Tag: energy
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Industry Consortium to Fund Fracturing Pollution R&D
A consortium of businesses, universities, and national labs has made funds available for research on technologies to address environmental and safety concerns of hydraulic fracturing — a.k.a. fracking — methods to extract natural gas from shale rock. The $35 million in funding from the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) is now open…
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Apple Files Patent Applications for Fuel Cell Power
Apple Inc. in Cupertino, California has filed two U.S. patent applications for building fuel cell systems into the power supplies used in their electronic devices. The patent applications were reported yesterday on the Web site AppleInsider. One invention outlines a fuel cell system to directly power a portable electronic device. In this system, a fuel…
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Energy Dept to Fund R&D on Vehicle Charging Stations
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) announced grants totaling some $7 million for research and development to help improve the performance and flexibility of electric vehicle chargers on the nation’s power grids. The funds will go to electric vehicle (EV) charging station manufacturers in California, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, who are expected to…
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Nanotech Solar Energy Paint Developed
Researchers at University of Notre Dame in Indiana have created an inexpensive paste made with semiconducting nanoparticles to produce a spreadable substance that can generate energy. The work of chemistry professor Prashant Kamat and colleagues is described in the 6 December issue of the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). Kamat’s team based the compound…
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Battery Developer, Utility to Partner on Grid Energy Storage
Lithium-ion battery developer A123 Systems in Waltham, Massachusetts and Massachusetts electric power company NSTAR have agreed to pilot test A123 batteries as storage devices in a suburban power grid. The pilot project will study and document the performance and reliability of A123 batteries at a substation in Medway, Massachusetts and is expected to become operational…
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UCLA, Korean Institute Collaborate on Smart Grid R&D
The engineering school at University of California at Los Angeles and the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) have begun a 10-year partnership to collaborate on smart-grid research and the development of new related technologies. The project, funded on the U.S. side by the Department of Energy and the Los Angeles Department of Water and…
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Technique Devised for Lowest Greenhouse Emissions Routing
Engineers from University at Buffalo in New York have developed a technique to route drivers to their destinations while minimizing their cars’ greenhouse gas emissions. The study involved simulations of traffic in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls region, but could be applied to today’s GPS systems in the near future, according to the researchers. Buffalo engineering professor…
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Energy Dept to Test Expedited National Lab Tech Transfer
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) will test a new process that it says will reduce some of the hurdles faced by businesses in commercializing the department’s research findings. The Agreements for Commercializing Technology (ACT) pilot test is expected to begin in January 2012 and involve the department’s national laboratories. In making the announcement, Deputy…
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Fuel Economy Standards Create Incentives for Larger Vehicles
A University of Michigan engineering/economics study discovers incentives in the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for auto makers to build larger vehicles allowed to meet lower targets. The work of former Michigan design doctoral student Kate Whitefoot, now with the National Academy of Engineering, appears online in the journal Energy Policy (paid subscription…
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OriginOil, National Lab to Collaborate on Biomass Standards
OriginOil Inc. an algae fuel developer in Los Angeles, signed a research agreement with the Idaho National Lab, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, to establish industry standards for algal biomass. Standards for fuels from biomass are considered a an important step in making algal biofuels a competitive alternative to petroleum. The company says…