Energy

Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell: Hydrogen Energy Plus A Battery

Materials scientists at Harvard have demonstrated a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that converts hydrogen into electricity but can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2012 - 10:03am

Illuminated Cyanobacteria Shed Light On Biofuel Production

Cyanobacteria are small organisms with huge importance. Ancient cyanobacteria created the oxygen atmosphere, and modern cyanobacteria produce a significant amount of the air we breathe. Now, these tiny organisms are helping us again by providing clues to i ...

Article - Ysabel Yates - Jul 6 2012 - 6:16pm

Supercapacitors: Making Renewable Energy Viable

No matter how much spin you hear and read from highly-paid lobbyists and clueless advocates, green energy is not viable. It will be, though science would get there faster if the Department of Energy would stop throwing money at solar panel companies and in ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 11 2012 - 5:00pm

Microbes Plus Organic Waste Means 73% Energy Recovery In Biofuels

Microbes have been evolving for millions of years to efficiently digest organic material. Now researchers are tapping these natural processes to maximize energy output from the breakdown and use it to power farms and even waste facilities. One process, dev ...

Article - Ysabel Yates - Jul 18 2012 - 10:55am

Methanogens: Microbes Make Eco-Friendly Methane

Most methane comes from natural gas- natural gas used to be loved but once it got popular it got lumped in with mean old fossil fuels so the search is on to find a new, green approach to methane, using microbes that can convert renewable electricity into c ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 1 2012 - 11:16am

The Wildcard Of Renewable Energy

One renewable energy source is easily available as waste from from construction, agriculture, landscaping, logging and sawmills. And it's already used in domestic and district-level heating systems. It is the main solid biomass fuel source used for co ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2012 - 1:11pm

Kite Energy- Leveraging The Jet Stream For Renewable Power

There’s a band of people in the northwest hills of Italy who are fishing for the big one in the sky. They’re not a religious sect trawling for a deity. They’re part of a Turin-based startup called Kite Gen Research and, as their name implies, they want to ...

Article - Mark Halper - Aug 15 2012 - 11:20am

Fracking Goes To China

China, as you would expect with all those people, is the world's biggest energy guzzler.  They are also the world's biggest polluter. Nothing wrong with being the biggest energy user, it would be elitist to declare a hard stop on air conditioners ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Aug 17 2012 - 4:00am

Microbes Use Excess Wind Power To Make Cleaner Natural Gas

We’ve long depended on coal-fired and natural gas power plants to convert chemical fuel into electricity. Now, scientists have found a way to convert electricity into a fuel using excess power from renewables like wind and solar. Scientists from Stanford ...

Article - Brita Belli - Aug 22 2012 - 4:00am

Beer That’s Good For The Planet- It Creates Clean Energy Too

Americans learned this week that the leader of the free world likes to brew his own “superb” beer. The Washington Post reported that President Obama likes microbrews “so much so that he bought a beer-making kit (with personal funds) for the White House.” N ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 3 2015 - 5:33pm