Tag: energy
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Report: Electric Cars Can Balance Renewable Power Grid
A report from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) says the growing use of electric vehicles offers a way of balancing the intermittent nature of renewable sources in the Northwest U.S. power grid. PNNL, a unit of the U.S. Department of Energy, examined grid conditions in the Northwest Power Pool, which covers Idaho, Montana, Nevada,…
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Consortium Funds Semiconductor Research in Emirates
Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), a university-research consortium in Durham, North Carolina, announced seven research contracts will be awarded to four universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The new contracts continue the joint effort between SRC and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) in the UAE begun last year on semiconductor sciences and technologies. The…
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University, Company Partner on Contraband Nuclear Detector
Researchers at University of New Hampshire in Durham and Michigan Aerospace Corporation in Ann Arbor have received a contract from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to build an instrument to accurately detect illicit radioactive materials from a safe distance. The one-year contract of $303,000 calls for a realistic field test of the device in…
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Microbes Found to Clean Nuclear Waste, Generate Electricity
Researchers at Michigan State University in East Lansing have shown the ability of certain microbes to generate an electric current while cleaning up uranium in wastewater. The team’s findings, for which patents have been filed, appear online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid subscription required). Microbiologist Gemma Reguera (pictured right)…
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Integrated Exploration Methods Urged for Oil and Gas
Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel have combined several surveying methods to develop an integrated prospecting technology for oil and gas. The methods proposed by geophysicist Lev Eppelbaum and zoologist Youri Katz appeared earlier this year in the journal Positioning. Eppelbaum and Katz created detailed structural-tectonic maps of Israel and surrounding areas from an…
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NSF, Industry Consortium Fund Advanced Chip Research
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has received two grants totaling $1.75 million from National Science Foundation and the Semiconductor Research Corporation to create more energy-efficient computing devices. Semiconductor Research Corporation is an international technology research consortium of member companies and university research programs. The grants fund research to translate theoretical work on replacing traditional transistor-based…
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Improved Cellulose Processing Developed for Biofuels
A team of university and industry researchers in Europe and the U.S. have developed a process to hasten the breakdown of cellulose in waste plant matter for conversion to ethanol. Their findings appear online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists with the company Novozymes in Davis, California, and Bagsvaerd, Denmark,…
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Eight Teams Funded for Research on Gulf Oil Spill Impact
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI) announced it will fund eight research groups to investigate the effects of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The grant awards, selected by GRI’s research board, total some $112.5 million over three years. The GRI grants, supported by BP, will fund research…
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More Planning Needed for Water Use in Biofuel Crops
An overlooked factor in planning for prairie grasses as biofuel feedstocks is their use of water, according to a new study by researchers in the U.S. and Germany. Their findings appear this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid subscription required). Engineers Praveen Kumar and Phong Le at University of…
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Nanotech-Enhanced Graphene Can Propel Optical Communications
Physicists and engineers from the universities of Manchester and Cambridge in the U.K. have devised a method for improving graphene devices as photodetectors in future high-speed optical communications. Their findings appear in the 30 August issue of the journal Nature Communications (paid subscription required). Graphene is a two-dimensional layer of carbon atoms arranged in a…