Tag: energy
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Small Business Grant Funds University Biodiesel Start-Up
NextCAT Inc., a Wayne State University start-up company in Detroit, has received a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) of nearly $500,000. The company commercializes catalysts for the production of biodiesel developed at the National Biofuels Energy Laboratory at Wayne State. NextCAT plans to bring to market…
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Lab to Advise Battery Company on Technology Management
Dow Kokam in Midland, Michigan and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee are collaborating on enhancements to the company’s capabilities to develop and commercialize advanced lithium ion batteries. Dow Kokam is a joint venture of Dow Chemical Company, TK Advanced Battery LLC, and Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault, founded in 2009 that develops advanced batteries for…
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Human Energy Harvesting Technology Developed, Commercialized
Engineers at University of Wisconsin in Madison have created a technology that harvests and converts energy from normal human activities like walking into electrical power for portable electronic devices. The work of Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor appears in a paper in the journal Nature Communications, and is the basis of a company formed…
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Solid-State Supercapacitor Created with Carbon Nanotubes
Researchers at Rice University in Houston have developed a supercapacitor that can store large quantities of energy and charge quickly, and in a solid-state design made possible by the use of carbon nanotubes. Their findings appear online in the journal Carbon (paid subscription required). Capacitors are devices that regulate flow or supply quick bursts of…
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NSF, Energy Dept to Fund Power Grid Research Center
National Science Foundation and Department of Energy awarded a grant to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and its partners to establish a new Engineering Research Center for research and education on the nation’s electrical grid infrastructure. The two agencies will invest $18.5 million in the research center over five years. The facility, known as the…
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Lab Develops Automated DNA Construction Software
A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California has written a software package that they say streamlines the process of DNA construction. The software, known as j5, is available for free for non-commercial users. DNA construction, also known as DNA cloning or recombinant DNA technology, has become a critical tool of modern…
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Auto Crash Model Can Simulate Offshore Oil Pipe Breaks
Engineers at MIT have shown how a simulation model that tests automobile components for crashworthiness can be applied to predict the performance of pipes in offshore drilling accidents. The team from MIT’s Impact and Crashworthiness Laboratory presented their findings at the International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference in June. Tomasz Wierzbicki, professor of applied mechanics…
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USDA, Energy Fund Research to Accelerate Biofuel Crops
The U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture have awarded 10 grants totaling $12.2 million for up to three years for research on improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of growing biofuel and bioenergy crops. Energy’s Office of Science will provide $10.2 million in funding for eight projects, while USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)…
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Bacteria Metabolism Reversed to Produce High-Speed Biofuel
A new method developed by researchers at Rice University in Houston turns simple glucose into biofuels and petrochemical substitutes by reversing a metabolic process called beta oxidation using genetically modified bacteria. Engineering professor Ramon Gonzalez and colleagues published their findings online in the journal Nature (paid subscription required). The beta oxidation process is a basic…
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Energy Dept Funding Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cost Models
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding four projects to better determine the costs of making fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems. The awards, totaling $7 million over five years, will cover studies to provide data that help the department focus future research and development funding on fuel cell components and manufacturing processes. The Energy…