CleanTechnica

A team of researchers at Rice University have discovered a way to improve the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries: use carbon-nanotube/metal-oxide arrays as electrode material. Rice’s nanotubes are grown to look and act like coaxial conducting lines used in cables.
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It may not look like much, but Serbian scientist and inventor Veljko Milkovic will tell you that under ideal conditions his two-stage mechanical oscillator will produce twelve times more energy at the business end of the machine than what is required at the input side of it.

[After spending several days reading the documents and opinions, watching the videos, and making myself comfortable with the material I link to below, I was sufficiently convinced that the 2-stage oscillator was—at the very least—something CleanTechnica's readers would find interesting. I welcome your comments and critique, because that is how science progresses -TBH]

Simply put, the two-stage oscillator consists of a lever and a pendulum: two machines that perform work individually. Milkovic and others claim that when these two machines are combined, assembled with the proper weight distribution, and properly synchronized, Centrifugal and Gravitational forces operate in concert to produce energy gains bordering on the astonishing. Read the rest of this entry »

Imara Corp. has announced a new generation of lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries made specifically for high power devices such as lawnmowers, power tools, hybrid vehicles and even grid storage. The company uses unique materials science technology to provide high-power, high-energy and extended cycle-life batteries and battery packs.

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According to Clean Break, General Electric has dumped all plans for revitalizing their century-old incandescent lightbulb. Instead, it plans to focus on light-emitting diodes (LED) and its organic counterpart — the OLED. Read the rest of this entry »

LED lights are more than an energy-efficient lighting alternative— they’re also a potential Wi-Fi replacement technology. Researcher at Boston University are working on Smart Lighting, a wireless technology based on visible light instead of radio frequency.
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On September 7 a robotic Prius took a cruise around San Francisco. The “Pribot” maneuvered through city and highway traffic along a 40 mile course. The only mash-up? A scrape at the Bay Bridge exit. I welcome our new vehicular overlords.

In all seriousness, if this technology were to become affordable, would you buy in? How much trust are you willing to invest in a robot, no matter how stylish? Lesser versions of this kind of technology already exist in luxury Nissan, Volvo and Lexus models. They alert a driver if the vehicle begins to drift out of its lane or even automatically make corrections. So why not take the leap and let your car tackle the morning commute? Who really wants to go through rush hour? Turns out, not the inventor. Read the rest of this entry »

At first glance, the nearly hundred year old Grand Central Station doesn’t look particularly energy efficient—after all, the station does contain 60,000 lightbulbs. But New York City officials are doing their best to make sure the terminal sets an example for other public buildings in the city.
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It took me awhile to see the word as CO-generation not COGeneration, and then another few minutes to understand just what cogeneration was, but I finally got there. And needless to say, I was immediately intrigued by the possibilities, and similarly confused as to the lack of implementation of cogeneration.

Cogeneration, according to the wonderful Wikipedia, is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat.

For example, look at a power station: in its production of our electricity, through the burning of fossil fuels like coal, a power station will often end up excising the generated heat by heating up water, and then venting the steam out through the massive cooling towers.

Imagine the opportunity we have to harness that heat, in addition to the electricity that is created.

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If you’ve ever seen the movie Idiocracy, you may have a vague fear of giant landfills toppling over and spilling into the streets. Fortunately, that fear may never become a reality now that the Powermaster ReCyclone is available.

The ReCyclone works by grinding trash into small pieces, thereby reducing landfill space up to 97 percent.

Trash compacted by the ReCyclone can be used to create energy or compost material—organic waste becomes diesel fuel, and plastic becomes oil. The machine can grind up any piece of waste ranging from 20 microns to 12 inches.

For some perspective, the ReCyclone can get more gold out of electronic devices than from a gold mine (one metric ton of circuit boards contains between 80 and 1,500 grams of gold, which is 40 to 800 times the concentration of gold available in gold ore mined in the United States) and 1 kilogram of plastic recycled in the machine can yield 95 percent of 1 liter of diesel.
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