A Turkish technology firm in Edirne has produced fuel with boron through the use of nanotechnology.

NNT Nanotechnology and Boron Products General Manager Mehmet Can Arvas said the invention was a result of the need to find alternative energy resources amidst the increased threat caused by the world’s depleting fuel reserves.The new fuel is currently only being used as an ingredient of the gas or diesel used in fuel tanks but Arvas is hopeful that it will replace these carbon-based fuels once compatible engines are produced.

Arvas said vehicles using fuel containing boron would be able to travel 1,300 kilometers on the same amount of gas that a car using ordinary fuel would need in order to travel 1,000 kilometers. A reduction in pollution is another benefit of the new boron product, he added.

Daniel Nocera’s Sun Catalytix was one of the 37 ARPA-E awardees last month with a $4.1 million vote of confidence from the Nobel prizewinner-driven Department of Energy. Now Polaris Venture Partners has just added $1 million to its earlier $2 million investment in the MIT spin-off to bring their total investment to $3 million.Nocera’s work first burst on the world in 2007 with his work in figuring out how to ape the process of photosynthesis to create cheap solar energy stored as fuel.

According to MIT, the catalyst consists of an electrode placed in water containing cobalt and phosphate. MIT explains that when electricity from any source enters the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate create a film over the electrode, forming a catalyst that separates oxygen gas from the water and leaves behind hydrogen molecules. Then a platinum catalyst is used to convert the hydrogen molecules into hydrogen gas, which could power fuel cells and further efforts to lower global dependence on petroleum-based fuels. The vision is to use sunlight to enable these chemical reactions, creating a new way to tap solar power for energy.

Ultimately the plan is to integrate the technology with solar panels or wind turbines to store energy in liquid or gas fuels which are more energy-dense than the batteries traditionally used for energy storage.The Sun Catalytix electrolyzer breakthrough is that it is being designed to be made with cheap materials. Much work lies ahead, including finding a metal cheaper than the platinum to convert hydrogen molecules into hydrogen gas.

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Qatar Airways has made a major breakthrough in airline fuel technology by operating the inaugural paying-passenger flight powered by natural gas, with a flight between Gatwick and Doha on Monday. The move is regarded as an important step in the industry’s attempts to reduce its dependence on oil-based fuel.

The fuel was developed by Shell and uses a 50-50 blend of synthetic gas-to-liquids (GTL) kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene.

Jeff Gazzard, board member of the Aviation Environment Federation group, told The Financial Times: “GTL is useful for local airport air quality but has a higher carbon footprint than ordinary fuel.”

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The Envion Oil Generator,United States, has recently assembled the first of its fuel-producing generators at the Derwood waste facility, which can consume any type of plastic and convert it into a light-brown synthetic oil that can be converted into fuel for a truck or a jet airplane.

The District company's technology works by melting plastic in an oxygen-free environment to separate the hydrocarbons destined for the oil barrel from the additives used to make that Big Gulp cup. The additives are rendered into a nonhazardous ash byproduct, the company says. While other firms have developed ways to convert waste plastic into oil, Envion uses a "far-infrared ray" technology that yields more fuel than competitors' processes.

The generator, with a capacity for handling more than 6,000 tons of plastic per year, is a slightly smaller version of what Envion will soon be pitching as its flagship product. The 10,000-ton version, which could produce up to 60,000 barrels, costs $6 million to $7 million to build. Depending on the type of plastic, one ton can be converted into three to six barrels of fuel. Envion said it costs about $10 to convert the plastic waste into a barrel's worth of synthetic oil; currently, crude oil sells for close to $70 a barrel.

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A demonstration of microwave technology converting industrial waste and difficult-to-process natural resources into diesel, methane, carbon ash and other reusable hydrocarbons was run this week (4th May) by Global Resource Corp. The commercial prototype of the company's system, Patriot-1, is microwave technology that has an automated engineering process to provide a highly energy efficient, emission free way to convert a wide range of materials into energy.

The demonstration, conducted at the companys's research facility, transformed large amounts of scrap tires into diesel fuel, methane, pentane, butane, propane as well as combustible gases, and carbon ash. Patriot-1's technology can process other materials for the purpose of unlocking energy including; shale rock, tar sands, bituminous coal, heavy oil as well as the environmental hazards associated with municipal waste, tanker sludge, waste oil and dredged materials.


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Schoell, a Florida inventor, envisions a day when his external combustion engine replaces most of today's gasoline- and diesel-powered internal combustion engines. The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy think it may be an efficient way to generate electricity.

The Cyclone engine works by pumping fuel and air into a round combustion chamber, where it swirls cyclonelike and burns at about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Combustion gas passes into a heat exchanger, where it heats deion-ized water to 1,200 degrees under 3,200 pounds of pressure.The water turns into steam, but under pressure the steam remains in a fluid state and is referred to as a "supercritical fluid,".

The steam passes through a valve and into a cylinder, where it expands with almost explosive force to drive a piston. When the piston is pushed to the far end of the cylinder, the steam exits through an exhaust port.From there, the steam enters another heat exchanger, where heat is recovered and cycled back to the combustion chamber. Now cooler, the steam exits the heat exchanger and enters an air-cooled condenser, where it is turned back into water and is pumped back to the first heat exchanger to go through the cycle again.

Schoell has run his engines on gasoline and diesel fuel, but also on fuel made from orange peels, palm oil and chicken fat.cyclonelike swirl of fuel and air in the combustion chamber enables complete combustion so there is little except carbon dioxide as exhaust.In February, Cyclone Power Technologies announced the completion of tests with Raytheon of a Cyclone engine designed for the Navy to use in unmanned underwater vehicles and torpedoes.

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Over the railroad tracks, near Agriculture Drive on the University of Georgia campus, sits a unique machine that may hold one of the solutions to big environmental problems like energy, food production and even global climate change.

The scientists feed the waste, or “biomass,” into an octagon-shaped metal barrel. The waste is then cooked through a thermochemical process called “pyrolysis” under intense heat that reaches above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.The organic trash is then converted into a charcoal-like material suitable for fertilizer for farmers. Scientists say the gasses emitted can be utilized to fuel vehicles and power electric generators.

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A new range of fuel catalysts has been launched in Australia which has the potential to reduce carbon emissions from all industries that use diesel, heavy fuel oil, coal and gas.The transport industry currently accounts for 13.7 per cent of Australia’s net total greenhouse gas emissions and emissions from electricity generation account for 34.4 per cent.

Launched by TK Fuels Ltd Australia, the catalysts, based on extensively researched fuel technology developed and currently in use throughout Europe, have been found to lower fuel consumption, improve engine performance and significantly reduce the pollution of unburnt fuel particles and other toxins from exhaust emissions.

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Two UBC researchers are responsible for a creating a technology that could change the way the world uses carbon dioxide emissions.Chemical and biological en­gineering professor Dr Colin Oloman and PhD graduate Dr Hui Li have invented a new tech­nology that converts carbon di­oxide into useable compounds for commercial use through electro-reduction technology.

Electro-Reduction Carbon (ERC) is an electrochemical process that converts carbon dioxide emissions directly from blast furnaces into formic acid. The compound is a liquid fuel that is used for many industrial processes, including a chemi­cal intermediate in the manu­facturing of various chemicals such as caffeine and artificial sweeteners, and in the cleaning of steel during manufacture. Formic acid is also a non-toxic, biodegradeable, reusable com­pound which yields oxygen as a by-product, which can be used to improve combustion in blast furnaces.

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Despite the latest advancements in automotive hybrid and flex-fuel technologies, motorcycles and scooters remain one of the most efficient ways for energy-conscious commuters to get around town. Unfortunately, there haven’t been any real “alt fuel” options open to motorcyclists. Enter Europe’s EVA, manufacturers of the Track T800CDI diesel motorcycle - a bike so full of exotic features and new technology. EVA’s Track T800 is an “adventure-touring” class motorcycle powered by a remarkably compact 800cc, turbocharged diesel engine, the Track T800 will be among the world’s first commercially available diesel motorcycles. The 800cc engine delivers a respectable 50 hp and a WHOPPING 95 lb-ft (130 Nm) of torque available from 1800-4000 rpm.

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Western countries are currently involved in an experiment called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor or ITER.&summed up, the purpose of Project ITER is a future in which if the previously stated power sources are not available or not enough, a common American household can fulfill their annual power needs with a pitcher of salt water and a two pounds of rocks. How is this done? Nuclear fusion. Not the white light black rain kind, but rather the kind that takes place inside a tokamak reactor.

A tokamak is a Russian invention, a kind of fusion reactor using a toroidal magnetic field to confine and accelerate a plasma. The power is generated via the same means as that of the sun. Deuterium and tritium, two radioactive isotopes of hydrogen are fused into helium. Deuterium is abundant in our oceans but tritium is extremely rare on Earth, but can be synthesized from lithium which is readily found in many of Earth's minerals. The result is a fuel source that with research, can be extracted with minimum impact on the environment and while it is not renewable, is abundant enough for at least several hundred million years of power.

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A handful of companies and scientists are finding ways to recycle CO2 and turn it back into gasoline and other transportation fuels.Carbon Sciences is furthest along in the CO2-to-fuels quest.In June, company chief technology officer Naveed Aslam figured out a way to break down CO2 at low temperature and pressure. His secret? Biocatalysts.

Although catalysts, such as enzymes and bacteria, can split CO2, they're very expensive, and typically must be replaced after every reaction. Aslam invented a polymer shell that protects them so they can be recycled. The same technology can extract hydrogen from water, avoiding the need for energy-intensive hydrolysis. The carbon and hydrogen are joined to form methanol, which can be refined into gasoline or jet fuel.

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Turbochargers are making a comeback. With new technologies and a need for fuel-efficient power, the auto industry is seeing a significant rise in turbos—with promises of more to come.Ford is particularly aggressive with the technology and plans to replace many of its V8 engines with twin-turbo V6s and use turbo four-cylinder engines to supplant V6s. The company has even coined a friendly name for its turbo engines—Ecoboost . Ford, however, is not alone. "We're going to see a lot more turbo engines," says Chris Meagher, GM's chief engineer for its Ecotec engines. Industry estimates peg global gasoline-turbocharger production to grow to around 3 million units by 2013. That's a sixfold increase in less than a decade.

Turbos have always been effective at increasing an engine's specific power, otherwise known as the output per displacement. A 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine can easily match the power of naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V6, for example.

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Developments in Nanotechnology continue apace, and a new invention using nanotubes promises an eco-friendly approach to both consume CO2 and produce useful fuel as a bi-product.The device was created at Pennsylvania State University and it's an innovative development of existing tech that uses titanium dioxide nanoparticles and ultraviolet light to convert CO2.When a group of the nanotubes are exposed to sunlight, CO2 and water vapor, the solar energy converts the gasses into a mix of organic compounds like methane, ethane and propane. The process works at a rate as fast as 160 microliters an hour per gram of nanotubes, and that's twenty times faster than previous attempts to convert CO2 in this manner.

University of Utah civil engineer Lawrence Reaveley came up with a potentially brilliant new idea for disposing off the enormous amount of garbage generated on the planet each day, in the form of a new patent idea that claims plastics – which make up the majority of wastes worldwide – could be used for construction purposes, sound, or heat insulation, as well as for generating electricity through burning.The present invention relates to methods for reclaiming plastics and cellulose materials for use in a variety of applications, including as alternative fuel sources.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the cellulose and plastic materials are shredded or ground, and then blended together. The blended materials can then be fed to an energy converter, such as a combustion unit or a gasifier, where they are burned as fuel source or used to create synthetic gas.Or the Blended materials are heated or have a binding element added thereto. Such mixture is then compressed to form a desired shape or sized object, and that object can then be packaged, distributed, or used. The blended object can be used as a fuel source, or as a building, sound attenuation, or insulation material.

Basically, slabs made of plastic, either pressed together with fiberglass of metal rods (for resistance), or melted so that the plastic keeps the mixture together, could be used for insulating buildings both thermally and acoustically. If they are reinforced, the slabs could also be used as walls and other high-strain construction elements, and could even be employed as a structure for new edifices.

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Photocatalysis is an innovative means of producing hydrogen from water using sunlight – and possibly turning carbon dioxide into methanol, as Tom Shelley reports. Success with that idea would solve, at one blow, both the problem of what to do with sequestered CO2 from burning fossil fuels and the problem of replacing them with a replacement ‘green’ fuels.

The basic process involves photons of light striking a very thin layer of semiconductor, typically only one micron thick, which produces electrons and holes – the same principle as that used in a photovoltaic cell. In a photocatalytic cell, however, the electrons combine with hydrogen ions in water at the cathode surface to produce hydrogen gas molecules, whereas the holes interact with water molecules at the anode surface, in order to produce oxygen and hydrogen ions, which have to be able to migrate through the material to the cathode. The cells can be made planar, as is the case with photovoltaic cells, or as particles, dispersed in water.
Whereas it is quite easy to make a device that produces small amounts of hydrogen, producing larger amounts has so far defeated many expert minds.

The key points are,

* New materials offer the possibility that photocatalytic conversion of water to hydrogen for fuel can be accomplished using a much wider part of the solar spectrum than at present

* The ideal material has not yet been found, but progress is being made and there are many more material combinations to try

* Photocatalytic destruction of organic pollutants and organisms is already a proven commercial technology, using ultra violet light, but can also be accomplished using sunlight

* There is also the possibility of using photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol

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A local inventor says he has figured out how to boost a car’s fuel efficiency by using water; experts say laws of physics are against him.Inventor Rob Juliano stands in front of a customer’s engine that’s been outfitted with an electrolysis-based hydrogen gas pump he’s developed. The system uses power from the car battery to break down water into its gaseous components, which are then pumped into the engine with the goal of improving fuel efficiency.

Hydrogen is being pursued as a fuel by car manufacturers.Honda earlier this year debuted its FCX Clarity, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle powered by an electric motor. BMW has developed a car that can use either gasoline or hydrogen to power a traditional motor.Juliano, however, is peddling something a bit different. Through his company — UnitedH2O.com — builds and installs electrolytic hydrogen generators. They are small, footlong canisters that use electricity from a car battery to break water into its gaseous components, hydrogen and oxygen.

The gases are then funneled into the engine, where — due to the combustive nature of hydrogen — it is used to help drive an engine’s pistons. The process means less gasoline is injected into the piston cylinders, hence the car can travel farther on less gas, thereby increasing the car’s fuel efficiency. In other words, Juliano says cars with his system get more miles per gallon.Lincoln City resident Linda Young, who paid roughly $1,100 to have Juliano install the system, says her gas mileage has increased nearly 65 percent.

But Hydrogen can be used as a fuel, but to create it onboard a vehicle with electricity from a battery, which is charged by an alternator, which is turned by an engine, which is powered by gas, constitutes a perpetual motion machine, says Robert Paasch, the Boeing professor of mechanical design at Oregon State University’s School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.According to the first law of thermodynamics, which states energy can neither be created nor destroyed, the car as a perpetual motion machine is an impossibility, Paasch said. It takes more energy to create hydrogen from water than you get in return when burning the hydrogen in the engine, he said.

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A research group led by Osamu Ishitani has created a new catalyst that could turn CO2 into fuel efficiently, with only the power of the sun.The new catalyst uses ruthenium and rhenium, two elements not found in your average leaf. But they do allow for the same first step (CO2 to CO) that plants use. In fact, it's considerably more efficient and simpler than the way plants do things.

The trick was using the Ru catalyst to absorb the light, which it does very efficiently in the visual light spectrum, but then using the Re catalyst to actually take the electron produced and knock one of the oxygens off of the CO2. The Re complex has a quantum efficiency of 0.62, which means it actually uses 62% of the electrons it gets from the Ru catalyst to reduce the CO2. This number is extremely high.

Now, the only problem is to make sure the catalyst is stable and doesn't degrade over time. If they can do that, then there won't be much between this research and a CO2 to fuel manufacturing plant.

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