New Clean Fuels –Different Approaches to Synthetic Liquid Fuels

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Two different companies attempting to provide clean energy and reduce carbon emissions are turning to CO2 emissions as a source for their drop-in fuel.  Others, such as Joule, have explored this path, using CO2 from the atmosphere or from industrial exhaust, mixing that with engineered algae, exposing it all to sunlight, and making a synthetic form of gasoline or Diesel fuel. Both of the new entries, NewCO2Fuels and Global Biofuels, use CO2 and sunlight with different technologies to achieve similar results. NCF explains its motivation and technique in its introduction.  “NewCO2Fuels is developing an innovative and breakthrough technology providing a revolutionary, cost-effective solution to two global concerns: CO2 emissions and diminishing liquid fuel reserves. Our product uses a proprietary technology that generates liquid fuels by using CO2 emissions and water as feedstock, and high-temperature heat sources such as concentrated solar energy.” The video shows the basic process, which can base its source “feedstock” on CO2 from gas well drilling, coal extraction, industrial …

Converging Paths Head toward Better Supercapacitors

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Two different lines of research in Korea and Australia seem to be heading toward practical supercapacitors with energy densities approaching the lower end of battery technology while offering better charging efficiency and extended lifetimes. Santhakumar Kannappan, a researcher at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Korea has led a team who reduced graphene oxide particles with hydrazine in water, then agitated the slurry with ultrasound.  This produces a “highly porous form of graphene that has a huge internal surface area,” equivalent to a basketball court for every gram.  They pack the resulting powder into a coin-shaped cell, dry it at 140° C and a pressure of 300 kilograms per centimeter (4,267 pounds per square inch) for five hours. Electrodes made this way and saturated in EBIMF 1 M electrolyte have a specific capacitance of 150 Farads per gram, an energy density of 64 Watt-hours per kilogram and a current density of 5 Amps per gram. MIT’s Technology Review …

(Mostly) Borne on the Wind Across Australia

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Wind surfing across southern Australia, a German team showed ingenuity and skill in a 3,000 mile journey that, as their web site boasts, used “no electricity mains, no gasoline,” and produced “zero CO2.” TG Daily and Gizmag announced the successful crossing of Australia (Albany to Sydney) by a wind-powered car.  Although the car carried a telescoping mast and small wind turbine to recharge its 8 killowatt hour lithium battery pack, the two designer/drivers were forced to plug in to available sources from time to time, accounting for the $15 cost of the powering the expedition.  When possible, they towed the 200 kilogram (440 pound) car with a kite. The Wind Explorer web site proclaims that “Plan[ning] your route with the Wind Explorer is… unique pioneering.  But behind it, how efficient, autonomous and environmentally friendly mobility today can be!” Especially if you are an accomplished kite flyer.  Even more outré than their portable wind turbine, the team used a large kite …