March 6, 2006, 11:29 PM CT

Running Your Car On Hydrogen

Chemists at UCLA and the University of Michigan report an advance toward the goal of cars that run on hydrogen rather than gasoline. While the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that practical hydrogen fuel will require concentrations of at least 6.5 percent, the chemists have achieved concentrations of 7.5 percent - nearly three times as much as has been reported previously - but at a very low temperature (77 degrees Kelvin).

The research, scheduled would be published in late March in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead to a hydrogen fuel that powers not only cars, but laptop computers, cellular phones, digital cameras and other electronic devices as well.

"We have a class of materials in which we can change the components nearly at will," said Omar Yaghi, UCLA professor of chemistry, who conducted the research with colleagues at the University of Michigan. "There is no other class of materials where one can do that. The exciting discovery we are reporting is that, using a new material, we have identified a clear path for how to get above seven percent of the material's weight in hydrogen".

The materials, which Yaghi invented in the early part of 1990s, are called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), pronounced "moffs," which are like scaffolds made of linked rods - a structure that maximizes the surface area. MOFs, which have been described as crystal sponges, have pores, openings on the nanoscale in which Yaghi and colleagues can store gases that are commonly difficult to store and transport. MOFs can be made highly porous to increase their storage capacity; one gram of a MOF has the surface area of a football field! Yaghi's laboratory has made more than 500 MOFs, with a variety of properties and structures.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

March 4, 2006, 11:00 PM CT

reducing the use of enriched uranium

Argonne National Laboratory provides overall technical integration for the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to convert research and test reactors across the globe to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel - a material that cannot be diverted for direct use in nuclear weapons.

The program's primary objective, said Jordi Roglans-Ribas of Argonne's Nuclear Engineering Division, "is to develop the technology to minimize and, to the extent possible, eventually eliminate the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in civilian nuclear applications worldwide." Roglans-Ribas manages the the RERTR program at Argonne.

Initiated in 1978, the RERTR program has long relied on Argonne's skills as a world leader in designing reactors and developing nuclear fuel. The RERTR program has provided alternative fuel technology to foreign countries in exchange for their pledge to forgo using HEU fuel in their research reactors. Argonne performs the technical integration management of the program for DOE and works closely with the Department of State, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency.

There are more than 150 research reactors around the world that still use HEU fuel. Research reactors have been built at universities and national research centers in the United States and other countries, including Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Ghana, Libya and the Netherlands. These small reactors play a vital role by providing neutrons for basic research, nuclear fuel testing, cancer treatment, medical isotope production and improved pharmaceuticals.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink     

March 3, 2006, 6:56 AM CT

Ventilated Auto Seats Improve Fuel Economy

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has demonstrated that ventilated automotive seats not only can improve passenger comfort but also a vehicle's fuel economy. That's because ventilated seats keep drivers and passengers cooler, so they need less air conditioning to be comfortable.

NREL's Vehicle Ancillary Loads Reduction team has been working with industry to try to reduce fuel consumption from air conditioning in cars and trucks. The use of ventilated seating is one way to cut air conditioning, and recent research shows that it works.

"If all passenger vehicles had ventilated seats, we estimate that there could be a 7.5 percent reduction in national air-conditioning fuel use. That translates to a savings of 522 million gallons of fuel a year," said John Rugh, project leader for NREL's Vehicle Ancillary Loads Reduction Project.

W.E.T. Automotive Systems Ltd. provided NREL with ComfortCools- seats for testing. Each seat contains two fans that pull air from the seat surface and out from underneath the seat. General Motors currently offers this ventilated seat as an option for the Cadillac STS.

Using its suite of thermal comfort tools and subjective test data, NREL measured improvement in human thermal sensation for the ventilated seats and the potential for a 7 percent reduction in air-conditioning compressor power.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink     

March 2, 2006, 8:47 PM CT
The Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution , a vibration-free silent wind turbine developed by XCO2, slated for its first installation this March (2006), could produce 10,000 kWh per year at an average wind speed of 5.8 m/s. via Treehugger

The Quiet Revolution , a vibration-free silent wind turbine developed by XCO2, slated for its first installation this March (2006), could produce 10,000 kWh per year at an average wind speed of 5.8 m/s.

via Treehugger

Source

March 2, 2006, 8:32 PM CT
Room temperature tabletop fusion confirmed
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a tabletop accelerator that produces nuclear fusion at room temperature, providing confirmation of an earlier experiment conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while offering substantial improvements over the original design. [press release] via Science Blog

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a tabletop accelerator that produces nuclear fusion at room temperature, providing confirmation of an earlier experiment conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while offering substantial improvements over the original design. [press release]

via Science Blog

Source

March 2, 2006, 8:16 PM CT
3D Plasma Display
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, President: Hiroyuki Yoshikawa) and Keio University (President: Yuichiro Anzai), in collaboration with Burton Inc. (CEO: Hideki Kimura), have succeeded in the experimental fabrication of a device displaying “real 3D images” which consist of dot arrays in space where there is nothing but air. via Interactive Architecture.....

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, President: Hiroyuki Yoshikawa) and Keio University (President: Yuichiro Anzai), in collaboration with Burton Inc. (CEO: Hideki Kimura), have succeeded in the experimental fabrication of a device displaying “real 3D images” which consist of dot arrays in space where there is nothing but air.

via Interactive Architecture dot org

Source

February 28, 2006, 11:16 PM CT

Technology Helps Disabled Kids Find Their Voice

Laptop computers that combine features from popular toys with innovative technology have rapidly accelerated the learning and communication ability of disabled children, Penn State scientists say. The technology could in the future be adapted to victims of major accidents and the elderly as well.

As per Janice Light, distinguished professor of communication sciences and disorders at Penn State, more than 2 million Americans are unable to use speech to communicate, and children are a major component of this population.

"Kids learn and communicate through speech by trying out new words and forming sentences," says Light. "f they can't do that due to problems such as autism, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy, then it is going to be difficult to learn how to read and write, make friends, and communicate their needs".

Computer-based technology that provides speech output is increasingly being used to assist such children in communicating but Light feels it has still not fully served its purpose.

"The design of a number of of these systems is really based on how adults think, and the machines are complicated and children take years learning how to use them," adds Light, who presented her findings today (Feb. 20) at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

February 28, 2006, 10:46 PM CT

Accumulator Ring Commissioning Latest Step for Spallation Neutron Source

The Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has passed another milestone on the way to completion this year--the commissioning of the proton accumulator ring. The accumulator ring is the final step in a proton's journey through the accelerator before it strikes the SNS's mercury target, "spalling" away neutrons to be used for research.

The DOE Office of Science facility will produce the world's most intense neutron beams to probe the molecular structures of materials. As a user facility, the SNS is expected to attract scientists from all over the globe.

"The ring is the last major accelerator element delivered by one of the partner labs in the six-laboratory project," said SNS Director Thom Mason. "Its successful operation confirms not just the robustness of the Brookhaven National Laboratory components but also the full integration of accelerator hardware designed and built using expertise throughout the national DOE complex. We are looking forward to the first beam on target later this year."

Brookhaven Lab led the design and construction of the accumulator ring, which will allow an order of magnitude more beam power than any other facility in the world.

In SNS operation, the superconducting linac produces proton pulses traveling at almost 90 percent of the speed of light. In the ring, the protons within a pulse are "accumulated" to increase the intensity 1,000-fold. At that point, this now very intense pulse is extracted and delivered to the mercury target to produce neutrons. This happens 60 times per second.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink     

February 27, 2006, 9:39 PM CT

Joining The Nano-tubes

Making tubes useful often means joining them to other tubes and linking them together in networks. Easy enough to do with standard water pipes - but on the nanoscale, joining nanotubes is hard to do.

Efforts to link nanotubes have commonly begun with the most familiar kind, cylinders whose structure is equivalent to one or more rolled-up sheets of a layered crystal like graphite. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) and the Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Gera number of, have found a completely new way to form complex networks of nanotubes. The scientists describe their results in the March 3, 2006 issue of Physical Review Letters, now available online.

The new method causes extensive hexagonal networks of tubes, intricately branched and connected, to form in less than a second on the surface of a layered crystal. The tubes themselves are prismatic folds, having the cross section of a pitched roof.

Erdmann Spiecker of Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, on leave from the University of Kiel, led the team that analyzed the nanofold network phenomenon. Spiecker is a member of the group headed by Wolfgang Jäger in Kiel, where colleagues from another group first observed the mysterious networks when they deposited metal atoms on the surfaces of layered crystals of titanium telluride and vanadium selenide (materials known as transition metal dichalcogenides).........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink     

February 27, 2006, 8:34 PM CT

Smaller is Better

Georgia Tech researchers and engineers are pursuing the dictum that "smaller is better" to develop a new breed of highly-integrated silicon-based microchips capable of operating in ultra-sophisticated radar systems - and in new generations of NASA spacecraft.

Their research is focused on silicon-germanium (SiGe) integrated circuit technology, which can provide cost savings, compact size and improved efficiency in the same way that advances in silicon technology have made consumer electronics smaller and less expensive.

This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Defense and is known as the "Silicon-Germanium Transmit-Receive Module Project." A joint effort between the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and faculty within the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) at Georgia Tech, its objective is to develop silicon-germanium technology for next-generation phased-array radar systems.

"The GTRI folks have a strong background in radar systems, while we have the silicon-germanium (Si-Ge) device and circuit expertise," said John D. Cressler, Byers professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a GEDC researcher. "We've teamed up to work on a new approach that literally has the capability to revolutionize the way radar systems are built, and this new GTRI-GEDC synergy is very exciting".........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

Older Blog Entries   1   2   3   4   5   6