PNNL Archives – The Green Optimistic green tech news, since 2008 Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:36:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 2667534 PNNL Fungus Study Could Speed up Biofuels Production https://www.greenoptimistic.com/pnnl-fungus-study-speed-biofuels-production-20131104/ https://www.greenoptimistic.com/pnnl-fungus-study-speed-biofuels-production-20131104/#respond Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:36:25 +0000 https://www.greenoptimistic.com/?p=43175 In theory, biofuels programs could gives us a ready supply of carbon-neutral fuels for use in everyday applications, but the process is expensive and inefficient. [On the other hand, is it really carbon-neutral?] Researchers have been looking for ways to improve biofuel synthesis, speed up the process, reduce energy inputs, and reduce costs. The feedstocks […]

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]]> https://www.greenoptimistic.com/pnnl-fungus-study-speed-biofuels-production-20131104/feed/ 0 43175 Solar Powered Device Turns Methane into Cleaner Syngas and Diesel Fuel https://www.greenoptimistic.com/solar-powered-device-turns-methane-into-cleaner-syngas-and-diesel-fuel-20130425/ https://www.greenoptimistic.com/solar-powered-device-turns-methane-into-cleaner-syngas-and-diesel-fuel-20130425/#respond Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:09:39 +0000 https://www.greenoptimistic.com/?p=36593 A new solar-powered device developed at the Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory (PNNL) by researcher Robert Wegeng could reduce the CO2 emissions of natural gas by up to 20 percent. Basically, what the device does is it takes the heat obtained by concentrating sunlight through the usage of a parabolic dish (solar concentrator) and uses it to transform […]

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]]> https://www.greenoptimistic.com/solar-powered-device-turns-methane-into-cleaner-syngas-and-diesel-fuel-20130425/feed/ 0 36593 DOE Studying How to Better Extract Uranium from Seawater https://www.greenoptimistic.com/doe-studying-how-to-better-extract-uranium-from-seawater-20120822/ https://www.greenoptimistic.com/doe-studying-how-to-better-extract-uranium-from-seawater-20120822/#respond Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:51:15 +0000 https://www.greenoptimistic.com/?p=25836 Although the Earth’s oceans only contain uranium in trace amounts (3 parts per billion), if someone put their mind to it and gathered all of the oceanic uranium, 4.5 billion tons would get harvested, enough to fuel our civilization’s energy needs for the next 6,500 years. This is not news, however. Japan tinkered with oceanic […]

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