20 CITIES SHINING BRIGHTEST WITH SOLAR ENERGY

Environment America scanned the nation find out which cities are shining the brightest when it comes tosolar energy.

Those cities are doing more than just leading the way—the top 20 cities contain more solar power today than the entire country had just six years ago.

Not surprisingly, you’ll see plenty of California cities in the top 20 featured in Environment America’s report, Shining Cities At the Forefront of America’s Solar Energy Revolution, released this week in several variations by the organization’s various state arms around the country.

“California cities are leaders in creating solar energy capacity,” California Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, said in an Environment California statement. “Of the top 20 American cities listed for this clean and safe energy alternative, California has five cities ranked in the top 12—Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento. It’s leadership that means a cleaner environment, better jobs and a stronger economy.”

The report also includes listings of cities split into categories that extend from “beginners” to “stars.” It should be no surprise that states with politicians that tried passing anti-renewable legislation don’t contain cities that would even qualify as “beginners.” The fact that states like California have federal and state politicians willing to stand behind solar energy certainly aids in its deployment.

“Solar energy is renewable and clean, which is why I’m such an advocate for its role in our national energy portfolio,” U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, D-CA, said. “The solar industry is creating jobs, including more than 675 in my district alone and powering our economy toward a more sustainable future. I’m proud that San Diego and California are leading the way as an example for the rest of the country.”

Some cities, like New York, were pleased with their standing, but look forward to doing more.

“New York City is home to a wealth of industries and it is crucial that it continues to lead the way to nurture and build the solar industry,” said David Sandbank, vice president of New York Solar Energy Industries Association. “With the support of our state and local government officials and the creation of the NY Sun-Initiative, we are well on our way to achieving this goal.

“It is very important that we continue our momentum and create more solar jobs while reducing our carbon footprint and dependence on traditional electrical power.” 

In Ohio, where legislation to freeze renewable energy standards indefinitely is on the table, some desperately want to deploy more clean energy. Cleveland and Columbus were considered “beginners” by Environment America, while Cincinnati is considered a “builder,” ranking 24th in the nation. 

“We’ve made progress here in Columbus, but we’ve just begun,” said Ragan Davis of Environment Ohio. “By committing to bold goals and putting strong policies in place, we can make Columbus shine as a national leader and reap the environmental and economic benefits of the solar revolution.”

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NOVEL STAPLED PEPTIDE NANOPARTICLE COMBINATION PREVENTS RSV INFECTION, STUDY FINDS 0

April 17, 2014

A combination of advanced technologies may lead to a therapy to prevent or treat respiratory syncytial virus, a potentially lethal respiratory infection affecting infants, young children and the elderly, new research suggests. Despite a wide range of anti-RSV efforts, there are no vaccines or drugs on the market to effectively prevent or treat the infection.

Despite a wide range of anti-RSV efforts, there are no vaccines or drugs on the market to effectively prevent or treat the infection.

Now researchers at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, and the James A. Haley VA Hospital and the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, FL, have developed novel double-stapled peptides that inhibit RSV in cells and in mice. The team also showed that this peptide's capacity to block infection was significantly boosted when delivered to the lungs by miniscule, biodegradable particles known as nanoparticles.

The team's findings are reported online today in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

RSV employs a fusion protein with a helical structure to enable the virus to bind to and penetrate epithelial cells lining the nose and lungs.

The Dana-Farber/Boston Children's/Harvard laboratory led by co-senior author Loren Walensky, MD, PhD, used their chemical strategy known as hydrocarbon stapling to make "double-stapled" RSV peptides. Stapling helps the peptides retain their natural helical shape and resist degradation by the body's enzymes while disrupting the fusion process needed for RSV to infect host cells.

The VA/USF group led by co-senior author Shyam Mohapatra, PhD, tested these double-stapled peptides, alone and in combination with propriety nanoparticles, in mice to demonstrate significant inhibition of RSV infection.

"This is an exciting advance in the fight against respiratory syncytial virus infection," said Dr. Mohapatra, director of the USF Nanomedicine Research Center and the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine's Division of Translational Medicine, and a research career scientist at James A. Haley VA Hospital.

"We found that double-stapled peptide interference targeting the virus fusion protein can be administered in the form of a nasal drop or spray. The treatment suppressed viral entry and reproduction, including spread from nose to lungs, providing substantial protection from infection when administered several days before viral exposure."

"Designing therapeutic peptides based on a virus' very own fusion apparatus was previously exploited to block HIV-1 infection, but this class of drugs was severely limited by the pharmacologic liabilities of peptides in general, including loss of bioactive structure and rapid digestion in the body," said Dr. Walensky, associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's and principal investigator in Dana-Farber's Linde Program in Cancer Chemical Biology.

"Peptide stapling restores the natural helical shape, which also inhibits proteolysis, providing a new opportunity to take advantage of a well-validated mechanism of action to thwart viruses like RSV that otherwise lack drugs for preventing or treating infection."

Dr. Mohapatra and his team developed nose drops containing the Walensky laboratory's double-stapled peptides after combining them with TransGenex's chitosan nanoparticles that stick to mucous-producing cells lining the lungs.

First, the researchers treated mice intranasally with stapled peptide nose drops, both before and during infection with RSV. The treated mice showed significantly lower levels of virus in the nose and lungs, and less airway inflammation, compared to untreated mice.

Then, double-stapled peptides encapsulated in nanoparticles were delivered to the lungs via the trachea to test whether the combination could further increase the effectiveness of this experimental therapy. The nanoparticle preparation markedly improved delivery of the peptides to the lungs, and the combination worked better and longer in preventing RSV pneumonia than the double-stapled peptide alone.

The researchers say to the best of their knowledge this preclinical study is the first to combine peptide stapling and nanoparticle technologies to maximize the delivery, persistence, and effectiveness of an antiviral therapy.

RSV is the most common virus causing lung and airway infections in infants and young children. Most have had this infection by age 2, and it can be especially serious, even deadly, in high-risk groups, such as babies born prematurely and those whose immune systems do not work well. The virus hospitalizes thousands of infants each year for pneumonia or brochiolitis and has been associated with a significantly greater risk of developing asthma later in life. The elderly are also at high risk of complications from RSV infection.

"This is a new way forward in the development of strategies to prevent RSV infection," said Terrence Dermody, MD, the Dorothy Overall Wells professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who was not involved with the research. "The authors are to be complimented on the clever design, interdisciplinary approach and extension from cell-culture experiments to animal studies. I am particularly excited about the possible application of this technology to other viruses."

---

Story Source:  University of South Florida (USF Health)

.

Professor Eray Aydil's group is applying nanotechnology to produce lower-cost, high-efficiency solar cells. Image: University of Minnesota.

University of Minnesota engineers have added an innovative feature to a standard solar-cell design that boosts its electricity-generating potential by up to 26%. This remarkable improvement may help researchers push the record power conversion efficiencies of dye-sensitized solar cells beyond 12%.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are made from titanium dioxide (TiO₂), an affordable compound that makes these solar cells less expensive than traditional silicon solar cells. A big reason for the lower efficiency of DSSCs compared to other solar cells is that they do not capture enough infrared light from the electromagnetic spectrum.

Eray S. Aydil, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota, and then-graduate student Bin Liu (now a professor of engineering at Nanyang Technological University at Singapore), investigated how the integration of layers of nanometer-sized and micrometer-sized particles into the DSSC design impacts cell performance. They theorized that the addition of these particles would extend the distance the light travels within the cell, thereby converting more infrared spectrum into electricity.

Professor Eray Aydil's group.

Experimental Cell Design

The key component in a DSSC is the photoanode, which is made by depositing a porous, nanocrystalline titanium oxide (TiO₂) film on a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) glass. A layer of a photoactive dye is then adsorbed on the TiO₂ surfaces to absorb light and generate photoexcited electrons.

“Dye-sensitized solar cells make use of excitation of a dye adsorbed on titanium dioxide or a pigment to generate electricity,” says Aydil. “We engineered the pigment both at the nanometer and micrometer scales to trap more light onto the pigment.”

Photoanodes were assembled that included alternating layers of both micrometer-sized and nanometer-sized TiO₂ nanoparticles and porous TiO₂ microspheres. A two-step hydrothermal method was developed for synthesizing the TiO₂ microspheres. These additional surfaces provided more internal surface area, which increased light scattering.

The micrometer-scale microspheres with nanometer pores were placed between layers of nanoscale particles. The spheres act like the bumpers on a pinball machine, disrupting the light path and causing photons to bounce around before eventually making their way through the cell—thereby traveling a greater distance and allowing the solar cell to absorb more of the light.

Various combinations of microsphere layers and nanoparticle layers were tested as photoanodes. The highest power conversion efficiencies resulted from cells that consisted of multiple layers of microspheres and nanoparticles, compared to single-layer cells. This is thought to be due to enhanced light scattering by the porous TiO₂ microspheres. Each time the photon interacts with a sphere, a small charge is produced. The interfaces between the layers also help enhance the efficiency by acting like mirrors, keeping the light inside the solar cell where it can be converted to electricity.

Moving Forward

Incorporating alternating layers of nanoparticles and microspheres in dye-sensitized solar cells can increase efficiency up to 26%. This approach for increasing light-harvesting efficiency can be easily integrated into current commercial DSSCs, as well as opening up more research possibilities for DSSC solar cells. For example, Liu, at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is exploring how to use these structures in photocatalysis and hydrogen generation by water splitting. He is also trying to engineer these titanium dioxide nanostructures to absorb light in the visible spectrum, without the need for dye.

“While we were successful in trapping more light using these layered structures, whether these layers are mechanically robust and strong enough to survive the beating solar cells take over many years is an important and unanswered question,” says Aydil. “I think exploring the limits of these layers, and how to make them stronger and adhere better, are key issues for mechanical engineers in the future. Developing new low-cost alternatives to traditional silicon solar cells is gaining importance because reducing the cost of silicon solar cells is becoming increasingly more difficult.”

source-ASME

Improving a new breed of solar cells Quantum-dot photovoltaics set new record for efficiency in such devices, could unlock new uses.

Solar-cell technology has advanced rapidly, as hundreds of groups around the world pursue more than two dozen approaches using different materials, technologies, and approaches to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Now a team at MIT has set a new record for the most efficient quantum-dot cells — a type of solar cell that is seen as especially promising because of its inherently low cost, versatility, and light weight.

While the overall efficiency of this cell is still low compared to other types — about 9 percent of the energy of sunlight is converted to electricity — the rate of improvement of this technology is one of the most rapid seen for a solar technology. The development is described in a paper, published in the journalNature Materials, by MIT professors Moungi Bawendi and Vladimir Bulović and graduate students Chia-Hao Chuang and Patrick Brown.

The new process is an extension of work by Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry, to produce quantum dots with precisely controllable characteristics — and as uniform thin coatings that can be applied to other materials. These minuscule particles are very effective at turning light into electricity, and vice versa. Since the first progress toward the use of quantum dots to make solar cells, Bawendi says, “The community, in the last few years, has started to understand better how these cells operate, and what the limitations are.”

The new work represents a significant leap in overcoming those limitations, increasing the current flow in the cells and thus boosting their overall efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity.

Many approaches to creating low-cost, large-area flexible and lightweight solar cells suffer from serious limitations — such as short operating lifetimes when exposed to air, or the need for high temperatures and vacuum chambers during production. By contrast, the new process does not require an inert atmosphere or high temperatures to grow the active device layers, and the resulting cells show no degradation after more than five months of storage in air.

Bulović, the Fariborz Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technology and associate dean for innovation in MIT’s School of Engineering, explains that thin coatings of quantum dots “allow them to do what they do as individuals — to absorb light very well — but also work as a group, to transport charges.” This allows those charges to be collected at the edge of the film, where they can be harnessed to provide an electric current.

The new work brings together developments from several fields to push the technology to unprecedented efficiency for a quantum-dot based system: The paper’s four co-authors come from MIT’s departments of physics, chemistry, materials science and engineering, and electrical engineering and computer science. The solar cell produced by the team has now been added to the National Renewable Energy Laboratories’ listing of record-high efficiencies for each kind of solar-cell technology.

The overall efficiency of the cell is still lower than for most other types of solar cells. But Bulović points out, “Silicon had six decades to get where it is today, and even silicon hasn’t reached the theoretical limit yet. You can’t hope to have an entirely new technology beat an incumbent in just four years of development.” And the new technology has important advantages, notably a manufacturing process that is far less energy-intensive than other types.

Chuang adds, “Every part of the cell, except the electrodes for now, can be deposited at room temperature, in air, out of solution. It’s really unprecedented.”

The system is so new that it also has potential as a tool for basic research. “There’s a lot to learn about why it is so stable. There’s a lot more to be done, to use it as a testbed for physics, to see why the results are sometimes better than we expect,” Bulović says.

A companion paper, written by three members of the same team along with MIT’s Jeffrey Grossman, the Carl Richard Soderberg Associate Professor of Power Engineering, and three others, appears this month in the journal ACS Nano, explaining in greater detail the science behind the strategy employed to reach this efficiency breakthrough.

The new work represents a turnaround for Bawendi, who had spent much of his career working with quantum dots. “I was somewhat of a skeptic four years ago,” he says. But his team’s research since then has clearly demonstrated quantum dots’ potential in solar cells, he adds.

Arthur Nozik, a research professor in chemistry at the University of Colorado who was not involved in this research, says, “This result represents a significant advance for the applications of quantum-dot films and the technology of low-temperature, solution-processed, quantum-dot photovoltaic cells. … There is still a long way to go before quantum-dot solar cells are commercially viable, but this latest development is a nice step toward this ultimate goal.”

The work was supported by the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

source- OPLI

ENERGY BREAKTHROUGH USES SUN TO CREATE SOLAR ENERGY MATERIALS

In a recent advance in solar energy, researchers have discovered a way to tap the sun not only as a source of power, but also to directly produce the solar energy materials that make this possible.

This breakthrough by chemical engineers at Oregon State University could soon reduce the cost of solar energy, speed production processes, use environmentally benign materials, and make the sun almost a “one-stop shop” that produces both the materials for solar devices and the eternal energy to power them.

The findings were published in RSC Advances, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, in work supported by the National Science Foundation.

“This approach should work and is very environmentally conscious,” said Chih-Hung Chang, a professor of chemical engineering at Oregon State University, and lead author on the study.

“Several aspects of this system should continue to reduce the cost of solar energy, and when widely used, our carbon footprint,” Chang said. “It could produce solar energy materials anywhere there’s an adequate solar resource, and in this chemical manufacturing process, there would be zero energy impact.”

The work is based on the use of a “continuous flow” microreactor to produce nanoparticle inks that make solar cells by printing. Existing approaches based mostly on batch operations are more time-consuming and costly.

In this process, simulated sunlight is focused on the solar microreactor to rapidly heat it, while allowing precise control of temperature to aid the quality of the finished product. The light in these experiments was produced artificially, but the process could be done with direct sunlight, and at a fraction of the cost of current approaches.

“Our system can synthesize solar energy materials in minutes compared to other processes that might take 30 minutes to two hours,” Chang said. “This gain in operation speed can lower cost.”

In these experiments, the solar materials were made with copper indium diselenide, but to lower material costs it might also be possible to use a compound such as copper zinc tin sulfide, Chang said. And to make the process something that could work 24 hours a day, sunlight might initially be used to create molten salts that could later be used as an energy source for the manufacturing. This could provide more precise control of the processing temperature needed to create the solar energy materials.

State-of-the-art chalcogenide-based, thin film solar cells have already reached a fairly high solar energy conversion efficiency of about 20 percent in the laboratory, researchers said, while costing less than silicon technology. Further improvements in efficiency should be possible, they said.

Another advantage of these thin-film approaches to solar energy is that the solar absorbing layers are, in fact, very thin- about 1 to 2 microns, instead of the 50 to 100 microns of more conventional silicon cells. This could ease the incorporation of solar energy into structures, by coating thin films onto windows, roof shingles or other possibilities.

Additional support for this work was provided by the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, or ONAMI, and the Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center, or Oregon BEST.

Source: Oregon State University

NOVEL STAPLED PEPTIDE NANOPARTICLE COMBINATION PREVENTS RSV INFECTION, STUDY FINDS

A combination of advanced technologies may lead to a therapy to prevent or treat respiratory syncytial virus, a potentially lethal respiratory infection affecting infants, young children and the elderly, new research suggests. Despite a wide range of anti-RSV efforts, there are no vaccines or drugs on the market to effectively prevent or treat the infection.

Despite a wide range of anti-RSV efforts, there are no vaccines or drugs on the market to effectively prevent or treat the infection.

Now researchers at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, and the James A. Haley VA Hospital and the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, FL, have developed novel double-stapled peptides that inhibit RSV in cells and in mice. The team also showed that this peptide's capacity to block infection was significantly boosted when delivered to the lungs by miniscule, biodegradable particles known as nanoparticles.

The team's findings are reported online today in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

RSV employs a fusion protein with a helical structure to enable the virus to bind to and penetrate epithelial cells lining the nose and lungs.

The Dana-Farber/Boston Children's/Harvard laboratory led by co-senior author Loren Walensky, MD, PhD, used their chemical strategy known as hydrocarbon stapling to make "double-stapled" RSV peptides. Stapling helps the peptides retain their natural helical shape and resist degradation by the body's enzymes while disrupting the fusion process needed for RSV to infect host cells.

The VA/USF group led by co-senior author Shyam Mohapatra, PhD, tested these double-stapled peptides, alone and in combination with propriety nanoparticles, in mice to demonstrate significant inhibition of RSV infection.

"This is an exciting advance in the fight against respiratory syncytial virus infection," said Dr. Mohapatra, director of the USF Nanomedicine Research Center and the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine's Division of Translational Medicine, and a research career scientist at James A. Haley VA Hospital.

"We found that double-stapled peptide interference targeting the virus fusion protein can be administered in the form of a nasal drop or spray. The treatment suppressed viral entry and reproduction, including spread from nose to lungs, providing substantial protection from infection when administered several days before viral exposure."

"Designing therapeutic peptides based on a virus' very own fusion apparatus was previously exploited to block HIV-1 infection, but this class of drugs was severely limited by the pharmacologic liabilities of peptides in general, including loss of bioactive structure and rapid digestion in the body," said Dr. Walensky, associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's and principal investigator in Dana-Farber's Linde Program in Cancer Chemical Biology.

"Peptide stapling restores the natural helical shape, which also inhibits proteolysis, providing a new opportunity to take advantage of a well-validated mechanism of action to thwart viruses like RSV that otherwise lack drugs for preventing or treating infection."

Dr. Mohapatra and his team developed nose drops containing the Walensky laboratory's double-stapled peptides after combining them with TransGenex's chitosan nanoparticles that stick to mucous-producing cells lining the lungs.

First, the researchers treated mice intranasally with stapled peptide nose drops, both before and during infection with RSV. The treated mice showed significantly lower levels of virus in the nose and lungs, and less airway inflammation, compared to untreated mice.

Then, double-stapled peptides encapsulated in nanoparticles were delivered to the lungs via the trachea to test whether the combination could further increase the effectiveness of this experimental therapy. The nanoparticle preparation markedly improved delivery of the peptides to the lungs, and the combination worked better and longer in preventing RSV pneumonia than the double-stapled peptide alone.

The researchers say to the best of their knowledge this preclinical study is the first to combine peptide stapling and nanoparticle technologies to maximize the delivery, persistence, and effectiveness of an antiviral therapy.

RSV is the most common virus causing lung and airway infections in infants and young children. Most have had this infection by age 2, and it can be especially serious, even deadly, in high-risk groups, such as babies born prematurely and those whose immune systems do not work well. The virus hospitalizes thousands of infants each year for pneumonia or brochiolitis and has been associated with a significantly greater risk of developing asthma later in life. The elderly are also at high risk of complications from RSV infection.

"This is a new way forward in the development of strategies to prevent RSV infection," said Terrence Dermody, MD, the Dorothy Overall Wells professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who was not involved with the research. "The authors are to be complimented on the clever design, interdisciplinary approach and extension from cell-culture experiments to animal studies. I am particularly excited about the possible application of this technology to other viruses."

---

source- University of South Florida (USF Health)

FIRST SINGLE-MOLECULE LED

Light emitting diodes are components that emit light when an electric current passes through them and only let light through in one direction. LEDs play an important role in everyday life, as light indicators. They also have a promising future in the field of lighting, where they are progressively taking over the market. A major advantage of LEDs is that it is possible to make them very small, so point light sources can be obtained. With this in mind, one final miniaturization hurdle has recently been overcome by researchers at IPCMS in Strasbourg, in collaboration with a team from the Institut Parisien de Chimie Moléculaire (CNRS/UPMC): they have produced the first ever single-molecule LED.

To achieve this, they used a single polythiophene wire. This substance is a good electricity conductor. It is made of hydrogen, carbon and sulfur, and is used to make larger LEDs that are already on the market. The polythiophene wire was attached at one end to the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, and at the other end to a gold surface. The scientists recorded the light emitted when a current passed through this nanowire. They observed that the thiophene wire acts as a light emitting diode: light was only emitted when electrons went from the tip of the microscope towards the gold surface.. When the polarity was reversed, light emission was negligible.

In collaboration with a theoretical team from the Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé (CNRS-CEA/IRAMIS/SPEC), the researchers showed that this light was emitted when a negative charge (an electron) combined with a positive charge (a hole) in the nanowire and transmitted most of its energy to a photon. For every 100,000 electrons injected into the thiophene wire, a photon was emitted. Its wavelength was in the red range.

From a fundamental viewpoint, this device gives researchers a new tool to probe phenomena that are produced when an electrical conductor emits light and it does so at a scale where quantum physics takes precedence over classical physics. Scientists will also be able to optimize substances to produce more powerful light emissions. Finally, this work is a first step towards making molecule-sized components that combine electronic and optical properties. Similar components could form the basis of a molecular computer.

Source- CNRS

Generating electricity from lava a possibility

London:  An accidental encounter of scientists in Iceland with molten lava has opened possibilities of harnessing under surface heat to produce power.
A geothermal borehole project in Iceland a few years ago accidentally struck magma - the molten rock that flows out of volcanoes - and it spewed superheated steam for two years.

This superheated steam, scientists hope, can be harnessed to produce electricity, said a report published in The Conversation.

The Icelandic Deep Drilling Project, IDDP, has been drilling shafts up to 5 km deep in an attempt to harness the heat in the volcanic bedrock far below the surface of Iceland.

In 2009 their borehole at Krafla, northeast Iceland, reached only 2,100m deep before unexpectedly striking a pocket of magma intruding into the earth's upper crust from below, at searing temperatures of 900-1,000 degrees Celsius.

"Drilling into magma is a very rare occurrence and this is only the second known instance anywhere in the world," Wilfred Elders, professor emeritus of geology at University of California, Riverside, was quoted as saying.

"This could lead to a revolution in the energy efficiency of high-temperature geothermal projects in the future," Elders said.

The magma-heated steam has been measured to be capable of generating 36 MW of electrical power, said the study published in the journal Geothermics.

source- NDTV

04 February 2014

US Energy Department pledges $12m for technologies to produce renewable carbon fibre from biomass

The US Department of Energy has announced up to $12 million in funding to support the development of technologies to manufacture carbon fibre from renewable feedstocks such as agricultural residues.

Carbon fibre derived from biomass may cost less to manufacture and offer greater environmental benefits than traditional carbon fibre produced from natural gas or petroleum, according to the Energy Department.

Renewable carbon fibre

Carbon fibre is typically made from petroleum and natural gas feedstocks (propylene and ammonia, respectively) that react to form acrylonitrile (ACN) which is then polymerised and spun into polyacrylonitrile (PAN). The volatility of the raw material prices and the energy intensive processes used in the manufacturing contribute to high cost carbon fibre (>$10/lb), which deter widespread use by the automotive industry. The objective of this Renewable Carbon Fibre Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to identify and develop a cost-competitive technology pathway to high performance carbon fibre using biomass as a starting raw feedstock and biomass derived ACN (bio-ACN) as a target product. The goal is to produce bio-ACN at a modelled cost of $1/lb to enable the overall manufacturing of carbon fibre at $5/lb by 2020. Source: Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

This funding supports the Energy Department’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative, which aims to ensure US manufacturers remain competitive in the global marketplace. By replacing steel and other metals lightweight, high strength carbon fibre could lower the cost and improve performance of many technologies, including fuel-efficient vehicles and renewable energy systems. 

For example, reducing a vehicle’s weight by 10% can improve fuel economy by 6-8%.

Cost-competitive technology

The Energy Department funding will support projects that identify and develop a cost-competitive technology to produce high-performance carbon fibres from renewable biomass.

The goal is to enable the overall manufacturing of carbon fibre at $5/lb by 2020.

More information and application requirements is available on theFunding Opportunity Exchange website.

The deadline for submission of Concept Papers is 3 March 2014.

  source- Renewable Energy Focus

POLICIES TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN GERMANY MISSING TARGETS, RESEARCH SHOWS

February 7, 2014

New research has shown that policies to reduce energy consumption in homes are missing their targets. Germany’s 2002 regulations were intended to create an 80% reduction by 2050 for energy used for home heating. According to the study, at the present rate reductions could achieve less than 25% by 2050.

The paper 'Why German homeowners are reluctant to retrofit', by Ray Galvin, published in Building Research and Information, reveals why German policy is failing to achieve the expected reductions in energy consumption from home heating. It discusses the implications for national energy-saving policies and economic viability of thermal retrofit programs.

Policies and initiatives can sometimes go wrong, due to lack of evidence, insufficient technical knowledge or lack of appropriate strategies for delivery.

Retrofitting is the addition of new technology or features to older systems. Germany is frequently considered a leader in moving towards the goal of a low-carbon society and has implemented a long-running program aimed at retrofitting homes for energy efficiency.

Author Dr Ray Galvin commented: "'For many homeowners the required standards are too high, too inflexible and too expensive to reach." He added: "If the only permissible choice is 16cm of external wall insulation or no insulation at all, many people simply do nothing."

The five-year long British-German study found that the policy is based on questionable economics and a failure to appreciate the limitations of old buildings. Faulty policy assumptions were made on the current amount of energy consumed in old homes. A further miscalculation was made on the projected energy savings from retrofitting homes.

"Instead of basing estimates on the actual, measured consumption of these homes," says Galvin, "the policy and regulations assume they are consuming the full amount that would be required to keep every room in the house warm and generously ventilated all year round. These homes' actual consumption averages about 40% less than this, so there is far less savings potential than expected."

The costs of energy retrofits to homeowners were also underestimated. Interviews with homeowners and housing providers as well as policymakers revealed that homeowners did their own financial calculations and found they would never get their money back through fuel saving.

"The government's main promotional plank for retrofitting over the last decade has been that it always pays back," comments Galvin. "When people find it comes nowhere near doing so, they lose confidence in the regulations,' he says. 'Even when they do retrofit, their fuel savings are far less than the regulations assume, so Germany's consumption falls at a much lower rate than expected."

However, the study suggests it might not be too difficult to reverse these failures. "The government needs to allow more flexibility to fit with the real economic and building situation of each household,' says Galvin, 'and drop the idea that thermal retrofitting always pays back. It could still promote top-end retrofitting among well-to-do households for environmental and lifestyle reasons."

The researchers add: "Other countries can learn these errors, such as the UK's Green Deal which also focuses on improving the energy efficiency of homes

Source - Taylor & Francis

SYLLABUS FOR INTEGRATED M.TECH IN ENERGY ENGINEERING FOLLOWED BY CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF JHARKHAND AND IIT BOMBAY

Course Structure for Integrated M. Tech. in Energy Engineering

Centre for Energy Engineering

Central University of Jharkhand

Lecture (L) - Tutorial (T) - Practical (P) - Credit (C)

Semester - I
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Communicative English	2	0	1	3
	Environmental Studies	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Physics-I	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Chemistry-I	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Mathematics-I	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Mechanics	2	1	0	3
	Computer Programming & Data Structure	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Mechanics Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Engineering  Physics-I Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Engineering  Chemistry-I Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Computer Programming Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Engineering Drawing and Graphics	1	0	3	2
Total Credits					27

Semester - II
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Engineering  Physics-II	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Chemistry-II	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Mathematics-II	2	1	0	3
	Disaster Management	2	1	0	3
	Mechanics of Solids	2	1	0	3
	Basics of Electrical Engg.	2	1	0	3
	Engineering Thermodynamics	2	1	0	3
	Engineering  Physics-II Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Engineering  Chemistry-II Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Mechanics of Solids Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Basics of Electrical Engg. Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Workshop Practice	0	1	3	3
Total Credits					28

Semester - III
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Introduction to Renewable Energy Resources	2	1	0	3
	Fluid Mechanics	3	1	0	4
	Steam Power System	3	1	0	4
	Electric Circuit Theory and Network	3	1	0	4
	Basics of Electronics	3	1	0	4
	Engineering Mathematics-III	2	1	0	3
	Fluid Mechanics Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Electric Circuit Theory and Network Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Basics of Electronics Lab.	0	0	2	1
Total Credits					25

Semester - IV
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Theory of Machines	3	1	0	4
	I.C. Engines and Gas Turbines	3	1	0	4
	Measurement, and Instrumentation	3	1	0	4
	Materials Science for Energy Applications	2	1	0	3
	Conventional Power Generation Systems	3	1	0	4
	Numerical Methods and Computational Techniques	2	1	0	3
	I.C. Engines Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Measurement and instrumentation Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Conventional Power Generation Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Industrial visit  to any Conventional Power Plant	0	0	0	0
Total Credits					25

Semester – V  Total credit requirement for this semester is 25.
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Heat and Mass Transfer	3	1	0	4
	Refrigeration and Air Conditioning	3	1	0	4
	Electromagnetic Energy Conversion	3	1	0	4
	Power Electronics	3	1	0	4
	Open elective- I	3	0	0	3
	Open elective - II	3	0	0	3
	Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Electromagnetic Energy Conv. Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Power Electronics Lab.	0	0	2	1
Total Credits					25

Semester - VI
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Solar Thermal Technology	3	1	0	4
	Fuels and Combustion Technology	2	1	0	3
	Control System	2	1	0	3
	Electrical Power Systems	3	1	0	4
	Energy Management	3	0	0	3
	Machine Design for Energy Application	3	1	0	4
	Solar Thermal Technology Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Fuels and Combustion Technology Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Control System Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Electrical Power Systems Lab.	0	0	2	1
Total Credits					25

Semester VII
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Solar PV Technology	3	1	0	4
	Electrochemical Energy Conversion	3	1	0	4
	Wind Energy Technology	3	1	0	4
	Bio-Energy Systems	2	1	0	3
	Solar PV Technology Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Electrochemical Energy Conversion Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Wind Energy Technology Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Bio-Energy Systems Lab.	0	0	2	1
	Industrial training & Seminar#	0	0	0	1
	Project –I on Energy Innovation	0	0	8	4
Total Credits					24

# The industrial training will take place during the vacation after 6^th Semester and will be evaluated during 7^th Semester.

Semester - VIII
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Energy System Modeling & Analysis	2	1	0	3
	Other Emerging Renewable Energy Resources	2	1	0	3
	Energy Auditing and Economics	2	1	0	3
	Energy, Environment and Climate Change	2	0	0	2
	Energy Efficient Building	3	0	0	3
	Project Management	2	0	0	2
	Project -I on Energy Innovation and Seminar-I	0	0	16	8
Total Credits					24

Semester - IX
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Human Values & Professional Ethics	3	0	0	3
	Elective-I	3	0	0	3
	Elective-II	3	0	0	3
	Pre-Dissertation Seminar	0	0	0	5
	Project-II Phase-I & Seminar	0	0	30	10
Total Credits					24

Semester - X
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Project-II Phase-II	0	0	40	15
	Post-Dissertation Seminar	0	0	0	5
	Grand VIVA	0	0	0	4
Total Credits					24

List of Electives

Open Elective (Open electives offered by Centre for Energy Engineering for any students of the University)
Paper Code	Paper Name	Credit Structure
		L	T	P	C
	Renewable Energy Resources	3	0	0	3
	Energy and Environment	3	0	0	3
	Energy and Society	3	0	0	3
	Direct Energy Conversion	3	0	0	3
	Basics of Energy Management	3	0	0	3
	Rural Energy Technology	3	0	0	3
Elective –I
	Advanced Energy Storage	3	0	0	3
	Advanced PV Technology	3	0	0	3
	Nuclear Power Engineering	3	0	0	3
	Small Hydropower Systems	3	0	0	3
	Organic Photovoltaic Devices	3	0	0	3
	Smart Grid & Hybrid Systems	3	0	0	3
	Advanced Wind energy Systems	3	0	0	3
	Computer Aided Power System Analysis	3	0	0	3
	Advanced I.C. Engine	3	0	0	3
Elective – II
	Power Generation Economics	3	0	0	3
	Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Sources	3	0	0	3
	Energy Efficient Lighting	3	0	0	3
	Hydrogen Energy	3	0	0	3
	Alternative Fuels for Transportation	3	0	0	3
	Energy and Sustainable Development	3	0	0	3
	Environmental Impact Assessment	3	0	0	3
	Waste to Energy	3	0	0	3