The Green Optimistic

The interesting fact is that the material resembles a fabric, and can be shaped into different objects, so maybe in the future mobile phone users won’t have to have a battery in their cellphone, just because its case will do the job.

Salicornia is an alga that grows in salty waters and whose seeds can produce biofuels abundantly. Masdar Institute researchers, along with several companies like Boeing, Etihad Airways, and UOP Honeywell devised a method of growing salicornia for getting biofuels out of it and keeping the CO2 balance in proper equilibrium.

The world’s first electric Pick-up, EMC (Electric Motor Cars), built on a Dacia Logan platform, brought to the U.S. by Envision Motor Co., has been presented by Des Moines Motors, an ex-Chrysler dealer.

A team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have developed the world’s first circuit powered by solar energy that can power itself, as long as it’s left in a beam of sunshine. It could eventually power a new line of consumer devices or even model the human brain.

A new test will be performed by Showa Denko on Feb. 15, 2010. The thermoelectric device is designed to be attached to the exhaust pipe of a car and supply electricity to the car’s air conditioner, thus improving the fuel mileage.

Professor Greg Scholes, the lead author of the study published recently in Nature, says: “There’s been a lot of excitement and speculation that nature may be using quantum mechanical practices. Our latest experiments show that normally functioning biological systems have the capacity to use quantum mechanics in order to optimize a process as essential to their survival as photosynthesis.”

Up to now, the most used antireflective coating method has been the vapor deposition of a silicon nitride film by using a highly-flamable silane gas, which can ignite when exposed to air. Transporting, storing, ventilating silane gas and other safety-keeping operation make the process very expensive.

Scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University, Peking University in Beijing and the Chinese Academy of Science in Shanghai made a discovery that could help other researchers build hydrogen containers that could make the gas compete with petrol-based fuels in terms of energy density and availability.

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) by itself makes up a very low performance electrode, because the electrons move very slowly through it (can take years until you could fill a millimiter-thick TiO2 piece). When you reduce its thickness, though, TiO2 acts like a very good electrode.

University of Columbia researchers, along with their colleagues from MIT, have some results in reproducing the Earth’s magnetic fields for developing nuclear power plants based on nuclear fusion – the ultimate dream of scientists that uses the same principle that the Sun operates on.

A group of students at the Harvard University have come up with an ingenious idea that could change the lives of African people. They have developed an energy harvesting soccer ball called sOccket that is able to produce electric energy when being kicked around.

Takara Tomy is a Japanese toy maker that recently developed a radio-controlled toy car called “Ene Pocket”. The thing is equipped with a Sony bio-battery fueled by sugars like those in sodas and fruit drinks.

Pacemaker owners all over the world and other people in need of a reliable, small current source will surely be glad when they’ll hear that Princeton University scientists have developed an ultra-efficient (80%) piezoelectric system, able to transform mechanical work into electricity.

The partnership that took place a few days ago between United States Air Force and Fotowatio Renewable Ventures of San Francisco could lead to the construction of United State’s largest solar project that will be able to produce 500MW of green electricity.

Thermoelectric devices convert heat into electricity, and are of great use in recovering wasted heat from thermal engines and transforming it into electricity, thus increasing the engine’s overall efficiency, mostly when used in hybrid cars, who have high capacity onboard batteries.

Biofuels do their job as a carbon-saver only if they swallow more carbon than they emit. Choosing biofuels with a positive carbon output looks to me like wasted money.

A group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a way to produce artificial photovoltaic and photochemical cells by infecting the tobacco plants with a genetically engineered virus. Unlike traditional methods of making solar cells, this new technique is more environmentally friendly (because the cells are biodegradable) and cheap.

Usually, heat and light cannot be separated, because heat is a also a form of energy that we can’t ignore. Weidlinger Associates, a NY-based company, received a $150,000 grant this week to develop better, more durable hybrid solar roof panels.

The much-feared ozone layer hole over the Antarctic is slowly but steadily closing, but scientists realized that while it had been open, it kept the carbon-induced heat from melting the Antarctic glaciers.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) and Samsung C&T have signed a contract to build a new $6 billion renewable power plant complex in a small village near Toronto in southern Ontario.