If you’re going to build a swarm of nanobots to take over the world, you’ll need a lot of very tiny batteries. You could build microscopic AAs with exceedingly diminutive tools, or turn to the best nano-scale builder known: Nature. Scientists at Yale were studying how some cells turn chemical energy into electrical energy (brain cells, the cells that give electric eels their zap) when they inadvertently created synthetic cell batteries.
The simple cells are essentially lipid sacks filled with salt water and a modified protein. When two of the synthetic cells touch, they stick together. The proteins create pores between the two cells. If the two cells have different salt concentrations, positive or negative ions will pass through the pores shared wall until salt concentrations in both cells reach an equilibrium. Stick the cells with electrodes to siphon off the ions and you’ve got a microscopic battery.
Two 200-nanoliter drops of the cells in solution can deliver electricity for about 10 minutes. An 11-microleter volume can put out a charge for more than four hours.
Researchers say the cells turn chemical energy into electrical energy at about 10 percent efficiency, which is frankly pretty terrible for a battery. But it’s pretty good when compared to tiny solar cells or piezoelectric devices that generate electricity from mechanical stress.
Link to Gizmag article
Honda is set to reveal several electric scooter concepts at the Tokyo Motor Show this year, including the EV Cub. The Honda Cub is the most popular and prolific motorcycle ever made—more than 60 million have been sold worldwide. The EV Cub is a modern interpretation of the old design and it’s spiffy.
The Pharaohs built the pyramids to thwart time, to survive the elements for eternity. Nearly 4,500 years later they show few signs of erosion and will likely last for generations. Modern buildings, however, barely last a decade without significant maintenance. Thanks to engineers at MIT, that could all change. A team of civil engineers have figured out how to make standard concrete resist the ravages of time for 16,000 years.
It all comes down to “creep.” It’s the technical term for the process that makes cement break down. Basically concrete particles settle into different densities over time, thus cement cracks and crumbles. Professor Franz-Josef Ulm and his team at MIT have figured out how to manipulate concrete at the nano scale to slow creep to a crawl. Using silica fumes, a waste material from aluminum production, they’ve shown they can cut the rate of creep by nearly three times.
That makes extremely dense concrete that, on the short side, can last for more than 100 years without maintenance. The new material is also much stronger than conventional concrete, which means engineers can use less of it in construction. Says Professor Franz-Josef Ulm of MIT:
“The thinner the structure, the more sensitive it is to creep, so up until now, we have been unable to build large-scale lightweight, durable concrete structures,” said Ulm. “With this new understanding of concrete, we could produce filigree: light, elegant, strong structures that will require far less material.”
Using less concrete will also reduce CO2 emissions. Current concrete construction accounts for 2 to 8 percent of worldwide CO2 emissions.
Link to MIT article
Batteries seem to be stuck in the days of Edison—heavy, toxic bricks that hold measly amounts of energy and wear out far too quickly. Even hallowed lithium-ion batteries are expensive and unstable. Thankfully the next generation of batteries are on the horizon, and they’re hellishly awesome.
Engineers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have revived lithium-sulphur batteries. They promise to pack three times as much power as lithium-ion batteries, and weigh much less than current power cells.
Lithium-sulphur batteries aren’t anything new. They were developed ages ago, but abandoned due to high cost, poor efficiency, and short lifespan. Charging and discharging a lithium-sulphur battery involves moving lithium ions between two electrodes within the battery. Theoretically, sulphur should be able to hold twice as many lithium ions. But sulphur is an insulator, making it difficult for electrons and ions to move freely into and out of the sulphur electrode.
The scientists at Waterloo have overcome the technical issues using a nanostructure of carbon rods. Sulphur is melted into the carbon nanostructure, giving ions much better access to the sulphur. Essentially, ions and electrons can travel down the carbon rods to reach the sulphur melted between them.
The battery is in testing phases right now, which means we’ll likely not see lithium-sulphur batteries in laptops, iPods, or electric cars for a few years.
Link to Gizmodo article
Link to Technology Review article
In its never-ending quest to create a Seussian paradise full of precariously leaning buildings, organically bulbous apartment complexes, and poofy truffula trees, the city of Madrid has approved plans to build a sparkling eco-hive convention center: the new Centro Internacional de Convenciones de la Ciudad de Madrid (CICCM).
The new building was designed by Mansilla + Tunon Architects and features a translucent gelatinous skin filled with solar cells and a design that funnels sunlight into its deepest recesses. It’s pretty neat.
Link to Gizmag article.
A car’s shocks dissipate a lot of energy when they soak up bumps. Engineers at Tufts University have figured out how to turn that energy into electricity that could be used to power the car.
The team has built electro-magnetic shocks that are essentially linear generators, using the up-and-down motion of the shock’s travel to generate electricity. The engineers envision using their shocks on hybrid vehicles. They estimate that a 2,500 pound car traveling at 45 mph would recover between 20 and 70 percent of the electricity it uses from the shocks.
The shocks could greatly extend the range of plug-in hybrid vehicles, but they may be put to better use on trucks. Massive rigs have a far greater potential for generating energy—when they hit a bump, tons of force compresses the shock. Good tech, for sure.
Link to Autoblog article
Link to iCars article
Light bulbs siphon a lot of juice out of the grid, which makes them perfect targets for anyone trying to conserve power. Compact fluorescents (CFLs) have been leading the charge, armed with mercury vapor and phosphor that emits far more light per watt than hot incandescent bulbs. But they’re toxic and expensive, so engineers are looking for alternatives.
Enter LEDs, light-emitting diodes. They can be twice as efficient as CFLs and 10 times as efficient as incandescent bulbs. But they’re expensive, complex structures of gallium nitride crystals, reflectors and even sapphires. Until now. Researchers at Perdue University have figured out how to make LEDs using good-old silicon wafers. The new process could mean LEDs that compete, price-wise, with CFLs and even incandescent bulbs. And the new LEDs are efficient—between 47 to 64 percent efficient. Compare that to an incandescent bulb’s paltry 10 percent and you can see how the new lights could save a ton of electricity.
That’s not all. LED manufacturer OSRAM has developed a new LED that’s significantly brighter than existing bulbs. They’ve managed to push 500 lumens out of a single 1-mm-square LED. To put things into perspective, a 100-watt incandescent bulb puts out about 1700 lumens. The new LEDs are also extremely efficient, cranking out about 136 lumens per watt. Again, a 100-watt incandescent only manages about 17 or 18 lumens per watt. OSRAM plans to put the new bulbs on the market within a year. Possible uses include small projectors, automobile lights and interior lighting for the home.
If that wasn’t enough, the startup Vu1 is producing a new type of light bulb altogether. They’re called ESL (electron stimulated luminescence) and they use electrons to directly stimulate a layer of phosphorus on the inside of a bulb. It’s the same technology that makes the old-timey tube TVs glow. The company claims that their bulbs emit about 40 lumens per watt. The light, they say, matches incandescent light in color and quality. The bulbs should be available in September 2008 for about $12 a piece. Not cheap, but on par with the price of a dim-able CFL.
So what difference will all these newfangled bulbs make? The US uses a third of its energy for lighting. Engineers at Perdue estimate that switching out incandescent bulbs could cut US energy consumption by about 10 percent.
Link to TreeHugger article.
Link to Gizmodo article.
Link to Gizmodo article.
Turns out that your average plasma TV sucks more electricity from the grid than those fancy new plug-in hybrid cars that are coming on the market. According to officials at the Electric Power Research Institute who were quoted in a recent Associated Press article, big-screen plasma TVs drain about four times as much power as plug-in hybrids.
Why should you care? It means that the U.S. power grid is capable of handling a few million plug-in hybrids without blowing its gigantic, irreplaceable fuse. The logic goes something like this: Consumers have purchased millions of big-screen plasma sets during the past few years. They’ve all plugged them in and probably leave them on for HOURS each day. Plug-in hybrids, on the other hand, will likely be plugged in during off-peak hours, late at night while most people sleep and when the grid isn’t being taxed.
The grid may be able to handle plug-in cars, but we’ll still need to generate more electricity to meet their demands. Hopefully that energy will come from solar and wind rather than coal-fired power plants.
Link to GlobeAuto story.
A new glass developed by engineers at MIT can soak up sunlight and divert it to tiny photovoltaic cells along its edge. The sunlight-collecting glass is so efficient and inexpensive to manufacture that it could make solar power as cheap as coal power, the engineers say.
The glass would replace the lenses and mirrors that typically focus sunlight in photovoltaic systems. It works like this: Each pane is coated with a special dye that sucks up light and then channels it through the glass to small solar cells along the panes’ edges. Researchers have created several tints of the dye, each one capable of capturing a particular wavelength of light. It’s an important development because some wavelengths, or colors, of light produce more energy than others. High-frequency ultraviolet light is supercharged while lazy infrared yields little juice.
The researchers have stacked different panes of the glass, allowing a solar system to absorb several wavelengths of light. Using two panes, they say, nearly doubles the efficiency of the system. The panes are also good at sucking up indirect light, which means they don’t need to be mounted in expensive motorized sun-tracking apparatuses.
Marc Baldo, a lead member of the team, says that the panes could replace windows in homes and would be much more effective on rooftops, hilltops, or anywhere the sun shines. His team is testing several different combinations of the glass and hopes to produce large-scale solar collectors soon.
Link to Technology Review article.
BMW is equipping 500 Minis with electric drivetrains for use in California. Company officials say they’re using the hip hatchback to test a few different electric powertrains. No word on exactly when the electric Minis will be available to the public, but I guarantee they’ll be a smash hit.
And still, the question hangs in the air like dirigible ready to burst into flames: Where are the Big Three’s electric vehicles? And don’t talk to me about the Chevy Volt, because there’s no way it should take one of the world’s largest car companies this long to develop a feasible electric car.
Link to CNET article.
