Category Archives: Fuel Cells

Working towards replacing platinum in fuel cells: Performance of iron-based catalysts improved

Posted on August 11, 2011 by admin

The new research findings from the team of Professor Jean-Pol Dodelet were published in Nature Communications. With these new and promising results, we bolster the prospect of iron-based catalysts replacing platinum ones in the electrochemical reduction of oxygen, one of … Continue reading →

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High energy output found from algae-based fuel, but ‘no silver bullet’

Posted on August 10, 2011 by admin

For farmers looking to maximize profits, algae would produce considerably more transportation energy than canola and switch grass for every hectare planted, and can also be grown on poor-quality marginal land that cannot be easily used to grow food crops … Continue reading →

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Hybrid solar system makes rooftop hydrogen

Posted on August 9, 2011 by admin

Instead of systems based on standard solar panels, Duke engineer Nico Hotz proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop. After two catalytic reactions, the … Continue reading →

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Scientists find way to identify synthetic biofuels in atmosphere

Posted on August 3, 2011 by admin

Brian Giebel, a Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry graduate student working with Drs. Daniel Riemer and Peter Swart discovered that ethanol mixed in vehicle fuel is not completely burned, and that ethanol released in the engine’s exhaust has a higher 13C … Continue reading →

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Large global potential for negative CO2 emissions through biomass linked with carbon dioxide capture and storage

Posted on August 3, 2011 by admin

Feeding biomass to energy conversion processes for electricity or biofuel production with subsequent capture and storage of CO2 from these sources — Bio-CCS in short — results in a negative greenhouse gas balance. “The combination actually removes CO2 from the … Continue reading →

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Ethanol-loving bacteria accelerate cracking of pipeline steels

Posted on August 3, 2011 by admin

At a conference this week,* NIST researchers presented new experimental evidence that bacteria that feed on ethanol and produce acid boosted fatigue crack growth rates by at least 25 times the levels occuring in air alone. The NIST team used … Continue reading →

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A new catalyst for ethanol made from biomass: Potential renewable path to fuel additives, rubber and solvents

Posted on August 2, 2011 by admin

To make sustainable biofuels, producers want to ferment ethanol from nonfood plant matter such as cornstalks and weeds. Currently, so-called bio-ethanol’s main values are as a non-polluting replacement for octane-boosting fuel additives to prevent engine knocking and as a renewable … Continue reading →

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A simple slice of energy storage

Posted on August 1, 2011 by admin

Rice Professor Pulickel Ajayan and his team discovered they could transform a sheet of GO into a functional supercapacitor by writing patterns into it with a laser. Scientists already knew that the heat of a laser could convert GO — … Continue reading →

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Scientists build battery in a nanowire: Hybrid energy storage device is as small as it can possibly get

Posted on July 30, 2011 by admin

The Rice lab of Professor Pulickel Ajayan has packed an entire lithium ion energy storage device into a single nanowire, as reported this month in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters. The researchers believe their creation is as small … Continue reading →

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Regulatory hurdles hinder biofuels market, experts say

Posted on July 21, 2011 by admin

In the study, University of Illinois law professor Jay P. Kesan and Timothy A. Slating, a regulatory associate with the University of Illinois Energy Biosciences Institute, argue that regulatory innovations are needed to keep pace with technological innovations in the … Continue reading →

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