Advance could turn wastewater treatment into viable electricity producer. In the latest green energy – or perhaps that should be brown energy – news, a team of engineers from Oregon State University (OSU) has developed new technology they claim significantly improves the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that can be used to produce electricity directly from wastewater. With the promise of producing 10 to 50 times the electricity, per volume, than comparable approaches, the researchers say the technology could see waste treatment plants not only powering themselves, but also feeding excess electricity back to the grid.
The electricity-generating potential of microbes has been known for decades, however, it is only in recent years that efforts to increase the amount of electricity generated to commercially viable levels has started to bear fruit. While the power density of the new technology is impressive, its potential would be hampered somewhat if it was lacking in the water treatment department. Source: Oregon State University. MIT researchers develop all-carbon solar cell. An atomic-force microscope image of a layer of single-walled carbon nanotubes deposited on a silicon surface, which is the first step in manufacturing the new solar cell Researchers at MIT have developed a new type of photovoltaic cell made with carbon nanotubes that captures solar energy in the near-infrared region of the spectrum, which conventional silicon solar cells don’t.
The new design means solar cell efficiency could be greatly increased, boosting the chances to make solar power a more popular source of energy. The new solar cell developed at MIT is a consequence of recent advances in the large-scale production of carbon nanotubes. It also features another type of carbon, a fullerene known as C60 (aka Buckminsterfullerene). The nanotubes have to be very pure, single-walled and of the same symmetrical configuration.
There are several bright, optimistic spots in this research, the scientists say. Source: MIT About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles. Stable dye-sensitized solar cell may provide cheaper alternative to silicon. A new, stable dye-sensitized solar cell developed at Northwestern University promises to be a cheaper alternative to silicon cells (Photo: Martin L) Solar power is up there as the quintessential clean energy and there’s a race worldwide to develop better solar cells to overcome current challenges related to cell efficiency, manufacturing costs, durability and materials, among other things. One of the latest developments in the sector comes from Northwestern University where researchers have developed a stable dye-sensitized solar cell that may one day prove cheaper than silicon-based cells. The new cell design is a variation on the Grätzel cell (named after the Swiss chemist Michel Grätzel), a type of dye-sensitized solar cell that replaces silicon with the semiconductor titanium oxide, which is more abundant, cheaper and less toxic, further improving solar energy’s green credentials.
Details about the new solar cell were published in the journal Nature this week. About the Author. CSR project aims to create a high-speed, carbon-neutral steam-powered locomotive. Locomotive 3463, the 75 year-old test bed locomotive for CSR's Project 130 You might think that a coal-burning locomotive built in 1937 had nothing left to offer the modern rail industry, short of being a nice museum piece.
In the case of Locomotive 3463, however, that appears to be far from true – now in the hands of engineers from the Coalition for Sustainable Rail (CSR), it is set to become the world’s first carbon-neutral higher-speed locomotive. It won’t be electric, however. Instead, it will run on steam generated by the burning of biocoal. CSR is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment (IonE) and the nonprofit Sustainable Rail International (SRI).
The group’s current CSR Project 130 has one goal – to create “the world’s cleanest, most powerful passenger locomotive, proving the viability of solid biofuel and modern steam locomotive technology.” Sources: University of Minnesota, Coalition for Sustainable Rail About the Author.
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