Archive for category New Inventions

Hygroelectricity: A New Type Of Alternative Energy, Extracted From Air’s Electrical Charge

Hygroelectricity: A New Type Of Alternative Energy, Extracted From Air's Electrical Charge

In their search of alternative energy resources, scientists have stopped at a phenomenon that, although known for ages, brought them surprises. They want to harvest electricity by profiting from the fact that air is loaded with electric charges, and work on a prototype for such a harvester.


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charged air, electrically charged air, electricity from air, electricity from lightning, hygroelectricity

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New Mitochondria Fuel Cells Could Generate Electricity From Sugar or Fats

New Mitochondria Fuel Cells Could Generate Electricity From Sugar or Fats

Mitochondria, also called “the cells’ powerhouses”, may one day replace batteries as we know them. Scientists from the University of Missouri invented and developed a new fuel cell based on these also called “organelles” (the internal organs of cells). The fuel cell is able to feed on sugars and fats, just like mitochondria in the organisms do.


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biological fuel cell, biological power, energy from sugar, fuel cell, mitochondria, mitochondria battery

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Blest Can Turn World’s Scrap Plastic Into Usable Oil Having Lower CO2 Output

Blest Can Turn World's Scrap Plastic Into Usable Oil Having Lower CO2 Output

Plastics are made from gas, extracted from oil fields. Through a specific process, the gas is transformed into what we know as bottles, coffee cups and toys. The bad part is that each of them ends up in a landfill, eventually.


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blest company, blest oil, blest plastic oil, blest plastic recycle, how to turn plastic into oil, plastic into oil, plastic transformation, turn plastic into oil

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Textiles That Generate Electricitiy Under Development at Southampton

Textiles That Generate Electricitiy Under Development at Southampton

A team of researchers at the University of Southampton are about to develop a new technology that may allow people to power mobile phones, MP3 players and other gadgets through their movement, without the need to change the batteries.


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active printed inks, electricity from movement, physical movements, rapid printing processes, sensor technology, smart fabric, University of Southampton

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Magic Sticker Makes Solar Cells Up to 12 Percent More Powerful

Magic Sticker Makes Solar Cells Up to 12 Percent More Powerful

Genie Lens Technologies has developed the easiest solution yet: a sticker that applied to the solar cell, will direct the incoming light onto the light-sensitive surface, greatly reducing reflections and improving the efficiency.


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antireflective coating, antireflex treatment, antireflexive, efficient solar cell, genie lens, genie lens sticker, genie lens technologies, solar cell, solar cell efficiency

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Researchers Found An Enzyme That Could Get Gasoline From Thin Air

Researchers Found An Enzyme That Could Get Gasoline From Thin Air

“This organism is a very common soil bacteria that is very well understood and has been studied for a long time. But while we were studying it, we realized that the enzyme has some unusual behavior”, said Markus Ribbe, a scientist at the University of California.


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air-powered vehicles, ammonia from nitrogen gas, convert carbon monoxide into propane, fuel from air, Gasoline From Thin Air, Liquid Gasoline, University of California

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Solar Roadways Reinventing How We Build Our Paths That Charge Our Cars

Solar Roadways Reinventing How We Build Our Paths That Charge Our Cars

The world struggles to make a place for solar panels on the planet, and it looks like there’s not enough space for that. A team of visionaries have planned what they call the next big thing in alternative energy: solar powered roadways. Here’s a short introductory video about what these guys do with the $200 [...]


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glass roadways, solar cells, Solar Power, solar powered pavement, solar roadways

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Organic Photovoltaic Solar Cells: A New Graphene-Based, Flexible Kind of Cell

Organic Photovoltaic Solar Cells: A New Graphene-Based, Flexible Kind of Cell

A team of researchers from the University of Southern California has published a paper in the most recent journal ACS Nano, revealing a new approach to solar cells. Specifically, they combined graphene, one of the most recent and studied materials discovered, and organic (Graetzel) solar cells. Their project has produced organic photovoltaic cells (OPV).


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graphene solar cell, opv cell, opv solar cell, organic photovoltaic, solar cell, solar cell efficiency

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Bumpy Nanoparticle Treatment of Solar Cells Making Them More Efficient

Bumpy Nanoparticle Treatment of Solar Cells Making Them More Efficient

Yi Cui, a researcher from Stanford University, about whom we’ve been talking about many times lately, has discovered how nanoscale wires, pores, bumps and other material textures can improve the performance of solar cells dramatically. They could even serve as self-cleaning coatings, because of their highly hydrophobic properties.


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nanocoating, Nanoparticle, solar cell, solar cell treatment

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Sewage Power Plants Could Produce 20 Times More Electricity Thanks to New Discovery

Sewage Power Plants Could Produce 20 Times More Electricity Thanks to New Discovery

Sewage treatment plants represent an interesting source of electricity. Oregon State University (OSU) have studied and developed a new type of coating that, if applied on the positive electrodes of microbial electrochemical cells used in such plants would raise the electricity production by about 20 times.


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bacteria electricity, bioelectrochemical, electricity from sewage, sewage anode coating, sewage bacteria, sewage plants

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