Wanted!-Help on ideas on alternate fuels for paper presentation

[Hyperion]

Suit, not suite

Just saying ......

Yeah... this stupid auto correct in Safari!

 

[Roybot]

Artificial Photosynthesis.

A 25-year quest for scalable solar energy solutions has drawn from biomimicry for inspiration. In its search for creating artificial photosynthesis, an MIT team led by Dan Nocera recently identified two natural biological techniques that had previously remained hidden. Nocera noticed that some life-forms use cobalt in photosynthesis. He then developed a long-lived cobaltbased catalyst that uses sunlight to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen gas.

This work supports Nocera's goal of finding a chemical process that could be distributed (e.g., on houses) and robust (e.g., not decay) in converting sunlight into liquid chemicals (e.g., alcohols) that store the energy for later use in transportation as a gasoline substitute or as electricity with a fuel cell.

The MIT team's recent discoveries have led to a startup company, Sun Catalytix, that is partially funded by the U.S. government's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, which funds selected promising energy-related innovations. In the lab, it seems like the catalyst also works in impure water, which could lead to it being used not only to generate and store solar energy but also to purify water.

Nate Lewis at Caltech is also searching for artificial photosynthesis in a different way, by using nanotubes along with a membrane to generate hydrogen from light.

Infrared Solar Technology

Nanotechnology offers a tool that could help create designs that convert energy more efficiently. For example, nano-scale antennas could be built to capture infrared light from the Sun-light that we cannot directly see but we do experience as heat. A solar cell that could extract this infrared energy would be able to provide energy both day and night (although not as much at night).

An antenna is more efficient at capturing energy and absorbs at a wider range of angles than conventional cells, and it does not require exotic materials to make. However, the antenna has to be about the same size as the wavelength of the light. For radios, this is about 1 meter. For cell phones, it is a few inches. For infrared light, the wavelength is about one twenty-fifth of the width of a human hair. One antenna would not only be difficult enough to make, but it would also result in very little energy production.

The challenge to easily produce millions of these small antennas was successfully met at Idaho National Laboratory (a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory), along with other laboratories, in work that received the 2007 Nano50 award. The laboratories were able to "print" 250 million metal antennas on plastic about the size of a standard sheet of paper. However, the problem remains to convert the absorbed energy (10 Ghz frequency) into useful electricity (60 Hz frequency).

 

[nForce]

I will give you a hint..Think in the line of sugarcane..We produce sugarcane in very large volumes.It is feasible to produce bio-fuel from the extracts.I had presented my paper on the same topic in my 3rd year of engineering.

 

[Jango]

Let's talk to Agha Waqar!!! He can have a couple of ideas.

Seriously, all the option have been given discussed already. Bio-gas, Solar, wind, water, geo-thermal, hydrogen fuel etc etc.

Not a fuel for industry or anything, but an interesting application of light I saw on tv was that by filling a clear plastic bottle with water, and then fixing it on a hole on the roof, the sunlight gets refracted, spreads to the whole room. Two bottles can light up a whole average sized room very well. It's probably not one for your presentation, but still.

 

[sanddy]

wrong post

 

[Avisheik]

Have you covered artificial photosynthesis, microbial fuel cells, osmotic power(i dont know if this is appropriate for your paper) Plus i heard stories about carbon dioxide are being recycled into fuel.

I think you should give a list of all the alternate fuel you have included in your paper already

 

[harpoon]

Let's talk to Agha Waqar!!! He can have a couple of ideas.

Seriously, all the option have been given discussed already. Bio-gas, Solar, wind, water, geo-thermal, hydrogen fuel etc etc.

Not a fuel for industry or anything, but an interesting application of light I saw on tv was that by filling a clear plastic bottle with water, and then fixing it on a hole on the roof, the sunlight gets refracted, spreads to the whole room. Two bottles can light up a whole average sized room very well. It's probably not one for your presentation, but still.

Yeah I also saw it on TV..its in Phillipines, but honestly would it be much better to fix a transparent roofing sheet instead.

 

[I spikes therefore I am]

Water acts as fuel to activate and maintaining homeostasis in most complex system called human body.

Soya bean/ canola oil used as biodiesel even animal fat based bio-diesel are there.

 

[rockstarIN]

I'm not a technical person but don't mind giving you some wild ideas

There are a lot of electricity power in one thunder. It is said that one thunder can light one district for months. If we can control it and store somewhere... all the energy problems will be solved.

 

[harpoon]

Hey..how about installing wind turbines under the road surface in express highways that will use the wind generated by the fast moving cars & trucks to generate electricity.

 

[harpoon]

I'm not a technical person but don't mind giving you some wild ideas

There are a lot of electricity power in one thunder. It is said that one thunder can light one district for months. If we can control it and store somewhere... all the energy problems will be solved.

That itself is the problem..and add to that the unpredictability of the source.

 

[rockstarIN]

That itself is the problem..and add to that the unpredictability of the source.

Yes, but that is the way out, you need decent small place to store enegry as well.

 

[harpoon]

Yes, but that is the way out, you need decent small place to store enegry as well.

A revolution in battery technology has to take place first where vast amount of energy can be stored in small battery packs before this concept becomes a reality

 

[nForce]

Hey..how about installing wind turbines under the road surface in express highways that will use the wind generated by the fast moving cars & trucks to generate electricity.

only if the cars & trucks had jet engines strapped behind them...

 

[harpoon]

only if the cars & trucks had jet engines strapped behind them...

I am not a technical person, so I will explain the idea to the best of my knowledge. The wind turbines will be in the shape turbines found inside a jet engine and it will be long with a 2 feet dia. This turbine will cover the entire length of the road . The turbine will be installed below road level in a pit which will be covered by iron grating..much like the sump pits in road tunnels. When the car moves over this area, the wind generated will turn the turbine and turn the gearbox installed at the road side.