Alternative Energies
 

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1329941.shtml

Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car
Futuristic After-School Project Wows Crowd At Philly Auto Show

Feb. 17, 2006Five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. (CBS)

Quote

"If you give kids that have been stereotyped as not being able to do anything an opportunity to do something great, they'll step up."
Simon Hauger,
teacher at West Philadelphia High School



(CBS) The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car — one that combines performance and practicality under one hood.

But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot.

A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School

The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.

"We have a number of high school dropouts," he says. "We have a number that have been removed for disciplinary reasons and they end up with us."

One of the Fab Five, Kosi Harmon, was in a gang at his old school — and he was a terrible student. The car project has changed all that.

"I was just getting by with the skin of my teeth, C's and D's," he says. "I came here, and now I'm a straight-A student."

To Hauger, the soybean-powered car shows what kids — any kids — can do when they get the chance.

"If you give kids that have been stereotyped as not being able to do anything an opportunity to do something great, they'll step up," he says.

Stepping up is something the big automakers have yet to do. They're still in the early stages of marketing hybrid cars while playing catch-up to the Bad News Bears of auto shop.

"We made this work," says Hauger. "We're not geniuses. So why aren't they doing it?"

Kosi thinks he knows why. The answer, he says, is the big oil companies.

"They're making billions upon billions of dollars," he says. "And when this car sells, that'll go down — to low billions upon billions."

Re: Alternative Energies
 

WoW that is amazing. Kudo's to those kids. I have heard that a fuel conversion kit for a diesel truck runs only around 2-5 thousand dollars. There is a future for bio-fuels I tell ya.

Re: Alternative Energies
 

ah.... biodiesel doesn't require conversion kits unless you listen to the vehicle manufacturer. They will tell you it will damage the car etc but the truth is quite different.

100% biodiesel contains none of the mineral elements found in the "mineral" form of diesel or..... the stuff the petro co's sell. It is these that cause wear and tear on fuel lines, fuel systems and engines.

In fact converting to 100% biodiesel will result in the system being flushed of these mineral deposits. This leaves the system cleaner than before and will improve fuel efficiency and extend the service periods required for the vehicle.

During the conversion process from mineral to bio diesel the car will need several new fuel filters as the system is cleaned and the deposits get caught in the filters. It is recommended to transition to full biodiesel gradually increasing the ratio of bio to mineral.

There is very little to be done to convert and the engine will infact become cleaner as time goes on.

You can visit this web site and find some factual information but not much as this is a segment of the petro industry
http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/b...s/default.shtm

or go here for the good stuff:
http://www.biodieselnow.com/Default.aspx

Declaration: I do not, have not made or used biodiesel.

Researcher sets saltwater on fire
 

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science...ire/index.html

Researcher sets saltwater on fire

By Michael Stroh

(PopSci.com) -- Last winter, inventor John Kanzius was already attempting one seemingly impossible feat -- building a machine to cure cancer with radio waves -- when his device inadvertently succeeded in another: He made saltwater catch fire.

A test tube full of saltwater fuels a flame.

TV footage of his bizarre discovery has been burning up the blogosphere ever since, drawing crackpots and Ph.D.s alike into a raging debate. Can water burn? And if so, what good can come of it?

Some people gush over the invention's potential for desalinization or cheap energy. Briny seawater, after all, sloshes over most of the planet's surface, and harnessing its heat energy could power all sorts of things. Skeptics say Kanzius's radio generator is sucking up far more energy than it's creating, making it a carnival trick at best.

For now, Kanzius is tuning out the hubbub. The retired radio- and television- station owner says the saltwater stuff is interesting, but a cancer breakthrough is what he's really after. Diagnosed with leukemia in 2002, he began building his radio-wave blaster the next year, soon after a relapse. His lifelong fascination with radio provided further inspiration.

Radio station antennas, he knew, can turn a bystander's metal eyeglasses toasty warm. If he could seed a person's cancerous cells with nanoscopic metal particles and blast them with radio waves, perhaps he could kill off the cancer while sparing healthy tissue.

The saltwater phenomenon happened by accident when an assistant was bombarding a saline-filled test tube with radio waves and bumped the tube, causing a small flash. Curious, Kanzius struck a match. "The water lit like a propane flame," he recalls.

"People said, 'It's a crock. Look for hidden electrodes in the water,' " says Penn State University materials scientist Rustum Roy, who visited the Erie, Pennsylvania, inventor in his lab in August after seeing the feat on Google Video. A demo made Roy a believer.

"This is discovery science in the best tradition," he says. Roy thinks the sodium chloride in the water may weaken the bonds between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms, which are broken free by radio waves. It's these gas molecules that are igniting, he explains, not the liquid itself. Tests show that the reaction disappears once the radio waves stop. Roy plans to conduct more tests to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Meanwhile, researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have made progress using Kanzius's technology to fight cancer in animals. They published their findings last month in the journal Cancer.

How it works:
A generator emits 14-megahertz radio waves.
The waves bombard a solution of regular table salt and water.
Exactly what happens next remains a mystery, but one theory posits that the sodium chloride may weaken the bonds between the strong oxygen and hydrogen atoms in water. Radio waves break apart the bonds and liberate flammable hydrogen gas molecules.
A match ignites the hydrogen, generating an intense flame.
The resulting heat powers a simple engine.

Copyright � 2007 Popular Science

Re: Alternative Energies
 

I dunno about this one . . . It sound s famiiar and I seem to recall it being de-bunked somewhere.

Fire from Salt Water
 

Source: http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directo...ng_Radio_Waves

Directory:John Kanzius Produces Hydrogen from Salt Water Using Radio Waves

John Kanzius has found a way to burn salt water with the same radio wave machine he is using to kill cancer cells.

Kanzius was testing his external radio-wave generator to see if it could desalinate salt water, and the water ignited. A university chemist determined that the process is generating hydrogen, which can be burned as fuel.

While the phenomenon is interesting, it is not yet practical for energy generation as long as more energy is consumed by the radio frequency device than is produced for burning. Efficiency-wise, they started at around 76 percent of Faraday's theoretical limit. (Other Hydrogen-from-Water methods, such as the one being pursued by Bob Boyce, are approaching 7x Faraday). They subsequently quietly reported that they surpassed 100% efficiency, which would mean that the system is somehow harnessing environmental energy such as from the zero point or some other yet-to-be discovered phenomenon.

Another problem to be overcome from burning salt water is the liberation of toxic chlorine (from the Cl of NaCl/salt).

Kanzius says if someone wants to buy up the rights to the technology, that would be fine. He would use the funds to finance his quest to cure cancer. Table of contents [hide]
1 About

1.1 Official Website
1.2 Videos
1.3 Latest Developments

1.3.1 Oct. 31, 2007
1.3.2 Sept. 28, 2007
1.3.3 Sept. 12, 2007
1.3.4 Aug. 12, 2007
1.3.5 Aug. 11, 2007
1.3.6 July 31, 2007
1.3.7 June 06, 2007
1.3.8 June 01, 2007

1.4 How it Works
1.5 Patents
1.6 Profiles

1.6.1 Company: ??
1.6.2 Inventor: John Kanzius

1.7 Coverage

1.7.1 Videos
1.7.2 In the News
1.7.3 Other Sites
2 Forum

2.1 Comments

2.1.1 RF imitates platinum catalyst
2.1.2 water droplets are arcing from the R.F.
2.1.3 Caused by Polarization of the Hydrogen Molecules; magnetic bond

2.2 Related Technologies
2.3 Contact
3 See also

[edit]
About
[edit]
Official Website

none yet
[edit]
Videos


9 mins; compilation
Saltwater Burns (YouTube; WKYC, WSEE tv, JET tv; June 9, 2007)


[edit]
Latest Developments
[edit]
Oct. 31, 2007
Kanzius treatment kills cancer cells in rabbits - Hard evidence that researchers using John Kanzius' radio-wave generator are successfully killing cancer cells has been published by the American Cancer Society. (Go Erie; October 31. 2007)
Sending his cancer a signal - John Kanzius, sorely weakened by leukemia treatments, drew on his lifetime of working with radio waves to devise a machine that targets cancer cells. The miracle: It works. (LA Times; Nov. 2, 2007)
[edit]
Sept. 28, 2007

John wrote the following in response to an email describing the cancer work of Doctor Naomi Halas, working with Doctor Jennifer West (Rice University, Houston, TX) who have a similar method.
"That is true except the treatment they have developed is good for surface malignancies...I think you will be reading about ours at MD Anderson in the next 4-6 weeks."
[edit]
Sept. 12, 2007
Salt water fuel gets major university review - (WKYC; Sept. 12, 2007)
[edit]
Aug. 12, 2007

John Kanzius wrote:

The CBS News Network was in last week [regarding] the cancer procedure. They also taped some of the saltwater. We shall see what happens in the next few weeks. I have had Motor Trend folks in and have the worlds foremost authorities on water coming in soon.
[edit]
Aug. 11, 2007
Fonda helps Kanzius (photo) Actor Peter Fonda hugs John Kanzius after speaking at Liberty Park on Friday, August 10. Fonda helped to raise money for the John Kanzius Cancer Research Fund by participating in the ride and signing autographs. (Erie Times News; 8/11/2007)
[edit]
July 31, 2007

From http://www.erieblogs.com/archives/2007/07/

Inventor John Kanzius will share the latest updates on his groundbreaking cancer research project to area business and community leaders, during the Manufacturers' Association's monthly Eggs 'n' Issues briefing, Tuesday, July 31, at the Manufacturers' Association of Northwest Pennsylvania (http://www.manp.org/) Conference Center, 2171 West 38th Street at 8 am.

To register for this briefing, contact Tracy Shepard at 814/833-3200, 800/815-2660 or click here to register on the Association's web site. Cost is $30 for members, $60 for non-members.

[...] The Kanzius Non-invasive Radio Wave Treatment is a potential cancer therapy that uses high-energy radio waves to destroy cancer cells that have been "tagged" with nano particles. Nano particles attached to cancer cells are heated by radio waves to a temperature, which destroys the cancer cells. The technique is non-invasive, and can be provided without the need for auxiliary chemotherapy or radiation. Intensive and promising technological research about the Kanzius Radio wave Treatment is currently under way at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the Mayo Clinic and other American medical centers.
[edit]
June 06, 2007

John Kanzius write:

"Since it appears we now have now achieved more than unity, I am going to do an embargo on releasing all further information.

"Actually there are smart individuals who have posted on different web sited and actually have a pretty good idea of what is happening."
[edit]
June 01, 2007

"I am in the process of redesigning the electronics for the saltwater as to see what efficiency we can achieve.

"Why does everyone think this is a form of electrolysis?

"Some scientists who have made comments on certain web sites actually understand the mechanism of action.

"Regarding moving this forward, I want to see what are the best results we can achieve with joules in vs joules out. A chemist in Houston whom I know is going to be doing a couple of things for me this weekend." -- John Kanzius (June 01, 2007)
[edit]
How it Works

Kanzius is not publicly disclosing the mechanism of action at this time.

He says that the process would not be considered a form of electrolysis.

"It has nothing in common with the Rife concept except the word radio waves....He was supposedly looking for resonant frequencies of the cells themselves. This is nanoparticle technology. The nanoparticles are relatively new in the science and medical world. Gold nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes are the molecules that enter the cancer cells to be thermally destroyed by the non-invasive radio waves..The frequencies themselves are not even close..." (May 27, 2007)

"It does take much sodium to discolor the flame. We have measured the before and after burns and very little sodium has been expended." (May 29, 2007)

"What burns at a temperature of over 1700 C? [Knowing the answer to that question] might take some of the guess work out of the equation." (May 29, 2007)
"PLASMA does and the flame seem to have an electrical quality." -- Jerome E. Goodwin Sr. (May 29, 2007)


[edit]
Patents

Kanzius has filed patents on the saltwater utilization as a possible alternative fuel.
[edit]
Profiles
[edit]
Company: ??

On Oct. 5, 2007, John said that "the largest research centers and nanoscientists in the world" are involved in this project.
[edit]
Inventor: John Kanzius

Sanibel Island [Florida] resident John Kanzius is a former broadcast executive from Pennsylvania who wondered if his background in physics and radio could come in handy in treating the disease from which he suffers: cancer. A person witnessing the device asked him if it might desalinate water. When he ran an experiment using a test tube of salt water, the water began to burn.

John Kanzius' primary interest is in using this radio frequency nanotechnology to cure cancer. This Hydrogen-from-Salt Water discovery is but an interesting if not annoying detour for him.

He invites interested parties to visit their lab to see a demonstration of the technology.
[edit]
Coverage
[edit]
Videos

Water Fuel Cell > Overview Video: Water as Fuel (via ZPE) (3 min) - While academia has been spurning the topic, hundreds, if not thousands of hobbyists and independent investigators worldwide are working on various electrolysis-like projects which put out more energy than was required to run the electrolysis unit. (PES Network Video; Aug. 31, 2007)
[edit]
In the News
Google News > Kanzius


Researcher sets saltwater on fire - Last winter, inventor John Kanzius was already attempting one seemingly impossible feat -- building a machine to cure cancer with radio waves -- when his device inadvertently succeeded in another: He made saltwater catch fire. (CNN / PopSci; Nov. 14, 2007)

If we could just burn salt water, we'd never run out of fuel - Dr. Roy speculates that because the 13.56-MHz radio frequency is a harmonic of the natural frequency of sodium ions, the waves are causing these positive ions to vibrate intensely. Van der Waal's effects attract the oxygen end of water molecules to the positive sodium ions, and the vibration shakes the oxygen molecules hard enough to break the hydrogen bonds, freeing the hydrogen gas, which then ignites and burns. (MotorTrend; date?)

Salt Water Can "Burn," Scientist Confirms - Rustum Roy of Pennsylvania State University verified earlier this month that the radio waves break the water into its components, allowing the resulting freed hydrogen and oxygen to catch fire. (National Geographic, DC; September 14, 2007)
Salt water fuel gets major university review - (WKYC; Sept. 12, 2007)
Salt water as fuel? Erie man hopes so - Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, held a demonstration last week at the university's Materials Research Laboratory in State College, to confirm what he'd witnessed weeks before in an Erie lab. (Post Gazette; Sept. 9, 2007) (See also Yahoo News)

John Kanzius to be on CBS - John Kanzius, who came up with a way to burn salt water using radio frequencies (RF), will be featured on the morning of Aug. 27 on CBS's Morning Show at around 7:40 EDT concerning the cancer applications of his RF technology.

Renowned scientist lauds Kanzius’ invention - A materials scientist is heated up over the effect of John Kanzius’ external radio-wave generator on salt water. “It is scientifically a staggeringly important discovery,” said Rustum Roy, a leading authority on microwave applications on materials technology. Roy was in Erie to view experiments with the radio-wave generator at Industrial Sales and Manufacturing Inc., the Millcreek company that builds Kanzius’ generator. (Erie Times News; Aug. 11, 2007) [subscription required]
Kanzius' generator sparks interest - He’s been “doping” saltwater with various chemicals — he won’t identify them on the record — to see if he can generate more energy than the 200 watts of electricity needed to power the radio waves. (Erie Times News; Jul 30, 2007) [subscription required]

Fla. Man Invents Machine To Turn Water Into Fire (includes video) - John Kanzius invented a radio wave machine in an attempt to kill cancer. While trying to desalinize salt water with the machine, the water started burning. The machine breaks down the hydrogen-oxygen bond in the water, igniting the hydrogen. (WPBF; Palm Beach, FL, USA; May 24, 2007)
Slide show
Florida Man Invents Machine To Cure Cancer (WPBF; February 28, 2007)
Water into fuel? - Four years ago, inspiration struck in the middle of the night. Kanzius decided to try using radio waves to kill the cancer cells. (WKYC; May 23, 2007)
Video
Rense.com links to this WKYC story with preface comment
KANZIUS DISCOVERS ALTERNATIVE FUEL - John Kanzius and his associate Charlie Rutkowski have found a way to create energy by burning salt water with the same radio wave machine they are using to kill cancer cells. (WSEE; Erie, PA, USA; May 18. 2007)
Video
From Treating Cancer to Finding Alternative Fuels (includes video link) - He's already on the path to finding a treatment for cancer, now Erie inventor John Kanzius may have discovered a way to produce alternative fuels. ... (WJET, PA - May 17, 2007)
YourErie.com - same story
[edit]
Other Sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ka...ated_discovery
[edit]
Forum
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kanzius_effect - Discussion list for those interested in the phenomenon discovered by John Kanzius of salt water emitting flamable gas when exposed to his radio frequency device. (Commenced May 29, 2007)
[edit]
Comments

post here
(Just click on the "[edit]" button to the top, right of the header for this section. You will need to log in.)
[edit]
RF imitates platinum catalyst

On June 16, 2007, Charles Kilmer wrote to the kanzius effect discussion list:

I wrote a blog on this topic. Some of the links go back to this discussion group.

http://nick2.wordpress.com/2007/06/0...ter-into-fire/

I have an updated post Here: http://nick2.wordpress.com/2007/09/1...st-rostum-roy/

Read through the blog carefully.

What you should see is the secret sauce to the Kanzius effect. Its contained in one of kanzius patents and in an expired eu patent.

What's happening is that the RF is imitating the radio frequency of some catalyst for water separations. My guess is that the catalyst frequency that's being imitated is platinum since that's the big expensive catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells. What's happening is that the salt water is fooled into believing there's a platinum catalyst in the water.

The other thing that's happening is that the Na is getting really hot really fast. Na --like any metal in a microwave is a heatsink. The water is first destablized by the RF and then its broken apart by the superheated Na.



Now consider if they could eliminate platinum from fuel cells altogether while using salt water as a storage and fuel for hydrogen -- suddenly hydrogen fuel cell cars would be dramatically cheaper.

To see what I mean consider this article on hydrogen fuel cells

http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/f.../story_id/1673

Background paper: Fuel cells at Los Alamos


Lord Peel Says:

November 12th, 2007 at 11:23 pm e

http://LordPeel.notlong.com

The use of high frequencies to increase the efficency of water seperation seems to be a recuring discovery for inventors. Check out the patent for Stanley Meyer's `Water Fuel Cell' US Pat No 4,936,961. A device that produced hydrogen and oxygen from water using high frequency electric fields between two plates and exibited the same increase in performance when exposed to solar radiation. From the details in the patents I have calculated the frequency of the electric fields to be around 1.38Mhz, 10 times lower than the frequency for platinum but I believe the device relied on the resonant cavity between the two plates to produce a higher harmonic. As to being an energy 'source', if the catalysing effect of the RF can be produced efficiently enough then the actual splitting of the water could be done by ambient radiation, even low level heat. the convertion of ambient or solar energy into a fuel gas would make this kind of device a sustainable form of renewable energy. ////////////////
[edit]
water droplets are arcing from the R.F.

On June 6, 2007, Jerome E. Goodwin Sr. wrote:

> The " flame " is not truly burning in this case the
> water droplets are arcing from the R.F. ( Radio
> Frequency ) energy. It is the same as a waveguide
> arcing when moisture gets in it. The water turns to
> steam as the salt is heated and the R.F. finishes
> the job by arcing between the droplets. The
> "plasma" is just R.F..


Some responses
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/k...ect/message/14 - RF is an energy signal created via a simple spark of a switch of 2 wires touching eachother, the good old relay "morse code", every electronic device in the...
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/k...ect/message/15 - Air, heat, gas, electricity, conductivity, capacitance, thermal temp. A Few Possibilities: 1: Still some gas left over that's burning until exhuasted or the ...
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/k...ect/message/18 - It looks to me as video on youtube.com supports Jerome's observation regarding RF making the arc (like plasma) between dense droplets of water. The paper towel...


[edit]
Caused by Polarization of the Hydrogen Molecules; magnetic bond

On June 28, 2007, Ted Green <Theodore.A.Green {at} l-3com.com> wrote:

To get right to the point, I believe the Kanzius effect is caused by the polarization of the hydrogen molecules in the water. This polarization causes the two atoms of hydrogen to lose their 105 degree orientation to each other and de-stabilize the water molecule. The unstable water molecule comes apart easily then, combining hydrogen to hydrogen and oxygen to oxygen in a magnetic bond. Because the water molecules’ special property to hold sodium is lost, some sodium atoms must also be released to react violently with the water still present. This ignites hydrogen which recombines with the oxygen to keep the wick from being consumed. The unusual properties of the HHO gas, catalyzes the whole process to a very high efficiency.
[edit]
Related Technologies

Bio-Energetics > Radio Frequency Ablasion - Patented technology by Joel Fallik pre-dates John Kanzius' work, and has a wide range of non-invasive, disease-eliminating applications through the targeting of heat to precise points through the interference patterns of two microwave generators. It is being spurned in the market because it would take the huge profits out of disease.
[edit]
Contact

John Kanzius
In Erie, Pennsylvania for the summer months
email and phone # on file with Sterling D. Allan, who has permission to forward pertinent emails to John.

How this 12inch miracle tube could halve heating bills
 

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1965

How this 12inch miracle tube could halve heating bills

Amazing British invention creates MORE energy than you put into it - and could soon be warming your home

Last updated at 21:09pm on 15th September 2007

It sounds too good to be true - not to mention the fact that it violates almost every known law of physics.


But British scientists claim they have invented a revolutionary device that seems to 'create' energy from virtually nothing.

Their so-called thermal energy cell could soon be fitted into ordinary homes, halving domestic heating bills and making a major contribution towards cutting carbon emissions.

Even the makers of the device are at a loss to explain exactly how it works - but sceptical independent scientists carried out their own tests and discovered that the 12in x 2in tube really does produce far more heat energy than the electrical energy put in.

The device seems to break the fundamental physical law that energy cannot be created from nothing - but researchers believe it taps into a previously unrecognised source of energy, stored at a sub-atomic level within the hydrogen atoms in water.

The system - developed by scientists at a firm called Ecowatts in a nondescript laboratory on an industrial estate at Lancing, West Sussex - involves passing an electrical current through a mixture of water, potassium carbonate (otherwise known as potash) and a secret liquid catalyst, based on chrome.

This creates a reaction that releases an incredible amount of energy compared to that put in. If the reaction takes place in a unit surrounded by water, the liquid heats up, which could form the basis for a household heating system.

If the technology can be developed on a domestic scale, it means consumers will need much less energy for heating and hot water - creating smaller bills and fewer greenhouse gases.

Jim Lyons, of the University of York, independently evaluated the system. He said: 'Let's be honest, people are generally pretty sceptical about this kind of thing. Our team was happy to take on the evaluation, even if to prove it didn't work.

'But this is a very efficient replacement for the traditional immersion heater. We have examined this interesting technology and when we got the rig operating, we were getting 150 to 200 per cent more energy out than we put in, without trying too hard.

People are sceptical - but somehow it works

'We are still not clear about the science involved here, because the physics and chemistry are very different-to everything that has gone before. Our challenge now is to study the science and how it works.'

The device has taken ten years of painstaking work by a small team at Ecowatts' tiny red-brick laboratory, and bosses predict a household version of their device will be ready to go on sale within the next 18 months.

The project, which has cost the company �1.4million, has the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry, which is keen to help poorer families without traditional central heating or who cannot afford rocketing fuel bills.

Ecowatts says the device will cost between �1,500 and �2,000, in line with the price of traditional systems.

The development of the groundbreaking technology results from a chance meeting between Ecowatts chairman Chris Davies, his wife Jane and an Irish inventor, Christopher Eccles, while the couple were on holiday near Shannon in 1998.

After the inventor showed the couple his laboratory experiments, Mrs Davies, immediately signed a �20,000 cheque on the bonnet of her car and handed it over to Mr Eccles.

He later became chief scientist of Ecowatts' parent company Gardner Watts, but has since left after 'falling out' with the company, according to insiders. Sadly, Mrs Davies died three years ago, so she will be unable to share in the success of her husband's development of the idea.

Mr Davies, now 75, of Dedham, Essex, was unavailable for comment last night.

But Ecowatts chief executive Paul Calver said: 'When Jane Davies whipped out her cheque book, it turned out to be a very good investment indeed.

'She and Chris were always interested in ecology and now it looks as if our heat exchanger system is ready to go on sale soon. We're producing a device in the next nine months to heat radiators.

'Most British homes rely on gas, and the Government has admitted there is a problem getting a substitute. Our device will help solve that.'

Sustainable energy expert Professor Saffa Riffat, of Nottingham University, has also led a team investigating the system.

He said: 'The concept is very interesting and it could be a major breakthrough, but more tests are required. We will be doing further checks.'

Re: Alternative Energies
 

Source: http://www.lutec.com.au/index.htm

Applications for the LEA.

An existing electricity producer or power station could incorporate this system to increase their output production, and for no additional cost of fuel gain an output of at least 440 percent.

A company making electric vehicles could incorporate the technology to reduce the amount of electricity needed to charge the batteries. Reduce the input by 75% for the same output.

A manufacturer could install a LEA and reduce energy costs by 75%. OR increase the power production by 440% for no extra cost of fuel.

LEA machines could be manufactured and sold to individual home owners. Because they are an appliance they could be plugged in at the wall power point. The LEA would be turned off and taken away when moving house. The LEA produces no heat, it runs at room temperature and as a stand alone unit servicing a home or condo will make as little noise as an air conditioner. It will have an expected life span of several decades with minimal maintenance.

Applications abound world wide for rural, remote, fishing, boating, caravan, camping, leisure, emergency services, military, emergency power supply, and police fire and ambulance as well as security industries government departments, airports, shipping ports, sports stadiums, high and low residential building complexes and suburban subdivision development, industrial parks… Prices and time frames for such products are not yet available as they will be set by the manufacturers of products; imagine what will happen to the share prices in the first companies to adopt this technology, and to the stock of those that don’t. The business that uses the LEA technology will have the advantage of lower manufacturing and administration overheads, resulting in more competitive products generating more sales and more profits. This impacts the bottom line by increasing cash flow; the ripple effect of increases in productivity is also likely because of the greater market share gained through increased competitiveness. New business will be attracted opening markets previously unreachable.

This effect will be seen immediately the technology is adopted; any business not using it will get left behind. Who would want shares in a company that was not competitive; the shareholders would leave in droves and buy into the more efficient organisation enjoying the profits of using the LEA. There are no prices or time frames for delivery available at this time; they are however anticipated to be market driven while still reflecting the enormous savings made possible by using such products.

US records at www.eic.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity show the average retail cost of electricity to domestic users in the USA for 2005 increased by 5.4% on the prices paid in 2004. Every indicator supports this upward trend continuing to increase, there is no guessing just how much more electricity will cost in five, ten or twenty years, but one thing is certain, while no one anywhere in the world can escape the rising costs, those with a LEA will pay less than 25% of the amount paid by those who don’t have the technology.

Focus Fusion: The fastest route to clean cheap energy
 

Source:

they have finally done it
 

WOW, PERPETUAL MOTiON MACHINE. 240% efficiency, just connect the output back to the input, and let it generate free power forever. oboy and they are accepting investor contributions. they will even take your money. what a great bunch of folks.

tesla longitudinal electricity transmission
 

Source: http://www.meyl.eu/go/index.php?dir=...e=1&sublevel=0

Re: they have finally done it
 

This process consumes hydrogen-boron fuel for energy production to occur. There is no "perpetual motion" involved here. :banghead:

Energy production has three main elements: Fuel + Reactor + Generator

Source: http://focusfusion.org/log/index.php...tional_fusion/

Energy production has three main elements: fuel, reactor and generator

Fuel: Focus Fusion uses a different fuel, hydrogen and boron
Reactor: It uses a much smaller, inexpensive, more elegant reactor, the Dense Plasma Focus.
Generator:The Focus Fusion approach seeks to generate electricity directly.

In a conventional power plant, the cost of electricity is driven by two factors: the cost of fuel, and the cost of building the power plant (the cost of salaries and maintenance are small compared to these two).

The cost of the power plant can be further broken down into the cost of the thing that turns fuel into heat (for coal plants it’s the “furnace” where coal is burned, for nuclear fission it’s the “reactor") and the thing that converts the heat into electricity (the generator).

Note that the generator is often one of the most expensive components of a power plant. In a power plant, the furnace (or reactor) uses fuel to create heat. The heat is applied to water to create steam. (Yes, most of modern energy is still made with a glorified steam engine). The high-temperature steam is then channeled through a turbine, which has many fan-blades attached to a shaft. As the steam moves over the blades, it causes the shaft to spin. This spinning shaft is connected to the rotor of a generator, and the generator produces electricity.
In sum:

cost of fuel
+ cost of reactor
+ cost of generator
cost of electricity

COAL: In the case of coal, the cost of the fuel would relate to mining the coal and all the financial, health and environmental costs associated with that process. As for the furnace (a.k.a. boiler), it’s cheap - basically a big cast iron stove with some conveyer belt for the fuel. So the big costs for a coal plant are the fuel itself and the generator, but not the furnace. [For an incredibly detailed breakdown of coal plant costs, click here on Appendix E of the DOE‘s report on Market-Based Advanced Coal Power Systems.

NUCLEAR FISSION: A nuclear fission plant basically eliminates the fuel cost. It uses maybe a ton of fuel a year instead of many thousand tons. But fission uses the exact same expensive generator. And a fission “furnace” (the nuclear reactor) costs a lot more than a coal furnace. Add in costs of regulation, cleanup, etc. and fission winds up costing more than coal. [Click here for more on the difference between fission and fusion.]

This brings us to fusion.

Fuel

The conventional approach to fusion uses deuterium and tritium as its fuel of choice. In general, when deuterium and tritium are fused together there are two protons and three neutrons. This unstable configuration then splits into a helium atom (two protons and two neutrons) and a high energy neutron. These neutrons create heat and radioactive materials just as in a fission reactor. The heat is then used to heat water and run an expensive generator just as in a typical power plant.

The fusion process involving deuterium and tritium still produces radioactivity (although not as much as a fission plant). Also, tritium does not occur in nature. It has to be created in a reactor, it’s very expensive, it’s radioactive, and it’s used in making nuclear weapons. It therefore brings up a lot of security issues.

The unconventional approach to fusion taken by the Plasma Focus inventors begins with the use of a different fuel. Boron-11 is an atom that contains five protons and six neutrons. Boron-11 can fuse with a hydrogen atom (one proton, no neutrons.) This makes six protons and six neutrons which is exactly enough for three helium atoms with no left over neutrons. The helium atoms then fly off at high speeds carrying the fusion energy. So hydrogen-boron fusion can create energy without releasing neutrons, essentially without radioactivity.

If it doesn’t release neutrons, then how will it heat water and run the generator? Well actually, that’s the big innovation here. The goal is to produce electricity directly and eliminate the expensive generator. When hydrogen and boron fuse in a plasma focus they release energy in the form of a beam of charged particles - nuclei of helium atoms. This beam can be converted directly to electricity through a kind of high-tech transformer. This will be discussed in the Generator section.

So why, you may wonder, are researchers spending so much time on deuterium-tritium fusion when hydrogen-boron has clear advantages? The reason is that deuterium-tritium fusion is easier to ignite. It requires temperatures of only 100 million Kelvin while hydrogen-boron fusion requires 1 billion Kelvin. [These temperatures are possible to achieve. Please see our Billion Degree Breakthrough page.]

Unfortunately, many fusion researchers have spent their careers developing the tokamak which cannot reach the temperatures required for hydrogen-boron fusion. Rather than looking for new ideas, the fusion research establishment has decided that the safety issues related to tritium and the radioactive waste produced by deuterium-tritium fusion is acceptable.

This brings us to the reactor.

Furnace/reactor

A tokamak fills a gymnasium-sized room and costs several hundred million dollars to build. Tokamaks and most other fusion devices use powerful magnets to attempt to stabilize the plasma (extremely hot, electrically conducting gas in which the fusion reactions occur). This task has been compared to “lifting gelatin with rubber bands.” The tokamak has yet to produce net energy, but even if it did, the cost of that energy would still be high simply because the reactor itself is so expensive. Unfortunately, many researchers (perhaps enamored of the very size and complexity of the thing) are not willing to look at other, simpler devices that take a different approach.

Sometimes in order to think big, you need to think small.

The Plasma Focus takes an elegant, small scale approach. It takes advantage of the natural instabilities of the plasma, so that the plasma’s own magnetic fields compress it and heat it. In short, The plasma focus works with the plasma instead of against it, in a much smaller space.

A complete Focus Fusion reactor could be contained in a very small building, perhaps no larger than a two car garage, and there is room for further miniaturization. Such devices would cost less than $500,000 to build, less than one percent of the price of a tokamak.

Generator vs. Transformer

The conventional approach to fusion research would produce neutrons which produce heat just as in a fission reactor. The heat would have to be converted to electricity using the same old 19th century generator concept. The cost of the energy would still be very high. Thermal pollution would still be a big factor.

In contrast, the Focus Fusion researchers intend to eliminate the generator. Instead, a transformer would be used to convert the electricity generated by the fusion into electricity useful to us. This is possible because the product of the hydrogen-boron reaction is, itself, electricity.

With mass production, it is expected that the cost of each reactor/transformer will be far less than the cost of research funds spent to design the first reactor, and substantially less than any nuclear, coal, hydro or oil-based power plants currently available.

In conclusion, conventional approaches to fusion have no hope of being any cheaper than current sources of power because even if they achieve net energy, the cost of the reactor and generator are still prohibitively high. In contrast, Focus Fusion will be cheap because all three of our elements: fuel, reactor, and generator are cheap.

There's Oil in That Slime
 

Source: http://www.physorg.com/news115568990.html

There's Oil in That Slime
By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press Writer


Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.


Some varieties of algae are as much as 50 percent oil, and that oil can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is slashing the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon.

"If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you'll be where you need to be. And there's a lot of people who think you can," said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP LLC, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc.

Researchers are trying to figure out how to grow enough of the right strains of algae and how to extract the oil most efficiently. Over the past two years they've enjoyed an upsurge in funding from governments, the Pentagon, big oil companies, utilities and venture capital firms.

The federal government halted its main algae research program nearly a decade ago, but technology has advanced and oil prices have climbed since then, and an Energy Department lab announced in late October that it was partnering with Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, in the hunt for better strains of algae.

"It's not backyard inventors at this point at all," said George Douglas, a spokesman for the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "It's folks with experience to move it forward."

A New Zealand company demonstrated a Range Rover powered by an algae biodiesel blend last year, but experts say it will be many years before algae is commercially viable. Ruan expects some demonstration plants to be built within a few years.

Converting algae oil into biodiesel uses the same process that turns vegetable oils into biodiesel. But the cost of producing algae oil is hard to pin down because nobody's running the process start to finish other than in a laboratory, Douglas said. One Pentagon estimate puts it at more than $20 per gallon, but other experts say it's not clear cut.

If it can be brought down, algae's advantages include growing much faster and in less space than conventional energy crops. An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae.

An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It wouldn't require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water. And algae can gobble up pollutants from sewage and power plants.

The Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is funding research into producing jet fuel from plants, including algae. DARPA is already working with Honeywell's UOP, General Electric Inc. and the University of North Dakota. In November, it requested additional research proposals.

As the single largest energy consumer in the world, the Defense Department needs new, affordable sources of jet fuel, said Douglas Kirkpatrick, DARPA's biofuels program manager.

"Our definition of affordable is less than $5 per gallon, and what we're really looking for is less than $3 per gallon, and we believe that can be done," he said.

Des Plaines, Ill.-based UOP - which has developed a "green diesel" process that converts vegetable oils into fuels that are more like conventional petroleum products than standard biodiesel - already has successfully converted soybean oil into jet fuel, Holmgren said. And the company has partnered with Arizona State University to obtain algae oil to test for the DARPA project, she said.

At the University of Minnesota, Ruan and his colleagues are developing ways to grow mass quantities of algae, identifying promising strains and figuring out what they can make from the residue that remains after the oil is removed.

Because sunlight doesn't penetrate more than a few inches into water that's thick with algae, it doesn't grow well in deep tanks or open ponds. So researchers are designing systems called "photobioreactors" to provide the right mix of light and nutrients while keeping out wild algae strains.

Ruan's researchers grow their algae in sewage plant discharge because it contains phosphates and nitrates - chemicals that pollute rivers but can be fertilizer for algae farms. So Ruan envisions building algae farms next to treatment plants, where they could consume yet another pollutant, the carbon dioxide produced when sewage sludge is burned.

Jim Sears of A2BE Carbon Capture LLC, of Boulder, Colo., a startup company that's developing fuel-from-algae technologies that tap carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, compared the challenges to achieving space flight.

"It's complex, it's difficult and it's going to take a lot of players," Sears said.

---

On the Net:

University of Minnesota Center for Biorefining: http://biorefining.cfans.umn.edu/home.php

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: http://www.nrel.gov

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency: http://www.darpa.mil

Pure Energy Systems wiki: http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directo...from-Algae-Oil

LTI (Laser Guided Propulsion)
 

Riding Lasers Into Space
 

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/200308120...dye990421.html

Tripping the Light Fantastic

One artist's optimistic idea of the Lightcraft in flight. Lasers on the ground would superheat air under the craft, propelling it upward. (Rensselaer Polytechnic)





Special to ABCNEWS.com
One of these days, we may zip into space as cheaply and as safely as we fly across the ocean, riding on “highways of light.”
While sounding more like science fiction than science, physicist Leik N. Myrabo believes he’s already demonstrated that the spacecraft of the future could “ride” powerful laser or microwave beams into space.
Both NASA and the U.S. Air Force are Testing light propulsion.
RealVideo
(download RealPlayer)

taking his ideas seriously. Testing light propulsion.
RealVideo
(download RealPlayer)

Myrabo doesn’t think we need to wait all that long for the rest of us to go where only astronauts have gone. Within about five years he hopes to send a small satellite into orbit, powered by a laser beam from Earth, and within a decade or so, humans could follow.
Even NASA calls the idea “radical,” but that’s the sort of thing Myrabo and an elite corps of researchers have been asked by the space agency to dream up. Humans are never going to explore much of space if they have to be transported by heavy, expensive and dangerous chemical rockets, so the only hope lies in developing radically different propulsion systems.

Far-Out Ideas
Some of the ideas were discussed recently at NASA’s 10th annual Advanced Propulsion Research Conference in Huntsville, Ala., and they ranged from fusion-powered rocket ships (despite the fact that we can’t seem to harness fusion on Earth) to nuclear-powered rockets that would weigh as much as a small town, to Myrabo’s “highways of light.”
Myrabo, an associate professor of engineering physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., pushes his
Mirrors on the underside of the small prototype focus the laser beam underneath the edges. The super-heated air explodes, propelling the craft upward. (ABCNEWS.com)

idea because, quite frankly, he’s ticked off.
Mirrors on the underside of the small prototype focus the laser beam underneath the edges. The super-heated air explodes, propelling the craft upward. (ABCNEWS.com)

“There’s so many people right now who are angry and upset at the fact that we did Apollo back in the ’60s and they still can’t fly to space themselves,” he says. “It shouldn’t have to be just for astronauts anymore.”
Myrabo first thought nuclear power was the way to go. Then he found that just the protective shield needed to keep the reactor from frying the passengers would weigh as much as the entire payload of a jumbo jet.
“We’re talking big weights here,” he says, “and you’re going to carry it all the way to orbit? Give me a break.”

Thinking Out of the Ship
To make space flight safe and cheap, you’ve got to put the main power plant and the fuel somewhere else, he figured.
Myrabo isn’t the first to think of spacecraft powered by remotely-located lasers, but it’s safe to say he’s carried it further than anyone else. Nearly 1,000 students at Rensselaer over the past 13 years have helped him move his ideas from the lab to the launch pad.
Using an Air Force 10-kilowatt carbon dioxide laser at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Myrabo has test flown a 6-inch-diameter model of his dream ship hundreds of times. The craft rides the laser up to about 100 feet in about three seconds, and then drops back to the ground once the laser is turned off.
He calls it a Lightcraft.
On the vehicle’s underside is a mirror that focuses the laser toward the rim. It heats up the air to hotter-than-the-sun temperatures of about 18,000 to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making the air explode, which provides the thrust.
The craft can’t stray out of the beam even if it tries. “If a gust of wind tries to blow it out, it will vector itself back in automatically,” he says.

More Light, Scotty!
The next step requires much more powerful lasers of at least one megawatt. That should provide enough power to send a small satellite up to about 100,000 feet above Earth, where the air becomes too thin for air propulsion. Then, a little hydrogen from an onboard tank could be squirted out the back to substitute for the lost air, where it would be heated by the laser, pushing the ship on into orbit.
A Lightcraft large enough to carry humans would resemble a giant party balloon with an outer skin of reflective material, looking something like a flying saucer. It would operate slightly differently, with focused light creating a super-hot bubble of air in front of the vehicle, which would expand around the sides, drawing the craft forward.
“It could be incredibly quick, and it will be
Step aboard the Lightcraft. Really, it's perfectly safe.
Putting the means of propulsion — lasers — on the ground makes the spacecraft a lot lighter and thus easier to send beyond Earth's gravity. (Rensselaer Polytechnic)

very bright,” Myrabo says.
Step aboard the Lightcraft. Really, it's perfectly safe.
Putting the means of propulsion — lasers — on the ground makes the spacecraft a lot lighter and thus easier to send beyond Earth's gravity. (Rensselaer Polytechnic)



Myrabo envisions space ports around the world with thousands of Lightcraft launched on powerful beams based either on the ground or, eventually, in space. The cost per pound of payload would be at least 1,000 times less than aboard the space shuttle.
A trip to the moon, he says, should take a little more than five hours. It took the Apollo astronauts more than three days.
And it shouldn’t cost any more to get to orbit than to fly from the United States to Australia, he adds.
Will any of this work?
His tests at White Sands already show that it works on a very small scale with modest objectives. Whether it will work on a grander scale remains to be seen, but odds are Myrabo will get the chance to find out.
The need for Earth-orbiting satellites is expected to continue to grow at explosive rates, and if Myrabo can prove that he can do it more cheaply, lots of folks will be listening.
If he succeeds, maybe the rest of us can ride along.

BioSolar - Successful Scale Up Production Run of Biobased Plastic Film for Solar Cell
 

Source: http://www.biosolar.com/view_news.ph...dc2d579e783ec6

Santa Clarita, CA – December 3, 2007 – BioSolar™, Inc. (OTC BB:BSRC), developer of a breakthrough technology to produce bioplastic materials from renewable plant sources that reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar cells, today announces that the company has successfully completed a scale up production run of high quality biobased plastic film intended for use as a backing sheet for photovoltaic cells.

In explaining the significance of this latest step toward commercialization of BioSolar’s bioplastic materials, Dr. David Lee, CEO, said “BioSolar has previously developed its biobased polymer which significantly improves the film's impact resistance and thermal performance. The film was successfully extruded at a narrow width. In order to check for possible scale up problems, we conducted an extrusion run at the full production width of 55 inches. There were essentially no scale up problems, and very high quality film was produced."

This is a key milestone in the development of the company’s bio based backsheet product as the 55 inch wide rolls of film exceed the industry maximum width requirement. Photovoltaic modules are expected to last for 20 years or more, and experimental modules made with this film are currently being tested to ensure that the film meets the longevity requirement. The test includes 45 day temperature-humidity test as mandated by Underwriters Laboratories.

“As we continue to hit our targets in our research and development work, we are guided by input from our commercial strategic partners in the photovoltaic field,” continued Dr. Lee. “This successful ramp-up to production scale film width moves us another step closer to commercial sales of our product.”

Manure power goes live in Texas
 

http://www.news.com/Manure-power-goe...html?tag=txt.2

Microgy, which makes and runs facilities that turn manure into natural gas, has started to ship gas from its Huckabay Ridge facility over pipelines.

Six of the eight digesters--large silos that effectively employ heat and microbes to transform the manure into gas--are up and running. When the facility is fully operational, it is expected to be capable of producing 650,000 million cubic feet of gas, or BTUs of heat, a year. That's the equivalent of 4.6 million gallons of heating oil. (About 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas can produce 1 million BTUs.)

The gas is being bought by the Lower Colorado River Authority, which will also get carbon-trading credits in the transaction.

The shipment, which was delayed, marks another milestone in the pursuit of making alternative sources of energy more mainstream. Farmers, mostly in Europe, have been using digesters that turn manure into gas for a few years. The farmers, however, consume the gas for their own purposes.

By contrast, Microgy, a division of Environmental Power, takes the manure from thousands of cows at different dairy farms, processes it and then ships the gas over commercial pipelines.

It's a small amount, compared with the overall consumption of natural gas. In 2003, the world used 95 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Getting natural gas from manure has commercial and environmental benefits, according to Microgy. Harvesting manure efficiently could help reduce natural gas exploration and imports. The carbon dioxide produced in the process is also considered renewable: alfalfa sucks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; cows eat it; and when it gets released from the biogas, some portion gets reabsorbed by plants. The process doesn't add additional carbon from the middle of Earth to the environmental cycle taking place on the surface.

Manure is also nobody's friend. It can cause algal blooms--an increase in algae in aquatic systems--and other problems. The stems and other solid matter left over after the gas is produced can also be used for cow beds.

Demand for energy and mandates to cut emissions are expected to drive the alternative-energy markets.

Microgy originally hoped to start shipping gas last fall. The company, however, experienced difficulties in getting the machinery that cleans and compresses the gas for commercial shipments.

Manure doesn't directly turn into gas. First, it gets turned into a substance called biogas, which is a mixture of methane (natural gas), carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds. The machinery removes the carbon dioxide, sulfur and any water vapor that happens to get into the mix.

V2G Car Generates Electricity, and Cash
 

Source: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/v2g.html

V2G Car Generates Electricity, and Cash
University of Delaware

The price of oil nearly reached $100 a barrel recently, but a new University of Delaware prototype vehicle demonstrates how the cost of the black stuff could become a concern of the past.
Under the hood of a University of Delaware prototype car with vehicle-to-grid technology.


A team of UD faculty has created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology - known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid - lets electricity flow from the car's battery to power lines and back.

"When I get home, I'll charge up and then switch into V2G mode," said Willett Kempton, UD associate professor of marine policy and a V2G pioneer who began developing the technology more than a decade ago and who is now testing the new prototype vehicle. The UD V2G team includes Kempton as well as Ajay Prasad, professor of mechanical engineering; Suresh Advani, George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering; and Meryl Gardner, associate professor of business administration, along with several students.

When the car is in the V2G setting, the battery's charge goes up or down depending on the needs of the grid operator, which sometimes must store surplus power and other times requires extra power to respond to surges in usage. The ability of the V2G car's battery to act like a sponge provides a solution for utilities, which pay millions to generating stations that help balance the grid. Kempton estimates the value for utilities could be up to $4,000 a year for the service, part of which could be paid to drivers.

The technology will work on a large scale, he said, because on average 95 percent of all cars are parked at any given time. One hour a day of car usage is the average in America.

"A car sitting there with a tank of gasoline in it, that's useless," he said. "If it's a battery storing a lot of electricity and a big plug that allows moving power back and forth quickly, then it's valuable."

Kempton already has one of those large plugs at his home. He has a 240-volt plug that gives the battery a full charge - or a range up to 150 highway miles - in just two hours. A smaller, standard 110-volt plug works but provides a full charge in about 12 hours. The smaller plug also moves less power for the grid operator when the car is in V2G mode, Kempton explained.

"The bigger the plug, the more power you can move, the more revenue," he said, explaining that it cost about $600 to have the larger plug installed.

But even though Kempton is supplying power to the grid with the prototype car, he's not getting paid for it - yet.

PJM, the grid operator for 14 states, including Delaware, is keen on the technology and hosted a demonstration of the V2G car. But PJM requires at least 300 megawatts to purchase power. That means the UD team and its collaborators must get 300 cars up and running.

The prototype car is a stepping-stone to that goal. Kempton is working with UD mechanical engineers Prasad and Advani, who plan to add V2G to the University's hydrogen fuel cell bus. Next, the team, including the company that created the car, California-based AC Propulsion, will test the prototypes and fix any potential problems they bring to light. Then they'll begin creating a user interface that will let drivers, for example, tell the car to never go below 50 percent charge while in V2G mode.

Helping him to learn what types of features potential buyers would want on the car and to identify potential buyers are business administration faculty member Gardner and her students. They've done a pilot survey of nearly 100 drivers that's shown there's a lot of interest in the technology, she said.

"We also want to provide information on how to market the car," she said, so her team is asking people questions like how much they would be willing to pay for it and how they feel about driving a car that's better for the environment than a gasoline-powered vehicle.

That last question gets Kempton, who also is involved in College of Marine and Earth Studies research on offshore wind farms, the most excited. He explained that even if the electricity used to charge the car is produced by a coal-fired power plant, the car itself produces no carbon dioxide emissions. If a wind farm fuels the electricity from the power plant, he explained, the car and its power source would be emissions free.

And even though the green aspect of the car is key for Kempton, he knows consumers might have some other, more practical, questions about the vehicle, such as, "What's it like to drive?"

Zippy yet quiet, being behind its wheel is a thrill, he said. "I hate getting back in my gas car. It feels sluggish."

Re: Alternative Energies
 

Biodiesel causes more problems than it solves.
Wind is high cost for low return, since the wind doesn't blow as you like.
Hydrowave technology is way expensive and an engineering nightmare.

Improved solar panels, and most fun of all (for a PM bug) are fuel cells and "cold fusion" processes (both of the latter which use precious metal catalysts to work), are the future.

I'm betting on the latter. :D

Light Source Lasts 12 Years - No Electricity Needed
 

Source: http://www.physorg.com/news116776284.html

Light Source Lasts 12 Years - No Electricity Needed
by Lisa Zyga

A company called MPK is designing a light source that will glow continuously for more than 12 years without any additional energy.

The material, dubbed "Litrosphere," can cover a standard sheet of paper for a cost of about 35 cents, and comes in a variety of colors. It�s also flexible, and can take the form of either paint or injection-molded plastic. The material is not affected by the heat or cold, can withstand 5,000 pounds, and stays on constantly.

According to the company's patent, the material is based on betavoltaics and uses the radioactive gas tritium as the power source. The beta particles from the tritium radiation can be safely contained by phosphor-coated microspheres. Tritium has a half-life of about 12 years.

MPK specializes in glow-in-the-dark paint and other glow products, although the new material does not need to be exposed to light in order to work. The company predicts that the technology could be used for light safety tape, lighted life rafts/flotation equipment, toys, sports/camping equipment, and bikes.

"This has potential to save billions in energy costs world-wide," said Steve Stark, MPK engineer. "Litroenergy surpasses all known available lighting options for cost/durability/reliability and safety."

Litroenergy has recently been added to the New Energy Congress' (NEC) list of Top 100 Technologies (rank pending). However, its use will likely be limited to applications that don�t require a great deal of light.

"The intensity is not very strong," noted NEC member Richard P. George. "This is good enough for night illumination of rifle scopes, watches, and emergency signs, but it is not going to come anywhere close to matching the light output of or replace electric light bulbs (incandescent, fluorescent, LED, etc.) or kerosene lanterns."

There are also rumors that MPK may use similar technology as a power source in the future.

"It�s not something the company is ready to talk publicly about yet, but they do have battery technology that would be of the same ilk: betavoltaic technology allowing continuous power for years in all battery applications, including automobiles," said NEC member Sterling D. Allan. "They think they will be able to win the DoD [Department of Defense] contest for the $1 million prize for backpack battery tech."

Microwave Emitter Extracts Petroleum & Gas Hidden Inside Everyday Objects
 

Source: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/emitter.html

Microwave Emitter Extracts Petroleum & Gas Hidden Inside Everyday Objects
Rena Marie Pacella

Frank Pringle has found a way to squeeze oil and gas from just about anything

I’m not sure if I’m watching a magic trick, or an invention that will make the cigar-chomping 64-year-old next to me the richest man on the planet. Everything that goes into Frank Pringle’s recycling machine—a piece of tire, a rock, a plastic cup—turns to oil and natural gas seconds later. “I’ve been told the oil companies might try to assassinate me,” Pringle says without sarcasm.

The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects—or at least anything made with hydrocarbons, which, it turns out, is most of what’s around you. Every hour, the first commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste—tires, plastic, vinyl—into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running).

Pringle created the machine about 10 years ago after he drove by a massive tire fire and thought about the energy being released. He went home and threw bits of a tire in a microwave emitter he’d been working with for another project. It turned to what looked like ash, but a few hours later, he returned and found a black puddle on the floor of the unheated workshop. Somehow, he’d struck oil.
Or rather, he had extracted it.

Petroleum is composed of strings of hydrocarbon molecules. When microwaves hit the tire, they crack the molecular chains and break it into its component parts: carbon black (an ash-like raw material) and hydrocarbon gases, which can be burned or condensed into liquid fuel.

Pringle figured that some gases from his microwaved tire had lingered, and the cold air in the shop had condensed them into diesel. If the process worked on tires, he thought, it should work on anything with hydrocarbons. The trick was in finding the optimum microwave frequency for each material—out of 10 million possibilities. Pringle has spent 10 years and $1 million homing in on frequencies for hundreds of materials. In 2004 he teamed up with engineer pal Hawk Hogan to take the machine commercial.

Their first order is under construction in Rockford, Illinois. It’s a $5.1-million microwave machine the size of small bus called the Hawk, bound for an auto-recycler in Long Island, New York. More deals loom: The U.S. military may use Hawks in Iraq on waste such as water bottles and food containers. Oil companies are looking to the machines to gasify petroleum trapped in shale.
Back at the shop, Pringle is still zapping new materials. A sample labeled “bituminous coal” goes in and, 15 seconds later, Pringle ignites the resulting gas. “You see,” he says, “why they might want to kill me.”

Re: Alternative Energies
 

Source: http://microbialfuelcell.org/

General priniciples of microbial fuel cells

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) converts chemical energy, available in a bio-convertible substrate, directly into electricity. To achieve this, bacteria are used as a catalyst to convert substrate into electrons.

Bacteria are very small (size appr. 1 �m) organisms which can convert a huge variety of organic compounds into CO2, water and energy. The micro-organsisms use the produced energy to grow and to maintain there metabolism. However, by using a MFC we can harvest a part of this microbial energy in the form of electricity.

A MFC consists of an anode, a cathode, a proton or cation exchange membrane and an electrical ciruit.



Figure 1: A General layout of a MFC in which in the anodic compartment the bacteria can bring about oxidative conversions while in the cathodic compartment chemical and microbial reductive processes can occur. (After Rabaey & Verstraete, 2005)


The bacteria live in the anode and convert a substrate such as glucose, acetate but also waste water into CO2, protons and electrons. Under aerobic conditions, bacteria use oxygen or nitrate as a final electron acceptor to produce water. However, in the anode of a MFC, no oxygen is present and bacteria need to switch from their natural electron acceptor to an insoluble acceptor, such as the MFC anode. Due to the ability of bacteria to transfer electrons to an insoluble electron acceptor, we can use a MFC to collect the electrons originating from the microbial metabolism. The electron transfer can occur either via membrane-associated components, soluble electron shuttles or nano-wires.

The electrons then flow through an electrical circuit with a load or a resistor to the cathode. The potential difference (Volt) between the anode and the cathode, together with the flow of electrons (Ampere) results in the generation of electrical power (Watt).

The protons flow through the proton or cation exchange membrane to the cathode.

At the cathode, an electron acceptor is chemically reduced. Idealy, oxygen is reduced to water. To obtain a sufficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) rate a Platina-catalyst has to be used. However, many researchers have tried to used other non-noble metal catalysts.

Pulling the Plug
 

Source: http://www.newsmax.com/mag_articles/.../15/64505.html

MIT Scientists Unveil an Invention called "WiTricity" That Could Render Power Cords Obsolete

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:29 AM

By: Elisabeth Kauffman

In a dramatic breakthrough that could change the way we use electricity, scientists have made a 60-watt light bulb glow by transmitting energy to it wirelessly.

In the past, beaming electromagnetic energy has proven difficult because it scatters broadly, radiating in all directions rather than to just the intended electrical device.

A series of successful experiments conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests otherwise, however. MIT physicists believe they can project a magnetic field from a length of wire whose ends nearly touch. The gap between the ends makes electrons surge back and forth at a specific rate, creating a magnetic field with a characteristic frequency. Since the electrons in a matching coil would have the same frequency, they would pick up the magnetic field.

Just as a singer can break a crystal glass that resonates at the same frequency as her voice, the MIT scientists discovered how to get a recharging device and a power-hungry gadget to resonate at the same frequency, allowing the efficient exchange of energy.

To prove their theory, the physicists -- who dubbed the process WiTricity -- used a pair of copper coils with a 2-foot diameter.

One was a transmitter attached to a power source, the other a receiver placed seven feet away and attached to a light bulb. When the power to the transmitter was turned on, the bulb lit up.

The process, MIT assistant physics professor Marin Soljacic tells The Associated Press, is "very reproducible. We can just go to the lab and do it whenever we want."

A wireless power system would have limited range, and the range would be even shorter for smaller receivers. But the research team calculates that an object the size of a laptop could be recharged within a few feet of the power source.

Theoretically, scientists say, placing one source in each room could provide coverage throughout your home for a host of devices, including phones and laptop computers.

Among the leading efforts to launch commercial devices capable of wireless recharging:

Powercast: Plans a 2008 launch of its Powercaster, a device that uses radio frequency signals to remotely and continuously recharge smaller electronics like MP3 players, computer peripherals, and cell phones.

WildCharger: Developing a line of charging pads that, when plugged into an outlet, will supply a steady stream of power to gadgets placed on top of it.

Fulton Innovation: Its eCoupled technology can be embedded into common household objects, from countertops to car consoles. The circuitry in the base automatically recognizes a device’s charging needs.

ohnson Thermoelectric Energy Conversion System
 

Source: http://www.dailynews-record.com/opin...=14335&CHID=36

Even global warming skeptics will endorse alternative energy sources because the nation doesn't need to be dependent on foreign oil.

Which is why every citizen can hope a new solar invention by nuclear engineer Lonnie Johnson lives up to its promise. Mr. Johnson, who has more than 100 patents to his credit, calls his invention the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Conversion System, or JTEC for short.
Mr. Johnson and his JTEC were profiled recently in Popular Mechanics, a good sign because the magazine's editors have never had any patience, or magazine space, for frauds or foolish inventions.

Currently, even the best solar systems convert only about 30 percent of received solar energy into electricity - making solar more expensive than burning coal or oil.

Mr. Johnson says he can achieve a conversion efficiency rate that tops 60 percent with a new solid-state heat engine. It represents a breakthrough new way to turn heat into power. With gasoline currently more than $3 a gallon, every driver can hope that's true.
This engine, Johnson says, can operate on tiny scales, or generate megawatts of power. If it proves feasible, drastically reducing the cost of solar power would only be a start. JTEC could potentially harvest waste heat from internal combustion engines and combustion turbines, perhaps even the human body. And no moving parts means no friction and fewer mechanical failures.

This is where even secular individuals can shout "Hallelujah."

Even though it's less than two weeks into January, political junkies have had a fantastic year. If Mr. Johnson's invention is successful, it will be fantastic year for science - and the Earth.

Re: Alternative Energies
 

Wind industry drew $9 bln in investment in 2007

By Steve Gelsi
Last update: 7:29 a.m. EST Jan. 18, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. wind energy industry drew a record $9 billion of investment in 2007 on a 45% boost to the nation's total wind power generating capacity to 5,244 megawatts, the American Wind Energy Association said Friday. The new wind projects will power the equivalent of 1.5 million American households annually.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...4F01D500ED7%7D