Pollution Engineering - January 2009 - (Page 20)

10Top Technologies The research team began testing a floating base for a generator in July 2008 and plan to test a model of a generating plant this year. 4. Growing Up Green One of the less-voiced challenges of controlling greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, is the concern that as soon as the developed world manages to significantly cut their emissions and fossil fuel use, the developing world will simply step in and emit everything that older industrialized nations cut. Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, may have found a way to bring clean, renewable energy to developing world communities. The project, which in November 2008 received a $10,000 grant from the federal EPA, uses solar heat and methane gas to create power. The systems are highly customizable in order to use the solar and organic resources available to each particular region. By focusing on solar ther- Umit Ozkan, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University, believes he has a catalyst that can break hydrogen from ethanol with a 90-percent yield at a workable temperature and be very cost-effective. The researchers expect to be able to expand the range of their equipment with stronger lasers and detect trace amounts of hazardous substances. 7. Better Batteries What is stopping mankind from powering cars and cities with solar energy, or establishing a colony on Mars, or visiting other galaxies? A longer-lasting battery. While Earthlings are likely Earth-bound for the foreseeable future, a breakthrough in battery technology could keep our laptops and cell phones running longer. Stanford University scientists spent much of 2008 looking at the commercial viability of a battery that could keep a laptop powered for 40 hours, or a cell phone charged for a month. Assistant professor Yi Cui and his associates at Stanford’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering believe they can increase the life of a rechargeable lithium-ion battery tenfold by using silicon nanowires, rather than graphite, as the battery anode. “Rhodium is used most often for this kind of catalyst and it costs around $9,000 an ounce,” said Ozkan. “Our catalyst costs around $9 a kilogram.” Ozkan presented her results at the American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia on Aug. 20, 2008. While there still remains a number of issues that need to be resolved such as transportation, storage and distribution, this discovery would make the cost of manufacturing energygrade hydrogen very reasonable. 6. From the Battle Lines mal, biogas and algal CO2 technologies, the MIT systems should increase efficiency and decrease CO2 output over the typical diesel generators used in such areas. Such generators are hardly the sole property of developing communities. Site remediation projects, for example, could potentially use the MIT systems to power their equipment with locally available organics, even, perhaps, the organic material being remediated. Science is focused on finding methods to thwart terrorists by detecting materials that could cause harm, but in doing so, may have stumbled upon a technology for detecting trace substances simply by pointing at it. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working to develop this Star Trek-like equipment that they call standoff photoacoustic spectroscopy. The technology would allow an investigator to literally stand at a distance from a substance and detect hazardous compounds. Essentially, it is a laser light that excites the materials. The device then measures the sound signature captured from the reflected light as it generates a vibration through an interaction with a special tiny quartz crystal. 5. Zero-Emission Fuel A new catalyst may provide a method of cost-effectively producing hydrogen from ethanol. But the energy needed to break the chemical bonds and produce enough of it seems to be a deterrent to mass production. 20 Pollution Engineering JANUARY2009 Scientists have known that silicon anodes have the highest theoretical charge capacity, but have not been practical because they change volume by up to 400 percent as lithium is inserted and extracted. Cui’s solution is to organize the silicon like a sponge of nanowires, each of which expands but would not fracture. The structures would have similar organization and resiliency as follicles on a hairbrush. The materials would experience little change in charge capacity during cycling, meaning the batteries themselves would last for decades. The better battery may not take us to the moon. But any environmental profes-

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pollution Engineering - January 2009

Pollution Engineering - January 2009 Contents The Editor’s Desk EnviroNews PE Events Legal Lookout Green Connections Ten Top Technologies for 2009 Old Fashioned Chemistry Emitting Education NGWA Reports from Its Annual Meeting A Wood and a Pond Company Technical Profiles Filtration/Membrane Products Flow and Level Monitoring Equipment Classified Marketplace Advertisers Index State Rules

Pollution Engineering - January 2009

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