In this issue:
- Buzz Stop hot topics
- Pipe Line what’s around the bend
- Green Machine cleaning up our act
- Gleanings nearsay, quotes and comment
Welcome to Issue Qtr 3 2008
buzz stop
Strata Happenings
Commercial HydroPyrolysis Unit Impresses
Strata Technology of Sunbury, UK, in collaboration with The University of Nottingham has successfully engineered and commissioned the first commercial HyPy Research Rig. Hydropyrolysis (HyPy) is a reliable analytical technique to strip complex samples down to their pure carbon “skeleton” for analysis, enabling important information to be gathered without the presence of contaminants. The technique is relatively rapid, typically less than 2 hours per test. Products are conveniently trapped on silica for further fractionation and assessment, resulting in minimal contamination and loss of light ends. After ten years of research, The University of Nottingham sought to develop their laboratory rig and approached Strata recognising its world leading expertise in safety engineering and experience with research rigs. The commercialisation of this process involving high temperatures and hydrogen at 150bar has resulted in the HyPy Rig being selected as a finalist in The Engineer Technology & Innovation Awards 2008. The winners will be announced in October. For further details please contact Andre Van Daele at andrev@stratatec.co.uk
http://www.theengineerawards.co.uk/pastwinners.aspx
HNC Awarded to Trainee
Chris Hopgood seen here (centre) with Malcolm West (left) and MD Trevor Hesketh (Right) is congratulated on successfully completing his BTech Higher National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering.Well done Chris!!
Chris will be continuing his studies with Strata for a Higher National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering as well as training in our design department.
Solar surprise
1) Liquid collector
Konarka Technologies of Massachusetts has developed Power Plastic, a material that converts light to energy. Using highly efficient inkjet printing it has demonstrated a new method of manufacturing solar cells for large quantities of solar panels. Konarka plans to bring multiple forms of its thin film product to market by 2009 at the latest.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/
2) Solid collector
Johnson the Atlanta-based independent inventor says he can achieve a conversion efficiency rate that tops 60 percent with his JTEC (Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Conversion) solid-state heat engine. Using the Ericsson cycle it offers the maximum theoretical efficiency available from an engine operating between two temperatures. The electro-chemical potential of hydrogen pressure is applied across a proton conductive membrane (PCM). The engine does not require oxygen or a continuous fuel supply, only heat. The JTEC could utilize heat from, solar, fuel combustion, low grade industrial waste heat or waste heat from other power generation systems including fuel cells, internal combustion engines and combustion turbines. As a heat pump, the JTEC system could be used as a drop-in replacement for existing HVAC equipment in residential, commercial, or industrial settings.
http://www.johnsonems.com/?q=node/2
green machine
For little green men
From Kettering University's department of Computational Plasma Dynamics flies the brainchild of Dr. Subrata Roy its associate professor and director of Mechanical Engineering.
Mr. Roy's patent application describes a saucer-shaped craft just six inches in diameter powered by magnetohydrodynamics (energy generated as a current passing through a conducting fluid). The winged electromagnetic air vehicle (WEAV) will lift off vertically and hover; both a saucer and a helicopter in one. Plasma-forming electrodes will serve as a conducting fluid, causing the surrounding air to be pushed around the craft, propelling it through the sky.
Kite power
Jet Stream wind energy can play a substantial role in addressing the world's energy needs and global warming problems. Tremendous energy can be captured from these average temperate zone winds, enough to supply all the world's power needs economically. Flying Electric Generators will produce far more megawatt hours of electricity per year than land based windmills due to much higher wind speeds and their constancy.
Australian Professor Bryan Roberts has demonstrated Flying Electric Generator (FEG) technology is practical and should work at an altitude of 15,000 feet. Balloons carrying radar equipment to detect drug flights are already tethered at 15,000 feet along the southern border of the United States. With the advent of very strong but light tether materials, existing rotorcraft technology can capture high altitude wind energy to provide cheaper power than that derived from any fossil fuel and emit no greenhouse gasses.
Spent fuel
Before you next flush the toilet, consider this: researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore have designed a disposable battery on a chip that is activated by biofluids. The research team describes the battery in the current issue of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.
This new battery will be the perfect power source in cheap, disposable healthcare kits testing for various diseases. The chemical composition of urine is widely used as a way of testing for tell-tale signs of disease and also as an indicator of a person’s general state of health.
The concentration of glucose in urine is a useful diagnostic tool for diabetics. Prof. K. B Lee of Singapore and his colleagues realised, power for the test could be derived from the electrochemical reaction between urine (the substance of their enquiry) and layers of magnesium metal and copper in their biodegradable battery.
pipeline
washed out
Ionic liquids are being used to separate gasses. Ionic liquids are environmentally benign solvents because of their less volatile and nonflammable natures. Ionic liquids have very high and selective solubilities of acidic gases such as CO2, SOx, and NOx. The unique physical absorption property in ionic liquids should open doors for new gas separation methods
http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/aist_today/2008_28/hot_line/hot_line_28_2.html
EU approves massive fuel cell initiative
European governments approved a $1.5 billion (€940 million) initiative geared towards developing fuel cells and hydrogen technology for cars that will greatly reduce oil consumption and carbon dioxide emissions within decades. Car and energy companies such as Daimler AG and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are expected to match or exceed the EU funding for the six-year research project with the goal of making the cars a commercial reality between 2010 and 2020.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aM7iSD2R.Xp0
Japanese lead
Honda is finally putting its zero-emissions FCX fuel cell car into (limited) production, with sales starting in southern California next summer.
The sleek four-seater uses Honda's latest-generation fuel cell stack, which is smaller and lighter, yet more powerful and efficient, than any used in earlier prototype versions of the FCX. It's able to operate at much lower temperatures and can work with the latest small, light lithium-ion batteries to store the electricity generated by a reaction between hydrogen (stored in a single high-pressure tank) and oxygen. The batteries also capture energy under regenerative braking. The only emission is water.
http://www.channel4.com/4car/news/news-story.jsp?news_id=16707/
gleanings
coffee stir
Coffee just made headlines for possibly cutting the risk of the latest disease epidemic of type 2 diabetes. After analyzing data from 126,000 people for as long as 18 years, Harvard researchers calculate downing one to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily can reduce diabetes risk by single digits. Having six cups or more each day slashed men's risk by 54% and women's by 30% compared with those who had no coffee. Coffee is loaded with antioxidants including a group of compounds called quinines that when administered to lab rats increases their insulin sensitivity. This increased sensitivity improves the body's response to insulin.
"Overall, the research shows that coffee is far more healthful than it is harmful," says Tomas De Paulis, PhD, research scientist at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Coffee Studies, which conducts its own medical research and tracks coffee studies from around the world. "For most people, very little bad comes from drinking it, but a lot of good." There's also some evidence that coffee may help manage asthma even control attacks when medication is unavailable, stop a headache, boost mood, and even prevent cavities.
Cafestol, a compound found in coffee, elevates cholesterol by hijacking a receptor in an intestinal pathway critical to its regulation. Cafestol is the most potent dietary cholesterol-elevating agent known, it affects farsenoid receptor X or FXR in the intestine, and is part of the body’s own way of regulating levels of cholesterol.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070614162223.htm
donor body
Diagnosis and treatment that cannot be carried out on a real human body can now be tested on a virtual body instead. Professor Lin Daquan with China's Sichuan University has created six virtual humans using bionic materials.
http://japanese.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/35390.htm
The Chinese University of Hong Kong has also made a breakthrough in virtual human research accomplishing 3D reconstruction and real-time visualization, in the highest resolution, of a virtual human. The gigantic digital human dataset has made this highly interactive photo-realistic visualization of a virtual human possible, on a PC.
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/cpr/pressrelease/031028e.htm
marching to victory
New technology harnesses the footsteps of pedestrians using compression pads. Footsteps from walkers drive fluid through miniature turbines to generate electricity. Generally this kinetic energy goes to waste, but by utilizing the heel-strike generators and piezoelectric materials such as crystals and certain ceramics, it can be harnessed and used to power lighting and other devices.
http://www.gizmag.com/heel-strike-generators-to-harness-pedestrian-power/9518/
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