The process that lights up big-screen plasma TV displays is getting a new life in producing ultra-clean fuels, according to a report presented March 22 at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). It described a small, low-tech, inexpensive device called a GlidArc reactor that uses electrically-charged clouds of gas called “plasmas” to produce in three steps super-clean fuels from waste materials. One is a diesel fuel that releases 10 times less air pollution than its notoriously sooty, smelly conventional counterpart.

“Low-tech and low cost are the guiding principles behind the GlidArc reactors,” said Albin Czernichowski, Ph.D., who presented the report. “Almost all the parts could be bought at your local hardware or home supply store. We use common ‘plumber’ piping and connections, for instance, and ordinary home insulation. Instead of sophisticated ceramics, we use the kind of heat-resistant concrete that might go into a home fireplace. You could build one in a few days for about $10,000.”

Czernichowski noted that the reactors, about the size of a refrigerator, are custom designed to clean dirty gases produced by a low-tech gasification of locally available wastes, biomass, or other resources to produce clean mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas to synthesize biofuels. Corn farming regions, for instance, could use corn stover (leaves and stalks left in the field after harvest) as the raw material. In urban areas, waste cooking oil from restaurants could be the raw material. In regions that produce biodiesel fuel, glycerol could be converted into clean fuels. Czernichowski pointed out production of biofuels results in huge amounts of glycerol byproduct — 200 pounds for every 2,000 pounds of biodiesel. The glycerol is expensive to refine to the high purity needed for commercial use. GlidArc reactors could transform glycerol into a clean synthesis gas (the carbon monoxide and hydrogen) for production of fuels, he said.

A professor with the University of Orleans, France, Czernichowski realized in 1986 that a branch of science called non-equilibrium cold plasma could be used to produce new transportation fuels that are less polluting than their conventional counterparts as they lack harmful substances found in traditional transportation fuels.

The technology gets it name from the use of a gliding arc of electricity to that produces a plasma inside the reactor. The plasma allows chemical reactions to occur at dramatically reduced temperatures. Gases from heating (pyrolyse or gasification) biomass or glycerol, for instance, become clean and chemically active, and this allows for the transformation of those materials into clean fuels.

“The main advantage of such biobased fuels that the GlidArc Technology can create is that they constitute “drop-in replacements” for fossil Diesel oil, gasoline or kerosene, and no modifications are needed in engines, vehicles and distribution systems,” Czernichowski said. “The biofuels can also be used as additives to various types of engine fuels to improve certain fuel properties. Another important advantage, of course, is their much lower toxicity for mankind and the environment compared to conventional fuels.”

Coal-tar-based sealcoat — the black, shiny substance sprayed or painted on many parking lots, driveways, and playgrounds — has been linked to elevated concentrations of the contaminants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in house dust. Apartments with adjacent parking lots treated with the coal-tar based sealcoat contained house dust with much higher concentrations of PAHs than apartments next to other types of parking lots, according to new research published online in Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T).

The study was conducted in Austin, Texas, by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Coal tar is a byproduct of the coking of coal, and can contain 50 percent or more PAHs by weight. Coal-tar-based pavement sealants therefore have very high levels of PAHs compared to other PAH sources (e.g., soot, vehicle emissions, used motor oil). PAHs are an environmental health issue because several are probable human carcinogens and they are toxic to fish and other aquatic life.

Small particles of sealcoat, which contains extremely high concentrations of PAHs, likely are tracked indoors by residents after they walk across the parking lot. The study found that apartments adjacent to coal-tar-sealcoated parking lots contained concentrations of PAHs in house dust with that were 25 times higher than in house dust from apartments with concrete, asphalt, or asphalt-based sealcoat parking lot surfaces. The study also found that dust directly on the coal-tar-sealcoated parking lots had PAH concentrations that were 530 times higher than in dust on the parking lots without coal-tar sealcoat.

“These findings represent a breakthrough in our understanding of one of the important sources of these contaminants in house dust and how these contaminants can move from outdoors to indoors. The study provides evidence that will be potentially useful for policy makers,” said Bob Joseph, Director of the USGS Texas Water Science Center.

In the past, several factors have been thought to affect PAH concentrations in house dust, including tobacco smoking and frequency of vacuuming. Researchers have had little success, however, demonstrating a relation between any of those factors and PAH concentrations.

Sealcoat products are widely used in the U.S., both commercially and by homeowners on their driveways. The products are commonly applied to parking lots of commercial businesses (including strip malls and shopping centers); apartment and condominium complexes; churches, schools, and business parks; residential driveways; and playgrounds. The City of Austin, Texas, estimates that before a ban on use of coal-tar-based sealcoat in 2006, about 660,000 gallons of sealcoat was applied every year in the city. The sealcoat wears off of the surface relatively rapidly, especially in areas of high traffic, and manufacturers recommend resealing every three to five years.

Two kinds of sealcoat products are widely used: coal-tar-emulsion based products and asphalt-emulsion based products. National use numbers are not available; however, previous research suggests that asphalt-based sealcoat is more commonly used on the West Coast, and coal-tar based sealcoat is more commonly used in the Midwest, the South, and on the East Coast.

Previous research by the same group of USGS scientists, published earlier in 2009, demonstrated that dust from sealcoated parking lots in cities east of the Continental Divide had concentrations of PAHs that were about 1,000 times higher than in dust from sealcoated parking lots in cities west of the Continental Divide.

Australia’s own distinctive red soils could play a part in the formation of the stinking swathes of blue-green algae often shovelled off east coast beaches in summer.

A QUT team of scientists is taking an in-depth look at how iron, which gives our iron-rich soil its red colour, reaches water to potentially contribute to the algal blooms, which not only have a foul smell, but also make our eyes sting, cause fish kills and smother seagrass.

Their research is centred on the catchment of Poona Creek on the Fraser Coast which drains into Great Sandy Strait — a dugong sanctuary and an internationally recognised wetlands for migratory birds.

Iron is known to be a component causative factor for algal blooms but the mechanism by which solid iron in soils becomes soluble and contributes to coastal algae blooms is largely unknown.

That is why the team from QUT’ s Institute for Sustainable Resources is taking the three-pronged approach of microbiology (biogeochemistry),

geochemistry and hydrology studies to put together enough pieces of the iron jigsaw to form the basis for future research into mitigating its contribution to dangerous algal blooms.

PhD student Lin Chaofeng is studying two types of bacteria in water that “feed on” iron.

“One type of bacteria in our waterways changes iron into a dissolved state and another type of bacteria oxidises the iron and turns it back into a insoluble form which can settle on the bottom of a creek ,” Ms Lin said.

“The oxidising type of bacteria possibly makes the iron less available as a contributing factor in algal blooms. It seems that these two bacteria usually balance each other out, but sometimes the balance is upset and so I am investigating how this happens.”

QUT geology student Stefan Loehr is studying soil and sediment samples from the catchment to analyse their iron content and search for possible contributory mechanisms for iron dissolving in water.

He has studied the concentration of iron in soil in native vegetation and in pine plantations and found no significant difference in iron concentrations.

“It could be that different types of plants lead iron to be more easily soluble and so I am also investigating whether there are any differences between natural vegetation and plantation areas,” Mr Loehr said.

Hydrology student Genevieve Larsen’s study of subsurface and surface water and flow processes is aimed at finding out how the iron gets from the ground into the water, and the chemical reactions that may take place when groundwater interacts in the estuary with the marine environment.

“I’m looking for possible links between subsurface water and natural waterways such as streams, creeks and the sea,” Ms Larsen said.

The study is funded jointly by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries-Forestry, Forestry Plantations QLD and the Australian Research Council.

Ethanol — often promoted as a clean-burning, renewable fuel that could help wean the nation from oil — would likely worsen health problems caused by ozone, compared with gasoline, especially in winter, according to a new study led by Stanford researchers.

Ozone production from both gasoline and E85, a blend of gasoline and ethanol that is 85 percent ethanol, is greater in warm sunny weather than during the cold weather and short days of winter, because heat and sunlight contribute to ozone formation. But E85 produces different byproducts of combustion than gasoline and generates substantially more aldehydes, which are precursors to ozone.

“What we found is that at the warmer temperatures, with E85, there is a slight increase in ozone compared to what gasoline would produce,” said Diana Ginnebaugh, a doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, who worked on the study. She will present the results of the study on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. “But even a slight increase is a concern, especially in a place like Los Angeles, because you already have episodes of high ozone that you have to be concerned about, so you don’t want any increase.”

But it was at colder temperatures, below freezing, that it appeared the health impacts of E85 would be felt most strongly.

“We found a pretty substantial increase in ozone production from E85 at cold temperatures, relative to gasoline when emissions and atmospheric chemistry alone were considered,” Ginnebaugh said. Although ozone is generally lower under cold-temperature winter conditions, “If you switched to E85, suddenly you could have a place like Denver exceeding ozone health-effects limits and then they would have a health concern that they don’t have now.”

The problem with cold weather emissions arises because the catalytic converters used on vehicles have to warm up before they reach full efficiency. So until they get warm, a larger proportion of pollutants escapes from the tailpipe into the air.

There are other pollutants that would increase in the atmosphere from burning E85 instead of gasoline, some of which are irritants to eyes, throats and lungs, and can also damage crops, but the aldehydes are the biggest contributors to ozone production, as well as being carcinogenic.

Ginnebaugh worked with Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering, using vehicle emissions data from some earlier studies and applying it to the Los Angeles area to model the likely output of pollutants from vehicles.

Because E85 is only now beginning to be used in mass-produced vehicles, the researchers projected for the year 2020, when more “flex fuel” vehicles, which can run on E85, will likely be in use. They estimated that vehicle emissions would be about 60 percent less than today, because automotive technology will likely continue to become cleaner over time. They investigated two scenarios, one that had all the vehicles running on E85 and another in which the vehicles all ran on gasoline.

Running a widely used, complex model involving over 13,000 chemical reactions, they did repeated simulations at different ambient temperatures for the two scenarios, each time simulating a 48-hour period. They used the average ozone concentrations during each of those periods for comparison.

They found that at warm temperatures, from freezing up to 41 degrees Celsius (give F conversion), in bright sunlight, E85 raised the concentration of ozone in the air by up to 7 parts per billion more than produced by gasoline. At cold temperatures, from freezing down to minus 37 degrees Celsius, they found E85 raised ozone concentrations by up to 39 parts per billion more than gasoline.

“What we are saying with these results is that you see an increase,” Ginnebaugh said. “We are not saying that this is the exact magnitude you are going to get in a given urban area, because it is really going to vary from city to city depending on a lot of other factors such as the amount of natural vegetation, traffic levels, and local weather patterns.”

Ginnebaugh said the results of the study represent a preliminary analysis of the impact of E85. More data from studies of the emissions of flex fuel vehicles at various temperatures would help refine the estimates, she said.

Paul Livingstone contributed to the study while he was a postdoctoral researcher in civil and environmental engineering. He now works for the California Air Resources Board.

On 12th January 2010 the “Self” living module was presented publicly for the first time at the Swissbau exhibition in Basel. “Self” is a novel, highly innovative module for working and living which is self-sufficient in energy and water consumption. It includes a bedroom, bathroom, toilet and kitchen and is being used as a test bed and demonstrator for new building concepts and energy technologies by the research institutes Empa and Eawag.

The “Self” living module is designed as a living area and workplace for two persons. It is about the size of a shipping container and is independent of external water and energy supplies. Because the “Self” module is easily transported and can be located almost anywhere without difficulty, it is particularly suitable for temporary use, for example as a mobile research station, an event organizer’s dwelling and office, or as an inhabited advertising vehicle, to name but a few possibilities.

Two undergraduates at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Bjoern Olsson und Sandro Macchi, designed the Empa concept-demonstrator for their final year project, and since 2008 they have both been working together with the team led by Mark Zimmermann of Empa’s Building Technologies Laboratory on the practical implementation of their design study. As a research and demonstration project “Self” is intended to provide concrete proof that it is possible to live — at least temporarily — without loss of comfort even when making sole use of natural sources of energy. The prototype module, constructed with the help of a wide range of

universities and industrial partners, is being presented for the first time at the Swissbau fair for the construction and real estate sectors held on the Basel Exhibition Site from the 12^th to 16^th January.

Independent of external energy and water supplies

“Self” is 7.7 meters long, 3.45 meters wide and 3.2 meters high. Weighing in at around 5 tonnes, the container can easily be transported by truck or helicopter. The challenge for the two young designers lay in integrating the technical, supply and spatial requirements efficiently while maintaining comfort levels for the inhabitants. Technical input was provided by Empa and Eawag as well as other partner institutions and companies. In order, for example, that two persons might live in “Self” without needing external water supplies, rain water which collects on the roof of the module must be treated to make it potable, and lightly soiled washing water (“gray water”) must be recycled. In the living room a transparent 200 liter fresh water tank makes it clear to the occupants how much water they are using. Making consumption visible is an important feature for the two designers. Bjoern Olsson and Sandro Macchi are convinced that “…abstract consumption s don’t actually mean very much. To change our behavior we need to make resource usage tangible and clearly visible.”

Testing innovative technologies and materials

Hardly any of the features of the “Self” module reflect the current state of the art — nearly everything is made of specially designed and manufactured components, one example being the shell of the container which is made of glass fiber reinforced polymer sandwich. Thermal insulation is provided by high performance vacuum insulating panels, a heat exchanger warms the fresh air using heat extracted from the exhaust air stream, the water filter operates almost without using any electric power and the toilet consumes just one liter of water per flushing cycle.

The project is also testing the practical applications of hydrogen technology — that is the synthesis, storage and usage of hydrogen for cooking and heating, for instance. The gas is generated by electrolysis using environmentally friendly electrical power supplied by solar cells on the roof of the module. Until it is required the hydrogen is stored in containers of metal hydride material, also an Empa-developed first.

For the foreseeable future the “Self” module will be used as a technology demonstrator and be exhibited at trade fairs and shows. Later Empa intends to utilize the module as living quarters for guests or as a research station in the mountains.

Finding alternative feed sources for chickens, pigs and other farm animals will significantly reduce pressure on the world’s dwindling fisheries while contributing positively to climate change, according to University of British Columbia researchers.

“Thirty million tons — or 36 per cent — of the world’s total fisheries catch each year is currently ground up into fishmeal and oil to feed farmed fish, chickens and pigs,” says UBC fisheries researcher Daniel Pauly, co-author of the Oryx: The International Journal of Conservationarticle,  recently published online.

“Meanwhile, 25 per cent of infants in Peru — which produces half of the world’s fishmeal using anchovies — are malnourished,” says Pauly.

In the Oryx article, nine of the world’s leading fisheries and conservation researchers — including four from UBC — reviewed the effectiveness of past conservation campaigns and propose new strategies to effect swifter and larger-scale changes.

“Globally, pigs and chickens alone consume six times the amount of seafood as US consumers and twice that of Japan,” says lead author Jennifer Jacquet, a post-doctoral fellow at UBC’s Fisheries Centre. “Ultimately these farm animals have a greater impact on our seafood supplies than the most successful seafood certification program.”

“We should work to eliminate the use of tasty fish for livestock production. It’s a waste,” says Pauly. “Plus, it is not what pigs or chickens naturally eat. When is the last time you saw a chicken fishing?”

Many sustainable seafood campaigns focus on consumers but ignore large-scale market impacts — such as farming demand for fishmeal — and have failed to reach their goals, say the study’s authors, which include Enric Sala of the National Geographic Society and Rashid Sumaila and Tony Pitcher of UBC.

After pioneering and distributing more than one million seafood wallet cards — pocket-sized guides that advise consumers of ocean-friendly seafood, the Monterey Bay Aquarium conducted a study that revealed no overall change in the market and that fishing pressures had not decreased for targeted species, the study points out.

“Sustainable seafood certification programs such as wallet cards have raised consumer awareness but are far less effective than targeting mega supermarket chains such as Walmart, Whole Foods and Loblaw through a combination of positive and negative publicity campaigns,” says Jacquet, adding that more than 60 per cent of seafood in Canada and half the seafood in the U.S. is sold through supermarkets.

The authors also suggest establishing international standards for labeling sustainable seafood, eliminating harmful fisheries subsidies and leveraging momentum for fisheries conservation through existing global concerns for climate change.

“Global fisheries consume 13 billion gallons of fuel each year just to catch and land fish,” says Jacquet. “That’s more gas than 22 million cars would use. Energy use would be much higher if we include the fuel used to ship fish further for processing and to market. No discussion of the overall impact of fisheries would be complete without clarifying its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.”

“Overall, we’d like to encourage people to engage more as citizens — as they have with the global climate change movement — and less as mere consumers,” said Pauly. “Big problems like overfishing require efforts to be directed at big change.”

A new ceramic material described in this week’s issue of the journal Science could help expand the applications for solid oxide fuel cells – devices that generate electricity directly from a wide range of liquid or gaseous fuels without the need to separate hydrogen.

Though the long-term durability of the new mixed ion conductor material must still be proven, its development could address two of the most vexing problems facing the solid oxide fuel cells: tolerance of sulfur in fuels and resistance to carbon build-up known as coking. The new material could also allow solid oxide fuel cells, which convert fuel to electricity more efficiently than other fuel cells, to operate at lower temperatures, potentially reducing material and fabrication costs.

“The development of this material suggests that we could have a much less expensive solid oxide fuel cell, and that it could be more compact, which would increase the range of potential applications,” said Meilin Liu, a Regent’s professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This new material would potentially allow the fuel cells to run with dirty hydrocarbon fuels without the need to clean them and supply water.”

Like all fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) use an electrochemical process to produce electricity by oxidizing a fuel. As the name implies, SOFCs use a ceramic electrolyte, a material known as yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ).

The fuel cell’s anode uses a composite consisting of YSZ and the metal nickel. This anode provides excellent catalytic activity for fuel oxidation, good conductivity for collecting current generated, and compatibility with the cell’s electrolyte – which is also YSZ.

But the material has three significant drawbacks: even small amounts of sulfur in fuel “poison” the anode to dramatically reduce efficiency, the use of hydrocarbon fuels creates carbon build-up which clogs the anode – and because YSZ has limited conductivity at low temperatures – SOFCs must operate at high temperatures.

As a result, fuels used in SOFCs, such as natural gas or propane, must be purified to remove sulfur, which increases their cost. Water in the form of steam must also be supplied to a reformer that converts hydrocarbons to hydrogen and carbon monoxide before being fed to the fuel cells, adding complexity to the overall system and reducing energy efficiency. And the high-temperature operation means the cells must be fabricated from costly exotic materials, which keeps SOFCs too expensive for many applications.

The new material developed at Georgia Tech addresses all three of those anode issues. Referred to as BZCYYb as shorthand for its complex composition, the material tolerates hydrogen sulfide in concentrations as high as 50 parts-per-million, does not accumulate carbon – and can operate efficiently at temperatures as low as 500 degrees Celsius.

The BZCYYb (Barium-Zirconium-Cerium-Yttrium-Ytterbium Oxide) material could be used in a variety of ways: as a coating on the traditional Ni-YSZ anode, as a replacement for the YSZ in the anode and as a replacement for the entire YSZ electrolyte system. Liu believes the first two options are more viable.

So far, the new material has provided steady performance for up to 1,000 hours of operation in a small laboratory-scale SOFC. To be commercially viable, however, the material will have to be proven in operation for up to five years – the expected lifespan of a commercial SOFC.

“We don’t see any problems ahead for fabrication or other issues that might prevent scale-up,” said Liu. “The material is produced using standard solid-state reactions and is straightforward.”

The researchers don’t yet understand how their new material resists deactivation by sulfur and carbon, but theorize that it may provide enhanced catalytic activity for oxidizing sulfur and both cracking and reforming hydrocarbons.

In addition to its tolerance of sulfur and resistance to coking, the BZCYYb material’s conductivity at lower temperature could also provide a significant advantage for SOFCs.

“If we could reduce operating temperatures to 500 or 600 degrees Celsius, that would allow us to use less expensive metals as interconnects,” Liu noted. “Getting the temperature down to 300 to 400 degrees could allow use of much less expensive materials in the packaging, which would dramatically reduce the cost of these systems.”

Beyond its use in fuel cells, the material developed by Liu and his team – which also included Lei Yang, Shizhong Wang, Kevin Blinn, Mingfei Liu, Ze Liu and Zhe Cheng – could also be used for fuel reforming to feed other types of fuel cells.

Though the technology for solid oxide fuel cells is currently less mature than that for other types of fuel cells, Liu believes SOFCs will ultimately win out because they don’t require precious metals such as platinum and their efficiency can be higher – as much as 80 percent with co-generation use of waste heat.

“Solid oxide fuel cells offer high energy efficiency, the potential for direct utilization of all types of fuels including renewable biofuels, and the possibility of lower costs since they do not use any precious metals,” said Liu. “We are working to reduce the cost of solid oxide fuel cells to make them viable in many new applications, and this new material brings us much closer to doing that.”

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Science Catalysis Science Program under grant DE-FG02-06ER15837. The comments and conclusions in this document are those of the researchers and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy.

A group of ambitious Rensselaer students will soon sail up the Hudson River, propelled by pollution-free hydrogen fuel cells and a clear vision for a cleaner, greener future.

Their boat, the 22-foot New Clermont, is fit with a pair of 2.2-kilowatt fuel cell units. With a crew of three, the ship will launch from Pier 84 in Manhattan on September 21 and cruise at a cool 6 mph to arrive in Troy on the evening of September 25. The group is planning to make several stops along the way, showing off their one-of-a-kind boat, speaking with other green-minded individuals, and talking about the many environmental and potential economic benefits of building out the nation’s hydrogen economy.

“At its core, the New Clermont Project is about awareness. It’s a fun way to teach people about hydrogen energy,” said doctoral student William Gathright, who founded the group in early 2009. “We’re high-tech environmentalists. We want to share our vision of a time when people can take a pleasure cruise on their boat, or drive to the store, without leaving a trail of pollution and toxins behind them. We hope to inspire and challenge them to think of ways of making that vision a reality.”

Gathright, a doctoral student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and a National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow who is also pursuing a master’s degree in management from Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology, has assembled a volunteer team of undergraduate and graduate students from a wide spectrum of academic disciplines. New Clermont team members are not receiving any course credit for the project.

The first few months of the project entailed recruiting a team with skills and expertise in materials science and engineering, electrical and systems engineering, management, and communications. Their only physical asset, at first, was the boat itself – a forgotten, neglected vessel that Gathright promptly renamed the New Clermont. The 40-year-old sailboat is a Bristol 22, sometimes called a Bristol Caravel, and measures 22 feet from aft to bow.

Along with major repairs, maintenance, and scrubbing away two decades worth of grime, Gathright and cohorts used their engineering know-how to prep the New Clermont to hold and support a pair of fuel cell units. The units, which are GenDrive class 3 systems on loan to the students from Latham, N.Y.-based fuel cell developer Plug Power, each weigh about 500 pounds and stand three feet wide by three feet tall. The team used a crane to lift the units into the New Clermont and sit them on specially engineered, homemade mounts.

“This project, from beginning to end, has certainly been an exercise in creative problem solving,” Gathright said. “But you know what? We’re Rensselaer students. Innovating and problem solving is what we do best.”

The New Clermont’s fuel cell units run on compressed hydrogen gas. A special membrane within the fuel cell systems separates the hydrogen into electrons and protons. The protons pass through the membrane and the electrons travel around a circuit, which creates electricity. After passing through the membrane, the protons and electrons are exposed to oxygen from the ambient air, which results in the creation of water and a small amount of heat. The electrochemical process is entirely pollution-free. The fuel cells power a pair of motors mounted on the stern of the New Clermont. Team members modified the store-bought engines to accept input from the fuel cell units.

Along with boosting the visibility and public awareness of hydrogen, fuel cells, and green energy, the New Clermont Project is also a celebration of American ingenuity and the rich technological history of New York state and the Hudson River. The project and boat are named after and will closely mirror the route of the world’s first commercial steamboat, the Clermont, which renowned captain Robert Fulton sailed from New York to Albany in the first years of the 19th century – almost exactly 200 years ago.

The New Clermont Project also coincides with the 400-year anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic trek up what would eventually become the Hudson River.

“Just as Robert Fulton wanted to prove to the world that steam was a viable, economical means to power boats and unleash the economic potential of our waterways, we want to open people’s eyes to the viability of hydrogen and fuel cells as a way to power boats, and one day maybe even our cars, trucks, and homes,” said Lally School MBA student Leah Rollhaus, who helps lead the New Clermont Project.

The New Clermont Project had a busy summer, from participating in the annual Clearwater Festival to networking with the Capital Region and New York business communities to rally support and build a buzz around the September voyage. Along the way, the New Clermont Project also became a member group of the Rensselaer Student Sustainability Task Force, and joined ranks with the Institute’s Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship. The New Clermont will end its voyage at the docks of Rensselaer’s home town of Troy, N.Y., during the monthly Troy Night Out celebration.

“It’s been an outstanding experience, and I can’t wait to set sail, meet all sorts of interesting new people during our five-day voyage, and hopefully impress upon everyone that – with a little effort – we can all take ownership of the future and do our part to make this Earth a cleaner and greener place.”

The journal Energy Policy has recently reported two studies that highlight some key issues for the future of wind energy in Spain. A team of engineers from the University of Zaragoza believes it is “technically viable and economically reasonable” for wind energy to account for 30% of Spain’s overall energy production. A report by two researchers from the University of Alcalá (UAH) and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), meanwhile, says the number of jobs generated by this sector in the European Union has increased by 226% since 2003.

“Nowadays, wind farms supply around 12% of the electric energy produced in Spain, but by 2030 this could rise to 30%”, says José Luis Bernal, of the Department of Electric Engineering of the University of Zaragoza and co-author of a study published recently in the journal Energy Policy.

His team has developed its own calculation method based on the amounts of energy contributed by various sources. The results show that an energy mix, with wind energy providing 30%, solar energy 20% and gas turbines a further 20% (10%-15% biogas and 5%-10% natural gas), is technically and economically viable in Spain.

The remainder would be made up of hydroelectric, geothermal and biomass energy (20% between the three) and energy from carbon power plants (10%), which should apply CO2 capture techniques in order to reduce their impact on global warming.

The proposal factors in the issue of wind turbines potentially standing still when there is wind, looks to a contribution by fossil fuels of less than 20% and does not consider the use of nuclear energy. “According to our calculations, the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) could be maintained at between 5.5 and 6.1 Euro cents”, says Bernal.

The study shows that wind parks were already providing around 10% of Spain’s electricity in 2007 (260 TWh), when their energy generation capacity increased by 33.2%, going from 11.63 GW in January to 15.5 GW by December that year. This growth trend has held steady until the present day, both in terms of the megawatts produced and in generation of employment.

Favourable winds for employment

In 2008, wind energy provided around 104,000 jobs in the European Union, according to a report, also published in Energy Policy, by Maria Isabel Blanco, from the University of Alcalá (UAH) in Madrid, and Glória Rodrigues, from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). “This is an increase of 226% in comparison to 2003″, the authors say.

The study shows that generation of this energy provides direct employment for 38,000 people in Germany, 20,500 in Spain and 17,000 in Denmark, the three major producing countries in the EU. Manufacturers of turbines and their components account for the largest number of jobs created, which are taken mostly by men (who account for 78%), as is generally the case in industrial production chains.

The report, based on a survey carried out among the leading companies in the sector, shows that a new market linked to wind energy is arising in Europe, with France, Italy, Ireland and Portugal also playing an active role. However, despite these dynamic developments, there is “a lack of specialists, project managers, engineers and operation and maintenance experts” for the wind farms. In order to resolve this situation, the study calls for measures to be put in place to educate workers and boost their mobility.

Solar cells could soon be produced more cheaply using nanoparticle “inks” that allow them to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops to absorb electricity-producing sunlight.

Brian Korgel, a University of Texas at Austin chemical engineer, is hoping to cut costs to one-tenth of their current price by replacing the standard manufacturing process for solar cells – gas-phase deposition in a vacuum chamber, which requires high temperatures and is relatively expensive.

“That’s essentially what’s needed to make solar-cell technology and photovoltaics widely adopted,” Korgel said. “The sun provides a nearly unlimited energy resource, but existing solar energy harvesting technologies are prohibitively expensive and cannot compete with fossil fuels.”

For the past two years, Korgel and his team have been working on this low-cost, nanomaterials solution to photovoltaics – or solar cell – manufacturing. Korgel is collaborating with professors Al Bard and Paul Barbara, both of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Professor Ananth Dodabalapur of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. They recently showed proof-of-concept in a recent issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The inks could be printed on a roll-to-roll printing process on a plastic substrate or stainless steel. And the prospect of being able to paint the “inks” onto a rooftop or building is not far-fetched.

“You’d have to paint the light-absorbing material and a few other layers as well,” Korgel said. “This is one step in the direction towards paintable solar cells.”

Korgel uses the light-absorbing nanomaterials, which are 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair, because their microscopic size allows for new physical properties that can help enable higher-efficiency devices.

In 2002, he co-founded a company called Innovalight, based in California, which is producing inks using silicon as the basis. This time, Korgel and his team are using copper indium gallium selenide or CIGS, which is both cheaper and benign in terms of environmental impact.

“CIGS has some potential advantages over silicon,” Korgel said. “It’s a direct band gap semiconductor, which means that you need much less material to make a solar cell, and that’s one of the biggest potential advantages.”

His team has developed solar-cell prototypes with efficiencies at one percent; however, they need to be about 10 percent.

“If we get to 10 percent, then there’s real potential for commercialization,” Korgel said. “If it works, I think you could see it being used in three to five years.”

He also said that the inks, which are semi-transparent, could help realize the prospect of having windows that double as solar cells. Korgel said his work has attracted the interest of industrial partners.

Funding for the research comes from the National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory.