This topic covers issues related to energy generation, conversion, transportation and consumption and how the industry is addressing the challenge of energy efficiency in general.
innovations-report provides in-depth and informative reports and articles on subjects ranging from wind energy, fuel cell technology, solar energy, geothermal energy, petroleum, gas, nuclear engineering, alternative energy and energy efficiency to fusion, hydrogen and superconductor technologies.
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have invented a variation on the standard electronic transistor, creating the first “nanofluidic” transistor that allows them to control the movement of ions through sub-microscopic, water-filled channels.
The researchers – a chemist and a mechanical engineer – predict that, just as the electronic transistor became the main component of microprocessors and integrated circuits, so will nanofluidic transistors anchor molecular pr
What if all the vehicles now on the road in the United States were suddenly powered by hydrogen fuel cells? Stanford researchers say in a June 24 article in the journal Science that such a conversion would improve air quality, health and climate–especially if wind were used to generate the electricity needed to split water and make hydrogen in a pollutionless process.
Similarly to how gas is pumped into tanks, hydrogen would be pumped into fuel cells, which rely on chemistry, not
Neste Oil’s new, proprietary NExBTL technology for producing biodiesel marks an important step forward in efforts to meet the growing demand for this type of fuel, as it offers not only valuable production-related benefits, but also results in a fuel with excellent product properties, particularly at low temperatures.
Various companies have experimented with the idea of combining a natural raw material with an oil refining process to produce a biofuel capable of competing with hyd
Integrated onto the backs of chips
A new technique for fabricating liquid cooling channels onto the backs of high-performance integrated circuits could allow denser packaging of chips while providing better temperature control and improved reliability.
Developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the wafer-level fabrication technique includes polymer pipes that will allow electronic and cooling interconnections to be made simultaneously using automated manufacturing
Commercial products such as laptop computer monitors and solar-powered calculators are constructed from a light-sensitive material with a peculiar problem: When exposed to intense light, it forms defects, reducing the efficiency of the solar cells by 10 to 15 percent.
Scientists have been pondering this flaw since the 1970s, because the material – hydrogenated amorphous silicon, or a-Si:H – has important applications for solar energy generation. A new study reported in the Jun
Dutch energy policy is directed at 17 percent of electricity demand being covered by renewable energy sources by 2020. Martin Junginger has demonstrated that this can be achieved at considerably lower costs than is the case now. He also found that it might be more financially advantageous to realise part of the objective outside of the Netherlands because, for example, more space is available there for wind turbines or because more biomass is available there.
Renewable electricity can