Chattanooga Energy Hub

An Avalanche of Solar Power

2008-06-01T05:30:00.002-05:00

Proof of electron avalanche effect has been demonstrated in certain semiconducting crystals. Long story short, these means that methods of producing better, cheaper solar cells may be coming in the future. We hope.

Focus Fusion?

2008-06-01T05:10:00.003-05:00

I'll believe it when it's powering my home, but Eric Lerner is determined to make Focus Fusion a household name (and a working, proven technology). If this works the world's economies will be turned on their heads. About darn time.

Descendent of Luxfer

2008-06-01T05:05:00.002-05:00

Prismatic glass is on its way back in Japan as a cost-effective substitute for indoor lighting. The new product, Solbene, has a high up-front cost but can pay for itself in the long run.

Cyanobacteria Create Sugar, Cellulose

2008-04-29T23:28:00.002-05:00

At least now we've got yet another way to make ethanol that's better than fermenting corn. It's a shame the cyanobacteria must use sunlight instead of raw heat sources, but it's still pretty good tech, especially considering how hardy they are and how easy it is to harvest desirable output. What is unknown (or what the article does not specify) is the effective efficiency of these bacteria. Typical crops convert sunlight to biomass at a rate of around 6% efficiency; hopefully these bacteria can do a better job.

Converting Radiation to Electricity

2008-03-29T10:28:00.002-05:00

A new method for converting radiation directly to electricity is being explored as a replacement to thermoelectric-based nuclear batteries traditionally used in spacecraft. The material currently being tested is composed of carbon nanotubes, gold, and lithium hydride, making it potentially expensive but interesting nevertheless.

Other potential applications for this material would be as a replacement or complement to steam turbines in nuclear reactors or as a nuclear waste-based power generation system. The actual efficiency of this technology is still in question, but it is allegedly twenty times more efficient than thermoelectrics when used in the same application.

GAO Report on US Alternative Energy Use/Investment

2008-03-11T04:06:00.002-05:00

The US General Accounting Office has released a report highlighting our government's inability to wean Americans from fossil fuels. Our dependence on them has dropped from 93% in 1973 to 85% today - a far cry from where we need to be.

Nanowire-based Ultracapacitors May Replace Car Batteries

2008-03-06T03:46:00.003-05:00

More news is circulating about advancements in the realm of nanowire-based ultracapacitors. It is possible that EEstor is already ahead of the game in this area of research, but that remains to be seen.

Titan Covered in Hydrocarbons

2008-02-15T02:43:00.002-05:00

It would seem that Saturn's moon Titan is awash in hydrocarbons. It has so much raining from the sky that it is estimated to have hundreds of times the amount in Earth's oil and coal reserves. It looks like we may have found Earth's next energy source if we can't think of anything better (and if we can find a way to harness all that stored energy).

Minutes of the January 22nd Energy Hub Meeting

2008-01-24T12:56:00.000-05:00

Matthew Hine has graciously provided me with a copy of minutes from the January 22nd Energy Hub meeting. Thanks to him for that!

Tenfold Increase in Battery Life

2008-01-16T13:27:00.000-05:00

Those wily Stanford researchers are at it again, this time promising a potential tenfold increase in battery life thanks to anodes made from silicon nanowires instead of graphite. Interesting stuff.

Solar Power from Pavement

2008-01-01T22:21:00.001-05:00

It can't possibly be efficient, but it is interesting nevertheless: a company in the Netherlands has found a way to harness heated pavement for solar power applications. Interesting, and potentially useful as a way to pay for road construction projects, but it won't fulfill even a small fraction of our power needs.

Toshiba Super-Charge ion Battery

2007-12-18T12:48:00.001-05:00

Toshiba has announced that it will launch their new Super-Charge ion Baterry (SCiB) in March of 2008. The battery reportedly recharges to 90% capacity in under 5 minutes and has a 10-year lifespan. It has some other interesting features as well. It doesn't look like capacity will be much improved over comparable existing batteries, but the faster charge time and lower risk of overheating/catching on fire/exploding is a nice plus.

Portable Nuclear "Battery"

2007-11-28T04:07:00.000-05:00

Portable uranium hydride reactors may be rolled out soon as a power option for military, industrial, commercial, and even residential use. Anti-nuclear activists remain unimpressed by the claims of its would-be manufacturer, Hyperion. With the energy crunch getting worse, we may actually see these things deployed. Would you want one of these powering your neighborhood?

Freighter Powered by Kite

2007-11-28T04:01:00.000-05:00

Apparently sails at 1000 feet above sea level are much better than those at sea level, never mind that they need to be the size of a football field to tow a shipping freighter. But hey, if it works, great! There's no need to worry about getting your kite caught in a tree at sea.

Solar Energy Center at UCF Wins DoE Grant

2007-11-28T03:49:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Dr. Ross McCluney for this information!

It looks like quite a bit of interest is building in UCF's Solar Energy Center. They've been awarded a $2 million grant to promote the adoption of energy-efficient structural technology throughout the Southeast.

Strange Ways to Make Water

2007-11-11T23:49:00.000-05:00

The development of iridium-based transfer hydogenation catalysts may someday result in less expensive fuel cells and better catalysts for use in fuel cells. For now, it has enabled researchers from the University of Illinois to create water from alcohol.

Capacitor/Battery Convergence

2007-11-11T23:45:00.000-05:00

Here is another take on the potential of capacitors, particularly supercapacitors, to complement or even replace battery systems in rechargeable energy applications. Once again, it is becoming clear that traditional battery technology will need to be replaced soon, and that capacitors may be just the replacement we need.

Compressed Air Vehicles in India?

2007-11-11T23:27:00.000-05:00

Tata Motors, India's largest car manufacturer, has signed a deal with MDI (a French R&D firm) allowing them to produce compressed-air automobiles. I think the Hub needs to take note of this and watch carefully.

More on the Green Gas Generator

2007-10-27T02:32:00.000-05:00

I have written another piece for the Enigma on the Green Gas Generator (could not link to the Enigma site due to it being down currently, so I have a copy of the article on my old Uncolumnist blog which is nothing but old Enigma articles anyway). Long story short: it works, and George and I plan to push this out to market as aggressively as possible. Dyno numbers will be coming shortly, and I'm pushing George to install a full version of the Generator in my car to see how much improvement emerges.

Also of interest is the fact that George Palmer is assisted by former R&D tech and current owner of Tesla manufacturing, Kalan Holmes. Some of you may be familiar with his work.

NSSO Report on Space Solar Power

2007-10-12T23:41:00.000-05:00

This site says it all. The NSSO's approach to researching space solar power was . . . different to say the least, though they had to take a different approach considering that their "phase 0 study" had no official funding. Apparently, after receiving massive public interest in the subject matter and their online discussion group, the NSSO held a press conference to announce the release of their interim assessment.

Fuel of the Future

2007-10-06T02:13:00.001-05:00

The time has finally come to go public with the announcement of George Palmer's Green Gas Generator. The link says it all. In the days and weeks to come, he hopes to begin selling these machines and getting the word out about their extraordinary capabilities. We have only seen the the tip of the iceberg when it comes to applications for the Green Gas Generator, but for now, we hope that it will improve automotive fuel economy and reduce petroleum consumption considerably.

Value of biofuels in doubt

2007-09-22T23:21:00.000-05:00

While biofuels may offer marvelous financial benefits versus using fuel derived from petroleum, it looks like the nitrous oxide output of engines burning biofuel derived from rapeseed or corn (maize) may be greater than that of engines burning traditional petroleum-derived fuels. One wonders if catalytic converters could be modified to account for increased nitrous oxide output.

Jatropha: biofuel weed?

2007-09-13T03:37:00.000-05:00

Jatropha is showing promise as a potential source for biofuel. Its seeds have a high oil content, and it can grow in less-than-favorable conditions not hospitable to other favored biofuel crops.

Spaceport America to use renewable energy

2007-09-05T02:12:00.000-05:00

Spaceport America will reportedly be making extensive use of photovoltaic solar collectors for power and a passive heating/cooling system. If a development of that size can (and will) use existing green energy technology to supply all of its power then surely other future developments will provide a fertile market for cost-effective renewable energy solutions.

Solar power on the rise

2007-08-28T03:55:00.000-05:00

The future of solar power is looking brighter all the time. It's still too expensive, but it's improving.

Buildings Research Post - 2007

2007-08-19T13:48:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Dr. Ross McCluney for this post!

The Florida Solar Energy Center of the University of Central Florida issues these quarterly newsletters that may be of some interest to us. Links to subscribe to the newsletter appear below.

Summer 2007

Quick Links
- FSEC
- Buildings Research
- Building Science Training
Center
- Building America Industrialized
Housing Partnership
- EnergyGauge Software

Congrats to Mr. Philip Fairey and
Mrs. Stephanie Thomas-Rees.

Histograms of Building Load SHR
for Miamiat 75° F and 50% RH
comparing HERS Reference House
to High Efficiency House.

Read about Lakeland Habitat in the
Habitat for Humanity Partnership Update.
Photo Credit: Bob Abernethy

An aerial view of the University of
Central Florida's Orlando Campus.

Zero Energy use requires changes in lifestyle, energy production, and monitoring.

Current Sponsors -
Funding Buildings Research Projects of $50k or more

-Florida Energy Office

-Orange County Convention Center

-USDOE Building America

-USDOE Energy Codes

-USDOE Software Tools

-USDOE State Energy Program

Congratulations to:
Mr. Philip Fairey, FSEC deputy director and the founder of buildings research at FSEC, for his appointment as a full voting member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 62.2 committee. This very important ASHRAE committee sets the Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings standards.
ASHRAE

Mrs. Stephanie Thomas-Rees, research architect at FSEC for her election to the board of directors of the Florida Green Building Coalition for a three year term representing the academic and research communities.
Florida Green Building Coalition

Closing the Gap: Getting Full Performance from Residential Central Air Conditioners
This study integrated detailed models of conventional and advanced cooling and dehumidification equipment into a TRNSYS-based building simulation model. Building models were developed for a standard HERS Reference house. The different houses were simulated in seven Southeastern U.S. cities, all with various ventilation/infiltration scenarios.
Publication (pdf)

Habitat for Humanity Partnership Update
Habitat affiliates: refer to the map of Habitat Energy Stars on page 1 of this Partnership Update and find your affiliate on the Climate Zone map. Follow links to Building America resources and start plotting a course toward higher performing homes.
Publication (pdf)

University of Central Florida (UCF) Recommissioning, Green Roofing Technology, and Building Science Training; Final Report
This document reports the activities of three tasks:
1. recommissioning of three UCF buildings
2. energy savings from a green roof on a UCF building
3. building science training
Publication (pdf)

BobVila.com - Creating a Zero-Energy Home
The concept of a Zero-Energy Home is gaining respect and backing from builders and power companies. A zero-energy home produces as much energy as it consumes over a year's time. FSEC's Danny Parker is quoted in describing that efficiency must come first to achieve this goal.
Article

Miami NBC Affiliate Features FSEC Energy Analyst
As part of work with Building America, Danny Parker provided advice on two segments filmed on a Miami home where the monthly bills have exceeded $900. The segments, originally aired May 2nd and May 9th and showed how a variety of efficiency measures can be used to lower energy use: compact fluorescent lighting, low-flow showerheads and thermostat management. The segments were so popular that they were shown repeatedly shown over a week-long period. The program helped the NBC affiliate earn an award for best Public Affairs Program ('Going Green') for 2007 by the Florida Associated Press. After installing some conservation measures and altering occupant behavior, the household has seen monthly energy costs go down by more that $400 per month from May - July. A follow-up segment is planned for the fall.
First Segment | Second Segment

From Blueprints to Residential Code Compliance
This course provides students with detailed instructions and examples of how to go from a set of blueprints to calculating the residential energy code. Next course offered September 10, 2007 in Cocoa, FL.
Course Description & Registration

To unsubscribe from this quarterly newsletter, visit our unsubscribe page or email buildingnews@fsec.ucf.edu with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject. For new subscription, visit our subscribe page.

Gasoline from E. Coli

2007-08-15T01:47:00.000-05:00

E. Coli can be used to produce multiple different hydrocarbon molecules claims biotech firm LS9. If it's an efficient process that allows the bacteria to feed on organic material to produce gasoline and other useful hydrocarbons, then this could be a preferable solution to the gas crises versus ethanol and biodiesel. In the end, it's all about economics, though . . . cost will be the major concern.

Geothermal energy revisited

2007-08-08T03:53:00.000-05:00

Honestly I don't know how I feel about actively exploiting geothermal heat for power generation, especially if it can change or even induce seismic activity. Maybe I'm just being a Chicken Little Luddite in saying that but . . . well, if it works and it's safe, why not?

Green Energy Incentives

2007-07-22T02:48:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Dr. Ross McCluney for this information!

Those hoping to explore efficient and/or renewable energy solutions for their home or business may want to know more about incentive programs that can help ease the financial sting of going green.

There are even tax incentives out there for adding insulation.

Cooler fuel cells

2007-07-17T04:06:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a research team at UC Davis, a method for reduce fuel cell operating temperature utilizing cubic zirconia has been discovered. This could reduce the material cost of constructing and running an efficient fuel cell system

Cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia

2007-07-17T03:53:00.000-05:00

We've finally got a plant online that can convert cellulose to ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol is around twelve times more efficient than ethanol from corn. Need I say more?

The future of energy storage?

2007-07-03T22:29:00.000-05:00

Batteries are still better than capacitors for energy storage currently (for numerous reasons, mostly in the leakage and mass department), but capacitors are getting considerably better with time.

At what price ethanol?

2007-07-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

While the Department of Energy doesn't seem all that interested in biodiesel from algae, it will invest $125 million on ethanol-producing GM organisms and plants. Say what? Our current push for ethanol usage is widely thought to be a boondoggle for the corn lobby, but in light of this development, one must wonder . . .

Microwaves + plastic = oil?

2007-07-01T01:46:00.001-05:00

Don't look at me, folks, I didn't dream this up. Oil? From plastic? Fantastic! There only happens to be a vortex of plastic the size of Texas in the North Pacific that I'm sure Exxon would be happy to harvest and convert into useful fuel.

Glucose as a petroleum replacement?

2007-06-17T00:10:00.000-05:00

Wouldn't it be nice if we could create products currently derived from petroleum out of common plant matter? Glucose derived from plant cellulose - a substance we currently discard in enormous quantities in the form of grass clippings, chaff, corn stalks, fallen leaves, and other plant waste - may be the key to beating our petroleum habit in the short term.

Wireless power transmission

2007-06-08T00:26:00.000-05:00

After all these years, someone finally completed some of Tesla's most interesting work. Of course, some folks claim Tesla accidentally invented a death ray while pursuing wireless power transmission, but that's just a rumor. And, at least for now, it would seem that WiTricity won't be destroying acres of Siberian timber anytime soon.

Fuel cells just got a lot better

2007-06-05T02:26:00.000-05:00

Who needs hydrogen fuel cells when you can have one that runs on multiple fuel types? Well, okay, hydrogen fuel cells may still be useful, but Acumentrics' fuel cell certainly is an interesting device. With a fuel cell like this, small electric power generators may become a thing of the past.

Sounds good to me

2007-06-05T01:47:00.000-05:00

Have you heard of acoustic heat-engine devices? Neither had I until today. Long story short: they turn heat into sound, and then sound into electricity. Apparently they will be useful in converting waste heat from combustion reactors and other heat sources into extra electricity, and they may also be useful in solar collector applications.

States' responsibilities

2007-05-31T00:05:00.000-05:00

Though "states' rights" may have died years ago at the conclusion of the Civil War, it would seem that state governments here in the US are still taking on responsibilities that our federal government will not. There's more to it than that, though . . . legislation aimed at capping carbon emissions seems to be going hand-in-hand with green energy deployment and development.

We're always told that restricting the use of fossil fuels would be bad for the economy, but is that really true in this day and age?

(thanks to Bambi Evans and Wade Swicord for the article link)

Technology 2020

2007-05-26T03:36:00.000-05:00

Wade graciously pointed out this group of dedicated technology evangelists from the Knoxville area. We may wish to open communications with this group in the future once our own rests on a more solid, tangible foundation (which should be soon, or so I'd think). They may have some resources available to jump-start our own operation here in Chattanooga.

Aluminum/Gallium hydrogen production

2007-05-20T22:03:00.000-05:00

The hydrogen economy is looking a lot more viable thanks to a new process that allows hydrogen to be separated from water by way of an aluminum alloy augmented by gallium. The article goes into some detail of how an aluminum fuel system would work . . . essentially, you'd use aluminum as your fuel, and you'd recycle gallium as you produced hydrogen on-the-spot to drive your engine (no need to store or transport the hydrogen). Your exhaust would be water. Spent oxidized aluminum (alumina) would be recycled on-site at power generation stations.

Of course, whether or not it would be more expensive to transport spent alumina to a remote power station for recycling or transport electricity to widely-distributed recycling stations, I don't know. Either way, it's good to know the alumina can be recycled in the presence of sufficient power. This discovery provides us with yet another reason to develop cheap, renewable sources of electricity. Enough electricity, plus this process, means we could get off gasoline forever!

Polariton superfluid

2007-05-20T01:42:00.000-05:00

No, it's not bad science fiction or hackneyed Treknology. It comes from the University of Pittsburg and permits the emission of a "pure light beam similar to a laser".

Fascinating, to say the least.

Usually I have some clever commentary related to the potential value of new developments as they are reported by science news organizations, but the potential use of polariton superfluids is a bit beyond me. It may well have some application in the new energy field somewhere down the road . . . possibly in laser-induced hot fusion? Still, it does sound very interesting.

If only I knew what a polariton really was.

Battery booster from Hitachi

2007-05-19T00:16:00.000-05:00

The engineers at Hitachi have found a relatively simple way to extend the life of batteries. While this would seem to only apply to common alkaline batteries, it is still a positive step of sorts. If anything, it shows how even old technologies can be improved in seemingly minute ways.

Meeting Notes - April 24, 2007

2007-05-14T09:05:00.000-05:00

Chattanooga Energy Hub
April 24, 2007 - Meeting Notes – Tiffany Gibby

Present: Wade Swicord, Henry Spratt, Pat Branham, Chuck Mehan, Darrell Murphy, Bonnie Jacobs, Cathy Burnett, Tiffany Gibby

The purpose of this meeting was to address the need for specific assignments to be made to handle the next steps of forming an organization for the Chattanooga Energy Hub initiative. The following are comments made from the group.

1) A list of attorneys is needed to select someone for guidance on the formation of the organization. It is preferred that this person have either patent experience, engineering experience, or both.
2) One of the next steps is to create a charter and by-laws.
3) A report was mentioned called The Hydrogen Report by The Management Group that, when Googled, led to the following for review: http://www.tmgtech.com/pages/7/index.htm
There were also several other interesting links returned with that search including http://www.newrules.org/electricity/betterway.pdf
4) V2G, or vehicle-to-grid technology, was mentioned as one area of interest for project develepment. More info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V2G
5) The following assignments were made for committee chairs:
· Legal Counsel Committee – Chuck Mehan
· Board of Directors Committee – Henry Spratt
· Project Development Committee – Darrell Murphy and Cathy Burnett, co-chairs
· Financial/Grant Committee – Pat Branham and Bonnie Jacobs, co-chairs
· Media/Communications – Tiffany Gibby

Could it Bee Energy

2007-05-13T23:58:00.000-05:00

Our own Wade Swicord has offered some thoughts on the honey bee problem and how it may be related to processes that are not necessarily biological in nature:

Perhaps one of my more favorite researchers, Richard Hoagland, generally reserves his enormous energy and intellect on discussions of NASA, space travel and Mars. Imagine my waking to hear Richard going full bent in a discussion of the bee disappearance problem. He goes through a very thorough recounting of all suspect theories and then begins homing in on an entirely different notion. An aside note of interest is that in his research he found the organic and industrial beekeepers both jumped him about his, so far, outlandish theory. Bees and ants are our most robotic creatures, which is to say they do as instructed. The natural bee will from time to time readjust the size of the hive comb for various reason such as climate change, time of year and other factors. This in turn changes the size of the bee. For some years now (upwards to 200) beekeepers have been making starter kits which are basically an artificial platform to jump-start the honey comb development. The industrial guys found that they could produce more honey by making the platforms differently so that it produced bigger bees. Since the majority of honey is produced by the mega industry, we are (were) populated with the larger brand bees and the varying sizes were greatly diminished. Evidently the smaller type be readily attacks and kills the mites that some have attributed to the bee problem. These are readily seen piled up on the hive floor.

So one might think that our bee problem could perhaps be attributed to the greed of mega honey pots, but not so says Hoagland. Another aside here is that some time back I heard that Hoagland had spent some time down in Florida in the Coral Castle. He along with some other persistent folk refuse to believe that Leedskalnin pulled some cute little leverage tricks but was really on to something else. Leedskalnin was quite interested in astronomy and it seems that it was no accident, or at least of interest, that the material he worked with was coral that is made of geometric shapes much the same as honeycombs. Not so much that the bee solution begins in Florida but that these are two quite essential elements in Hoagland’s thesis… elements of the universe and geometry.

The geometry aspect I can get a bit of a hold on but when Hoagland gets out on the notions of either Torodial or Tubulin (I think the latter) he loses me. I have run across these terms in reading some of Robert Grace’s works but never took the time to figure these concepts out. (I have a small scrap of Grace’s monographs just part of many thousands… probably one of the most esoteric and enlightened minds around… completely disappeared) Hoagland somehow takes several of these elements, mixes them up with astronomical alignment (November of last year seems to be of importance) the positioning of the earth, ties this in with the aborted size of the honeycomb structure and maintains that this combo causes the bee to lose its navigation ability and those who drink know what that means.

What is more interesting is that Hoagland equates this stellar alignment with energy transfer and is working on a method to use this to guide space ships rather than firing rockets. He also stated, with some certainty that this is why cold fusion was having trouble replicating experiments in that this same alignment of energy that affects the bees operates on the cold fusion.

This whole process is more complicated than I can explain and I mention Grace because he used the same terminology and was highly involved in mathematics and esoteric physics as is obviously Hoagland. Both of these guys refer to certain numbers as being of prime significance in their process development (the number of the Golden Mean and 95.1?…)

One thing he did not bring up was the experiments of Grebennikov’s who found certain wasp’s nest made of cells that when cut apart and glued to a surface were capable of moving that surface up or down. This was attributed to the geometric configuration combined with other esoteric principles and like Leedskalnin was not prone to giving up the secrets of their discovery. Hoagland would likely tie in one of his space directed energy beams to further confuse the issue. However, when one moves this thought pattern down the line a bit, you can see that the geometric shapes seem to be or could be nothing more than receptors of either energy or instruction. Guy Murchie, in his book, The Seven Mysteries of Life, at one point breaks down the basic elements of life itself to symbols (geometric forms). Now if one would accept the notion that the word or a word is no more than a symbol, then some sense may be made out of the quote, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God”. (close)

So now you are faced with the problem that your high school geometry teacher was god.

It is not so much that one should take all of this as being absolute, it is more that a pattern is being found here that comes from a strong linage of respected and sometimes esoteric minds, but seems to be more and more verified as we delve into the minutiae of science. When exploring forms of energy it appears that when one thinks more along the line of fusion and alignment rather than fission and combustion, it could be, in a sense, going more with the flow of the universe.

The bee problem is serious and needs to be solved or our world is in deep trouble soon. But I really never thought that an exploration into this problem would relate to energy ideas.

Yours for the thinking,

Wade

Some additional reading is available.

Taleyarkhan under investigation

2007-05-11T23:54:00.000-05:00

Even though Purdue cleared him of any fraud, Congress wants to take a shot at him nevertheless. Personally I've never heard of a Congressional investigation into potentially fraudulent use of federal grants by a researcher. Exactly how much federal money did Taleyarkhan receive for his research? Why so much interest from a Congressman?

Something stinks here, though I don't know whether something is wrong with Taleyarkhan, Congressman Miller, the Purdue administration, or all of the above.

Now for something completely different

2007-05-07T01:32:00.000-05:00

If LENAR/LENR isn't your cup of tea, you may be more interested in BlackLight Power. Good bit of reading in there . . . if we could get some additional backing for these folks, we might be well on our way to fulfilling our goals.

Naval cold fusion research program

2007-05-07T01:17:00.000-05:00

I noticed this article myself but have been too busy to post on it until now, though Wade wishes to contribute his own take on it as well:

It seems that cold fusion, LENOR or LERN as in this article, is being commented more frequently these days. This is the favorite of many strong researchers and evidently has some promise as an energy source. It has a rather lengthy and interesting history that was brought to prominence by Pons and Fleichman in the late 80’s, in an ill fated demonstration. It is only recently that I became aware that the Navy not only had its own research lab but that they had been working on LENOR for over ten years, had their funding cut and evidently are back at it again. I believe that Matthew commented on the little blowout in regards to this area of research over in Oak Ridge. This attached article is short enough to give you a brief on cold fusion and is quite worth the time.

Wade

News that the Navy has been working on LENAR/LENR is a bit shocking, though it makes sense in a way. Their dependence on fission reactors makes their fleet bulkier than it needs to be, and they will eventually need systems capable of sustained energy output greater than current generators can feasibly produce. If you don't know what I mean, think naval rail guns. They take electricity to be fired, which means they don't have the benefit of being able to store energy in chemical form as with traditional naval projectiles. It has to be drawn on a demand basis from a generator (or capacitors charged by a generator), which means a naval rail gun platform is limited in power and speed by its generator.

I guess it really boils down to the amount of energy you can produce per square foot with devices based on this deuterium/palladium wire technique. There's also some question as to how one is actually meant to harness this energy. Most people tend to look at fusion power in the same way they view fission, thereby assuming that harnessing power from fusion means transferring heat from the reaction to some form of coolant which will then power turbines. Whether or not LENAR/LENR will generate sufficient heat to work even as a distributed power generation source is still questionable, but hey, I'm open to any possibility.

Hydrogen vs. Biodiesel fuel

2007-05-01T11:35:00.000-05:00

Two of our own have engaged in a friendly (we hope) debate over the desirability of hydrogen fuel versus diesel fuel from biological sources as a replacement for petroleum-based fuels.

One of Tami Freedman's comments on the subject:

“Hydrogen Economy” a Boondoggle

While the "hydrogen economy" receives much media attention, there are serious problems with hydrogen as transportation fuel. The first is hydrogen gas is extremely explosive. Hydrogen must be pressurized to 250 atmospheres for use as fuel, requiring corrosion-resistant tanks that don't rust, spring leaks, and explode. Hydrogen’s low energy density requires fuel tanks 14 times as large to yield the same driving range. To get a 1,000 mile range, a tractor trailer needs 168 gallons of diesel. Hydrogen vehicles would require 2,360 gallons of hydrogen, stored at 250 atmospheres. Dedicating that much space to fuel storage would drastically reduce how much trucks could carry, while the costs of high-pressure, corrosion-resistant storage tanks -- astronomical. The two main options for producing hydrogen, generating from water and extracting from other fuels, both have energy efficiencies below 100%, (takes more energy to produce than you get). Hydrogen vehicles (currently $1 million each to produce) would need a widescale hydrogen fuel distribution system. With a single hydrogen fuel pump costing $1 million, installing six at each of the 176,000 fuel stations across the US is over $1 trillion - costs completely avoided with biofuels that use our current infrastructure.

. . . followed by a response from Wade Swicord:

Hey Tami,

Good pass through. There has been a lot of discussion concerning the viability of hydrogen and a lot is rightfully centered on the storage problem. I do not feel that this is the end all of the energy question but it certainly deserves to survive the bath water. There is now a hydrogen powered cell phone and this being the micro reality, you can be assured that soon the behemoth storage systems as described in the forwarded article will be shedding pounds and inches. What I like is the introduction of more organic type elements in the storage systems which somewhat validates my push to move into the molecular application of hemp, which is a prime replacement material for petrochemical polymers. Do please read the following article and see how this could perhaps modify the stand taken in your forwarded comment.

Keep up the eagle eye,

Wade

PolyFuel’s membranes have garnered much interest in the portable electronics industry as they continue to raise the bar on fuel cell performance, in spite of the tremendous technical challenges in nano-engineering the exotic plastic films. Such increased performance is causing PolyFuel’s hydrocarbon membranes to displace alternative technologies, particularly fluorocarbon membranes, in much of the new and existing portable fuel cell development around the world.

State of the Art

There are essentially two alternative technologies for the design of portable direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), based upon the type of polymer used to create the plastic film-like membranes that make fuel cells possible. One technology, pioneered by DuPont�, uses membranes based on fluorocarbon polymers, similar to the ones used to manufacture the non-stick Teflon� coating on frying pans, and fibers for Gore-Tex� water-resistant fabrics. DuPont originally developed the so-called fluorocarbon membranes, now marketed under the trade name Nafion�, in the late 1960s, for the early U.S. space program.

The other technology, significantly newer in origin, has been pioneered by PolyFuel, SRI, Honda, and others. Instead of fluorocarbon polymers, the technology uses hydrocarbon polymers – long chains of organic molecules of varying composition – to form extremely stable films with carefully engineered properties.

Literally decades of research, and by some estimates hundreds of millions of dollars, have been expended on these exotic membranes – tens of millions by PolyFuel alone. Although there continues to be active development work on fluorocarbon-based fuel cells, in recent years, the most active and promising developments have come from hydrocarbon membranes, many of them from PolyFuel, because of the widening performance gap between the two fundamental technologies. Samsung, for example, recently characterized PolyFuel’s latest membrane as “a breakthrough” in their efforts to develop portable fuel cells (see: “PolyFuel Sets New Record for Portable Fuel Cell Performance – Again”, November 7, 2006). Much of the technology behind that breakthrough membrane is protected by these two new patents.

How it All Works – A Layman’s View

Fuel cells can be thought of as refillable batteries. Unlike batteries, which when exhausted must be discarded or recharged over a number of hours, fuel cells will keep producing power indefinitely, as long as there is fuel. In fuel cells being designed for portable consumer electronics devices, snap-in cartridges – the size of disposable cigarette lighters in several handheld designs – can be carried in pocket or purse, and popped into the fuel cell as required. One such cartridge, containing just a few ounces of methanol (CH3OH) and water (H2O), might power a laptop computer for 8 hours or more.

A portable, “direct methanol” fuel cell (DMFC) works by extracting energy directly from just such a mixture of methanol and water. The energy is extracted electrochemically, in the form of electricity, without combustion.

The heart of the fuel cell is the fuel cell membrane, and it is the membrane that determines many of the key properties of the fuel cell, such as size, weight, cost and runtime. The membrane is coated with a thin layer of catalyst, typically platinum, which helps increase the rate at which the electricity is produced.

At the interface between the catalyst and the membrane on the fuel side of the fuel cell, the hydrogen atoms in the methanol and water molecules spontaneously split into negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons – which are simply hydrogen atoms missing their usual, single electron. The protons pass through small channels in the membrane from the fuel side of the fuel cell to the air side. The electrons, by contrast, travel outside the fuel cell as electricity and do useful work such as powering a laptop. On the air side of the fuel cell, returning electrons recombine with protons that have crossed through the membrane, and with oxygen present in the air, to complete the reaction, creating water vapor as a by-product.

For many years, and prior to the widespread availability of hydrocarbon membranes from PolyFuel, developers of DMFC fuel cells had no choice but to use fluorocarbon membrane materials, which were originally developed for hydrogen fuel cells. However, fluorocarbon membranes have some significant performance drawbacks when used in direct methanol fuel cells. First their proton-conducting channels tend to be somewhat larger than is optimal. Second, fluorocarbon membranes have a soft, rubbery consistency, and in the presence of methanol, they tend to swell, making the proton channels even larger still.

The net effect of these drawbacks is that the water and methanol from the fuel supply practically pour through the channels, along with the protons, however without making any electricity. This significantly reduces the efficiency of a fluorocarbon membrane-based fuel cell and requires that the fuel cell have a larger fuel tank. Additionally, when the unwanted water and methanol arrive at the air side of the fuel cell, they essentially “drown” the catalyst, by preventing ambient oxygen from reaching the protons and electrons to complete the fuel cell reaction. To make matters worse, the uninvited methanol itself reacts with the air and creates heat, even more water, and carbon dioxide (CO2) – reducing the efficiency of the fuel cell even further.

PolyFuel’s now-patented hydrocarbon membrane material self-assembles proton channels that are nano-engineered to be significantly smaller than those in fluorocarbon membranes. The polymer matrix is also much tougher and stronger so that it does not swell to the same degree as fluorocarbon membranes do. The net result is that more of the water and methanol remain on the fuel side of the fuel cell, where they can be used to create useful electricity. The fuel cell is also able to breathe easier, and doesn’t create as much heat, water and CO2. This in turn enables the fuel cell to be smaller, lighter, less expensive, and longer running.

These characteristics of the PolyFuel-based fuel cell are critically important to portable fuel cell system developers, and environmentally conscious consumers.

PolyFuel’s composition of matter patents, US 7,094,490, and 7,202,001 describe the chemistry behind these concepts. Together the patents are broad in their scope, and describe a nearly infinite number of permutations of hydrocarbon membranes, which gives the company outstanding protection in such an important, commercially imminent field.

Wade has since added this analysis:

Tami,

Our group is established to work with what we have locally and what anyone can bring to the table as a project that can perhaps have viability. How we do this and how we pay for it is yet to be fully worked out. There are many proposals that have been shorted in recognition and funding. What we want to do is bring these projects to the front and have them worked on or recognized. It is useless to complain about what is being funded. Our intent is to find viable projects and work to bring them to productivity. It would really be a fine thing if some one would present to our group a viable proposal for the development of the algae-energy process. Unfortunately, at the early stages of our growth, we really need to show salability or early potential profit. Once under way we can support exploratory developments that seem to be rather odd.

You are a real spark in the energy world and we need more folk like you. Keep it up.

Wade

Followed by Tami's response:

Hi Wade,

I don't have a holy grail, I accept kudzu and methane, etc. However to not put

any govt research money into algae (15,000 gal / acre) and put $1 billion govt $ into

hydrogen - explosive, need all new tanks/distribution system, etc. - HORRIFIED.

Blessings, T

To which Wade has replied as follows:

ey Tami,

It is true that hydrogen has its problems and one may think, perhaps a bit of a diversion. I think I said or thought I did, that I am not a fan of hydrogen. Right now I am not a fan of anything unless one can bring the project in doable form to our review committee. It looks like to me that there is a lot of research going on with algae. This is in respect to some of the other lesser proposed energy modes. Life has no one way to live and there is likely no absolute holy grail for energy. If it exist, the energy solution, it will come as a gift, free of production complications, and likely take some time to be accepted.

Keep rattleling the group… just love it.

Wade

More solar madness

2007-04-12T23:01:00.000-05:00

Looks like everyone's interested in the solar business these days. Again, this seems great, though I have to admit that even I am showing a little bit too much interest in solar power right now. It's only going to carry us so far.

Furthermore, I'd like to know a few more technical details as to why this "3d solar cell" has trouble producing acceptable voltage levels versus traditional cells. Isn't this something that can be overcome with step-up voltage converters? Maybe I'm just being ignorant here.

One of these days, an ideal solar solution will be crowned king and will see mass-deployment on a scale much wider than that enjoyed by existing PV cells. The question is, what will that be?

Cheap dye-based solar cells?

2007-04-07T00:25:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Sandy Kurtz and Wade Swicord for pointing me towards this story. I can see a lot of potential for dye-based PV surfaces, especially in low-cost applications with short lifespans (though we currently know nothing about the durability or efficiency of the end product). It should make an excellent complement to emerging 40%-efficient PV cells.

To expand on the idea of a low-cost, temporary cell, imagine this: let's say you're a lead technician working on setting up a power source for Bonnaroo. You don't want to drag large, rigid panels all the way up I-24W for the festival (especially if they're fragile), but you can't justify erecting a solar array out there on the farm and leaving it there all year long, largely under-utilized until festival time (unless you're using it to sell power to locals, but that's another issue). So, what you do is fold up some cheap, flat slats of plastic or what have you, take them out to the farm, and paint PV dye on them creating solar cells on the spot. You use them for power through the show, and then wipe them clean and fold them up for storage until next year. I'm sure some work would have to be done to facilitate creating PV cells "on the fly" like that, but it should be possible with the right techniques and technology.

If they dye is cheap enough (and it sounds like it should be dirt cheap), the cost of repainting the cell as needed would probably be cheaper than paying to maintain static cells. Or so I'd think. It'd also be very convenient.

Flying wind farms

2007-04-04T22:52:00.000-05:00

If you can't build a windmill on the ground, you may as well build it in the air. Harvesting the Jet Stream for energy seems like a pretty good idea actually, though I wonder what would happen to weather patterns if any significant amount of energy were harvested from that level of the atmosphere. Possibly nothing.

March 27, 2007, Worksession - Vision/Mission, Keywords

2007-04-04T07:58:00.000-05:00

Here is what I had from our last meeting. Feel free to comment/suggest alternative wording. --Tiffany

Chattanooga Energy Hub
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Present:
Wade Swicord, Henry Spratt, Chuck Mehan, Pat Branham, Anne Massey-Ward, Sam Garza, Tiffany Gibby

Proposed Vision Statement

To establish Chattanooga as a hub of new energy initiatives for the development of technologies that will address the challenges of the 21st century and beyond.

Proposed Mission Statement

The Chattanooga Energy Hub group shall endeavor to:

build alliances with existing and new start-up businesses involved in energy technology goods and services;
foster partnerships between educational institutions, research and development facilities, governmental agencies and other parties;
seek to aid in the identification of new technologies which exhibit potential to provide alternative energy or energy services; and
support the greater Chattanooga area with workforce development initiatives with specific focus on technical skills and expertise in the energy sciences

in order to revitalize the region’s maufacturing sector and establish Chattanooga as a sustained center of energy commerce complete with state-of-the-art energy products, innovative intellectual capital, and a highly skilled labor resource.

Keywords

new energy

clean, green

workforce development

commerce

education

forward-thinking

future

community

intellectual capital

accessibility

technology transfer

sustainability

economic responsibility

ecology

synergy

alternative energy

energy efficiency

environmental city

corridor

impact

focus on success

marketing

communication

opportunity

technology

global impact

Tennessee Valley Corridor

energy fair/expo

innovation

humanitarian

Key concepts

quality of life
non-human life can live without humans but not vice versa
positive health impact/wellness
open-mindedness
cost/benefit analysis / full-cost accounting

Article: Renewable Energy Future

2007-04-02T03:26:00.000-05:00

Renewable energy materials and devices worth $7.5 billion by 2011: research

Wellesley, MA, Mar. 14, 2007 -- According to a new and updated technical market research report, "Advanced Materials and Devices for Renewable Energy Systems" from BCC Research, the total global market for advanced materials and devices for renewable energy systems was worth almost $2.4 billion by the end of 2006. At a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.8%, the market will be worth almost $7.5 billion by 2011.

Worldwide production of electricity from wind energy has more than tripled since 2000. Use of solar cells for electricity has increased more than six times in the same period, making solar one of the fastest growing industries in the world. In 2005, capital investments in renewable energy (excluding large-scale hydropower) reached $38 billion, a figure that could approach $70 billion according to some sources.

The dynamism is driving down costs and accelerating technological advances, says the new research. The technological advances include a range of new material and devices that increase the cost efficiency of renewable energy, helping to expand the market further.
Solar photovoltaic devices, worth $1.2 billion in 2006, hold the highest share of the market throughout the forecast period -- 55.1% of the total global market. By the end of 2011 they will be worth more than $4.9 billion, a CAGR of 28.1% and their share of the market will increase to 56.3%. Ocean energy had the highest growth rate through the forecast period, reaching $360 million in 2011, a CAGR of 66.5%.

Crystalline silicon, which is used in solar PV arrays, has the largest consumption of any type of advanced material, followed at a distance by thin films. Composites had the third-largest consumption in 2005-2006, but nanomaterials will surpass composites by 2011, said the research.

Utility Automation & Engineering T&D

post originally by: TJ

heatsink/thermal interface improvements

2007-03-28T02:03:00.000-05:00

IBM recently announced a breakthrough in thermal interfaces between microprocessor heatspreaders and the contact surfaces of cooling devices (such as heatsink/fan units commonly used on modern processors). This breakthrough improves thermal conductivity between solid surfaces that require some kind of liquid or semi-liquid bond between contact surfaces. Solid surfaces tend not to be perfectly flat, so air pockets form when the two surfaces are mated which interferes with proper conduction of heat. Thermal interface material, or TIM, is used to fill the gaps and eliminate air pockets, though the thermal conductivity of TIM is generally much lower than that of the two solid surfaces to be mated (in the PC world, copper is the usual material of choice). Short of soldering the two surfaces together (which might not even be feasible), the only ways to improve TIM performance are to improve the thermal conductivity of the TIM itself, to devise a means by which to mate the contact surfaces with a thinner layer of TIM, or to ensure that the TIM and its metal/ceramic particles are more evenly distributed along the contact surfaces. IBM seems to have accomplished two out of three goals here. Combined with a high-quality TIM like bulk diamond thermal grease, the TIM might conduct heat better than the contact surface materials themselves!

Now, I'm sure some of you might be wondering what this has to do with New Energy. Well, remember the previous post about a new blacker-than-black paint? One of the challenges of building solar heaters is transferring the heat generated by a solar collector surface to water (or some other fluid) to drive a turbine or serve some other purpose before the heat radiates back from the collector surface into open space/the atmosphere/what have you. Using contact surfaces etched with microchannels as per IBM's design, a high-quality diamoned thermal grease, and diamond/multi-walled carbon nanotube/diamond nano-aggregate contact surfaces, we should be able to transfer heat generated by a collector surface painted with "blacker than black" paint that absorbs over 99% of all sunlight striking it (versus more common 92%-efficient surfaces) to water for whatever purpose we saw fit.

That could be a very interesting alternative to photovoltaic cells or possibly serve some other purpose.

40% efficient solar cells

2007-03-22T04:46:00.000-05:00

News of 40% efficient solar cells isn't exactly recent, but the development certainly should be on our radar screens here in Chattanooga. Solar cells of this efficiency level are roughly four times more powerful than the cells that come to the mind of most people when they think of solar energy (10% cells date back to the Carter administration for crying out loud). According to the DoE article linked above, 40% efficient cells could lead to electricity as cheap as $.08 per kilowatt hour. The last time I checked my EPB bill, residential power in the Chattanooga area was $.075 per kilowatt hour, and we live in an area with relatively cheap electricity. A few improvements in process technology could reduce the cost to produce these panels, bringing costs even lower . . . and at $.08 per hour, existing %40 efficient solar cells might turn a profit in some American markets as it is.

If we really want to look at an existing technology that has not yet been implemented properly across the United States, we should be looking at these new cells (among other things). Producing the cells or installing them locally for power generation, either for profit or as a demonstration of self-sufficient architecture could move our agenda forward and lend credibility to the group as a whole.

Blacker than black?

2007-03-16T00:19:00.000-05:00

There is no black blacker than this. I wonder if this coating could be used to increase the efficiency of solar heating devices? Maybe, maybe not, though this fellow and another fellow seem to have some insights on the matter.

I guess we could consider that a strong "maybe".

A response to rising server power consumption

2007-02-27T02:08:00.000-05:00

I pitched this to Wade, Tami, and Tiffany prior to the Tuesday Energy Hub meeting so I could at least provide something that might merit discussion in my inevitable absence. The gist of it was this:

Here's the deal: companies like Google and Microsoft are investing in enormous server farms that connect to the Internet and offer various services to the public (such as Gmail, Blogger, Hotmail, etc). All those servers suck up power. They suck up so much power in some of these "death star" facilities, as they're called, that the builders set up power contracts with utilities to guarantee power. Here's my proposal: We need to put together a plan to gather grant money, donations, etc to build our own "wireless" datacenter. By wireless, I mean no utilities going in or out (if we need water for something, we could probably set up some kind of cistern/purification/recycling system). Power would be supplied on-site by something like a combination of solar panels + windmills or what have you, plus a storage/battery system to ensure constant delivery of power. Internet access would be provided by a satellite uplink or possibly a DS3 or DS1 microwave tower. The facility itself would be a standard server colocation facility as sort of described here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colocation

except that some of the provisions necessary for most colocation facilities, like diesel backup generators and UPS backup systems would be unnecessary for a wireless datacenter. Presumably, our power supply setup would be good enough to guarantee 24/7 power to all equipment. We also wouldn't need to build near a fibre loop, nor would we need to hook the facility up to two power grids. If those omissions and other optimizations (datacenters blow a lot of money on air conditioning . . . if we built underground, the facility might cool itself) saved enough money on construction costs, we could demonstrate the financial viability of a wireless datacenter. Of course, just building the datacenter is one thing . . . demonstrating its ability to sustain rack upon rack of server hardware 24/7 is quite another. We would have a few options here, the two main ones being:

a). run it as a commercial colocation center or dedicated hosting center (either host other people's hardware or sell CPU time on our own server hardware)
b). acquire our own rackmount servers and run some kind of CPU-intensive program 24/7 to demonstrate the consistency of an "alternative" energy source

I think plan b would be more viable in that we would be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of off-grid power sources under a "worst case" scenario (rarely is server-class hardware, particularly in a remote data center, run at 100% utilization, uninterrupted, for weeks or months on end). I propose that the program we should run is the client for Stanford University's Folding @ Home project:

http://folding.stanford.edu/

As you can see, the nature of the project is to discover cures for various diseases. It uses a distributed computing model to accomplish this task. What that means is that those wishing to participate need only download client software provided by the Pande Group at Stanford and run it as per their instructions. If we set up several racks of servers all running this software, we could easily achieve 100% CPU utilization on all servers to demonstrate the reliability of a wireless colocation facility while also contributing CPU time to a worthy, and well-known, cause. Our chances of getting funding for a project like that would probably jump if we helped the Folding @ Home folks. As an added bonus, it is a relatively simple matter to configure and run this client on a number of different operating systems, though I would think Linux would be the best choice. We could probably configure the servers to boot up and run the program automatically, requiring very little in the way of server administration (versus running our own commercial colocation/hosting facility).

Of course, Wade wisely noted that such ideas will have to wait until we have the ability to present them before people who could actually provide the financial and logistic support to get things done. I am in complete agreement on that. Even still, this is the kind of thing we might want to do to attract attention to Chattanooga and make people take the city seriously as a hub of energy production and development.

Tabletop fusion making a comeback?

2007-02-19T20:36:00.000-05:00

It would be prudent for someone to speak with Mr. Taleyarkhan about the possibility of him packing up and moving to Chattanooga. Sadly, with his exoneration at the hands of Purdue's own staff, he may stay put.

Server Power Consumption Rising Rapidly

2007-02-17T00:32:00.000-05:00

Slashdot ran a story recently about the massive increase in computer server power consumption in the United States since 2000. This trend is likely to continue.

I see an excellent opportunity here for enterprising Chattanoogans to produce self-sufficient server farms. How they should be powered is certainly a matter up for debate, but pulling juice off the grid at these rates can't lead to a good outcome.

Silicon chip micro rectennas?

2007-02-08T05:47:00.000-05:00

Photovoltaic cells are not the only way to convert sunlight into electricity. It might be possible to produce 70%-efficient solar panels if silicon chip micro rectennas actually worked. I don't know of anyone that's bothered trying to work with the technology mentioned in the patent itself, but I do know that the patent is so old that is has long since expired.

Someone could easily pick up where its inventors left off and start producing solar panels utilizing silicon chip micro rectennas provided that they work at all. According to an old Slashdot article, the technical means by which to produce silicon chip micro rectennas did not exist in 1984, but they do today.

Building Blocks of the Future?

2007-02-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

Concrete, steel, and silicon might be looking for new jobs once these wonderous materials can be produced en masse in useful forms:

Ultrananocrystalline™ diamond
aggregated diamond nanorods
some kind of bizarre tin/barium titanium mixture

Becoming a mass-manufacturer of even one of these materials would be highly desirable for Chattanoogan business interests and citizens alike.

Testing 123

2007-02-02T01:49:00.000-05:00

This is a dummy post. The blog is new and will have content later. I'm trying to get all the guts worked out first.