Researchers Discover That Fuel Can Be Made From Sunlight Scientists have developed a reactor that mimics plants by turning sunlight into fuel. This is another discovery that could be implemented on a mass scale simply by using the sun. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have built a reactor with a quartz window that absorbs sunlight and acts as a concentration device to direct sunlight to a desired location. In the center of the reactor is something called oxide, which allows oxygen to exhale from its crystalline structure at high temperatures, and inhale oxygen back at lower temperatures. Specifically, the inhaled oxygen is stripped off of carbon dioxide (CO2) and/or water (H2O) gas molecules that are pumped into the reactor, producing carbon monoxide (CO) and/or hydrogen gas (H2). Three years after the discovery of converting sunlight into fuel, we still have yet to see any progress in the global energy industry with regards to new, clean energy technologies. Sources:
Vortex Induced Vibrations: Ocean Currents Could Power The Entire Planet The massive oceanic surface currents that exist on Earth today are one of many unused reservoirs of energy that we could tap into. Their total output of energy has been estimated at approximately 280-trillion watt – hours. Ocean surface currents are considered an indirect form of solar energy because of their link to surface heating processes as well as the winds. Scientists have developed a device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents, which have the ability to power the entire planet. If we could harness 0.1 per cent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people. The system is called a vortex induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy (VIVACE). We have so many known alternative ways to generate energy without having to adjust our individual lifestyles in any way shape or form. Billions live in poverty due to a lack of energy while we sit on known solutions. Related Articles on Energy Generation: Sources:
Free Energy: Searl Effect Generator On December 4th, we released an article that began to explore the realness behind Free Energy devices. For those of you who haven’t yet read the article and the videos associated with it you can do so by clicking HERE. In this article however, we are going to take a closer look at a particular free energy device known as the Searl Effect Generator -which from this point onwards I will refer to as the SEG. The SEG like all supposed free energy devices carries the capability to run on its own without any external input. Originally discovered in 1946 by John Roy Robert Searl the SEG captures kinetic energy that is generated by natural changes in ambient temperature. Science Lingo Breakdown (just incase you needed it as a reminder like I did) Kinetic Energy – The energy that comes as a result of motion Ambient Temperature – Temperature in a room or surrounding an object Sources:
Clean Energy Breakthrough: Scientists Extract Hydrogen Gas From Plants Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a breakthrough in hydrogen energy, something that has always been known to challenge fossil fuel dominance. They have developed a process that extracts large quantities of hydrogen gas from plants in an eco-friendly and renewable way. This is yet another alternative we are now aware of that could end our dependence on fossil fuels. Y.H. The high-purity hydrogen is developed under reaction conditions at 122 degrees Fahrenheit and normal atmospheric pressure. The energy stored in xylose splits water molecules, yielding high purity hydrogen that can be directly utilized by proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The U.S. Unfortunately, the new energy sector is hard, if not impossible to break through. Collective Evolution has covered multiple alternative energy initiatives. There are so many alternative ways to generate fuel, energy and every type of ”input” we need. Another recent alternative energy discovery are vortex induced vibrations. Sources:
Another Breakthrough in Hydrogen Energy Challenges Fossil Fuel Dominance Alex Pietrowski, Staff WriterWaking Times Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a new process that extracts large quantities of hydrogen gas from plants in a renewable and eco-friendly way, offering us another potential alternative to ending our dependence on fossil fuels. After 7 years of research, Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, and his team have developed a new method of using customized enzymes to produce high quantities of hydrogen out of xylose, a simple sugar present in plants. Zhang and his team have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydrogen that previously was attainable only in theory. Hydrogen fuel has the potential to dramatically revolutionize the automobile market and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Source: U.S. Here are some more statistics about the energy subsidies in the US: Sources:
Window Socket – Solar Energy Powered Socket by Kyuho Song & Boa Oh The Window Socket offers a neat way to harness solar energy and use it as a plug socket. So far we have seen solutions that act as a solar battery backup, but none as a direct plug-in. Simple in design, the plug just attaches to any window and does its job intuitively. Designers: Kyuho Song & Boa Oh Lunar Cubit Solar Pyramids Being Built in India A Singapore-based company, MSC Power Corp, is building its first "solar pyramid" in India. The solar pyramid works by drawing in air, heating it with solar energy and moving it through turbines to generate electricty. The company aims to be listed this year on NASDAQ in an initial public offering that it says could be worth more than $5 billion.The small scale of the power generation - up to 36 MW with the current design means it is more suitable for rural areas than for powering cities. A 10 MW pyramid plant would be about 45 metres high and take up about 2,500 square metres of space, including an associated desalination plant. The firm, MSC Power Corp, backed by private investors from the Middle East and Asia, will finish constructing a small $10 million five megawatt (MW) power station by June in Pune near Mumbai that will use solar energy to power wind turbines. Via: Groovy Green via Hindustan Times
Peel-and-stick solar cells for battery-powered products of the future | Science Wire A scientific paper, “Peel and Stick: Fabricating Thin Film Solar Cells on Universal Substrates,” appears in the online version of Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of the British scientific journal Nature. Peel-and-stick, or water-assisted transfer printing (WTP), technologies were developed by the Stanford group and have been used before for nanowire based electronics, but the Stanford-NREL partnership has conducted the first successful demonstration using actual thin film solar cells, NREL principal scientist Qi Wang said. Image credit: Stanford The university and NREL showed that thin-film solar cells less than one-micron thick can be removed from a silicon substrate used for fabrication by dipping them in water at room temperature. Wang met Stanford’s Xiaolin Zheng at a conference last year where Wang gave a talk about solar cells and Zheng talked about her peel-and-stick technology. NREL’s cells could be made easily on Stanford’s peel off substrate. Via NREL
Cal Poly Project Produces Energy and Purifies Water Using Algae and Human Waste Photo via Shutterstock The Keystone XL pipeline has some big competition, and it is coming from a number of very small challengers. Scientists at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA are working under a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Energy to produce biofuels from algae and human waste. Instead of relying on dirty tar sands and massive amounts of energy to extract and transport the viscous petroleum, algae needs only the contents of a toilet bowl and some sunlight. The Cal Poly team, also known as the Algae Technology Group (ATG), was established in 2006 to research biofuels and water reclamation. “Like all plants, algae release oxygen while absorbing CO2 and nutrients. The ATG estimates that in California, with only ten percent of the energy market, algae biofuels could save residents $240 million a year. + Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Via Clean Technica Images via Wikicommons users Dietzel65 and Eug