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This year is the twentieth (20th) year that we are offering Future Energy
eNews for free to the public. If you like our work
to highlight the best energy news for you, then do us an easy
favor and tell the world! You have an opportunity to help us make
even more of a difference in our community. GreatNonprofits is
a review site like TripAdvisor and honoring highly reviewed
nonprofits with their own organization page. Won't you help us
raise visibility for our work by posting a review of your
experience with us? All reviews will be visible to potential
donors and volunteers. It's easy and only takes 3 minutes! Go
to https://greatnonprofits.org/org/integrity-research-institute to
see the IRI summary, other reviews, and to click on “Share Your
Story”. Thank you!
By the way, on March 20th, 2021 at 12 noon EST, I’ll be presenting an
in-depth analysis of all of the energy, propulsion, and
bioenergetics projects that Integrity Research Institute is
currently engaged in at APEC https://www.altpropulsion.com/#posts (for
free online on Zoom). As we look at advanced propulsion for
example, there are a few that have been worth supporting and
advocating as high risk, high payback. Those, as well as similar
ones for advanced energy and advanced bioenergetic healing
devices, will be summarized in a well-illustrated slideshow
presentation.” A previous talk that I gave at the Global Energy
Movement on stage in person is also now on YouTube.
Story #1
offers a new advancement on the hope for hydrogen powered
vehicles that are safe and not subject to hydrogen disadvantages,
like the heavy, pressurized tanks. This new form of storage for
hydrogen is a paste for hydrogen fuel cells. It enables the car
to go farther than gasoline-powered vehicles and to refuel in
minutes. Hydrogen has a higher energy density than gasoline and
so it inherently is a superior fuel for vehicles. The Fraunhofer
Institute in Germany has now shown how to take advantage of the
best reasons to use hydrogen, at atmospheric pressure, ready for
release when needed.
Story #2
continues the hydrogen theme with a Universities of Chicago,
Wisconsin, and BNL breakthrough in making photoelectrodes that
significantly boost the output of hydrogen and oxygen from
solar-powered water electrolysis. As reported in Nature Energy (Feb. 18, 2021 the
secret is a new compound on the surface called bismuth vanadate
that yields more efficient separation due to its
photoelectrochemical properties.
Story #3
is a nice design development tool from the National Renewable
Energy Lab (NREL) for thermal energy storage material choices.
Depending upon how fast the thermal energy needs to be released,
for example, there may be a different choice to make. However,
IRI has found, as the article mentions, that certain phase change
materials store heat very well with almost no loss and also
“function like a huge battery” for home and industry building
use. IRI recommends companies that use BioPCM® such as the ENRG
Blanket® https://phasechange.com/enrgblanket/ which
outperforms ANY standard insulation offered at hardware stores.
The ENRG Blanket® looks like regular rolled insulation but tuning
the phase transition temperature in the BioPCM® enables active
heat absorption in the ENRG Blanket® and delays the need for
cooling in summer. Similarly, in winter, the ENRG Blanket® can be
tuned to absorb and release stored heat when room temperature
drops below the desired set point. I met the CEO of the BioPCM®
source company and was amazed how he was able to help companies
avoid installing air conditioning for warehouses, as one of the
best examples he offered. Click here for the
Informative brochure.
Story #4 is exciting for the future since it might
even provide a source of energy for the needs of an advanced
civilization. From an article published in Physical Review D, one
of the authors calculated that the process of plasma energization
can reach an efficiency of 150 percent, much higher than any
power plant operating on Earth," Felipe Asenjo from
Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile said. "Achieving an
efficiency greater than 100 percent is possible because black
holes leak energy, which is given away for free to the plasma
escaping from the black hole." The coauthor Luca Comisso,
from Columbia University, also agrees that "Our theory
shows that when magnetic field lines disconnect and reconnect, in
just the right way, they can accelerate plasma particles to
negative energies and large amounts of black hole energy can be
extracted."
Story #5 could have been our lead article and is
more down to earth. In this summary of a solution to contact
transmission of bacteria, viruses, and especially the SARS-CoV-2
which causes COVID-19, researchers at Rochester Institute of
Technology (RIT) have proven that copper door handles (and some
copper alloys like brass) can kill the virus in only a few hours.
Therefore, they decided to install copper door handles in all of
their buildings. Keeping them clean also boosted their power
about 10% higher than if they were allowed to oxidize. (IRI
suggests that using brass door handles is just as effective and
requires no maintenance, as other articles indicates.) Check out
the Related Articles too for similar tests and endorsements for
copper as a great germ fighting contact surface.
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1) Clean Hydrogen Energy in a Safe, Convenient Gray
Goop
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NewAtlas.com
February 2021
Fraunhofer
researchers have presented a magnesium-based
"Powerpaste" that stores hydrogen energy at 10 times
the density of a lithium battery, offering hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles the ability to travel further than gasoline-powered
ones, and refuel in minutes.
Part of
the paste's impressive energy density comes from the fact that
half of the hydrogen released comes from the water it reacts
with.”
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2) Breakthrough Boost For Solar Powered Fuel Made
with Water
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By Scitech Daily February 2021
Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering research could help make hydrogen
useful, sustainable fuel.
Hydrogen is
an incredibly powerful fuel, and the ingredients are everywhere—in
plain old water. Researchers would love to be able to use it
widely as a clean and sustainable energy source.
One catch,
however, is that a considerable amount of energy is required to
split water and make hydrogen. Thus scientists have been working
on fabricating materials for photoelectrodes that can use solar
energy to split water, creating a “solar fuel” that can be stored
for later use.
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3) NREL Heats up Thermal Energy Storage by Improving
Efficiency
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Tech-Explore
February 2021
Scientists
from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed
a simple way to better evaluate the potential of novel materials to
store or release heat on demand in your home, office, or other
building in a way that more efficiently manages the building's
energy use.
Their
work, featured in Nature Energy, proposes a new design method that
could make the process of heating and cooling buildings more
manageable, less expensive, more efficient, and better prepared to
flexibly manage power from renewable energy sources that do not
always deliver energy when it is most needed.
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4) Harvesting Energy from Black Holes
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A
remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity—the
theory that connects space, time, and gravity—is that rotating black
holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped.
For the
last 50 years, scientists have tried to come up with methods to
unleash this power. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose theorized that a
particle disintegration could draw energy from a black hole; Stephen
Hawking proposed that black holes could release energy through
quantum mechanical emission; while Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek
suggested electromagnetic torque as a main agent of energy
extraction.
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