The Green Optimistic

Gliocladium Roseum is a fungus from the Patagonian rainforest, that also grows on wine grapes. It cannot be burned directly, but it seems to produce diesel fuel (or at least molecules found in diesel), out of cellulose.

The green energy movement has brought, like wars brought technological advances, a wave of alternatively-powered inventions, among which it is the most recent miniature solar cell, designed to power microscopic machines.

Doyle Doss, a Northern California Inventor, has created a candle powered space heater. It sounds like science fiction, but it really is a simple and green energy device, that could save you a lot of money by only lighting a candle, in the long run. The CO2 output of a candle is too small to mention, and the materials that this device is made of are all here since the Earth exists.

Robin Gremaud, a researcher from Netherlands, found out through experimentation that an alloy of the metals magnesium, titanium and nickel is absorbing hydrogen very well. What’s most interesting about his discovery is that the three metals form a very light alloy, about 40% lighter than a Lithium Ion battery pack at the same size (for example, a Prius battery weights 317 kg, while this hydrogen tank would only weight 200 kg).

I like the way science evolves and still, for years, nobody seems to look at the new inventions. This may be the case with solar, because almost weekly we discover news about useful inventions in the area of solar power. Instead, old and inefficient methods are still being commercialized and “promoted”, at their high prices, like it’s wanted to decrease their real usage in real life conditions, not promote it.

In this consumerism ruled times, the world needs to know ways to do stuff. When electricity generation is predicted to become more expensive (it’s like they predict an invasion of electric vehicles), people need to build their own power generating systems for their independence.

ABI Research analysts say that the future of mobile telephony will be sun powered. They say all BTSes (cellular base stations) will be equipped with solar panels, backed up by diesel generators.

Chungpin Hovering Liao from Graduate School of Electro-Optic and Material Science of National Formosa University in central Taiwan discovered a battery that he claims to be the world’s first chlorophyll organic battery. He says his battery can be filled up with almost anything, including water and urine, and it can provide electricity from two to seven days.