The Homely Scientist

In case you weren’t aware, The Bay of Fundy has some of the largest tidal variations in the world.  The amount of energy that passes through there is absolutely tremendous.  Having seen the tidal bore–as standing wave of rising tide that is the only true “tidal wave”–first hand, well yeah, it’s freakin’ impressive.  A turbine is being planned for testing in a couple years:

According to local legend in Atlantic Canada, a giant whale in ancient times made such a splash with his mighty tail that the water in the Bay of Fundy sloshes back and forth to this day.

Getting power from that giant splash could be only a couple of years away, as the Nova Scotia government appointed Offshore Energy Environmental Research group just completed a round of six community forums on tidal power in the bay.

Nova Scotia Power has already partnered with Ireland’s OpenHydro Group to provide in-stream underwater turbines and expects to have a 1 megawatt demonstration unit in the water in 2009. Source: Nova Scotia looks at tidal power | Inside Greentech

Honestly I hope this gets off the ground.  It’s a simple thing that could help reduce the need for fossil-fuel powered generation and pressure to fire up more nuclear power plants.

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 Hydrogen is often held up as the fuel of the future, but there are some problems with good old H-2.  First, it’s explosive.  Second, as the lightest element, Earth’s gravity isn’t even strong enough to keep it here.  Third, given one and two, rather hard to safely contain and if that isn’t enough, fourth … it isn’t that easy to generate.  Yes, I did the electrolysis experiment in school using a battery to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, but the reality is that the amount of energy required to get the hydrogen out, exceeds the amount of energy the hydrogen releases.

Yeah not good.  Okay to tackle the safety, storage and transport issues we have the hydrogen pellet:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy research lab, has come up with a new formula for hydrogen pellets that looks like it holds a lot of energy, per gram.

The PNNL pellet is made out of ammonia borane, or AB, compressed into small pellets. A milliliter of AB weighs about 0.75 grams and can hold up to 1.8 liters of hydrogen. Researchers speculated that a fuel system powered by AB pellets will occupy less space and be lighter in weight than systems using pressurized hydrogen gas. That’s one of the pellets (and not a half-dissolved Jawbreaker) in the photo. Source: Another formula for hydrogen fuel pellets | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

This looks promising, but they have to work on getting the hydrogen back out easily, effectively, and cheaply.  Now on the generation side:

Those mad scientists at Purdue University seem to think they have something big on their hands, with them now claiming that they’re “perfecting” a new hydrogen-generating technology that they first announced earlier this year. According to the researchers, the technology could represent a “pollution-free energy source” for a whole range of applications, with it effectively generating “hydrogen on demand.” To do that, the researchers added water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium, which attracts oxygen from the water, letting hydrogen loose in the process. Source: Engadget

Again anything to reduce the amount of energy require to liberate a quantity of hydrogen is a good thing.  Again, more work needed.

See the pattern here?  There are no easy answers.  There are no quick fixes.  It is going to take, time, money, and brains to get us to a place where we aren’t so dependant on fossil fuels.  At least now I think we have the collective will to help make it all happen.

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 You know what they say about the best laid plans…  Well a massive tide-power plan is already behind.  You know, from all the sources I’ve read it’s not really clear as to why.  I’m just going to guess it’s going to be the standard reasons.

Does this douse all similar projects?  Is tidal power like holding back the tide with a paper cup?  No, of course not.  Really this seems to be a pretty logical and feasible project.  For all those concerned, the props as seen on the right, spin too slowly to harm ocean life.

from Engadget

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The key to many hybrid cars is the battery technology.  Seems that an attempt by Toyota to switch to LiON batteries has caused some problems:

Bob Kanode, the CEO of Valence Technology, which makes lithium-ion batteries for vehicles, recently said one of the big issues for the electric car world was going to be cobalt versus phosphate. And he may be right. Source: Has Toyota delayed new Priuses? Is cobalt to blame? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Right now the Prius uses the time-tested Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries, laptops and other power-hungry devices use LiON (Lithium ion).  Of course LiON batteries have been having a small safety issue of late.  Can you imagine a LiON battery catching on fire in a car?

Boom.

Not good for increasing adoption of hybrid or electric vehicles.  Solution?  Instead of cobalt, phosphate could be used…but the work isn’t complete.  They only thing that can be done now, is wait.

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 Now this is what I’m talkin’ about!

Built on just 3 acres of land, (most single-story storage facilities need ten times that amount) Portland City Storage will be the largest solar facility in the Northwest. Excess power will be sold on to Portland General Electric, and there is a rainwater collection area on the roof. Source: Eco: Portland’s Solar-Powered, 22-Story Storage Facility - Gizmodo

Really what we have to do is build this kind of facility in order to satisfy our energy thirst.  Is it easy?  Of course not, but also fears that something like this has to be ugly…well just look at that picture!

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 Not only does our world run on electricity, it runs on batteries.  Batteries, while greatly improved even in my lifetime,  still have a way to go.  They are heavy (relatively), bulky, and toxic (like really freakin’ toxic).  What if a battery could be thin, light, and safer?  Soon that might be possible….

Companies have been trying to figure out how to use carbon nanotubes in electronics. Batteries may be the answer, say researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The device is a piece of paper infused with carbon nanotubes and a salt, which serves as an electrolyte. Because it stores energy and conducts it, the device can act like a battery. Source: Paper and carbon nanotube battery developed, and it’s flexible | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

What is cool about this is that carbon is, well, everywhere.  Yes, while this new tech is getting a lot of press and coverage, practical applications are a long way off.  Think about it like the first glider or understanding how a combustion engine might work.  Yep, we just have to wait, watch and see.  That is also what science is about: patience.

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The most pressing issue with alternative fuels like biodiesel is supply.  If you can’t make it in quantity not only does this prevent people from getting the fuel, it makes it more expensive than it really needs to be.  Looks like that’s about to change:

The Grays Harbor, Wash., biodiesel refinery being opened by Imperium Renewables. The 12-acre facility will be capable of churning out 100 million gallons of biodiesel by the end of the year, the company says.

Imperium wants to build three copycat plants over the next 18 months. When it comes to total diesel consumption, 100 million gallons is a drop in the bucket, but it’s a start. Besides, Imperium, run by the rather imperial Martin Tobias, says it can produce biodiesel cheaper than competitors. Source: Photos: 100 million gallons of biodiesel | CNET News.com

Here in Victoria, our city buses are now running on 30% biodiesel … a first for Canada and maybe North America.  All it takes is more supply to also increase demand and lower prices.

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 One of the problems with our dependence on petroleum is that it isn’t “renewable” (technically, it is … it just takes so long that it isn’t functionally), but what if we could “grow” gasoline?  Looks like that might not be such a pipe dream after all:

LS9, a company based in San Carlos, CA, and founded by geneticist George Church, of Harvard Medical School, and plant biologist Chris Somerville, of Stanford University, had previously said that it was working on what it calls “renewable petroleum.” But at a Society for Industrial Microbiology conference on Monday, the company began speaking more openly about what it has accomplished: it has genetically engineered various bacteria, including E. coli, to custom-produce hydrocarbon chains.

To do this, the company is employing tools from the field of synthetic biology to modify the genetic pathways that bacteria, plants, and animals use to make fatty acids, one of the main ways that organisms store energy. Fatty acids are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms strung together in a particular arrangement, with a carboxylic acid group made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen attached at one end. Take away the acid, and you’re left with a hydrocarbon that can be made into fuel. Source: Technology Review: Making Gasoline from Bacteria

Clearly this is in early stages of work, essentially proving that you can get something refinable out of these little buggers.  One thing that I’d like to know is if these hydrocarbon chains are complex enough for all the other things we use petroleum for (plastics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, etc).  That is probably the Holy Grail of breaking our addiction to oil.

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 Think of all the small, free-standing structures you see in a given day.  Bus stops, small sheds, fixed awnings.  They are put there to keep sun (yes and rain, I know) off people.  What about the roofs of those structures?  Looks like there could be a product that will let us take advantage of a lot of small surfaces and use them as solar collectors:

Soliant’s primary customer is commercial building owners but the company’s product design is flexible enough that it has developed a specialized solar-power generator for car parks, or roofs that shade cars during the day.

“One thing we realized about a year ago was that we could make very large panels, which is something that ordinary solar panels can’t do,” said company CEO Brad Hines.

The company’s traditional “heliotube” concentrator, which is meant to be the same size as traditional solar panels, has 10 tubes that shine light onto solar cells.

To make a product to shade cars it used the same basic design, but by stringing together 16 tubes, Soliant makes the panel a little over 8 feet long, said Hines. The company is planning to ship its commercial products by the end of this year. Source: Solar power while you park the car | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but it’s these kinds of simple innovations that can add up to the big stuff.  Heck I saw one today on GearLive’s unboxing–instead of having a screensaver come on after five minutes, just have the screen turn off then.  Simple, easy and will save a lot of power … a lot.

Let’s just brainstorm and think of more things … like what about micro-hydropower generators in downspouts?  Out here when it rains, it rains.  Why not use the power of the water going down the drain pipe generate a little power.  If nothing else they could charge batteries to power outside lights.

Together I know we can work through this.

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Remember me talking about wind-power hitting a tipping point and how solar was almost there?  In a case of news almost made to order is this bit of news:

The University of Delaware has inched up the record for solar cell efficiency with a new device that can convert 42.8 percent of the light that strikes it into electricity.

That beats the old record of 40.7 percent hit in December. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has been funding research to get efficiency up to 50 percent.

The cell, created by Christina Honsberg and Allan Barnett of UD, splits incoming light into three buckets: high energy, low energy, and medium energy light. The light is then directed to different materials, which then extract electrons out of the photons that make up sunlight.

The device also has an optical concentrator, sort of like a lens that directs more sunlight to the solar cell than would occur naturally and thereby increasing efficiency. Source: A new record in solar cells | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

While this might not seem huge, the combination of technologies is extremely important.  By using three different materials to extract the electrons and a concentrator the stage is set for more improvements to follow.  This development isn’t something we’ll see on people’s houses anytime soon, they are going to be very expensive to produce at first, but all innovations, all breakthroughs aren’t mystical bolts from the blue, they all build on the work done before.  This is just one of those steps or pieces of the puzzle.

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