| NREL does CHEVRON, algae style! |
[Nov. 4th, 2007|12:53 pm] |
The Green Slimy blobs from
Roswell NM are taking over!!!
Some interesting news just came onto the wired about Chevron and the NREL's Algae peeps hooking up to develop algae fuels. Finally. It has sunk in. And they're keen to leapfrog whatever developments have already happened, and work with startups to see which algae techs will be the winners. Pretty cool for an Oilco (hope they remember to also bust out the algae jet fuels, as well... ((and yeah i kinda kid about that green slimy thing, algae is green and slimy, but not alien, it's just that when John Sheehan (now VP Sustainability at LiveFuels)started the NREL's aquatic species program ages ago, they had algae "racetracks" in Roswell --of all places-- where they really developed the concept. Anyway, this is a kinda wikked cool story, maybe one day the Condolezza Rice will be filled with biofuels made from waste CO2! wouldn't that be awesome (and even better if Condi is in Jail for War Crimes)? |
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| Here Comes the Total Mobility Project's Solar Mazda |
[Nov. 4th, 2007|01:25 pm] |
...feels like years since it's been here!
...just read in PhysOrg about The Total Mobility Project, a group in Japan who have
turned a Mazda car into a 100% Solar Powered Electric Vehicle. It's not 100% there, yet, seeing how it only gives you <20 Miles per charge, and seeing how the conversion kit so far costs about $20K, it's still a little out there ...but look at the capacitors coming down the pipe, the advanced-LA Batteries and LI-batteries, and you can see where this will go (throw in some phat Ted Seargent spray-on PV for a total chassis chargeability and then all of the sudden, voilà, ur solar whip is teh kewl (!) |
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| Burlingon-IBM turn semiconductor scrap into photovoltaics |
[Nov. 4th, 2007|01:39 pm] |
...first Ben & Jerry's, then Phish, now this!
Here's another cool story out of PhysOrg, about a Vermont IBM team who have pioneered a way to turn semiconductor waste in to solar grade silicon for PV panels (well, actually, that part is not brain science, the new trick was more about erasing IBM's intellectual property before it leaves their hands and ends up on someone's roof). And this is good news, because in the semiconductor world, 250,000 silicon wafers are used a day (and 3.3% of that get scrapped on the factory floor) and so there are about 3 million silicon wafers sitting around waiting to be made useful. They would look nice on my roof :p
...speaking of computers, have you heard the one about OLPC the one laptop per child group has been looking at that run on cow power? No, seriously, and not what you might think, from some cow-poo biofuel or biogas.. but actually hooking the Mumbai cows (for example) up to pulleys and generating electricity from the cows... I dunno, sounds cool, but a little too much like the Professor from Gilligan and not enough like a gizmo from a Brice Stirling book = ( |
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| MDI finds Indian love with TATA. Will finally manufacture theaircar! |
[Nov. 4th, 2007|02:00 pm] |
No, not hot air. Compressed. C-o-m-p-r-e-s-s-e-...
Woooooot! Well there you have it, once more, it pays to be persistent. At least that's how it's panning out for Guy Nègre who, as Green Car Congress just revealed has signed a manufacturing deal for his long awaited MDI Air Car. Yes! the silent car that gets about 125 Miles [at 70 MPH] on a tank of compressed air (and can fill back up in a couple of minutes). So Tata Motors, India's largest automotive manufacturer is going to start cranking these baddies out! And everybody says "Oh yeah!" ...Newly added, they are also going to be manufacturing a hybrid version that runs on gas and compressed air (gas to boost it at higher speeds, as well as to refill the air compression making road trips more doable).
And they don't just have the city cab version anymore, they got a sleek 21st century pickup truck now, and a family vehicle! I wonder if it is silent though, or if it sounds like a balloon slowly deflating (or a whoopee cushion?) Will have to wait and see, but so the question i am thinking is not so much when can i get my hands on a waycool EV, but more, in about 18 months which type of green car is going to be the one to get?? |
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