Conservation
Prototype provides pedestrian power
May 8, 2013 7:44 am | News | CommentsA group of Rice University mechanical engineering students are getting a charge out of having the coolest new shoes on campus. As their capstone project that is required for graduation, four seniors created a way to extract and store energy with every step. Their PediPower shoes turn motion into juice for portable electronics and, perhaps someday, for life-preserving medical devices.
Researchers estimate a cost for universal access to energy
May 3, 2013 7:54 am | News | CommentsNew research reports that universal access to modern energy could be achieved with an investment of between $65 and 86 billion a year up until 2030. The proposed investments are higher than previous estimates but equate to just 3 to 4% of current investments in the global energy system.
Living in a material world
April 4, 2013 8:03 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA new report finds that the global manufacturing sector has made great strides in energy efficiency: The manufacturing of materials such as steel, cement, paper, and aluminum has become increasingly streamlined, requiring far less energy than when these processes were first invented. However, despite more energy-efficient manufacturing, the researchers found that such processes may be approaching their thermodynamic limits: There are increasingly limited options available to make them significantly more efficient.
Pattern of Flow
February 26, 2013 4:23 pm | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsAs the laboratory construction industry struggles to recover, fume hood manufacturers jockey for better positions and products.
Hotter might be better at energy-intensive data centers
September 26, 2012 4:43 am | News | CommentsAs data centers continue to come under scrutiny for the amount of energy they use, researchers at University of Toronto Scarborough have a suggestion: turn the air conditioning down. Their latest research suggests that turning up the temperature could save energy with little or no increased risk of equipment failure.
Space-age technology helps insulate old buildings
August 22, 2012 4:20 am | News | CommentsRendering, or cladding, is the most common way of maintaining the look of an old house while adding insulation. But cutting panels to size and shape is a cumbersome process. Researchers in Switzerland, which has many old houses that need fresh insulation, have developed an aerogel-based plaster that is both easier to apply and provides better insulation.
Wastewater transformed into fertilizer
August 3, 2012 5:06 am | News | CommentsSewage sludge, wastewater and liquid manure are valuable sources of fertilizer for food production. Researchers in Germany have now developed a chemical-free, eco-friendly process that enables the recovered salts to be converted directly into organic food for crop plants.
New loo turns poo into power
June 26, 2012 7:17 am | News | CommentsScientists in Singapore have invented a new toilet system that will turn human waste into electricity and fertilizers and also reduce the amount of water needed for flushing by up to 90%. Dubbed the No-Mix Vacuum Toilet, it separates liquid and solid wastes, using vacuum suction technology minimizes flushing liquid. The waste is then sent to bioreactors or used in fertilizers.
Commercial building owners can save big with energy controls
April 20, 2012 7:58 am | News | CommentsAccording to a recent report from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, U.S. commercial building owners could save an average of 38% on their heating and cooling bills if they installed a handful of energy efficiency controls that make their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems more energy efficient.
Power up: Conserve, conserve, conserve
October 28, 2011 5:04 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsIn the final part of the continuing Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study on scalable energy candidates, researchers from the MIT Energy Initiative discuss how a megawatt saved is better than a megawatt made, showing there are many ways to save energy without sacrifice.
Bayer MaterialScience improves chlorine tech to reduce emissions, consumption
August 1, 2011 12:29 pm | News | CommentsWith the introduction of a new chlorine manufacturing process achieved by combining oxygen depolarized cathode technology and new electrolysis technology, Bayer MaterialScience is poised to save enough electricity to power a small city.
Efficacy of cool roofs varies from city to city
July 26, 2011 12:08 pm | by Julie Chao | News | CommentsThe R&D Daily recently featured the new cool roof being installed at the historic Stanford Linear Accelerator Center dome at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. But not all cool roofs yield the same results in cooling, and Berkeley Lab has now conducted a nationwide study to map the variations.
Study determines the cooling effect of solar panels
July 19, 2011 7:04 am | by Ioana Patringenaru | News | CommentsIt stands to reason that the photovoltaic panels on a rooftop are not only converting sunlight to electricity, they are keeping the building cooler by intercepting the solar rays. Until recent research, however, just how much of a cooling benefit they can provide was not known.
Advanced Light Source adds reflection to its repertoire
July 12, 2011 10:42 am | News | CommentsWhile Berkeley Lab's third-generation synchrotron is better known as one of the world's brightest sources of ultraviolet and X-ray light, it's roof has been, until now, a prime attractor for the sun’s energy. The 70-year-old dome is being clad in a new cool roof, which will reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere. The project is part of a mandate by Stephen Chu for all Dept. of Energy facilities.
The greening of data
July 12, 2011 10:20 am | by Heather Lammers | News | CommentsPower usage effectiveness (PUE) is a key metric for determining how green a data center is and it shows how effectively a data center uses power. Measured as a ratio of the total amount of power used in the data center divided by the amount of power to the computer equipment, the best score a data center can get 1.0. The National Renewable Energy Lab recently dropped its PUE from 3.3 to 1.15 in an effort to be a leader in this area, and to save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Power grid change may disrupt clocks
June 27, 2011 6:05 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsSince 1930, electric clocks have kept time based on the rate of the electrical current that powers them. Power companies make this happen by keeping current frequency as precise as possible, but a new experiment that would allow more frequency variation in the interest of reliability and money savings could throw off clocks in appliances by up to 20 minutes over time.
Pyroelectric energy harvesters transform waste heat into energy
May 16, 2011 12:46 pm | News | CommentsTiny energy converters being developed Oak Ridge National Lab are designed for deployment in high-performance computer chips as way to use thermal energy to generate power for much-needed cooling. The research team reports that efficiency levels of their cantilevered invention are far higher than existing harvesters.
MATHESON joins ESH Technology Center
May 16, 2011 5:23 am | News | CommentsThe International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) announced that MATHESON has joined ISMI's Environment, Safety and Health (ESH) Technology Center. Engineers from the two companies will collaborate to develop data-driven environmental and sustainable solutions in areas such as energy and resource conservation, chemical management, and industry response to climate change at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering's Albany NanoTech Complex.
Study: China's energy consumption will stabilize
April 28, 2011 4:42 am | News | CommentsWell before 2050, according to a new study by Berkeley Lab's China Energy Group, China's energy use will level off, even as its population edges past 1.4 billion. There will come a time—within the next two decades—when the number of people in China acquiring cars, larger homes, and other accouterments of industrialized societies will peak. Between 2030 and 2035, the steeply rising curve of energy demand in China will begin to moderate and flatten thereafter.
NETL-sponsored project aims to reduce emissions for natural gas industry
April 21, 2011 5:13 am | News | CommentsWith funding from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, researchers at Kansas State University are developing emissions control and monitoring technologies that can be applied to engines used in natural-gas-gathering systems. These are engines that are too costly to replace as they age, but must be updated to meet new federal EPA emissions regulations.
Energy experts to help U.S. Navy get greener
February 17, 2011 7:13 am | News | CommentsUC Davis agreed to help the U.S. Navy find new ways to use less energy and to derive more of the energy it does use from renewable sources such as the sun and wind, instead of oil and coal.
Normal air could halve fuel consumption
February 7, 2011 4:24 am | News | CommentsEvery time a car brakes, energy is generated. At present this energy is not used, but new research shows that it is possible to save it for later use in the form of compressed air. It can then provide extra power to the engine when the car is started and save fuel by avoiding idle operation when the car is at a standstill.
Call for collaboration
February 4, 2010 2:43 am | Blogs | CommentsThe world of R&D is full of collaboration. R&D Magazine has seen this directly through some of the winners of the R&D 100 awards in the past. However, not only is collaboration important to the world of R&D, but it is essentially important to all aspects of life. For the Army, it is not different.
Govt. Labs See Bright Future, For Now
December 22, 2009 9:40 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsTo say that the outlook for government R&D laboratory executives is brighter for 2010 than 2009 would be a great understatement. At this time last year most laboratories were scrambling to adjust to a short-term financial upheaval brought about by an across-the-board freeze on budgets until March 2009.
A Battelle Perspective On Investing In Energy R & D
December 22, 2009 5:21 am | by Martin Grueber, Research Leader, Battelle, Cleveland, Ohio and Tim Studt, Editor in Chief, Advantage Business Media | Articles | CommentsThe greatest impact on our energy infrastructure in the near future will come from research and development focused on global climate change. Numbers bear this out.
