A team led by Shriram Ramanathan has focused on solid oxide fuel cell types (SOFC) that rely on [...]]]> Biogas is increasingly popular as a source ofrenewable energy. To use it further, a research team at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are conducting research to utilize methane on a laptop fuel cell and battery.

A team led by Shriram Ramanathan has focused on solid oxide fuel cell types (SOFC) that rely on methane produced from biogas and certainly does not use platinum anymore.

In addition, they also developed a micro-scale SOFC working at a temperature of 500 degrees Celsius. According to Ramanathan, if SOFC can operate at temperatures 300-500 ° C temperature range, it will open more implementations, such as in vehicles and portable electronic devices. In fact, still thinks, that they develop SOFC will no longer depend on pure hydrogen as fuel, but a variety of other fuels, as well as replace batteries for laptops and other portable electronic devices.

Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency – a German government agency which deals with environmental issues – German [...]]]> Germany, the country that leading adopters of solar cell technology to generate electricity GigaWatt 14 at the end of 2010, set a target to produce the overall supply of electricity from renewable energy sources in 2050.

Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency – a German government agency which deals with environmental issues – German target is not a dream in the daytime, because of technical and ecological point of view this target it is possible to achieve.

From the technical side, recently Germany has reached 16% of electricity from potential wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. This figure tripled from the previous fifteen years. Solar energy itself is almost reached 14 GW in this year and become the second country after the United States in the production of electricity from wind energy.

While the environmental side, from 1990 until 2020, Germany succeeded in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40%.

A study carried out by the agency also confirmed that the switch to electricity sourced from renewable by 2050 will provide an economic advantage, especially for export-oriented manufacturing industries. Besides tens of thousands of new jobs will be created simultaneously with the development of technologies and renewable energy industries.

The magnitude of the cost required to replace the entire supply of electricity from renewable energy sources is much smaller when compared with the costs of future generations of Germany if the problem of climate change is a major problem of the country.

Heat pumps [...]]]> Researchers at Purdue University are working on a new research project that promises the potential to cut heating bill in half for those who live in very cold climates. The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, builds on previous work that began about 5 years ago at Purdue’s Ray W. Herrick Laboratories.

Heat pumps provide heating in winter and cooling in summer but aren’t efficient in extreme cold climates. The published research involves changes to the way heat pumps operate to make them more cost-effective in extreme cold temperatures.

The modern technology works by modifying the conventional vapor-compression cycle behind standard air con and refrigeration.

The usual vapor-compression cycle has four stages:
1° Refrigerant is compressed as a vapor
2° Condenses into a liquid
3° Expands to a combination of liquid and vapor
4° Then evaporates

The project will investigate two cooling approaches during the compression process.
In one approach, relatively a lot of oil are injected into the compressor to absorb heat generated through the compression stage.
In the second approach, a combination of liquid and vapor refrigerant from the expansion stage is injected at various points during compression to supply cooling.

The newest heat pumps might be half as expensive to operate as heating technologies now utilised in cold regions where gas is unavailable and residents depend on electric heaters and liquid propane.

In the meanwhile here some tips to improve you home air quality and save energy:

- Be certain your thermostat is located in a spot that is not too cold or hot.

- Install an automatic timer to maintain the thermostat at 68 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees during the night time.

- Use storm or thermal windows in colder areas. The layer of air between the windows acts as insulation helping to maintain the heat inside the spot where you are interested.

- If you haven’t already, insulate your attic and all outside walls.

- Insulate floors over unheated spaces such as your basement, any crawl spaces and your garage.

- Close off the attic, garage, basement, spare bedrooms and storage areas. Heat only those rooms that you use.

- Seal gaps around any pipes, wires, vents or other openings that could transfer your heat to areas that aren’t heated.

- Dust is a wonderful insulator and tends to build up on radiators and baseboard heat vents.

A lot of people don’t know that common indoor air quality practices lower home air heating costs too:

- Rain and high humidity can bring moisture indoors, creating dampness, mold and mildew — big problems for healthy indoor air. Look at your roof, foundation and basement or crawlspace once a year to catch leaks or moisture problems and route water away from your home’s foundation.

- Keep asthma triggers away from your house by fixing leaks and drips once they start. Standing water and moist encourage the development of dust mites, mold and mildew — probably the most common triggers that can worsen asthma. Make use of a dehumidifier or air conditioner when needed, and clean both regularly.

- High amounts of moisture at home increase dampness and the growth of mold, which not only damage your house but threaten health. Install and run exhaust fans in bathrooms to remove unhealthy moisture and odors out of your home.

- Ventilate your kitchen stove directly outside or open a kitchen window when you cook. Keeping exhaust — including cooking odors and particles — outside of your home prevents dangerous fumes and particles from harming you or your family.

About me – Rosalind Dall writes for the ductless split system air conditioner blog, her personal hobby blog related to tips to help people consume less energy and purify indoor air.

The company introduced a battery of organic research findings by researchers at the University Hebrews that made from potatoes and has been getting special [...]]]> There are some people who can apply the breakthrough made by scientists at the Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., A company whose function is to commercialize technology research Hebrews University in Jerusalem.

The company introduced a battery of organic research findings by researchers at the University Hebrews that made from potatoes and has been getting special treatment in order to improve its ability to connect the oxidation and reduction in galvanic cells or so-called salt bridge.

Professor Haim D. From Robert H. Rabinowitch Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Alex Golberg research students from the School of Computer Science and Engineering, both from the Hebrews University, together with Professor Boris Rubinsky of the University of California at Berkeley, is basically intended to study the electrolytic process that occurs in living organisms to applied to the various applications.

In their research they found that the use of zinc and copper mounted on a boiled potato to produce electricity for up to 10 times more than potatoes that is not boiled. From the results of cost analysis, the potatoes battery can five to fifty times cheaper than commercial 1.5 volt battery.

If you are interested to try it, please do a little experiment with various kinds of tubers or fruits, because according to the researchers it can produce electricity with all necessary conditions that given special treatment in advance in order to generate electricity.

The project coordinator who helped lead the project said that Solar Impulse takeoff smoothly at Payerne Air Field. With the power 10 electric motors, light aircraft with a passenger and the pilot climbed slowly [...]]]> Prototype of solar-powered airplane, Solar Impulse, successfully underwent the first flight test in Switzerland, with a speed of 45 kilometers per hour.

The project coordinator who helped lead the project said that Solar Impulse takeoff smoothly at Payerne Air Field. With the power 10 electric motors, light aircraft with a passenger and the pilot climbed slowly up to 1200 meters above sea level and landing after the air for 87 minutes.

Team of 70 people have worked seven years to build this solar plane and have a dream that there will be solar powered aircraft that travel the world in 2013.

Wingspan is almost the same aircraft with the Airbus A340 and weighs 1600 kilograms. Part-wing aircraft fitted 12,000 solar cells that can fill an electric motor and battery weighing 400 pounds.

Name [...]]]> Using nature source to clean the nature is the most appropriate method. When the territorial sea of a country is often marred by the tanker-oil tanker carrying crude oil from some countries to other countries, micro bacteria who live freely in the sea could be used to extract the oil at sea more quickly.

Name of the bio remediation process, which means eliminating pollutants by biological processes. Bio degradation is the decomposition process of oil at sea with biological materials, one with bacteria. Within three years study, it is discovered 182 new species and 53 genera in three areas of the sea territorial which became the main route of tankers, namely the Malacca Strait, Sunda Strait, and the Lombok Strait.

Instead of thinking about materials with chemical substances to clean the sea and ended up re-contaminate, it’s better utilize the wealth of marine bacteria. Fumiyoshi Okazaki, one of the researchers from Japan Nite, presents the research, titled “Diversity and Functional Analysis of Petroleum Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacterial Communities in Coastal Zones of Indonesia.” The study centered on the Straits of Malacca and Lombok Straits mentions the role of Acinetobacter and Alcanivorax a very dominant role in bio degradation. Natural microbes that are responsible for remediation of oil. The population of bacteria are constantly working and levels of n-Alkanes in constantly also decreased after seven days incubation period.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), energy laboratory owned by [...]]]> There are another way to save fuel vehicle and this way can also be done. Air conditioning (Air Conditioner), components such as additional character only, it also consumes a significant fuel. Can even be a producer of CO2 emissions if the refrigerant leakage occurs.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), energy laboratory owned by the United States Department of Energy, states that air conditioners consume a lot of vehicles used petrol nearly 6% of annual total United States demand. Approximately 25 billion liters of gasoline burned by the air conditioner continues to work while vehicles are still on the road.

The condition is exacerbated by leakage that may occur with the air conditioner will add 50 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.

The amount of gasoline consumed by air conditioning and much CO2 is released, making NREL should facilitate a program to make more efficient air conditioner.

Various methods and ideas have been tested by researchers at the laboratory. One of them is conditioned by adding a redesigned thermoelectric module and no longer use the refrigerant as working fluid. The other method is to use glass coatings and paints that can withstand sunlight and lowering temperatures by 34%.

NREL seem to prefer to try the first method, as evidenced by his cooperation with Ford’s plan that previously have received funding from the DOE to develop a thermoelectric system.

If the collaboration is to stage the production, then each vehicle would be far more fuel efficient.

A phenomenon, which according to experts, including fear, as well as rising oil prices and global warming.

According to the United States Department of Energy, DOE, in the year 2010 [...]]]> On the latest estimates, amounting to 5% of electricity usage in the United States by electronic equipment connected to the network is left in standby mode condition.

A phenomenon, which according to experts, including fear, as well as rising oil prices and global warming.

According to the United States Department of Energy, DOE, in the year 2010 this percentage could reach 20%.

In California alone, a proposal related to the matters have been approved by policy makers. The proposal proposes to add vampire electronics labels to an electronic product, which explains how much energy is used in the charger, computer, DVD player, PlayStation, microwave or coffee maker, at the time of ON, OFF or in standby.

Electronic equipment using displays such as the appointment time or condition of such equipment also consumes electricity during standby. Not much different from the case with equipment that require battery recharging, such as cell phones, PDAs, laptops, etc., also consume electricity, even though the equipment has reached the capacity of the filling.

It is not many people know about this problem. Electricity which is used for electronic equipment in your home, it used 405 electronic equipment in a state of standby.

He suggested that, your computer equipment, including a printer or scanner, connected to one AC connector (power jack), which can be turned off after use.

The International Energy Agency estimates that energy use even when the electronic equipment on standby for 200 to 400 TerraWatt hours per year. Still according to the IEA, the Italian electricity consumption amounted to 300 TW hours per year.

Accordingly, Energy Star, a program coordinated by the DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to identify some equipment that consumes less energy. If one of 10 houses only use the equipment in accordance with the program, the Energy Department estimates, there will be a big reduction in carbon emissions by planting trees at an area of 1.7 million acres or about 687,990 hectares.