot -- like how Iceland is now getting almost 20 percent of its electricity from geothermal. We also heard from Roy Mink, who heads the U.S. Department of Energy's Geothermal Technologies Division in Washington, D.C. He told us the DOE considers Alaska one of a...

Ask Umbra: Waste makes haste Grist Magazine - grist magazine 06.14.04 - For more environmental news and humor, sign up for Grist Magazine's e-mail list. Dear Umbra, What is thermal depolymerization? Ann Freehold, N.J. Dearest Ann, A polymer is a large group of linked molecules. We're made of polymers such as protein, eat polymers such as starch, and wear polymers such as leather and nylon. Thermal depolymerization is a heat-driven process that breaks down or transforms polymers into the shorter chains from whence they came: oil. Our planet's automatic transformation of dead dinosaurs and dead cavepeople and other organic matter...

<p>Caltech researchers have made a metallic glass-based foam that is stronger than traditional metal alloys, providing industry with a revolutionary lightweight material.</p> <p>Although bubbloy (bubble-alloy) is entering a crowded field of metallic foams, it has the advantage of a smooth plastic or glasslike consistency where others are grainy.</p>