Tag: energy
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Lubricated Textured Surfaces Boost Condenser Water Movement
Engineering researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology devised a technique for accelerating the movement of water off industrial surfaces like those in power plant and desalination condensers. The team from MIT’s Lab for Nanoengineered Surfaces, Interfaces, and Coatings published its findings earlier this month in the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). In power plant…
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Q3 Venture Funding Drops, Science Sectors Hit Hard
Venture capital (VC) funding for U.S. companies dropped sharply in the third quarter of 2012, with the amount of money invested declining by about a third and number of deals down by almost 10 percent compared to 2011. For the year to date, says Dow Jones VentureSource, a financial industry research service, VC funding totaled…
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Study Aims for Improved Oil Extraction Methods Using CO2
Engineers at University of Pittsburgh are studying new, more economical ways of extracting crude oil from older wells using carbon dioxide (CO2). The work of principal investigators Eric Beckman and Robert Enick is funded by a 1.3 million grant from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Older oil wells…
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Graphene Layers Used to Build Nanoscale Power Transformer
Researchers from the U.K., Netherlands, U.S., Russia, and Japan created a nanoscale electric power transformer from one-atom layers of graphene and other materials. The work led by Leonid Ponomarenko and Andre Geim at University of Manchester is described online in the journal Nature Physics (paid subscription required). The process developed by Ponomarenko, Geim, and colleagues…
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University Spin-Off Developing Super-Porous Nanomaterials
A spin-off company from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland is commercializing research on highly porous nanoscale materials, using a simple, safe process for synthesizing these materials developed at the university. The research by Queens chemistry professor Stuart James on these materials, known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), has led to the founding of the company…
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NSF Grant Funds Research on CO2 as Fossil Fuel Substitute
Brown University in Providence received a $1.75 million grant for research on substituting carbon dioxide for fossil fuels in industrial chemicals. The funding from National Science Foundation’s Centers for Chemical Innovation program will support a joint chemical innovation program at Brown and Yale universities, headed by principal investigator Tayhas Palmore (pictured left), a materials scientist…
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Solar Cells Built to Power Portable Devices in Low Light
Chemistry researchers at University of Warwick in the U.K. and Molecular Solar Ltd., a Warwick spin-off company in nearby Coventry, created an organic solar cell that generates enough power to recharge a lithium-ion battery directly and can work in various levels of light, including partial shade. The team led by Warwick professor Tim Jones (pictured…
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NSF Grant to Fund Natural Gas Development Impacts Study
An engineering research team at University of Colorado in Boulder will study the balance between natural gas development and its effects on ecosystems and communities. The five-year, $12 million study is funded by National Science Foundation under its Sustainability Research Network initiative. The Colorado team led by environmental engineering professor Joseph Ryan will examine social,…
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BASF, Max Planck Institute Open Joint Carbon Materials Lab
The chemical company BASF and Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research opened a joint Carbon Materials Innovation Center at BASF’s Ludwigshafen, Germany site. The three-year collaboration is expected to cost some €10 million ($US 12.9 million). A 12-member task force from both organizations will research the scientific principles and potential applications of innovative carbonized materials,…
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Buffalo, Zimbabwe Universities Partner on Nanotech Medicines
University at Buffalo in New York and two universities in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe will collaborate on a new nanotechnology research program in pharmacology. University of Zimbabwe in Harare and the Chinhoyi University of Technology in Mashonaland West, working with Buffalo’s Institute for Lasers, Photonics, and Biophotonics, along with New York State Center…