Science and Enterprise

Tag: cleantech

  • Americans Use More Gas and Renewables, Less Coal in 2011

    Americans used less energy overall in 2011 than in 2010 due mainly to reductions in the amount of energy wasted, along with natural gas and renewable sources increasing, and coal declining. The findings were published in an annual accounting of national energy supply and demand by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, based on data from the…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • NSF Grant to Fund Study of Energy Storage Nanomaterials

    A physics professor at Clemson University in South Carolina will lead a team developing new nanoscale carbon materials for storing energy, funded by a grant from National Science Foundation. The four-year, $1.2 million project is headed by physicist Apparao Rao and includes participants from Clemson and the University of California-San Diego. The research is expected…

  • Prototype Net-Zero Energy Home Being Tested

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, unveiled this week a two-story suburban-style home to demonstrate that a family of four can generate as much energy as it uses in a year. The year-long pilot is expected to improve testing methods for residential energy efficiency and develop…

  • LED Bulbs Edge CFLs for Environmental Friendliness

    A report from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington says today’s bulbs made with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a bit more friendly to the environment than compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), but both types of bulbs far outpace traditional incandescent lights. As LED technology advances in the next five years, the environmental advantage for LED bulbs…

  • Kauffman Helping Stanford Student Accelerator Go National

    The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City is providing an $800,000 grant to StartX, an accelerator for student start-up businesses on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California. The grant will help StartX scale up its operations to expand across the U.S. StartX is a not-for-profit organization for entrepreneurs affiliated with Stanford University.…

  • Power Cell Converts and Stores Energy in Single Unit

    Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta developed a single device that converts mechanical energy directly into chemical energy, and stores the power until released as an electrical current. The Georgia Tech team led by materials scientist and engineer Zhong Lin Wang (pictured right) published its findings earlier this month in the journal Nano…

  • Oregon State Opens Wave Energy Test Facility

    Oregon State University began operations this week of one of the first public wave energy testing systems in the U.S. The Ocean Sentinel, as the system is called, is a $1.5 million mooring platform located two miles off Yaquina Head on the central Oregon coast, and available to academic and industry researchers working in wave…

  • New Fuel Cell Generates More Power from Wastewater

    Ecological engineers at Oregon State University in Corvallis developed techniques that advance the use of wastewater from cities or factories to generate electricity. The findings of the team led by Hong Liu (pictured right), professor of biologicial and ecological engineering, appear in the journal Energy and Environmental Science; paid subscription required. Earlier microbial fuel cells…