Archive for category Experiments

Self-Driving Vehicle Development Platform Sold by Japanese Company

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Electric Vehicles, Experiments on May 20, 2013

Not long ago, Google started teasing the world with the idea of a self-driving vehicle. Now, a company called ZMP Inc released a development platform called ”RoboCar MV2 Autonomous Driving Package,” which is a single seat electric vehicle meant to help car companies (like Tesla) get going with autonomous driving. Actually, the ZMP platform is based [...]

CO2 Capturing System to be Installed at Norwegian Cement Factory

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Experiments, Green News on May 17, 2013

A new and innovative CO2 capturing system is to be installed in Norway, at a Norcem cement producing plant in Brevik. Developed by Aker Solutions, the carbon capturing system is the first in the world to do this at a cement station. While most of today’s efforts only focus on capturing emissions resulted from coal-fired [...]

Plants That Glow In The Dark Might Replace Home Lighting Systems

Posted by Mila Luleva in Experiments, Green News on May 10, 2013

The latest innovation in the field of genetic modification is set to create a unique kind of bioluminescent plants, which have the potential to replace home lighting installation systems, and why not even street lamps. A team of scientists based in California is trying to raise funding for their one a kind project. Their aim [...]

Graphene and Monolayers For More Efficient Solar Cells

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Solar Power on May 3, 2013

With all the talk about nanomaterials making up more efficient solar cells, most of the focus has been on graphene and its unique properties. It’s easy to forget that other elements could possibly be manufactured similarly. It stands to reason that if you can make one element into a monolayer, then you should be able [...]

Hydrogen Fuel Generation – Breakthrough Catalyst Investigated in India

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Hydrogen Power on April 19, 2013

Hydrogen fuel used in hydrogen fuel cells, as a replacement for natural gas, or even in an internal combustion engine, burns clean and emits zero carbon dioxide. This is great news for those concerned about increasing carbon dioxide emissions, but the current-best method for generating hydrogen fuel isn’t very efficient. Electrolysis uses electricity to split [...]

Nanotech Hybrid Solar Cell Generates Electricity from Both Light and Sound

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Piezoelectric, Solar Power on April 18, 2013

A new nanotech hybrid solar cell developed by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, generates electricity from light as well as from sound. “The best of both worlds” is a common term when it comes to combining two different technologies, such as electric motors and gasoline engines in hybrid vehicles. [...]

Honda Testing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles With Vehicle to Grid Technology

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Hydrogen Power on April 13, 2013

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and plug-in vehicles are both essentially electric vehicles, but hydrogen refuels in minutes, compared to hours required to recharge a plug-in. Some electric vehicle makers and aftermarket companies have been producing vehicle-to-grid [V2G] technology, which enables an electric vehicle to serve as an emergency backup power source. In case of an [...]

Hyundai E4U Concept – Egg-Shaped Personal Electric Vehicle

Posted by Benji Jerew in Electric Vehicles, Experiments on April 11, 2013

Personal electric vehicles aren’t so new, and by now we’re probably used to seeing the elderly and infirm getting around on electric wheelchairs and scooters. When you let a bunch of engineers out of their little boxes, you never know what they’ll come up with, like the Segway, which has never really gotten out of [...]

Shell Eco-Marathon Americas Yields Super Fuel Efficient [3,587mpg] Reliant Robin

Posted by Benji Jerew in Efficient engines, Experiments, Green Designs on April 11, 2013

When we think fuel efficient, we might think hybrid or electric and this maxes out our brains at a little over 100mpge, so how does the 3,587mpg Reliant Robin strike you? The Shell Eco-Marathon Americas is a contest in which college and high school students compete to create the most fuel efficient vehicle. For the [...]

Tûranor Solar Boat Has a New Mission Studying Climate Change

Posted by Benji Jerew in Climate Change, Experiments, Solar Power on April 4, 2013

What started as a proof-of-concept – PlanetSolar’s Tûranor solar boat recently circumnavigated the globe – is now setting sail again on a research mission in the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream. PlanetSolar wasn’t really sure what it was going to do with the 115ft solar boat once it had gone around the world completely on solar [...]

Synthetic Fuel from Carbon Dioxide by Tweaking “Pyrococcus Furiosus” Bacteria

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments on March 28, 2013

Biofuels, synthetic fuels, are made from plants that use photosynthesis to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but what if we could remove the middlemanplant? Biofuels are essentially carbon-neutral, because they release the same amount of carbon dioxide that was sequestered by the plants that the fuel is synthesized from. Making synthetic fuel by this [...]

Learn to Curb Emissions and Win Free Gas in Toronto, Canada

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Pointless Green on March 25, 2013

In an effort to educate consumers to curb emissions and the benefits of cleaner transportation, the Toronto nonprofit, Summerhill Group, is giving away free gas cards and other prizes. Learning how to commute more efficiently doesn’t have to be painful and from last week until the first week of May, you can actually win free [...]

Commercially-Viable Renewable Algae Biofuel Developed by Teenager

Posted by Leigh Kim in Experiments on March 22, 2013

Since 1998, Intel has been a sponsor of the 70 year old Science Talent Search, a competitive science fair that draws the best and brightest teenagers to compete for a top prize of $100,000. This year Sara Volz, a 17 year old from Colorado Springs, claimed the prize after winning with her efficient algae-based biofuel [...]

In Japan, Four Robo-Trucks See 15% Increase in Fuel Efficiency

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments on March 5, 2013

In a recent experiment involving four robo-trucks in Japan, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization [NEDO] was able to realize a 15% increase in fuel efficiency. One way to increase fuel efficiency is to reduce drag, which is why design engineers put so much into smoothing out the lines on fuel efficient and [...]

Cessna Plane Runs on Fuel Derived from Recycled Plastic

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Recycling on February 26, 2013

In order to prove it, one Australian pilot, Jeremy Rowsell, is going to fly his Cessna from Sydney, Australia to London, England using only fuel derived from recycled plastic. Currently, the most abundant fuels on the planet are hydrocarbons, specifically petroleum which is extracted from underground, or undersea, reservoirs. Petroleum, when refined, doesn’t only end up as gasoline, [...]