The Green Optimistic

Trying to imitate the plants and the way they produce energy when hit by light, Prof. Nathan Nelson of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biochemistry discovered a complex membrane protein and founded a new model for developing “green energy”, having this membrane at its core.

The Bourne Energy company, located in California, has developed a human-portable hydroelectric generator that produces up to 500W of renewable energy and weighs about 30 pounds. The Backpack Power Plant (BPP) can generate clean energy from any stream deeper than 4 feet.

For every device there is plogg, a measuring apparatus mounted between the wall socket and the consumer that measures its power consumption and wirelessly sends that consumption to a central server around your house.

Using a newly developed method of producing glass nanofibers with materials, a team of scientists from the University of Vigo, Rutgers University in the U.S. and Imperial College London, have been able to make bioglass nanofibers. These could be used in carbon sequestration and other purposes.

Bristol University researchers have developed a new way to provide free energy to businesses and homes. They have created a new type of energy-harvesting device that makes use of non-linear springs and mass.

Coral shaped nanomaterials could help scientists make more efficient solar cells. A team of chinese researchers, led by Jinhuai Liu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, changed the structure of tin oxide to serve various purposes in solar cells, batteries, gas sensors and other devices.

University of Illinois researchers discovered a method to manufacture three-dimensional, single-crystalline silicon solar cells from thin films. They used photolithography and a process driven by capillary interaction that made the micron-thick film to bend around itself.

This is the simple description, of course – the machine, made of a metal cylinder, is called the CR5 (Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator) is working on the principle that heat triggers a thermo-chemical reaction in an iron-rich composite material.

Petroleum stands at the base of every plastic we usually find on today’s market. Polymers are everywhere, and if petroleum resources are about to go scarce with time, it’s a good idea to replace it with other renewable and biodegradable material that we could use just as well as we use petroleum today.

I have just received a comment on one of my articles this afternoon from a certain mr. Ryszard Dzikowski, who presents his innovation I call “solar sandwich”, consisting of two Gratzel organic cells, faced one another, and covered by reflective layers on the sides, except for one, which is used to feed the aggregate with light.

Their discovery drastically reduces the reaction time (99% faster). In the past, the reaction that took place in 48 hours, now only lasts 30 minutes and increases the average molecular weight of the polymer by a factor of more than three.

Today’s civilized society sometimes uses weird ways of doing things, like packing software serial numbers in cardboard or a lot of plastic. A project, named Bacs, is using bacteria to make an interesting cellulose material for green packaging.

Scientists at Rice University have developed a new method for producing carbon nanotubes in bulk fluids. It could lead to revolutionary advances in nanoelectronics, materials science and power distribution.

Georgia Tech researchers have developed a system that uses dye-sensitized (Grätzel) solar cells wrapped around optical fibers to increase their overall efficiency, since it’s known Grätzel cells are not very efficient. The fiber solar cells they obtained are 6 times more efficient than zinc-oxide solar cells having the same area.

The chemists from the Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University may have found the gold mine of solar energy efficiency. They invented the manufacturing of a highly precise and uniform nanopaticle that improves solar cells and further spurs the growing nanotech revolution.

While attending a competition for teams of MIT students, Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest (MADMEC), a team of students and fresh-graduates have shown an invention that could turn the old roof tiles into chameleon-like tiles, turning from black to white and vice-versa as temperatures get low, respectively high.

Researchers at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and the State University of Pennsylvania (USA) have created a method to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, on a nanometric scale. The resulting biomaterial could be used to make optically active structures, such as optical diffusers for solar panels.

The US Office of Naval Research (ONR) has recently conducted tests with a unique ship hull grooming robot called the Robotic Hull Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming (HULL BUG) tool.

Derek Lovley, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently experimented with a microbe named “Geobacter”, who loves to live in sediments and mud, and whose hairlike filaments can produce electricity from the muddy environment it loves to live in.

Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricitywireless, talks about a new system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires. The new system exploits simple physics principles and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices over several meters.