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Yearly Archives: 2009
Carbon Nanotubes Making Printable Supercapacitors Possible
Printed solar panels are now a reality due to special dyes. But who ever thought of printed batteries? Research in the field of supercapacitors has brought this innovation into question, and, with the help of the almighty carbon nanotubes, printable supercapacitors have now been realized. They perform just as well as other supercapacitors, but excel in lightness and flexibility.
Norway Inaugurates Hydrogen Highway, Obama Quits the Plan
I was glad when I read an article last night describing how Norway opened up a 560 km "hydrogen highway", and inaugurated it with a hydrogen car rally between Oslo and a North Sea oil hub, Stavanger. The cars were regular Ford Focuses, Priuses, and other well-known, converted either into burning hydrogen directly in their classic internal combustion engine, or using fuel cells to convert hydrogen to electricity (probably the case of the Prius).
Romanian TV Station Reports Invention of Vinegar Powered Car
I have heard about cars running on electricity, on biofuels, and other kinky stuff, but this one surpasses them all. Two brothers, Petru and Gheorghe Bordeianu, from Bacau, Romania, have invented an engine that runs totally on a combination of vinegar, water and a certain "soft drink".
Biofuels Run Your Car 81% Farther If Converted to Electricity
I know my opinion doesn't matter to those who matter, but it rather matters to me and probably to you, my reader. Since I saw what electricity could mean to the car industry and how it can revolutionize the way and what cars consume energy, I totally changed my mind about biofuels and other burnable liquids or solids. They are here, are working, but not for long - at least I hope so.
Ultracapacitors Made of Bulk Glass Tripled Their Storage Capacity
I guess I don't have to emphasize the importance of batteries in an electric car economy of the future. I also don't have to tell anyone that many manufacturers pursue making ultracapacitors for their ability to quickly charge, discharge, and store a huge amount of energy - the perfect combination for an on-the-fly highway recharging.
Melting Plastics in Biodiesel Cleaner Than Recycling Them?
We are used to throwing our garbage in the bin, dispose it, and then forget it (and pay the monthly garbage collecting tax). What we often hear is that piles of garbage have saturated square kilometers in big cities, and that by making us comfortable, the garbage company (and, indirectly, us) pollutes the soil and the environment on a very large scale.
Plastic Solar Cells Going to Make Their Market Breakthrough
Even though plastic solar cells are cheaper to produce and they have some advantages like lightweight and flexibility , they still miss one important thing: the efficiency. Researchers are optimist that in the years to come, the polymer solar cells will be able to compete from the efficiency point of view with the silicon solar cells as well taking into account the fact that plastic solar cell have improved their efficiency each year.
ITER: International Nuclear Fusion Reactor 40 Years from Now
The world's most expensive and exotic experiment was thought to be CERN. Few people know that the EU, US, China, and Japan have invested billions of dollars to construct the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) that would use nuclear fusion instead of fission, like all nuclear power plants do today.
Hitachi Announcing 4.5kW Car Li-Ion Battery Soon on Market
Although it has many opponents even among green technology sustainers, the good-old battery still evolves to help us have those all-electric vehicles beneath us, and make us drive cleaner and faster than ever.
New Type of Ultrathin and Flexible Solar Cells Discovered
Silicon photovoltaic cells are preferred in today's market conditions and technological implementations because they are cheap, silicon is abundant and the ongoing research has made them more and more efficient. Still, manufacturing the PV cells is very energy consuming, and they are very fragile and prone to breaking in the most mildly hostile situations (hailstorms).
