Algae Farm Aims to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel

Dow Chemical and Algenol Biofuels, a start-up company, are set to announce Monday that they will build a demonstration plant that, if successful, would use algae to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol as a vehicle fuel or an ingredient in plastics. Because algae does not require any farmland or much space, many energy companies are trying to use it to make commercial quantities ofhydrocarbons for fuel and chemicals. But harvesting the hydrocarbons has proved difficult so far. The ethanol would be sold as fuel, the companies said, but Dow’s long-term interest is in using it as an ingredient for plastics, replacing natural gas. The process also produces oxygen, which could be used to burn coal in a power plant cleanly, said Paul Woods, chief executive of Algenol, which is based in Bonita Springs, Fla. The exhaust from such a plant would be mostly carbon dioxide, which could be reused to make more algae.
Much More at the New York Times

Yuneec Chinese Electric Airplane Info & First Flight

AVWeb.com has a nice video on a new electric experimental being developed in China for the US market. "Yuneec Chinese Electric Airplane 54 hp two seat aircraft undergoing first flight and flight tests, summer 2009. http://www.avweb.com video by Glenn Pew for AVweb http://www.glennpew.com"

DigiCube MIDPhone-50 @ Computex 2009

DigiCube's MID based on Z500 series Atom CPU (1.1 or 1.6GHz / US15W) looks and feels surprising similar to the Sharp D4 we played with last year...
except the 420g MIDPhone-50 has 3.5G (voice ready)...

On the downside the 1800mAh battery is expected to be only good for 1 - 2 hrs, and no option at the moment for a larger battery.

A Docking station was shown in photos giving extra USB / LAN / LCD connections and battery charge stand features (again all quite similar to the D4 :)

JKKmobile will have a nice video online soon...

Mio Litepad N890 @ Computex Taipei 2009

NEW from Mio : Litepad N890:

GPS receiver (MioMaps for nav.), 3.5G Broadband, 25mm thick, 880g with 3 cell battery, Rotation sensor, Splash and shock roof.

1GB RAM/8-32GB SSD/1.6GHz Atom/WiFi/Bluetooth.

Video here

Smartbooks running Snapdragon @ Computex '09

Qualcomm announced vendors ASUS, Acer, Compal, Samsung, LG, Toshiba and Wistronwill be produceing devices using Snapdragon.

Several of whom will produce Smartbooks - with real all day battery and near zero heat output these machines could change shake up the market.

click the link to see a short interview.

STAIR Air-fuelled Battery Could Last Up to 10 Times Longer

A new type of air-fuelled battery could give up to ten times the energy storage of designs currently available. This step-change in capacity could pave the way for a new generation of electric cars, mobile phones and laptops. The research work, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is being led by researchers at the University of St Andrews with partners at Strathclyde and Newcastle.The new design has the potential to improve the performance of portable electronic products and give a major boost to the renewable energy industry. The batteries will enable a constant electrical output from sources such as wind or solar, which stop generating when the weather changes or night falls. The STAIR (St Andrews Air) cell should be cheaper than today’s rechargeables too. The new component is made of porous carbon, which is far less expensive than the lithium cobalt oxide it replaces. “The key is to use oxygen in the air as a re-agent, rather than carry the necessary chemicals around inside the battery,” says Bruce. The oxygen, which will be drawn in through a surface of the battery exposed to air, reacts within the pores of the carbon to discharge the battery. “Not only is this part of the process free, the carbon component is much cheaper than current technology,” says Bruce. He estimates that it will be at least five years before the STAIR cell is commercially available.
More at EPSRC

New Lithium Battery Can Store And Deliver More Than Three Times Power Of Conventional Lithium Batteries

Scientists at the University Of Waterloo has laid the groundwork for a lithium battery that can store and deliver more than three times the power of conventional lithium ion batteries. The research team of professor Linda Nazar, graduate student David Xiulei Ji and postdoctoral fellow Kyu Tae Lee are one of the first to demonstrate robust electrochemical performance for a lithium-sulphur battery. The finding is reported in the online issue of Nature Materials. The prospect of lithium-sulphur batteries has tantalized chemists for two decades, and not just because successfully combining the two chemistries delivers much higher energy densities. Sulphur is cheaper than many other materials currently used in lithium batteries. It has always showed great promise as the ideal partner for a safe, low cost, long lasting rechargeable battery, exactly the kind of battery needed for energy storage and transportation in a low carbon emission energy economy.
More at Science Daily

Wind-it, installs wind turbines in existing electrical transmission towers.

Wind-it, the brilliant project aims to give our existing energy grid a much needed boost by installing wind turbines in ailing electrical transmission towers. The project is designed for France, but creators Nicola Delon, Julien Choppin, and Raphael Menard believe it could be integrated everywhere, from China’s Sichuan Province to the streets of New York City. The French design team proposes inserting wind turbines into broken electrical towers, thereby turning the towers into wind energy powerhouses and providing an energy boost to a ready-made grid. Wind-it could also be placed in newly built electrical towers. The design, available in three sizes, could provide enough energy to power one room in a house or even 20 whole houses depending on size and wind speed.
More at Inhabitat

Microsoft's Laptop Hunters, Jennie, spoofed by Funny or Die

Laptop Hunters: Jennie - watch more funny videos

Microsoft's Laptop Hunters, Jennie, spoofed by Funny or Die

Solar Powered Mobile Phone, Sharp Solar Hybrid 936SH to be released in Japan

Solar Powered Mobile Phone, the Sharp Solar Hybrid 936SH to be released in Japan. The phone, offered by Softbank, has a large solar array up front that will give you one minute of call time or two hours of standby per 10 minutes of charging. The phone also features IPX7 water resistance, an 8 megapixel camera, and a full wide VGA display and is expected to be release in August. Sorry for Japan only.
More at Impress Watch (in Japanese)

New Prius Debuts with Kyocera's Solar Cells

Polycrystalline Si solar cells manufactured by Kyocera Corp are used for the solar panel that comes as an option for the new Prius, which Toyota Motor Corp announced May 18, 2009, in Japan. The solar panel is composed of a total of 36 cells arranged in six rows and six columns. Each cell is half the size of the standard 15 x 15cm cell. With a cell conversion efficiency of 16.5%, the maximum output of the entire panel reaches fifty-odd watts. The portions where three bus bars are believed to exist were covered with a black component.
More at Tech-on

Galactic Core of the Milky Way as seen via Time-Lapse Photography

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Galactic Core of the Milky Way as seen via Time-Lapse Photography. "This gorgeous video is a compilation of shots taken with a Canon EOS-5D every 20 seconds over about nine hours at a star party in Fort Davis, Texas. It's a humbling sight.
Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo. Some specifics: The Canon was equipped with a fisheye lens (an EF 15mm f/2.8 lens) and powered with an external battery to capture all that goodness.
More at Gizmodo

GoPro Surfboard Wipeouts Videos

El hombre y la tabla - The man and the surfboard.
by surfilmfestibal7

GoPro wipe-out videos.

Wind Powered Vehicle Hits 126 MPH, Breaks World Record

Video of the Ecotricity Greenbird, on the dry plains of Ivanpah Lake just south of Las Vegas, hit a record breaking 126.1 mph. A speed which is 10 mph faster than the previous record which was set by American Bob Schumacher in 1999, driving his Iron Duck vehicle.

Air Force Developing Solar Powered, Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Blimp

The Pentagon intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant blimp which will reach an altitude of 65,000 feet and remain airborne for 10 years. The dirigible will be filled with helium and powered by an innovative system that uses solar panels to recharge hydrogen fuel cells. “It is absolutely revolutionary,” Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force, said of the proposed unmanned airship — describing it as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane. The aircraft will provide intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below. The project is supposed to reflect a shift in Pentagon planning that is more about the intelligence and surveillance operations, and less about expensive high-tech weapons.
Much more at Cleantechnica

New Portable Energy Source Utilizes Microbes To Turn Electricity Directly To Methane

New Portable Energy Source Utilizes Microbes To Turn Electricity Directly To Methane. A tiny microbe can take electricity and directly convert carbon dioxide and water to methane, producing a portable energy source with a potentially neutral carbon footprint, according to a team of Penn State engineers. "We were studying making hydrogen in microbial electrolysis cells and we kept getting all this methane," said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering, Penn State. "We may now understand why."
More at ScienceDaily

Solar Powered Plane. Sunseeker II, Takes Off

The only manned solar-powered aircraft in the world, the Sunseeker II is slated to take off on a European flying tour after the popular e-flight expo on April 5th. Following the success of the Sunseeker I (the 2.5-horsepower predecessor that crossed the U.S. in 21 flights, with 121 hours in the air, in 1990), almost everything has been improved in both form and function, including wing modifications, an increase in surface area for solar cells, and lithium polymer batteries to improve performance. Designed by aircraft mastermind Eric Raymond, the Sunseeker II relies on batteries for the takeoff and solar power to operate and glide during flight. The journey will fly over eight countries: Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. Emitting zero carbon emissions, the environmental impact that Sunseeker II will have on the future of aviation is monumental.
From Inhabitat to Solar Flight

Super Capacitor batteries on the way? Japanese University Triples Energy Density of Electric Double Layer Capacitor

A Japanese university developed an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) dubbed the "Nanohybrid Capacitor," which has an energy density per unit volume of 20Wh/l. According to the Graduate School of the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), the new capacitor has three times as high energy density as existing EDLCs. When commercialized, it may be utilized to store renewable energy or as regeneration systems for hybrid cars, etc. Like the existing EDLCs, it uses activated carbon for the positive electrode. But lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12) is used for the negative electrode to enhance energy density. In addition, TUAT formed nanocrystallized Li4Ti5O12 with a particle diameter of about 5-20nm and mounted it on carbon nanofibers so that the time required for charging/discharging becomes shorter than that with existing EDLCs.
Found if or when we can start using these in our Electric Cars Here

UMID M1 mbook US release date on uncertain ground

Revealed at CES 2009, the UMID announced it would be bringing its tiny MID to the US in late May/early June. However, Jen at Pocketables has been told that while the company is currently working with European distributors and "developing HSDPA and WiMAX for Europe scheme," the same isn't true for America. As such, UMID can no longer confirm the previous summer release and, in the words of her contact, "can't give exact information on the releasing date in US." The UMID M1 units that are currently shipping in Korea while elsewhere is still on hold because of quality issues.
More at Pocketables

Battery that 'charges in seconds' possible from MIT Research.

Battery that 'charges in seconds' possible from MIT Research. A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries could lead to smaller, lighter batteries that can be charged in just seconds. Batteries that discharge just as quickly would be useful for electric and hybrid cars, where a quick jolt of charge is needed for acceleration. The approach only requires simple changes to the production process of a well-known material. The new research is reported in the scientific journal Nature. Because of the electronic punch that they pack, gram for gram, lithium-ion batteries are the most common rechargeable batteries found in consumer electronics, such as laptops. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) report in Nature today that they devised a way for lithium ions in a battery to zip in and out about 100 times faster than previously demonstrated. "We took a basically great material called lithium iron phosphate [LiFePO4] and we tried to improve it further," says study author Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in M.I.T.'s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Video from the BBC