$1.50 per gallon

synthetic gasoline

with no carbon emissions

UK-based Cella Energy has developed a synthetic fuel that could lead to US$1.50 per gallon gasoline. Apart from promising a future transportation fuel with a stable price regardless of oil prices, the fuel is hydrogen based and produces no carbon emissions when burned. The technology is based on complex hydrides, and has been developed over a four year top secret program at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford. Early indications are that the fuel can be used in existing internal combustion engined vehicles without engine modification.

According to Stephen Voller CEO at Cella Energy, the technology was developed using advanced materials science, taking high energy materials and encapsulating them using a nanostructuring technique called coaxial electrospraying.

“We have developed new micro-beads that can be used in an existing gasoline or petrol vehicle to replace oil-based fuels,” said Voller. “Early indications are that the micro-beads can be used in existing vehicles without engine modification.”

“The materials are hydrogen-based, and so when used produce no carbon emissions at the point of use, in a similar way to electric vehicles”, said Voller.

The technology has been developed over a four-year top secret programme at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, UK.

The development team is led by Professor Stephen Bennington in collaboration with scientists from University College London and Oxford University.

Professor Bennington, Chief Scientific Officer at Cella Energy said, “our technology is based on materials called complex hydrides that contain hydrogen. When encapsulated using our unique patented process, they are safer to handle than regular gasoline.”

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Sharp Corporation will start mass production of its new single crystalline solar cell at its solar cell plant in Green Front Sakai, Sakai City, Osaka, Japan. The annual production capacity for the solar cells will be 200 MW. This single crystalline solar cell with high conversion efficiency uses a Back Contact structure (electrodes are connected on the back-side), which eliminates the need for electrodes to be set on the front-side, Sharp says. The structure increases the light-receiving area on the front-side’s surface.Read more…

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

While in the Boston area, Steven Chu gets a tour of the labs

of 1366 Technologies, a solar start-up aiming to make solar

power lower than the price of coal.

Received & published by Henry Sapiecha

]]> http://www.energy-options.info/2010/12/solar-wafer-factory-inspected-by-chinese-at-boston-usa/feed/ 0 http://www.energy-options.info/2010/11/boeing-make-a-super-efficient-solar-cell/ http://www.energy-options.info/2010/11/boeing-make-a-super-efficient-solar-cell/#comments Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:05:38 +0000 Editor http://energy-options.info/?p=932
Boeing to mass-produce record-breaking 39.2 percent efficiency solar cell

When it comes to solar cells, everyone is chasing the highest conversion efficiency. Although we’ve seen conversion efficiencies of over 40 percent achieved with multi-junction solar cells in lab environments, Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab is bringing this kind of efficiency to mass production with the announcement of its C3MJ+ solar cells which boast an average conversion efficiency of 39.2 percent. Read More

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Making tougher biodegradable plastics from plants

Replacing petro-chemical-based plastics with plant-based alternatives is a growing area of research. One popular form of plant-derived plastic is Poly(lactic) acid, or PLA, a type of biodegradable plastic that is currently used to make bottles, bags and is woven into fibers to make clothes in place of polyester. Although PLA has similar mechanical properties to PETE polymer, it has significantly lower heat-resistance, which limits its uses. Researchers are now developing a new chemical catalyst to improve the properties of PLA, making it stronger and more heat-resistant so it can be used for a wider range of applications. Read More

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

When ecoBiz Participant Australian Country Choice transported goods between their warehouse and factory, their forklift had to travel around the entire factory to reach the adjacent warehouse.

They decided to build a new door in factory next to their warehouse.

This simple measure means the forklift travels a more efficient route, and they are now saving 184 tonnes of forklift gas, equivalent to over 600 tonnes of greenhouse gas, each year!

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Source Of Biodiesel Fuel.

Drink & drive legally…!!

Science (Dec. 15, 2008) — Researchers in Nevada are reporting that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks.

In the new study, Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, and Narasimharao Kondamudi note that the major barrier to wider use of biodiesel fuel is lack of a low-cost, high quality source, or feedstock, for producing that new energy source. Spent coffee grounds contain between 11 and 20 percent oil by weight. That’s about as much as traditional biodiesel feedstocks such as rapeseed, palm, and soybean oil.

Growers produce more than 16 billion pounds of coffee around the world each year. The used or “spent” grounds remaining from production of espresso, cappuccino, and plain old-fashioned cups of java, often wind up in the trash or find use as soil conditioner. The scientists estimated, however, that spent coffee grounds can potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world’s fuel supply.

To verify it, the scientists collected spent coffee grounds from a multinational coffeehouse chain and separated the oil. They then used an inexpensive process to convert 100 percent of the oil into biodiesel.

The resulting coffee-based fuel — which actually smells like java — had a major advantage in being more stable than traditional biodiesel due to coffee’s high antioxidant content, the researchers say. Solids left over from the conversion can be converted to ethanol or used as compost, the report notes. The scientists estimate that the process could make a profit of more than $8 million a year in the U.S. alone. They plan to develop a small pilot plant to produce and test the experimental fuel within the next six to eight months.

Biodiesel is a growing market. Estimates suggest that annual global production of biodiesel will hit the 3 billion gallon mark by 2010. The fuel can be made from soybean oil, palm oil, peanut oil, and other vegetable oils; animal fat; and even cooking oil recycled from restaurant French fry makers. Biodiesel also can be added to regular diesel fuel. It also can be a stand-alone fuel, used by itself as an alternative fuel for diesel engines.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Feasible Within 15 Years,

Researchers Predict

Science (Aug. 13, 2010) — Within 10 to 15 years, it will be technically possible to produce sustainable and economically viable biodiesel from micro-algae on a large scale. Technological innovations during this period should extend the scale of production by a factor of three, while at the same time reducing production costs by 90%. Two researchers from Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre) believe this to be possible.

In their article in Science (published 13 August), they provide a detailed explanation of the route that needs to be taken.

By producing microscopically small algae in bulk in large-scale installations, Europe should be able to become independent of fossil fuels in a sustainable way. Algae could even contribute to the sustainable production of food. To cultivate algae on a large scale, fertilisers (nitrogen and phosphates) could be extracted from manure surpluses and wastewater, with CO₂ coming from industrial residues. The energy source for algae is sunlight. Biodiesel and an almost unlimited quantity of protein and oxygen are the sustainable products of this process. The amount of fresh water consumed in algal cultivation is minimal because seawater can be used.

In a nutshell, that is the idea put forward by Professor René Wijffels and Dr Maria Barbosa of Wageningen UR in their perspective article An Outlook on Microalgal Biofuels in Science.

Sunlight and wastewater

Both authors demonstrate in their article that, according to calculations on energy consumption in transport in Europe, almost 0.4 billion m³ biodiesel would be needed to replace all transport fuels. The cultivation of micro-algae requires 9.25 million hectares of land — equal to the surface area of Portugal — assuming a yield of 40,000 litres of biodiesel per hectare, to supply the European market.

Algae produce the maximum quantity of oily substances when growing under stress. Such conditions can for instance be induced by a shortage of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphate.

Algae are much more efficient at converting sunlight and fertilisers into usable oily substances than agricultural crops such as oilseed rape. It is not even necessary to have full sunshine for algal cultivation, which is why it is possible to design reactors that look like vertical plates, on to which the light shines from one side. In this way, it is possible to produce 20-80,000 litres of oil per hectare. In comparison, one hectare of oilseed rape or oil palm yields only 1500 or 6000 litres, respectively.

Financial aspects

The 5000 tonnes of algae (dry matter) now produced annually in the whole world has a value of €250/kg. The price is so high because algae can make rare (and therefore expensive) substances like carotenoids and omega 3 fatty acids that are converted into high-quality products such as food supplements. That is extremely expensive when compared with the palm oil (cost price €0.50 /kg) used as a fuel. However, palm oil and other fuel crops are controversial. To investigate whether the use of algae as biofuels is feasible, a feasibility study was carried out on scale enhancement in algal cultivation. This showed that presently the cost price could be reduced to €4/kg. By making use of residues such as wastewater and CO₂ from exhaust gases, by improving the technology and by shifting production to sunnier countries, it would even be possible to reduce the price to one-tenth of that level, namely, €0.40 /kg.

Even then, however, the production of bioenergy from algae would not be financially viable. To achieve that goal, the whole algal biomass would have to be utilised. This consists of roughly 50% oil (40 cents/kg, thus), 40% proteins (yielding 120 cents/kg) and 10% sugars (100 cents/kg). This causes the value to rise to €1.65/kg which is enough to run production on a large scale.

Proteins

Algal proteins offer interesting possibilities. If all transport fuels were to be replaced by algal oil on a European scale, 0.3 billion tonnes of protein would become available as well. That is 40 times more than the amount of protein in the soya that Europe imports each year. Thus, algae would allow us to produce food and feed proteins as well as sufficient quantities of biofuel.

In order to manufacture biofuels from agricultural crops such as oilseed rape, 10,000 litres of fresh water are required to produce each litre of fuel. This is an incredibly large volume. By cultivating algae in seawater, it is possible to achieve the same result with just 1.5 litres of fresh water/kg of product.

With the aid of sunlight, algal growth requires 1.3 billion tonnes of CO₂ (Europe produces 4 billion tonnes/year, mainly from fossil fuels) and 25 million tonnes of nitrogen (wastewater and fertilisers contain 8 million). In other words, algal cultivation would not normally compete with food production.

A sustainable pilot-study facility AlgaePARC (Algae Production and Research Centre) will soon be starting up in Wageningen. Here it will be possible to study the scaling up of algal production and to compare various technologies, taking into account energy costs for building, production and logistics during the production of biofuels from algae.

Algae need to be interesting as a food source for fish and shellfish farming within five years. Five years after that, it should be possible to achieve applications such as providing protein sources in foods as well as basic chemicals for the manufacturing industries. Then, in 10-15 years’ time, biofuels should be available.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Lifecycle. Wind power generation from the roof top of your building

David Hare, who describes himself as an “environmental
entrepreneur”, owns 80 per cent of Windation Energy Systems
Australia – a would-be maker of rooftop wind turbines. (The
turbines’ American designer owns the other 20 per cent).
The missing piece is another investor to take him from
holding the Australian and New Zealand licence rights to
contracting a local manufacturer to, if all goes well, selling
turbines to commercial building owners.
But the 38-year-old’s “main business” is one he owns solely:
Eco Rebates.
As well as holding the Windation investment, Eco Rebates
advises homeowners and businesses on how they can save

energy and water. Its 60 assessors have been accredited under

the national Green Loans program (meaning the federal government will pay the $250 assessmen fee on homeowners’ behalf).
A vegetarian since he was 24, Hare’s entrepreneurism is even more longstanding.
His family’s engineering firm(Hare & Forbes) stretches back over eight decades. In his 20s his marketing helpedCentury 21 become Optus’ top mobilephone dealer in the 1990s.
The following decade he wenton to found his first business,
thecomputerschool.net, a computertraining company he sold in 2007.
Its sale seeded a series of propertyprojects, which fed Hare’s growing
awareness of how homes and buildingsadd to climate change. Eco Rebates
turned this awareness into a businessopportunity. In October, 2008, a headline
on technology website CNET – “Urban wind power inspired
by ancient Persia” – caught Hare’s attention. He immediately
made contact with the subject of the story, Iranian-born
Mark Sheikhrezai, who was installing his first wind turbine at
the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California. Sheikhrezai
persuaded Hare to bring the idea to Australia.
The turbine, which generates up to 5 kilowatts of electricity,
is about the size of a commercial rooftop air-conditioning unit.
Hare says there is “quite a bit of interest” from local building
owners and power companies but says he needs the help of
the government (which subsidises rooftop solar panels but not
wind turbines), local industry (to bring the unit and installation
cost down from $30,000) and, of course, investors.
The green tinge of his newest ventures is no accident, Hare
says. “I am very passionate about making positive, constructive
changes globally.”.

….More >>>Windation Energy Systems_Australia_Commercial in Confidence V2

…More >>> www.mandatorydisclosureconsultants.com.au

Received & published by Henry Sapiecha

With a 65-Percent Efficiency

Science (June 17, 2010) — Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/) researchers want to develop solar cells with an efficiency of over 65 percent by means of nanotechnology. In Southern Europe and North Africa these new solar cells can generate a substantial portion of the European demand for electricity. The Dutch government reserves EUR 1.2 million for the research.

The current thin-film solar cells (type III/V) have an efficiency that lies around 40 percent, but they are very expensive and can only be applied as solar panels on satellites. By using mirror systems that focus one thousand times they can now also be deployed on earth in a cost-effective manner. The TU/ researchers expect that in ten years their nano-structured solar cells can attain an efficiency of more than 65 percent. Jos Haverkort: “If the Netherlands wants to timely participate in a commercial exploitation of nanowire solar cells, there is a great urgency to get on board now.” The research is conducted together with Philips MiPlaza.

They think that nanotechnology, in combination with the use of concentrated sunlight through mirror systems, has the potential to lead to the world’s most efficient solar cell system with a cost price lower than 50 cent per Watt peak. In comparison: for the present generation of solar cells that cost price is 1.50 euro per Watt peak.

Stacking Nanowires make it possible to stack a number of subcells (junctions). In this process each subcell converts one color of sunlight optimally to electricity. The highest yield reported until now in a nanowire solar cell is 8.4 percent. Haverkort: “We expect that a protective shell around the nanowires is the critical step towards attaining the same efficiency with nanowire solar cells as with thin-film cells.” Haverkort thinks that at 5 to 10 junctions he will arrive at an efficiency of 65 percent.

Scarcity of raw materials In addition, the researchers expect considerable savings can be made on production costs, because nanowires grow on a cheap silicon substrate and also grow faster, which results in a lower cost of ownership of the growth equipment. What is more, the combination of the mirror systems with nanotechnology will imply an acceptable use of the scarce and hence expensive metals gallium and indium.

An agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, will grant the EUR 1.2 million to researchers dr. Jos Haverkort, dr. Erik Bakkers en dr. ir. Geert Verbong for their research into nanowire solar cells. It is their expectation that, when combined with mirror systems, these solar cells can generate a sizeable portion of the European electricity demand in Southern Europe and North Africa.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha