Industrial heat consumes a huge proportion of global energy. Rondo Energy says its brick-toasting heat storage device is so cheap and efficient that it makes decarbonization an instant no-brainer across a huge range of industries. Bill Gates agrees.
Category: energy – Page 166
Pulling Energy Out Of Thin Air
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During the middle ages, the concept of the perpetual motion machine would develop. The first law, known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, would prohibit the existence of a perpetual motion machine, by preventing the creation or destruction of energy within an isolated system.
MAXWELL’S DEMON
In 1,867 James Clerk Maxwell, the Scottish pioneer of electromagnetism, conceived of a thermodynamic thought experiment that exhibited a key characteristic of a thermal perpetual motion machine. Because faster molecules are hotter, the “beings” actions cause one chamber to warm up and the other to cool down, seemingly reversing the process of a heat engine without adding energy.
ENTROPY
Despite maintaining the conservation of energy, both Maxwell’s demon and thermal perpetual motion machines, contravened, arguably one of the most unrelenting principles of thermodynamics. This inherent, natural progression of entropy towards thermal equilibrium directly contradicts the behavior of all perpetual motion machines of the second kind.
New insights revealed through century-old photochemistry technique
As the poet Dylan Thomas once explained, it is “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.”
Organic photochemistry brings life to Earth, allowing plants to “eat” sunlight. Using this power of light to make new molecules in the lab instead of the leaf, from fuel to pharmaceuticals, is one of the grand challenges of photochemical research.
What is old is new again. Sometimes gaining new insight requires a return to old tools, with a modern twist. Now, a collaborative team from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Princeton University has resurrected a century-old microwave technique to reveal a surprising feature of well-established light-driven chemistry.
Boron-powered Chinese missile will work in the air and underwater
Boron as rocket fuel has been a tough nut to crack.
Rocket scientists in China are working to develop a boron-powered supersonic missile that can fly like a commercial airliner and then swim in the water to act as a torpedo, South China Morning Post.
IStock/AlexLMX
Boron is a highly reactive light element that reacts equally well with water as it does with air to release vast amounts of heat. The U.S. Air Force experimented with boron in the 1950s to increase the power of its supersonic bombers. However, the project was shelved since ignited boron is hard to control and also forms a layer of debris that impacts rocket performance.
This Canadian company wants to build a train-plane ‘hybrid’ that can go 620 miles per hour—take a look
Move over, Elon Musk and Richard Branson: A Canadian company wants to join the fight for better high-speed train travel.
Toronto-based TransPod recently unveiled plans for a “FluxJet,” a fully-electric transportation system that’s “a hybrid between an aircraft and a train.” The project, currently in the conceptual stage, would involve 82-foot-long, magnetically levitated trains that would carry passengers at roughly 621 miles per hour.
That’s faster than a commercial jet, and roughly three times the speed of most high-speed trains — with zero emissions, no less. The FluxJet would rely on “contactless power transmission,” where the train would pull power from the existing electric grid through magnetic fields, the company says.
China plans 3 moon missions to investigate a potential new source of energy
The country’s space agency aims to overtake NASA with its ongoing Chang’e lunar program and future crewed missions to Mars.
China announced its plans to launch three new uncrewed missions to the Moon after the discovery of a new lunar mineral that could be harvested as an energy source in the future, a report from Bloomberg.
China’s National Space Administration announced on Saturday, September 10, that it was given the green light to start planning the launch of three new orbiters to the Moon over the next decade. The new missions will form a part of the country’s ongoing Chang’e lunar program.
China lists nearly 9,000 “little-giants” to become a bigger tech powerhouse than the U.S.
These companies operate in strategically important areas such as semiconductors, manufacturing, energy, and minerals.
The Chinese government has selected 8,997 little-known industrial enterprises that will enjoy preferential treatment from central and provincial governments as the country prepares to supersede the technological prowess of the U.S., South China Morning Post.
Rawf8/iStock.
Who are little giants?
T-Omega re-thinks floating offshore wind turbines for huge cost savings
Most of the world’s greatest wind power resources are offshore – often a long way offshore, where the water’s so deep that it’s impractical to build typical fan-on-a-stick wind turbines with bases sunk deep into the sea floor. Floating wind, at this stage, is so vastly expensive to build, deploy and maintain that it ends up costing two to three times as much per kilowatt-hour of energy as fixed-bottom offshore installations.
There’s a huge opportunity here for technological advancement, and companies like Norway’s World Wide Wind are proposing some pretty radical ideas in the space. A lot of the energy cost comes down to the size, weight and materials involved in the structure of the turbine, along with the logistical issues and specialized equipment needed to build, install and maintain the things.
Boston startup T-Omega Wind says it’s model-tested a unique floating offshore wind turbine design that can withstand massive storms and hundred-foot waves, but at 20% the weight and around 30% the price of conventional designs – not to mention super-simple deployment and installation – unlocking an affordable way to exploit the world’s best wind resources.
Five INL innovations that are changing the world
One of the biggest contributions in the near future could come from smaller, more compact reactors. Several microreactor designs are currently under development in the United States that will be smaller in size, more flexible to operate and versatile enough to provide energy to end users for a variety of services ranging from electricity production to water purification.