Hydrogen

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The Department of Energy has announced about $6 million in funding for projects that will develop and demonstrate supply chain technologies to deliver commercial-scale lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks to biorefineries across the country.
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Platinum works well as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells, but it is expensive and degrades over time. Brown University chemist Shouheng Sun and his students have developed a new material — a graphene sheet covered by cobalt and cobalt-oxide nanoparticles — that can catalyze the oxygen reduction reaction nearly as well as platinum does and is substantially more durable.
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Fuel cells, which use chemicals to create electricity, hold promise in a variety of areas but the high price of platinum catalysts used inside the cells has provided a roadblock. One promising low-cost alternative to platinum is the carbon nanotube – an excellent conductor of electricity. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could eventually replace some of the platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to Stanford University scientists.
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Tune in for a live webcast from the U.S. Department of Energy on June 19th, from 12-1 p.m. EDT. Electrocatalysts developed by Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL) scientists use less costly platinum and increase the effectiveness of fuel cells for use in electric vehicles.
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Stanford University engineers have found a novel method for "decorating" nanowires with chains of tiny particles to increase their electrical and catalytic performance. The technique is simpler and faster than earlier methods and could lead to better lithium-ion batteries, more efficient thin-film solar cells, and improved catalysts that yield new synthetic fuels.
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Electrical energy generated by various methods can be difficult to store efficiently. Chemical batteries, hydraulic pumping, and water splitting suffer from low energy-density storage or incompatibility with current transportation infrastructure. UCLA researchers have demonstrated a method for storing electrical energy as chemical energy in higher alcohols, which can be used as liquid transportation fuels.
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Making hydrogen fuel cells practical on a large scale requires them to be more efficient and cost effective, and a research team from the University of Central Florida may have found a way around both hurdles.
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University of California, San Diego electrical engineers are building a forest of tiny nanowire trees in order to cleanly capture solar energy and harvest it for hydrogen fuel generation. Nanowires, which are made from abundant natural materials like silicon and zinc oxide, offer a cheap way to deliver hydrogen fuel on a mass scale.
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Researchers at University of Georgia's Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory have mapped the genomes of two originator cells of Miscanthus x giganteus - a large perennial grass with promise as a source of ethanol and bioenergy.
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A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite has been developed by researchers at Berkeley Lab. This technique holds promise for the creation of catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water that is acidic.
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Researchers with the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Sustainable Bioenergy Center (BSBEC) have discovered a family of genes that could help breed grasses with improved properties for bioenergy.
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Water splitting in photo-electrochemical cells to yield hydrogen is a promising way to sustainable fuels. A team of Swiss and U.S. scientists have now made major progress in developing highly efficient electrodes – made of an algal protein, thus mimicking a central step in natural photosynthesis.
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The DOE's Fuel Cell Technologies Program, the Clean Energy States Alliance, and the Technology Transition Corp. are hosting a webinar this Wednesday, December 7 from 12:00 to 1:15 p.m. EST. The webinar will focus on fuel cell applications for primary or backup power for telecommications switch nodes, cell towers, and other electronic systems that benefit from onsite power.
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Researchers with DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered the first strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that can digest switchgrass biomass and synthesize its sugars into all three of those transportation fuels. The microbes are even able to do this without any help from enzyme additives.
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A research team from the University of Georgia has developed a "super strain" of yeast that can efficiently ferment ethanol from pretreated pine - one of the most common species of trees in the U.S. Their research could help biofuels replace gasoline as a transportation fuel.
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DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) will hold its third annual Energy Innovation Summit at the Gaylord Convention Center near Washington, D.C. The Summit will unite key players from all sectors of the nation’s energy innovation community to share ideas for developing and deploying the next generation of clean energy technologies.
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In partnership with the Office of Naval Research, Marines at Camp Smith, Hawaii are testing a trash disposal system called the Micro Auto Gasification System (MAGS) that can reduce a standard 50-gallon bag of waste to a half-pint jar of ash.
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The new issue of Lighting Technology is here! Check out more new feature articles, application stories, tech briefs, products, videos, and research news - all on the latest advances in LEDs and solid-state lighting.
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With the DOE, Virent, Inc., and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) working together, planes may soon take to the skies using less petroleum. In June, DOE announced an award of up to $13.4 million dollars to Virent and its partners to develop a process to cost effectively convert cellulosic biomass - in this case the non-edible parts of corn - into jet fuel.
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A new mobile lighting system features a fuel cell running on pure hydrogen, resulting in zero-emission electrical power. The fuel cell produces electricity for an advanced, power-saving light-emitting plasma (LEP) lighting system and additional auxiliary power up to 2.5 kW, which allows extra equipment (such as power tools, public address systems, or security metal detectors) to be powered by the unit at the same time the system is providing illumination.
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Powerex (Youngwood, PA) has introduced IGBTs from 300A/1200V - 800A/1200V in conventional packages, allowing users an easy upgrade path for increased system ratings and/or improved reliability due to the increased allowable operating junction temperature. Applications include motor drives, fuel cells, and wind and solar inverters.
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Artificial photosynthesis is the process of converting carbon dioxide gas into useful carbon-based chemicals - most notably fuel or other compounds usually derived from petroleum - as an alternative to extracting them from biomass. An Illinois research team has produced a catalyst that improves the process.
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The complete genetic makeup of two heat-loving fungi often found in composts that self-ignite without flame or spark has been decoded by an international team of scientists. Their findings may lead to the faster and greener development of biomass-based fuels, chemicals, and other industrial materials.
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Researchers at Iowa State University think that fast pyrolysis - quickly heating biomass such as corn stalks or wood chips without oxygen to produce liquid or gas products - could be a new way to make inexpensive sugars from biomass.
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Instead of systems based on standard solar panels, Duke University engineer Nico Hotz proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop. After two catalytic reactions, the system produces hydrogen that can be stored and used on demand in fuel cells.
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