SEM cross-sections of MIM nanocapacitors. (a) Bottom of tube showing the AAO barrier layer and three layers corresponding to the TiN bottom electrode (BE), Al2O3 and the TiN top electrode (TE). (b) Pore openings at the top also show a similar trilayer structure. Banerjee et al. (2009). Click to enlarge.
Screening study results of NaAlH4/carbon mixtures. Sample key: (a) 8 nm CNT, (b) 10-20 nm CNT, (c) 10-20 nm CNT with 4 mol % Ti, (d) 50 nm CNT, (e) graphite, (f) C60[1] (g) C60[2] (h) C60[3], (i) control no carbon, ball mill 4 mol % TiCl3, and (j) control no carbon or Ti. Two pressures used for the rehydriding step (which affects the amount of hydrogen desorbed in the second cycle) are highlighted by color: high pressure experiments are blue; lower pressure experiments are red. Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge.
Renewable energy technologies could generate 40% of the world??™s electricity by 2050, according to research presented at the International Scientific Congress ???Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions???.
According to Professor Peter Lund from the Advanced Energy Systems of the Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) in Finland, who presented the research ahead of the congress ???Renewable Energies: How Far Can They Take Us????, the findings show that ???with global political support and financial investment, previous notions that the potential for renewables was in some way limited to a negligible fraction of world demand were wrong.??? Recognizing and prioritizing the value of renewable energy technologies would effectively fuel their potential to provide the world with the energy it needs, he remarked.
Flight Design GmbH will debut a hybrid engine concept for light aircraft at the upcoming Aero show in Friedrichshafen, Germany (2-5 April). Flight Design developed the concept engine over the past two years with Franz Aircraft Engines.
The concept is based on a Rotax aircraft engine together with an electric booster. The very high boost power of the electric motor is only used for take-off and climb.
The result is an optimized engine in respect to size, weight and fuel efficiency for cruise flight, with additional 40 horsepower for take-off, climb or during an engine stoppage due to fuel starvation.
Researchers at Penn State University have found a way to replace the platinum-catalyzed carbon cloth cathodes in their hydrogen-generating microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) (earlier post) with high surface area stainless steel brush cathodes without losing efficiency.
Stainless steel brush cathodes can produce hydrogen at rates and efficiencies similar to those we have achieved with platinum-catalyzed carbon cloth.
??”Bruce E. Logan, Kappe professor of environmental engineering
The brushes used were made of 304 stainless steel, had a twisted stainless steel core and were manufactured on an industrial brush manufacturing machine. At an inch in length and an inch in diameter, the brushes had 48 square inches of surface area.
H2BVplus hydrogen combustion engine. Click to enlarge.
The BMW Group Forschung und Technik, in cooperation with researchers in Graz and Vienna, Austria, has developed a dedicated (i.e., monovalent) hydrogen combustion engine with diesel-like geometry and progressive H2 high-pressure direct-injection technology. The result is an efficiency level of up to 42%, on par with that of the best turbodiesel engines.
The powertrain components for the eRUF. Source; Siemens CT. Click to enlarge.
Siemens Corporate Technology, Siemens??™ research organization, supplied the drive systems for the prototypes of two electric cars shown at the Geneva Motor Show. For each of two automotive firms??”the Swiss concept car manufacturer Rinspeed and the German company RUF Automobile GmbH??”the Siemens research team developed an integrated system consisting of a motor/generator, power electronics and an interface with a battery connection.
Under the fuel through artificial photosynthesis scenario, nanotubes embedded within a membrane would act like green leaves, using incident solar radiation (H??) to split water molecules (H2O), freeing up electrons and oxygen (O2) that then react with carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce a fuel, shown here as methanol (CH3OH). Credit: Flavio Robles, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs. Click to enlarge.
Visibility in the clear sky is reduced by the presence of aerosols, whose types and concentrations have a large impact on the amount of solar radiation that reaches Earth??™s surface. Researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of Texas, Austin, have created a database that includes visibility measurements taken from 1973 - 2007 at 3,250 meteorological stations all over the world and released by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). A report on their work appears in the 13 March issue of the journal Science.
Separately, researchers from NASA Goddard??™s Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have developed a new detection technique and a new satellite instrument—the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS)—to measure accurately aerosols’ composition, size, and global distribution.
Discharge capability at very high rate for LiFe0.9P0.95O42-??. Full charge??“discharge cycles at constant 197C and 397C current rates without holding the voltage. The first, fiftieth and hundredth discharges are shown for each rate. Source: Kang and Ceder (2009). Click to enlarge.