Tag: energy
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ARPA-E Grant Funds Development of Univ. Oil Plant Research
Arcadia Biosciences Inc. in Davis, California has received a $950,000 grant to develop technology that helps plants produce high levels of oil in their leaves and stems. That technology is based on research conducted at nearby University of California – Davis. Vegetable oil is the most concentrated source of energy made by plants, but is…
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Contract Awarded for Magnets Made Without Rare Earth Metals
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has received a $2.9 million contract from Department of Energy to develop a new class of permanent magnets for energy-efficient electric car motors and generators. The project is funded through the department’s Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies program (REACT) under the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The REACT program aims…
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Angel Early Stage Investments Gain in First Half of 2011
Angel investments in very early stage U.S. entrepreneurial companies rose in the first half of 2011 according to a new report from the Center for Venture Research (CVR) at University of New Hampshire. Science-based enterprises, says CVR, accounted for over half of the total dollars invested by angels in that period. Angel investors are individuals…
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Dow Chemical to Invest $25 Million in Universities
Dow Chemical Company in New York said today it plans to invest $25 million in U.S. university research and education programs over the next 10 years. Dow also announced a collaboration with Argonne National Lab on advanced battery materials. The company says its university funding will support faculty, students and infrastructure at 11 campuses in…
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Low-Cost Tablet Gets Hands-On Tests in Indian Schools
Researchers have tested in India an electronic tablet device designed in the U.S. and Singapore for widespread use in Indian schools. The I-slate is being developed at the Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID), a joint program of Rice University in Houston, Texas and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. The device, still a…
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GE, Nissan Partner on E-Car Power Infrastructure R&D
Nissan Motor Company and General Electric have signed a two-year research collaboration to speed up development of a smart charging infrastructure to promote mass market adoption of electric cars. Nissan is the maker of the Leaf, one of the first electric vehicles on the market in the U.S. The companies have identified two key topics…
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Nanoparticle Size Affects Hydrogen Release in Fuel Cells
Researchers at Delft University of Technology and VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands have shown that the size of a metal alloy nanoparticle influences the speed with which hydrogen gas is released when stored in a metal compound containing hydrogen. The team led by Delft materials scientist Bernard Dam published its findings in the October…
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USDA Funding Forest, Grasses Biofuel Research
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, announced $137 million in grants for research on biofuels from tall grasses, crop residues, and forest resources. The five-year awards will go to 22 universities and companies, through the lead institutions in Washington, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Iowa. The grants will…
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Commercial Production Begins for New Lithium Process
Simbol Materials, a three year-old company in Pleasanton, California, says it will begin today commercial production of a pure form of lithium carbonate for electric vehicle batteries and other energy storage devices. The company’s process, developed out of research conducted at and licensed from Lawrence Livermore National Lab, also produces manganese and zinc. The production…
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DoE Science Review Boosts Transport, Grid, Quicker Payoffs
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) today released its first Quadrennial Technology Review report, an assessment of the Department’s technology research and development portfolios. The report urges the department to focus its R&D more on transportation than stationary energy production, grid modernization, and technologies closer to fruition than is now often the case. The report…