Flexible Batteries That Never Need to Be Recharged

European researchers have built prototypes that combine plastic solar cells with ultrathin, flexible batteries. But don't throw away your battery recharger just yet.

By Tyler Hamilton

Solar battery: European researchers have integrated thin-film organic solar cells with a flexible polymer battery to produce a lightweight and ultrathin solar battery for low-wattage electronic devices, such as smart cards and mobile phones. The battery can recharge itself when exposed to natural or indoor sunlight, meaning that some electronic gadgets would never need a separate charger. Researchers predict that such a device could be commercially available in some products next year.

Mobiles phones, remote controls, and other gadgets are generally convenient--that is, until their batteries go dead. For many consumers, having to routinely recharge or replace batteries remains the weakest link in portable electronics. To solve the problem, a group of European researchers say they've found a way to combine a thin-film organic solar cell with a new type of polymer battery, giving it the capability of recharging itself when exposed to natural or indoor light.

It's not only ultraslim, but also flexible enough to integrate with a wide range of low-wattage electronic devices, including flat but bendable objects like a smart card and, potentially, mobile phones with curves. The results of the research, part of the three-year, five-country European Polymer Solar Battery project, were recently published online in the journal Solar Energy.

"It's the first time that a device combining energy creation and storage shows [such] tremendous properties," says Gilles Dennler, a coauthor of the paper and a researcher at solar startup Konarka Technologies, based in Lowell, MA. Prior to joining Konarka, Dennler was a professor at the Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells at Johannes Kepler University, in Austria. "The potential for this type of product is large, given [that] there is a growing demand for portable self-rechargeable power supplies."

Prototypes of the solar battery weigh as little as two grams and are less than one millimeter thick. "The device is meant to ensure that the battery is always charged with optimum voltage, independently of the light intensity seen by the solar cell," according to the paper. Dennler says that a single cell delivers about 0.6 volts. By shaping a module with strips connected in series, "one can add on voltages to fit the requirements of the device."

The organic solar cell used in the prototype is the same technology being developed by Konarka. (See "Solar-Cell Rollout.") It's based on a mix of electrically conducting polymers and fullerenes. The cells can be cut or produced in special shapes and can be printed on a roll-to-roll machine at low temperature, offering the potential of low-cost, high-volume production.

To preserve the life of the cells, which are vulnerable to photodegradation after only a few hours of air exposure, the researchers encapsulated them inside a flexible gas barrier. This extended their life for about 3,000 hours. Project coordinator Denis Fichou, head of the Laboratory of Organic Nanostructures and Semiconductors, near Paris, says that the second important achievement of the European project was the incorporation into the device of an extremely thin and highly flexible lithium-polymer battery developed by German company VARTA-Microbattery, a partner in the research consortium. VARTA's batteries can be as thin as 0.1 millimeter and recharged more than 1,000 times, and they have a relatively high energy density. Already on the market, the battery is being used in Apple's new iPod nano.

Dennler says that the maturity of the battery and the imminent commercial release of Konarka-style organic solar cells mean that the kind of solar-battery device designed in the project could be available as early as next year, although achieving higher performance would be an ongoing pursuit.

The paper's coauthor Toby Meyer, cofounder of Swiss-based Solaronix, says that the prototypes worked well enough under low-light conditions, such as indoor window light, to be considered as a power source for some mobile phones. Artificial light, on the other hand, may impose limitations. "Office light is probably too weak to generate enough power for the given solar-cell surface available on the phone," he says.

Watches, toys, RFID tags, smart cards, remote controls, and a variety of sensors are among the more likely applications, although the opportunity in the area of digital cameras, PDAs, and mobile phones will likely continue to drive research. "The feasibility of a polymer solar battery has been proven," the paper concludes.

Rights to the technology are held by Konarka, though the solar company says it has no plans itself to commercial the battery.

A Better Biofuel

A California biotech company is engineering microbes to produce cheap biofuels that could outcompete ethanol.

By Emily Singer

Sweet solution: Amyris Biotech is engineering bacteria to produce novel biofuels. The new fuels would be fermented from plants used to make ethanol, such as sugarcane, pictured here.

Stroll the streets of San Francisco and you're likely to overhear someone talking about biofuels. It's the latest technology wave to hit the Bay Area, and scientists and investors are swarming toward any startup claiming a better way to make ethanol or biodiesels. Amyris Biotechnologies may actually have found one. Having previously reengineered microbes so that they would produce a malaria drug, the company is now drawing on its expertise at creating efficient bacterial factories to cheaply churn out novel types of biofuels.

Amyris is one of the first companies to spring from the relatively new field of synthetic biology. Unlike the conventional genetic engineering currently used in the manufacture of antibiotics and protein drugs such as insulin, synthetic biology involves hacking the entire metabolic system--changing the structure of some proteins, altering the expression of others, and adding in genes from other organisms--to create an efficient microbial machine. "We think of biological components as parts you assemble and try to get to function as a whole," says Jay Keasling, a bioengineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of Amyris's cofounders.

Plants and microbes naturally make small quantities of chemicals called terpenoids, which are the precursors of myriad products, including some pharmaceuticals and fuels. Several years ago, after developing new ways to boost bacteria's production of terpenoids, Keasling and three of his postdoctoral students founded Amyris to commercialize their work.

For its first project, the company selected artemisinin, a potent malaria drug derived from the sweet wormwood tree (see TR10 2005). By tinkering with yeast's metabolic processes, Keasling and his colleagues were able to boost its production of an artemisinin precursor a million-fold. After just two years of work, they are close to meeting their final goal for the drug--producing it in industrial quantities at prices affordable to developing nations. Now, having created microbial factories that can cheaply churn out carbon-based molecules, the group has turned its attention to biofuels.

Making fuel is different from making medicine. In most cases, pharmaceutical companies aren't concerned with how efficiently they make their drugs because they know they can charge premium prices for them. New fuels, on the other hand, must compete in price with petroleum. Rather than trying to find better ways to make ethanol--the aim of most new biofuel efforts--the researchers chose to create entirely novel biofuels, guided by their own ideas about what a fuel might look like if designed from scratch. "We looked at the Merck Index and said, If you could pick any molecule to use as fuel, what would you pick?" says Jack Newman, one of Amyris's cofounders and vice president of research.

The researchers selected several candidate compounds based on their energy content (ethanol has only 70 percent the energy of gasoline), their volatility (an ideal fuel shouldn't evaporate too fast), and their solubility in water (unlike ethanol, a water-insoluble fuel could be piped around the country like petroleum). After narrowing the list by determining which fuels could be both produced in the lab and used in today's engines, they were left with a selection of compounds including replacements for both diesel and jet fuel. "We've tested a lot of fuels with fantastic properties," says Neil Renninger, Amyris cofounder and vice president of development.

Amyris scientists are now designing metabolic pathways that yield these compounds and tinkering with them to make production as efficient as possible. "You have to walk down a cost curve of production," says Renninger. "At the bottom, you get a product so cheap you can burn it."

While the company is still a long way from having a practical biofuel, its progress will be under close watch. As ethanol is being used more and more for transportation fuel, biofuels have captured the attention of investors. Indeed, in 2001, when Keasling and colleagues first thought about making biofuels, Amyris found very little investor interest. That has changed. "We went out with the aim of raising $7 million [during a 2006 round of financing] and ended up with $20 million," says Newman. "We had to turn down multiple investors."

Fuel Tech Receives Orders for $3.5 Million

Fuel Tech (NASDAQ: FTEK), a leader in the optimization of combustion systems in utility and industrial applications, today announced multiple air pollution control orders totaling $3.5 million.

In the United States, new business was secured from several customers, including three major electric utilities:

1. a Southeastern alliance partner for which NOxOUT® Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) equipment is to be installed on a small coal-fired boiler.
2. a Midwestern alliance partner for which NOxOUT SNCR equipment is to be installed on two small coal-fired boilers.
3. a Southwestern power generator, which has placed orders for a NOxOUT demonstration on a large lignite-fired boiler and for mapping and modeling on several other such boilers.

Overseas, an order was received in northern Italy for a NOxOUT installation on a municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerator.

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) has long been a common means of reducing NOx emissions from industrial power generation equipment. However, concerns over the safety and potential liability of anhydrous ammonia used as an SCR reagent are growing. In addition, the costs associated with aqueous ammonia have driven many power generators to look for alternative means of reducing NOx.

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems must use a nitrogen source like anhydrous ammonia, aqueous ammonia solutions, or high purity urea solutions to cause the NOx reduction reaction at the catalyst surface. Of these reagents, high purity urea solutions are, by far, the safest and easiest to handle. Ammonia, in any form, is a highly regulated material which is listed as “highly dangerous” in the concentrated forms that are typically used by industry. Urea is not listed as a hazardous material by any known government agency.

The NOxOUT SNCR:

• Is a Urea-based Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) system
• Is supplied in complete systems with Catalyst, Reactor Vessel and Urea Injection System
• Causes a 80% - 90% NOx Reduction
• Eliminates anhydrous ammonia and aqueous ammonia handling and storage requirements, along with regulatory requirements
• Has over 400 Installations Worldwide

A simple injection system is designed to ensure "clean" injection with high conversion to ammonia (NH₃). The NOxOUT-SCR process provides high levels of NOx control, similar to conventional SCR.

Typical operation of the NOxOUT-SCR process yields no buildup or fouling of catalyst surfaces. Injectors stay clean and there is often no increase in generator back pressure or decrease in generator performance or efficiency.

The Company’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) reduction technologies have established Fuel Tech as a leader in post-combustion NOx control systems where coal, municipal waste, biomass, and other fuels are utilized.

They also offer a FUEL CHEM® product line which revolves around the unique application of chemicals to improve the efficiency and reliability of combustion/post-combustion that helps reduce slag problems, dramatically reduce SO3 emissions (both in the boiler and across an SCR), and improve plant efficiency thus reducing CO2 emissions in the process. These latter two items have only recently (in the last few years) become important to customers.

Neal Dikeman of Cleantech Blog recently interviewed John Norris CEO of Fuel Tech about Fuel Tech in specific, and his thoughts on emissions technologies, carbon and greenhouse gases, and cleaning up electric utilities.

Solar Installations up 33% in US in 2006, 41% in World, Solar Capacity only Utilized 62%

In an update on the solar industry Solarbuzz reports that the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) devices in the United States increased by about 33 percent in 2006 over the previous year. Worldwide PV installations totaled 1,744 megawatts (MW) in 2006, a new record and a growth of 19 percent over 2005. The United States contributed just 8 percent of those installations, or about 140 MW, while Germany led the world market with 960 MW of PV installations, comprising 55 percent of the world's total PV installations for 2006. To supply that market, the global production of solar cells reached 2,204 MW in 2006, a growth of 33 percent over PV production in 2005, while the production of polysilicon a critical ingredient for silicon solar cells increased by 16 percent.

The Photovoltaic Service Program at Navigant Consulting has published a “Pre-Release” of its quarterly PV industry newsletter, Solar Outlook. The feature article in the release is an analysis of 2006 PV technology shipments. The PV industry grew by 41%, the same rate as the CAGR from 2000 to 2006. In 2005, thin film technologies were 6% of total shipments. Thin films increased their share of total to 7% in 2006, and are on track to increase by another percentage point, to 8% in 2007. Many more facts are included in the referenced pdf.

Notice that the Solarbuzz numbers are for global production, while the Navigant numbers are for shipments, perhaps explaining the difference in numbers or it may simply be a matter of discrepencies in data collection.

TOP TEN SOLAR MANUFACTURERS

RANKING	2004	2005	2006
1	Sharp Solar	Sharp Solar	Sharp Solar, 22%
2	Kyocera	Kyocera	Q-Cells, 12%
3	BP Solar	Q-Cells	Kyocera, 9%
4	Shell Solar	Shott Solar	Suntech, 8%
5	Q-Cells	BP Solar	Sanyo, 6%
6	Shott Solar	Mitsubishi Electric	Mitsubishi Electric, 6%
7	Sanyo	Sanyo	Shott Solar, 5%
8	Mitsubishi Electric	Shell Solar	Motech, 5%
9	Isofoton	Motech	BP Solar, 4%
10	Motech	Isofoton	SunPower, 3%
Total Shipments	1049.8	1407.7	1982.4

The capacity utilization table on the left, from Navigant, reveals a somewhat suprising fact that production facilities were only used at 62% of capacity in 2006, up 1% from 2005, this happening while reports are that demand is exceeding supplies. This must at least be partially explained by the shortage in silicon.

This year is shaping up to be another banner year for PV installations in the United States. In early February, the Colorado Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved an 8-MW PV installation, which SunE Alamosa1, LLC will construct in Alamosa before year's end to provide solar power to Xcel Energy and its customers. Last week, the Nevada PUC approved a 20-year contract between Nevada Power Company and Solar Star NAFB for the installation of an 18-MW PV installation at Nellis Air Force Base. The Nevada PUC also approved 562 applications for customer-sited PV installations that will qualify for the state's SolarGenerations program. See the press releases from the Colorado PUC and the Nevada PUC.

Of course, California continues to demonstrate its solar power leadership by installing large PV systems throughout the state. Last week, Chevron Energy Solutions began building a 1-MW PV system that will form a parking structure at California State University, Fresno. In mid-March, San California Gas Company (a subsidiary of Sempra Energy) presented a $3.4 million incentive check to Peninsula Packaging for installing a 1-MW PV system at its facility in Exeter. On March 1st, the City of San Diego unveiled a 1-MW PV system at its Alvarado Water Treatment Plant, while SPG Solar, Inc. announced the completion of an 827-kilowatt PV system at Western Wine Services in the Napa Valley. Last week, SPG Solar also completed a 500-kilowatt PV system for the Sonoma County Water Agency. See the press releases from Chevron Energy Solutions, Sempra Energy, and the City of San Diego (PDF 37 KB), as well as the March 1st and March 19th press releases from SPG Solar.

Hell and Hydrogen

No matter how well they're engineered, hydrogen cars offer no real answer to the imminent threats posed by global warming.

By David Talbot

BMW’S Hydrogen 7 sedan burns hydrogen or gas in an internal combustion engine; liquid hydrogen is stored in a heavy trunk-mounted tank.

By the time Klaus Draeger, BMW's manager of research and development, took the microphone at a Berlin hotel last fall, the assembled journalists' bellies were full of mint juleps--and it all started to make sense. Maybe the world's oil crisis and the threat of climate change could be sensibly addressed by using hydrogen as a transportation fuel. Draeger sketched the alluring vision of a future in which high-performance luxury cars burn hydrogen and emit mostly water vapor. The hydrogen could someday be provided by renewable sources of energy, he said, and nobody would have to make any sacrifices. And we journalists would get to drive the first such cars the following day.

"You'll be pioneers! You will be sitting at the wheel of the Hydrogen 7, driving through Berlin and the country­side. And for the first time, you will drive this hydrogen-powered luxury saloon," Draeger exclaimed, using the Britishism for "sedan." BMW will lend 100 of these cars to yet-unnamed public figures as part of its global clean-energy promotional campaign. In some ways, the campaign resembles GM's effort to tout its own hydrogen-car program. GM's focus is on a futuristic fuel-cell car. The BMW version uses internal combustion: it burns hydrogen rather than skimming off its electrons. Same message, though: hydrogen is the answer.

"Experts will tell you that hydrogen has the biggest possibility to replace fossil fuels," Draeger explained, as the wine flowed. "Please see the Hydrogen 7 as an offer. We can only make this car a reality with our partners in political science, the world of business, the energy industry." He concluded with an appeal to "politicians the world over" to make the production, delivery, and storage of clean hydrogen affordable.

The next day, I got a look at the Hydrogen 7. From the outside it looked like a normal BMW four-door luxury sedan. I opened the trunk and marveled at the heavy steel tank that held liquid hydrogen at -253 ºC. While driving, I touched a button on the steering wheel to switch from gasoline to ­hydrogen; I noted no hiccup, just a higher-pitched engine noise. The car is very nice. But does it make environmental sense?

The simple answer is no. In the context of the overall energy economy, a car like the Hydrogen 7 would proba­bly produce far more carbon dioxide emissions than gasoline-powered cars available today. And changing this calculation would take multiple breakthroughs--which study after study has predicted will take decades, if they arrive at all. In fact, the Hydrogen 7 and its hydrogen-fuel-cell cousins are, in many ways, simply flashy distractions produced by automakers who should be taking stronger immediate action to reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions of their cars. As of 2003, transportation emissions accounted for one-third of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

Nobody has made this point more clearly than Joseph Romm does in Hell and High Water. Romm is an MIT-trained physicist who managed energy-efficiency programs in the U.S. Department of Energy during President Clinton's administration and now runs a consultancy called the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions. His book provides an accurate summary of what is known about global warming and climate change, a sensible agenda for technology and policy, and a primer on how political disinformation has undermined climate science. In his view, the rhetoric of "technology breakthroughs"--including the emphasis by President Bush and some in the auto industry on a future hydrogen economy--provides little more than official cover for near-term inaction.

$23 Million to Develop Fermentation Organisms

Five projects will receive $23 million over the next four years from DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), to develop highly efficient fermentative organisms that convert cellulosic biomass into ethanol.

Organisms that can ferment these cellulosic biomass materials into ethanol are crucial to the success of commercial-scale integrated biorefineries and cellulosic ethanol refining. Such organisms must be able to survive a wide range of environmental conditions while resisting mutations that would hinder their effectiveness.

Cargill Incorporated, Celunol Corporation, DuPont, Mascoma Corporation, and Purdue University were selected for the five projects. Combined with the industry cost share, more than $37 million could be invested in these projects.

These contracts are part of EERE's Biofuels Initiative (BFI), which has the goal of reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil by meeting the following targets:

• To make cellulosic ethanol (or ethanol from non-grain biomass resources) cost competitive with gasoline by 2012.
• To replace 30 percent of current levels of gasoline consumption with biofuels by 2030 (or 30x30).

How Should We Approach Saving the Environment?

An interesting commentary on environmentalism appeared today on Eco World discussing the differences between supply side and demand side environmentalism.

At a time like this, where the momentum to do anything to achieve energy independence dovetails fitfully with the momentum to do anything to reduce CO2 emissions, policymakers pressured by environmentalists may enact sweeping legislation that could completely change our way of life. But there are two ways environmentalists can go to pursue their core values in the 21st century, and they represent very, very different choices. One of the most fundamental areas where these two choices diverge concerns energy and water policy.

A “supply side” environmentalist - for lack of a better term - would argue that the priority should be to achieve energy and water abundance. To do this, for example, they would advocate construction of nuclear powered desalinization plants, as well as pumping stations and aqueducts. They would advocate increased production of fresh water from seawater, and they would advocate distributing this water to restore every depleted aquifer on earth.

A “demand side” environmentalist, by contrast, would argue that conservation of energy and water is the only approach that could possibly make sense. They would argue that it isn’t possible to produce enough energy for everyone at current levels of consumption. They would fight for energy and water rationing, with punitive fines and even criminal penalties for overuse of these resources.

Read the whole article and express your opinions.

Israeli Discovery Converts Radioactive Waste into Safe Inert Vitrified "Rock" and Clean Energy

This post is adapted from an item in ISRAEL 21c that describes an Israeli discovery that converts dangerous radioactive waste into clean energy:

The problem of radioactive waste is a global one, and getting increasingly worse. All countries in the industrialized world are waking up to the need for safer hazardous waste disposal methods.

An Israeli firm, Environmental Energy Resources (EER), has developed a reactor that converts radioactive, hazardous and municipal waste into inert byproducts; vitrified slag and clean energy.

Shown above, a chunk of black, lava-like rock that is the result of the PGM process invented by EER.

Using a system called plasma gasification melting technology (PGM) developed by scientists from Russia's Kurchatov Institute research center, the Radon Institute in Russia, and Israel's Technion Institute - EER combines high temperatures and low-radioactive energy to transform waste into vitrified slag and syngas which is used to make electricity.

"We go up to 7,000 degrees centigrade and end at 1,400 centigrade," says Moshe Stern, founder and president of the Ramat Gan-based company.

Shrem adds that EER's waste disposal reactor does not harm the environment and leaves no surface water, groundwater, or soil pollution in its wake. The EER reactor combines three processes into one solution: it takes plasma torches to break down the waste; carbon leftovers are gasified and inorganic components are converted to solid waste. The remaining vitrified material is inert and can be cast into molds to produce tiles, blocks or plates for the construction industry.

EER then purifies the gas and with it operates turbines to generate electricity. EER produces energy - 70% of which goes back to power the reactor with a 30% excess which can be sold.

"It [the vitrified slag] also makes a good recyclable material for building and paving roads," Shrem said. Earlier, he told ISRAEL21c that EER can take low-radioactive, medical and municipal solid waste and produce from it clean energy that "can be used for just about anything."

The cost for treating and burying low-radioactive nuclear waste currently stands at about $30,000 per ton. The EER process will cost $3,000 per ton and produce only a 1% per volume solid byproduct.

In 2004, the Ukrainian government put out a tender searching for a solution that would provide safer hazardous waste disposal methods. EER sent in their proposal, and their technology won the bid.

EER's Karmiel facility and its installation in the Ukraine have a capacity to convert 500 to 1,000 kilograms of waste per hour. Other industry solutions, the company claims, can only treat 50 kilograms per hour and are much more costly.

"We are not burning. This is the key word," Shrem said. "When you burn you produce dioxin. Instead, we vacuum out the oxygen to prevent combustion."

In the US, EER is working to treat low-radioactive liquid waste and recently contracted with Energy Solutions, the largest American company in the field with 75% of the US market.

The company brochure gives the following advantages for the process.

• Low capital investment. The efforts of an expert engineering team and more than a decade of operating experience result in optimal and significantly smaller plant design that translates to a reduction in capital investment and long-term operating costs.
• Enhanced environmental performance. Proven environmental benefits enable a smoother and easier permitting phase to manufacturers and operators.
• Elimination of landfill costs. There is no residual ash to dispose of. In addition, the completely molten, vitrified slag can replace quarried materials for the road construction and building industries.
• Lower operating and treatment costs. PGM’s operating and treatment costs are approximately 15% lower than conventional incinerators. Savings are substantially higher when the elimination of ash disposal costs is factored in — an estimated additional $35 million over the course of a 150,000 tpa typical facility’s lifespan.

BP's Bet on Butanol

Forget ethanol: it's hard to transport and gives bad mileage per gallon. Another alcohol, butanol, is a much better renewable fuel, says the president of BP Biofuels.

By Kevin Bullis

Beet fuel: BP Biofuels is developing a process for converting some crops into butanol, an alcohol fuel that's superior to ethanol in several ways. The first batch will likely come from a crop of sugar beets like the one featured here.

Alternative fuels such as ethanol could help reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and decrease oil imports, but so far these biofuels only make up a small fraction of fuel use. One of the biggest challenges to ramping up ethanol use is distributing it. That's because ethanol can't be transported in the same pipelines used to distribute gasoline. What's more, ethanol delivers far less energy than gasoline does on a gallon-for-gallon basis.

Philip New, president of BP Biofuels, a recently created company within the giant British oil producer, thinks it has a solution: butanol. While butanol, like ethanol, can be made from corn starch or sugar beets, its properties are a lot more like gasoline than like ethanol. That means it can be shipped in existing gasoline pipelines. And it contains more energy than ethanol does, which will improve mileage per gallon.

Last month BP announced that it will be working with the University of California, Berkeley, on a $500 million, 10-year program, part of which will be devoted to research on improving biofuels such as butanol. And last year BP announced a partnership with DuPont to develop new technology for making butanol. DuPont will provide expertise in biotechnology. Technology Review spoke with New about the company's plans at a recent energy conference at MIT.

Technology Review: Why is BP interested in biofuels, which would seemingly be a direct competitor to your main business?

Philip New: It is possible--if the world now is really serious about climate change, and if people continue to be concerned about energy security--that given the breakthroughs in technology that now seem plausible, biofuels could represent a significant amount of the transport fuel mix in the future.

I think you have a choice. Either you can try to deny it and resist it and hold it back, or you can embrace it and welcome it and make it a part of your business. And clearly BP has chosen to do the latter.

TR: BP is focusing on a relatively obscure fuel: butanol. Why focus on butanol rather than on ethanol?

PN: Ethanol is a good start. But ethanol was not designed to be a fuel. No one sat down and said, "Let's create a biomolecule that will operate in engines." What happened was, people said ethanol can work in engines. As a lot of people are becoming aware, it's good, but it has some drawbacks. Butanol is, we think, an innovation that overcomes many of the drawbacks.

You shouldn't view butanol as being a competitor to ethanol. An ethanol plant can evolve into a butanol plant. And you can mix ethanol and butanol together, and it can actually help you use more ethanol.

TR: So how is butanol better?

PN: The key way is higher energy density. Whereas ethanol is around about two-thirds the energy density [of gasoline], with butanol we're in the high eighties [in terms of percent].

It's less volatile [than ethanol]. It isn't as corrosive, so we don't have issues with it at higher concentrations beginning to eat at aluminum or polymer components in fuel systems and dispensing systems. And it's not as hydroscopic--it doesn't pick up water, which is what ethanol can do if you put it in relatively low concentrations. So we can put it through pipelines.

The Incredible Shrinking Engine

A new engine design could significantly improve fuel efficiency for cars and SUVs, at a fraction of the cost of today's hybrid technology.

By Kevin Bullis

At MIT's Sloan Automotive Laboratory, Daniel Cohn (pictured above) stands behind an engine equipped with test instruments (in yellow) and an injection system that sprays fuel directly into the engine's combustion chambers.

For Daniel Cohn, a senior research scientist at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the ­century-­old internal-combustion engine is still a source of inspiration. As he strides past the machinery and test equipment in the MIT Sloan Automotive Laboratory, his usually reserved demeanor drops away. "An engine this size," he says, pointing out an ordinary-looking 2.4-liter midsize gasoline engine, "would be a rocket with our technology."

By way of explaining that technology, he shows off a turbocharger that could be bolted to the 2.4-liter engine; the engine, he adds, uses direct fuel injection rather than the port injection currently found in most cars. Both turbocharging and direct injection are preëxisting technologies, and neither looks particularly impressive. Indeed, used separately, they would lead to only marginal improvements in the performance of an internal-­combustion engine. But by combining them, and augmenting them with a novel way to use a small amount of ethanol, Cohn and his colleagues have created a design that they believe could triple the power of a test engine, an advance that could allow automakers to convert small engines designed for economy cars into muscular engines with more than enough power for SUVs or sports cars. By extracting better performance from smaller, more efficient engines, the technology could lead to vehicles whose fuel economy rivals that of hybrids, which use both an electric motor and a gasoline engine. And that fuel efficiency could come at a fraction of the cost.

Cohn says that his colleagues--­Leslie Bromberg, a principal research scientist at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, and John Heywood, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Sloan Auto Lab--­considered many ways to make ­internal-­combustion engines more efficient. "And then, after a lot of discussion, it just sort of hit us one day," Cohn recalls. The key to the MIT researchers' system, he explains, was overcoming a problem called "knock," which has severely limited efforts to increase engine torque and power.

In gas engines, a piston moves into a cylinder, compressing a mixture of air and fuel that is then ignited by a spark. The explosion forces the piston out again. One way to get more power out of an engine is to design the piston to travel farther with each stroke. The farther it travels, the more it compresses the air-fuel mixture, and the more mechanical energy it harvests from the explosion as it retreats. Overall, higher compression will lead to a more efficient engine and more power per stroke. But increasing the pressure too much causes the fuel to heat up and explode independently of the spark, leading to poorly timed ignition. That's knock, and it can damage the engine.

To avoid knock, engine designers must limit the extent to which the piston compresses the fuel and air in the cylinder. They also have to limit the use of turbo­charging, in which an exhaust-driven turbine compresses the air before it enters the combustion chamber, increasing the amount of oxygen in the chamber so that more fuel can be burned per stroke. Turning on a car's turbocharger will provide an added boost when the car is accelerating or climbing hills. But too much turbocharging, like too much compression, leads to knock.

Is 2025 the Year for Fuel Cell Cars?

Reuters -- Hydrogen is being touted as an environmentally friendly fuel of the future, but the road to hydrogen-powered vehicles will not be easy, industry experts said at the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) Annual Hydrogen Conference this week.

BMW, Toyota, Honda, GM, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen had hydrogen-powered vehicles on display at the conference, some costing up to a million dollars a piece and having limited range on a hydrogen fill-up.

Topics raised include the cost of the cars themselves, the cars' limited ranges, hydrogen storage and difficulties of establishing hydrogen refuelling stations.

BMW vice president of clean technology Frank Ochmann predicted that fuel cell-powered cars would be commonly sold and produced by 2025.

He also revealed that the German manufacturer was working on an insulated tank to keep hydrogen in its liquid state. He claimed: "If you put in this tank a snowman, it would take about thirteen years to melt down."

Venture Capitalist and Business Analyst Predict Rapid Expansion of Biofuels Industry, Dramatic Reductions in Carbon Emissions

Vinod Khosla, Jens Riese Deliver Keynotes at BIO’s World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing

Busness Wire News Release -- A top venture capitalist and a prominent biotechnology industry business consultant today both said that the biofuels industry is poised for exceptional growth and that ethanol from cellulose appears to be the most promising alternative fuel over the long-term. During keynote speeches at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and Dr. Jens Riese of McKinsey & Co. also highlighted the significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achievable with ethanol from cellulose. The fourth annual World Congress runs March 21-24 at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Fla.

In a speech titled “The Role of Venture Capital in Developing Cellulosic Ethanol,” Khosla outlined the range of technologies currently being commercialized to convert cellulosic biomass to transportation fuels. Khosla said that the U.S. Department of Energy’s recent grants to cooperatively fund biorefineries that produce ethanol from cellulose is an acknowledgment that the technology is moving faster than expected. He said that a 100 percent replacement of petroleum transportation fuels with biofuels is achievable, and predicted that ethanol from cellulose technology will be cost competitive with current ethanol production by 2009.

Khosla also stated that ethanol from cellulose can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, even achieving a net gain in greenhouse gas reduction. Khosla is the head of Khosla Ventures, a company that actively invests in breakthrough scientific work in clean technology areas, such as biorefineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, and other environmentally friendly technologies.

Dr. Jens Riese of McKinsey & Co. also addressed the World Congress plenary session with a speech titled “Beyond the Hype: Global Growth in the Biofuels Industry.” Riese predicted that global annual biofuel capacity would double to 25 billion gallons over the next five years and could reach 80 billion gallons – meeting 10 percent of world transportation fuel demand, enough to replace the annual oil production for fuel of Saudi Arabia – by 2020. According to McKinsey & Company’s model, biofuels can economically replace 25 percent of transportation fuel with crude oil above $50 per barrel. He concluded that the race is on to build a biofuels industry and that companies should invest now.

Further, Riese pointed out that ethanol from cellulose is the most cost-effective way of achieving greenhouse gas reductions, following measure to reduce demand for energy. Riese is a partner at McKinsey & Co., a leading global management consulting firm and is a top expert in industrial biotechnology.

“We are excited to see industry leaders echo our long-held enthusiasm and optimism about the exciting opportunities presented by ethanol from cellulose,” said BIO’s Brent Erickson. “Indeed, we are optimistic about the opportunities presented from multiple sources of ethanol as a means to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and our environmental footprint.” BIO supports the production of ethanol from all feedstocks. Agricultural biotechnology is helping to increase corn yields, while industrial biotechnology is helping to convert corn starch and crop residues into ethanol more efficiently. With ongoing advances in biotechnology, biofuels can help America meet nearly half its transportation-fuel needs by the middle of this century.

The World Congress is hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the American Chemical Society, the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, the European Federation of Biotechnology, BIOTECanada and EuropaBIO.

About BIO

BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the annual BIO International Convention, the world’s largest biotechnology conference and exhibition

Novozymes Introduces Five-Step Strategy to Achieve Economically Viable Cellulosic Ethanol

At the 4^th Annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing in Orlando, Fla., Novozymes (Other OTC:NVZMY.PK) yesterday introduced a five-step strategy to achieve economically viable cellulosic ethanol.

“As the biotech-based world leader in enzymes and microorganisms, Novozymes understands how biotechnology can exponentially increase benefits to society,” said Per Falholt, Novozymes chief scientific officer. “Cellulosic ethanol fuel is poised to create a multidimensional positive impact on the world’s economy, resources, environment and political situation. Novozymes’ five-step strategy is designed to foster not only the scientific progress of cellulosic ethanol, but also the commercial viability of this critical energy source.”

The strategy comprises:

1. Continued funding of research and development (specifically in the areas of biomass conversion and the development of a commercial process technology).

2. Establishment of flexible configuration testing and development centers, geographically distributed to address multiple types of biomass feedstock and integrate processes (pretreatment, hydrolysis and fermentation).

3. Scientific advancement to increase cost efficiency by improving underlying agricultural practices (collection and harvest of biomass) and pre-treatment methods.

4. Scientific advancement in biotechnology (including enzyme technology, metabolic engineering and novel separation methods).

5. Continued bi-partisan support of a national infrastructure to support practical implementation (including funding, incentives and tax credits.

According to Maria Rapoza, vice president for Science and Technology, “Because these new enzymatic technologies have the potential to be used on many different crops to produce biofuels from cellulose, it is important to ensure coordination at a number of different levels, including in university research programs, commercial development and agricultural production, and the identification of suitable crops.”

Novozymes is the biotech-based world leader in enzymes and microorganisms. Using nature's own technologies, they continuously expand the frontiers of biological solutions to improve industrial performance in all areas. Novozymes' more than 600 products are a key player in the production of thousands of products you use in your everyday life - from the textiles in your clothes to the food you eat. Their enzymes are used in the transformation of starch (corn, cellulosic feedstock) into different kinds of sugars in the starch and fuel industries.

Their website gives this description of how enzymes are used in ethanol production.

Today, enzymes are able to work at lower calcium ion and pH levels, making them much more robust. This allows them to work efficiently under the conditions found in dry-milling, making them more profitable in fuel ethanol production.

During liquefaction, the starch slurry is gelatinized, and starch is broken down to dextrins and small amounts of oligosaccharides. To effectively process the starch in dry-milled grains for the production of ethanol, alpha-amylases are needed to reduce dextrin chain-length and mash viscosity prior to saccharification and fermentation with yeast.

BP Solar Announces Two Mega Cell Plants

BP Solar today announced that it has begun constructing two mega cell plants, one at its European headquarters in Tres Cantos, Madrid and the second at its joint venture facility, Tata BP Solar, in Bangalore, India.

For phase 1 of the Madrid expansion, BP Solar is aiming to expand its annual cell capacity from 55 MW to around 300 MW. The Bangalore expansion could add another 300 MW to BP Solar's total capacity.

The new cell lines use state-of-the-art screen printing technology,much of it proprietary to BP Solar. By fully automating wafer handling,the lines will be able to handle the very thinnest of wafers available and ensuring the highest possible quality.

"The announcement of the two mega cell plants cements BP Solar's commitment to maintain a market leadership position in PV" said Lee Edwards, BP Solar's CEO. "The new cell technologies we are using, our intellectual property in casting with Mono2 and the contracts we have signed to secure preferential access to metallurgical grade silicon are all important steps towards our goal of offering customers PV generated electricity on a par with the cost of conventional grid supplied electricity."

This announcement brings BP's total announced capacity to 690 MW, second behind Sharp.

Sharp currently has three expansions underway which will bring their capacity to 820 MW per year.

These plants will bring us closer to being able to produce PV power at costs nearer that of conventional electricity. Several pundits have said that when production capacity reaches 1 GW at a single facility solar PV will be competitive with conventional electricity. Between the proprietary processes of several producers and the experience and expertise that AMAT is bringing to the field, reaching this goal is approaching faster than I had expected.

Bush seeks to scrap current ethanol standard

Reuters, March 20, 2007 -- The Bush administration has proposed scrapping the current U.S. renewable fuels standard that requires ethanol ...

Under the legislative proposal sent to Congress on Monday, the new standard would require U.S. ethanol and alternative fuel consumption to reach 10 billion gallons in 2010.

The alternative fuels standard would then slowly rise through 2014, and ramp up the following three years to reach 35 billion gallons annually in 2017. ...

In addition to ethanol, alternative fuels under the bill would include biodiesel and motor fuel made from municipal solid waste, natural gas, hydrogen, coal-derived liquid fuels, electricity and other fuels to be determined by the Energy Department. ... more

The change in definition of renewable fuel requirements from only ethanol to the other listed fuels makes attainment of the 35 billion gallons annually goal by 2017 more achievable, as I have stated previously. Combined with greater emphasis on PHEVs and BEVs our greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil can be greatly reduced. The coal liquids should be required to be produced from coal mined in an environmentally consious manner and the CTL process be required to sequester all emissions.

Cheaper, More Efficient Solar Cells

A new type of material could allow solar cells to harvest far more light.

By Kevin Bullis

Better solar: In conventional solar cells (a), light (dashed line) enters an antireflective layer (yellow) and then a layer of silicon (green) in which much of the light is converted into electricity. But some of the light (solid arrows) reflects off an aluminum backing, returns through the silicon, and exits without generating electricity. A new material (represented by the dots in [b]) makes it possible to convert more of this light into electricity. Instead of reflecting back out of the solar cell, the light is diffracted by one layer of the material (larger dots). This causes the light to reenter the silicon at a low angle, at which point it bounces around until it is absorbed. The light that makes it through the first layer is reflected by the second layer of material (smaller dots) before being diffracted into the silicon.

The effort uses a type of material called a photonic crystal that makes it possible to "do things with light that have never been done before," says John Joannopoulos, a professor of physics at MIT who heads the lab where the new designs for solar applications were developed. Photonic crystals, which can be engineered to reflect and diffract all the photons in specific wavelengths of light, have long been attractive for optical communications, in which the materials can be used to direct and sort light-borne data. Now new manufacturing processes could make the photonic crystals practical for much-larger-scale applications such as photovoltaics.

StarSolar's approach addresses a long-standing challenge in photovoltaics. Silicon, the active material that is used in most solar cells today, has to do double duty. It both absorbs incoming light and converts it into electricity. Solar cells could be cheaper if they used less silicon. If the silicon is made thinner than it is now, it may still retain its ability to convert the photons it absorbs into electricity. But fewer photons will be absorbed, decreasing the efficiency of the cell.

MIT researchers developed sophisticated computer simulations to understand how thin layers of photonic crystal could be engineered to capture and recycle the photons that slip through thin layers of silicon. Silicon easily absorbs blue light, but not red and infrared light. The researchers found that by creating a specific pattern of microscopic spheres of glass within a precisely designed photonic crystal, and then applying this pattern in a thin layer at the back of a solar cell, they could redirect unabsorbed photons back into the silicon.

Today's solar cells already reflect some of the light that passes through the silicon. But the photonic crystal has distinct advantages. Conventional solar cells are backed with a sheet of aluminum. The photonic crystal reflects more light than the aluminum does, especially once the aluminum oxidizes. And the photonic crystal diffracts the light so that it reenters the silicon at a low angle. The low angle prevents the light from escaping the silicon. Instead, it bounces around inside; this increases the chances of the light being absorbed and converted into electricity.

As a result, the photonic crystal can increase the efficiency of solar cells by up to 37 percent, says Peter Bermel, CTO and a cofounder of StarSolar. This makes it possible to use many times less silicon, he says, cutting costs enough to compete with electricity from the grid in many markets. The savings would be especially large now, since a current shortage in refined silicon is keeping solar-cell prices high and slowing the growth of solar-cell production.

Global Warming Causes Losses in Food Production

Over a span of two decades, warming temperatures have caused annual losses of roughly $5 billion for major food crops, according to a new study by researchers at the Carnegie Institution and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

From 1981-2002, warming reduced the combined production of wheat, corn, and barley—cereal grains that form the foundation of much of the world’s diet—by 40 million metric tons per year. The study, which was published March 16 in the online journal Environmental Research Letters, demonstrates that this decline is due to human-caused increases in global temperatures.

"Most people tend to think of climate change as something that will impact the future,” said Christopher Field, co-author on the study and director of Carnegie’s Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, Calif. “But this study shows that warming over the past two decades has already had real effects on global food supply."

Continue reading here.

Canada to End Oil Sands Aid, Add Green-Car Rebates

Reuters via Planet Ark, March 21, 2007 - Canada's minority Conservative government, pressured to do more on the environment, will phase out some oil sands tax incentives, introduce rebates for hybrid vehicles, tax gas guzzlers and subsidize renewable fuels.

The provision allowing accelerated write-off of oil sands investments will be phased out gradually so projects that had counted on them can proceed.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a rebate of C$1,000-C$2,000 (US$850-$1,700) for purchases of new fuel-efficient vehicles.

The government is also slapping on a new "Green Levy", or gas-guzzler tax, of C$1,000-C$4,000 on the sale of new passenger vehicles that are not fuel-efficient.

Read more here

Hydrogen injection could boost biofuel production

The "hybrid hydrogen-carbon process," or H2CAR has been proposed by engineers from Purdue University for the production of iquid fuels from biomass or coal. The process adds hydrogen from a "carbon-free" energy source, such as solar, wind or nuclear power, during gasification of the biomass, supressing the formation of carbon dioxide and increasing the efficiency of the process, making it possibe to produce three times the volume of biofuels rom the same quantity of same quantity of biomass. However, the new method hinges on having a cheap source of hydrogen – something which is not yet readily available.

When conventional methods are used to convert biomass or coal to liquid fuels, 60 percent to 70 percent of the carbon atoms in the starting materials are lost in the process as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, whereas no carbon atoms would be lost using H2CAR, said Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.

"This waste is due to the fact that you are using energy contained in the biomass to drive the entire process," he said. "I'm saying, treat biomass predominantly as a supplier of carbon atoms, not as an energy source."

The process, which would make possible the dawning of a "hydrogen-carbon economy," is detailed in a research paper appearing online in the March 6 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Other researchers have estimated that the United States has a sustainable supply of about 1.4 billion tons of biomass each year that could be used specifically for the production of liquid fuels. With conventional methods, that quantity of biomass would provide 30 percent of the fuel required for the nation's annual transportation needs. But the same quantity of biomass would provide enough fuel to meet all transportation needs using the new H2CAR method, Agrawal said.

To grow enough biomass for the entire nation's transportation needs using the conventional method for producing biofuels would require a land area 25 percent to 55 percent the size of the United States, compared with about 6 percent to 10 percent for the H2CAR process.

A major reason less land would be needed is because of the overall higher efficiency of generating hydrogen by splitting water molecules using solar energy to drive the electrolysis. Usually, the hydrogen in liquid fuels made from biomass comes from the plant matter itself. But it typically takes more than 10 times the solar energy to grow crops than it does to produce the equivalent quantity of hydrogen possessing the same energy content by using the solar-power electrolysis method, he said.

"So providing hydrogen derived from water through solar electrolysis reduces the amount of biomass needed," Agrawal said. "The average energy efficiency of growing crops is typically less than 1 percent, whereas the energy efficiency of photovoltaic cells to split water into hydrogen and oxygen is about 8-10 percent. I am getting hydrogen at a higher efficiency than I get biomass, meaning I need less land."

Advantages cited in the paper for the process are:

1. The estimated land areas for both the conventional processes are too large. Even with the anticipated advancements, the land area for the conventional–II case is 27.5% of the total United States land area. This land area is greater than the current United States cropland area.
2. The land area requirements for the proposed processes, especially for the H2CAR–II case, are substantially lower and have a potential to be manageable.
3. The carbon efficiency for the conventional biomass process is quite low. Nearly two-thirds of the carbon contained in the biomass is lost as CO2.
4. The addition of H2 in the H2CAR process improved the overall efficiency of the process.
5. Another associated benefit of H2CAR process is that diversity of crops can be maintained because any type of biomass can be gasified. It has been shown that plant diversity enhances the biomass yield by 180% over monocultures. Also, a diverse biomass growth has a better chance of survival in droughts.
6. The ability to use diverse biomass also provides an additional degree of freedom to tailor biomass growth for the maximization of carbon pickup from the atmosphere without the constraints of relative quantities of lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose, starch, oil, sugar, etc. in a plant.
7. Land area radius decreases to support a given size of plant.
8. Less space is required for storage of biomass.
9. Less fertilizers and pesticides would be required for the same quantity of liquid fuel production, if any.
10. There would be less wear and tear to the land.
11. Less biomass demand to produce same quantity of transportation fuel implies less energy and water input to grow the required amount of biomass.

The researchers suggest in the paper the chemical processing steps needed to make the new approach practical. But making the concept economically competitive with gasoline and diesel fuel would require research in two areas: finding ways to produce cheap hydrogen from carbon-free sources and developing a new type of gasifier needed for the process.

"Having said that, this is the first concept for creating a sustainable system that derives all of our transportation fuels from biomass," Agrawal said.

The process, which would make possible the dawning of a "hydrogen-carbon economy," is detailed in a research paper appearing online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Picking a Winner in Clean-Coal Technology

A new MIT study says that no single technology is the solution to economically cutting carbon-dioxide emissions from coal.

By Kevin Bullis



Coal's crystal ball: Ernie Moniz, professor of physics at MIT, announces a new road map for reducing carbon emissions from coal.

Technologies for cleaning up one of the cheapest and dirtiest sources of electricity--coal--are promising. But an MIT study released last week suggests that no single technology will do the trick. (See "The Precarious Future of Coal.")

According to the MIT report (available here), a clean-coal solution will likely lie in a combination of several new technologies for capturing carbon dioxide and storing it to keep it out of the atmosphere. "The world is going to have to do something to adopt serious constraints on the emission of greenhouse gases, and carbon dioxide in particular," says John Deutch, professor of chemistry at MIT and one of the authors of the study. "All of these approaches are promising. All these technologies are amenable, at some cost, to carbon capture and sequestration. We do not see that there is any reason to pick a technology winner today. There are several different avenues that should be pursued."

Indeed, the MIT report reached the surprising conclusion that an acclaimed new type of coal-fired power plant, called integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), may not provide the best solution for reducing carbon emissions. So far no commercial-scale coal plants have been designed to capture carbon dioxide--and without a price on the greenhouse gas, there has been no economic reason to do so. But IGCC has long been lauded as a type of plant that would make it less expensive to capture carbon dioxide in the future because it produces more concentrated carbon dioxide than is emitted from conventional coal plants.

Capturing carbon dioxide from an IGCC could be, in theory, relatively cheap and easy to implement. IGCC plants use a process called gasification, in which coal is heated to produce syngas, a combination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The carbon monoxide can be converted into carbon dioxide using high-pressure steam. Because the carbon dioxide is highly concentrated, it's possible to separate it from the hydrogen using weakly binding solvent. The hydrogen can then be burned to turn a turbine, or it can be run through a fuel cell to generate electricity. The carbon dioxide would be released from the solvent when engineers allowed the pressure to drop.

These and other advantages, including easier capture of pollutants such as sulfates, have led many environmentalists and policy makers to favor IGCC. But the MIT researchers say that things aren't so simple. The key issue is that not all coal is the same. "There are many different types of coal, not only in the United States, but around the world," Deutch says. "Different coals will suggest different carbon-capture schemes and different technologies."

Coal from certain areas of the United States, for example, might contain twice the amount of energy as coal in parts of India. The amount of water, ash, carbon, and sulfur varies markedly, and all have an impact on the efficiency and economics of coal plants. And the impact of different coals can be significantly greater for IGCC than for more-conventional types of coal plants.