http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Earth_Clean-Energy_Hydrogen_18_151_707.html Press Review of the Earth from the most relevant websites. Keep in touch with the Earth and your future ! fr-FR http://www.earth-stream.com/logo-stream-Earth.png http://www.earth-stream.com Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:27:23 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Water-Oxidation-Advance-Boost-Solar-Fuel-Potential_18_151_707_231637.html Image Caption: Emory University chemists have developed the most potent homogeneous catalyst known for water oxidation, considered a crucial component for generating clean hydrogen fuel using only water and sunlight. The breakthrough, published March 11 in the journal Science, was made in collaboration with the Paris Institute of Molecular Chemistry. Pictured are bubbles of oxygen forming from water oxidation, catalyzed by the new tetra-cobalt WOC. The fastest, carbon-free molecular water oxidation catalyst (WOC) to date “has really upped the standard from the other known homogeneous WOCs,” said Emory inorganic chemist Craig Hill, whose lab led the effort. “It’s like a home run compared to a base hit.” In order to be viable, a WOC needs selectivity, stability and speed. Homogeneity is also a desired trait, since it boosts efficiency and makes the WOC easer to study and optimize. The new WOC has all of these qualities, and it is based on the cheap and abundant element cobalt, adding to its potential to help solar energy go mainstream. Benjamin Yin, an undergraduate student in Hill’s lab, is the lead author on the Science paper. Emory chemists who are co-authors include Hill, Yurii Gueletii, Jamal Musaev, Zhen Luo and Ken Hardcastle. The U.S. Department of Energy funded the work. Credit: Photo by Benjamin Yin, Emory University Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:03:41 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Will-London-2012-be-The-Green-Olympics-_18_151_707_231541.html The Winter Olympics are over and amongst the medals and trouncing the US at hockey, Vancouver was praised for hosting the “greenest Olympics ever” with LEED certified buildings, the use of recaptured gas and the construction of a hydrogen highway. However, London looks set to raise the bar even higher with plans to blow Vancouver’s [...] Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:11:53 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Water-oxidation-advance-boosts-potential-for-solar-fuel_18_151_707_231384.html Chemists have developed the most potent homogeneous catalyst known for water oxidation, considered a crucial component for generating clean hydrogen fuel using only water and sunlight. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:13:54 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Scavenging-energy-waste-to-turn-water-into-hydrogen-fuel_18_151_707_231355.html Materials scientists have designed a way to harvest small amounts of waste energy and harness them to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:17:00 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/SunHydro-to-create-network-of-hydrogen-fueling-stations_18_151_707_230736.html SunHydro wants to put some hydrogen in your tank.  The company is taking the first steps toward creating the world’s first chain of privately funded hydrogen fueling stations.   SunHydro’s plan is to build a an East Coast hydrogen corridor from Maine to Miami – providing sustenance for future zero emissions, hydrogen fueled vehicles. The company intends [...] Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:10:51 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Sensor-Array-Detects-Single-Molecules_18_151_707_230317.html Carbon nanotube sensor detects hydrogen peroxide emanating from a single living cellMIT chemical engineers have built a sensor array that, for the first time, can detect single molecules of hydrogen peroxide emanating from a single living cell.Hydrogen peroxide has long been known to damage cells and their DNA, but scientists have recently uncovered evidence that points to a more beneficial role: it appears to act as a signaling molecule in a critical cell pathway that stimulates growth, among other functions.When that pathway goes awry, cells can become cancerous, so understanding hydrogen peroxide's role could lead to new targets for potential cancer drugs, says Michael Strano, leader of the research team. Strano and his colleagues describe their new sensor array, which is made of carbon nanotubes, in the March 7 online edition of Nature Nanotechnology.Strano's team used the array to study the flux of hydrogen peroxide that occurs when a common growth factor called EGF activates its target, a receptor known as EGFR, located on cell surfaces. For the first time, the team showed that hydrogen peroxide levels more than double when EGFR is activated.EGF and other growth factors induce cells to grow or divide through a complex cascade of reactions inside the cell. It's still unclear exactly how hydrogen peroxide affects this process, but Strano speculates that it may somehow amplify the EGFR signal, reinforcing the message to the cell. Because hydrogen peroxide is a small molecule that doesn't diffuse far (about 200 nanometers), the signal would be limited to the cell where it was produced.The team also found that in skin cancer cells, believed to have overactive EGFR activity, the hydrogen peroxide flux was 10 times greater than in normal cells. Because of that dramatic difference, Strano believes this technology could be useful in building diagnostic devices for some types of cancer."You could envision a small handheld device, for example, which your doctor cou ... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:14:53 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/New-sensor-array-detects-single-molecules-for-the-first-time_18_151_707_230264.html Chemical engineers have built a sensor array that, for the first time, can detect single molecules of hydrogen peroxide emanating from a single living cell. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:48:26 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Despite-economic-collapse-the-greenest-country-on-Earth-innovates_18_151_707_230255.html Daily Green: The news from Iceland has been all about its economic meltdown, but there's other seismic activity going on there, too. Will Iceland roll with hydrogen vehicles or, as it looks increasingly likely, plug-in battery ones? Despite the delivery, during the Copenhagen climate talks, of 10 new Ford Focus FCV fuel-cell vehicles into the tiny country of just 300,000 people (adding to a small fleet of 10 hydrogen-burning Priuses), it's still likely that Iceland will have an EV infrastructure ... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:48:26 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Hydrogen-highway-inches-closer_18_151_707_230254.html North Shore News: A few days before B.C. Transit unveiled 20 gleaming new hydrogen-powered buses in Whistler, the fleet got its first fuel-up at a North Vancouver company called Hydrogen Technology and Energy Corporation, or HTEC. But the three-year-old company doesn't yet have the plant equipment to ship hydrogen over long distances, so when the Whistler buses went back to the pump in the resort town, they refuelled with hydrogen brought in by tanker truck from Quebec. Critics of hydrogen ... Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:02:51 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Breakthrough-Producing-Hydrogen-from-Water-+-Sunlight_18_151_707_230217.html Image: Angewandte Chemie, Wiley Sunlight + Water = Hydrogen Gas Scientists at the University of East Anglia, led by Dr. Thomas Nann, report a breakthrough in the production of hydrogen from water using the energy of sunlight. Amidst all the hype about a potential hydrogen economy, which would rely upon the highly energetic and clean burning hydrogen atom, one of the big questions has been whether sufficient hydrog...Read the full story on TreeHugger Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:53:16 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/10-Things-That-Could-Suddenly-Make-Americans-Love-Electric-Vehicles_18_151_707_230129.html Commuter park and ride lot. Image credit:Virginia DOT. Post about a transformational technology here and comments are sure to contain one-off criticisms. Many of these critiques become memes that return any time a certain phrase is mentioned. 'Wind power is unreliable.' 'Hydrogen cars will never work because...' 'Green jobs programs are socialist.' No matter that the success of transformational technologies must hang on many factors. For example, setting aside design for a moment, a b...Read the full story on TreeHugger Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:49:53 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/The-stakes-are-high-for-coal-gasification-_18_151_707_229570.html The coal 'gasification' stakes are high – not least because the company behind the plan is called Clean Coal LtdKing coal is ready for a British comeback in a form that sounds more like medieval hellfire than an energy source for the 21st century. But could it be green? The stakes are high – not least because the company behind the plan has captured the high ground in environmental marketing by calling itself Clean Coal Limited.The idea is this. Forget about mining coal, and instead burn entire coal seams in situ underground, then tap the gases that the fires give off to put in gas turbines and generate electricity. Unknown to most residents, the company has already obtained licences from the UK Coal Authority to do this at five sites round Britain's coast.Seismic surveys could be finished within two years and the company says the first commercial scheme could be in operation by 2014. The combined coal reserves for the five trial sites alone are enough to supply Britain with coal for more than a decade.Clean Coal is a small start-up company of engineers, geologists and venture capitalists, that has big plans for selling its expertise round the world. Last week, it unveiled plans to burn coal within 500m off the shore of the north Norfolk area of outstanding natural beauty.But its chief executive, Catherine Bond, told the Guardian that the first project is likely to be in Swansea Bay "because we know the geology best". The other three sites are off Grimsby, Sunderland, and under the Solway Firth in Scotland.Coal "gasification" is an old idea. Until half a century ago, Britain ran on "coal gas" manufactured at local gas works. What is new is cutting out the coal mining stage and doing the gasification underground.In principle it is simple. You sink a borehole to the coal seam and insert a firelighter and oxygen to keep the fire going. The fire generates carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen. You sink another borehole to extract the gases. There are techni ... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:46:19 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Trouble-Mounts-for-Entergy-Following-Leaks-at-Vermont-Nuclear-Plant_18_151_707_229346.html New Orleans-based power giant Entergy is in hot water following revelations that its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has leaked radioactive contamination to the environment — and its trouble isn't limited to Vermont. The Mississippi State Attorney General is also taking aim at the company, questioning Entergy's recent transfer of more than $1 billion from its parent company that oversees its Mississippi operations to its troubled nuclear division. Some background: In January of this year, it was reported that groundwater monitoring wells at Entergy's Vermont Yankee plant in Vernon, Vt. were contaminated with tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen routinely created in nuclear power plants. In early February, the plant reported that a new groundwater monitoring well at the plant showed levels of tritium at about 775,000 picocuries per liter — more than 37 times the federal drinking water limit of 20,000 picocuries per liter. Subsequent tests showed even more dramatic levels of contamination, with direct testing of groundwater on Feb. 6 detecting tritium at levels of 2.45 million picocuries per liter — almost the same concentration found in reactor process water, which typically has about 2.9 million picocuries of tritium per liter. The Vermont Department of Health has raised concerns that the contamination is making its way to the nearby Connecticut River. The tritium contamination has been linked to corroded underground pipes at the 38-year-old plant, where a cooling tower also collapsed in 2007 due corrosion of its support structure. Adding to the controversy over the tritium contamination is the fact that Entergy had long denied that Vermont Yankee had the kind of underground piping system linked to such leaks, which are so common in the aging U.S. commercial nuclear fleet that the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched a special review of the problem. In the summer of 2008, Vermont lawmakers created a special panel of nuclear exp ... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:21:25 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/ESO-Telescope-Spies-The-Cosmic-Bat_18_151_707_229283.html An Island of Stars in the Making on the Outskirts of OrionThe delicate nebula NGC 1788, located in a dark and often neglected corner of the Orion constellation, is revealed in a new and finely nuanced image that ESO is releasing today. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, the latter’s powerful winds and light have had a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it home to a multitude of infant suns.Stargazers all over the world are familiar with the distinctive profile of the constellation of Orion (the Hunter). Fewer know about the nebula NGC 1788, a subtle, hidden treasure just a few degrees away from the bright stars in Orion’s belt.NGC 1788 is a reflection nebula, whose gas and dust scatter the light coming from a small cluster of young stars in such a way that the tenuous glow forms a shape reminiscent of a gigantic bat spreading its wings. Very few of the stars belonging to the nebula are visible in this image, as most of them are obscured by the dusty cocoons surrounding them. The most prominent, named HD 293815, can be distinguished as the bright star in the upper part of the cloud, just above the center of the image and the pronounced dark lane of dust extending through the nebula.Although NGC 1788 appears at first glance to be an isolated cloud, observations covering a field beyond the one presented in this image have revealed that bright, massive stars, belonging to the vast stellar groupings in Orion, have played a decisive role in shaping NGC 1788 and stimulating the formation of its stars. They are also responsible for setting the hydrogen gas ablaze in the parts of the nebula facing Orion, leading to the red, almost vertical rim visible in the left half of the image.All the stars in this region are extremely young, with an average age of only a million years, a blink of an eye compared to the Sun’s age of 4.5 billion years. Analyzing them in detail, astronomers have discovered that these Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:56:25 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/A-Hydrogen-Highway-for-the-East-Coast_18_151_707_228984.html One of the big issues facing hydrogen adoption is where to fill the cars that might run on the stuff. A Connecticut company answers that question on the East Coast with plans for a "hydrogen highway" that will extend from Portland, Maine, to southern Florida. Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:55:49 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Why-is-Bloom-Energy-Lying-to-Us-_18_151_707_228934.html Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely excited about Bloom Energy. I honestly think that their technology is a good thing for the world and that it might very well revolutionize the power infrastructure in America and throughout the world. And yes, it will create jobs and make a select few people very rich. In fact, I think it's so revolutionary that it doesn't need to be inflated by false or misleading claims...which is why I'm a little put off by a few naughty little lies in the Bloom press release I got this morning. Annoying press point #1: The Bloom Box "energy server" works with "nearly any fuel source." To me, "nearly any fuel source" means anything containing carbon/hydrogen compounds, ranging from gasoline to wood. The Bloom Box doesn't run on "nearly any fuel source" it runs on methane or methane or methane. That methane can be pumped out of the ground or captured from landfills, but it's still methane, and as I count it, that's one fuel source. Annoying press point #2: Companies using the Bloom Box can "expect a three to five year payback on their capital investment." This is insane. The average cost per kW/h in California is 14 cents and Bloom promises a cost of roughly 9 cents. 100 kW multiplied by 8760 hours in a year times $0.05 per kW means 100 kW of continual electricity consumption over the course of the year will save a company a maximum of $45,000 per year. Call me crazy, but I don't see how they're going to pay for a $700,000 piece of equipment (even with a 50% government subsidy that won't last forever) over the course of three or five years by saving $45k per year. Annoying press point #3: Probably what annoys me most about Bloom's press release is that they claim the box "provides a cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable alternative to both today’s electric grid as well as traditional renewable energy sources." Again, if it's not an outright lie, it's at least very misleading. The Bloom Box might be more reliable ... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:55:14 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Applied-electric-field-can-significantly-improve-hydrogen-storage-properties_18_151_707_228841.html An international team of researchers has identified a new theoretical approach that may one day make the synthesis of hydrogen fuel storage materials less complicated and improve the thermodynamics and reversibility of the system. Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:55:13 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Hydrogen-production-via-thermal-gasification-of-biomass-in-near-to-medium-term_18_151_707_228840.html Dedicated biomass gasification technologies are presently being developed in many countries for the production of second-generation liquid biofuels. Both fluidized-bed gasification and special entrained flow systems are under intensive development. These technologies can also be used for hydrogen production, which may become an interesting alternative in replacing part of fossil fuel input in oil refineries and chemical industries. In addition, fuel cell technology is being developed for hydrogen-rich gases. Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:55:10 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/Experiments-meet-requirements-for-fusion-ignition-new-physics-effect-achieves-symmetrical-target-compression_18_151_707_228836.html The first experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) have demonstrated a unique physics effect that bodes well for NIF's success in generating a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction. In inertial confinement fusion experiments on NIF, the energy of 192 powerful laser beams is fired into a pencil-eraser-sized cylinder called a hohlraum, which contains a tiny spherical target filled with deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen. Rocket-like compression of the fuel capsule forces the hydrogen nuclei to combine, or fuse, releasing many times more energy than the laser energy that was required to spark the reaction. Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:54:15 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Clean-Energy/Hydrogen/UK-s-biggest-fuel-cell-shows-tech-no-longer-Sci-Fi_18_151_707_228634.html A hydrogen fuel cell powering a London office block is a real reminder that the emissions-saving technology not only works, but cuts costs too.