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Greetings!
This next month the World Energy
Engineering Congress will take place here in DC on
Sept. 25-26th, which is a huge event, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and
other notable speakers. Also, we encourage everyone within a stone's
throw of DC to at least take advantage of the FREE Expo
Admission with hundreds of energy vendors on display.
Pre-registration online for it is recommended. Lastly, the WEEC is
also branching out for the first time into "New Emerging
Technologies" with the Session K3 on Thursday, September 26th which
is great.
In the same vein, can you believe that even the Nobel
Prize Committee is sponsoring a Nobel Week Dialogue that includes,
"Exploring the Future of Energy" on December 9th in
Gothenburg, Sweden? The Facebook link
is https://www.facebook.com/NobelWeekDialogue where
one recent post by others on the Nobel Committee site asks,
"Will you be discussing Free Energy systems?"
More close to home, as a direct result of the
networking accomplished at the Nexus Youth
Summit last month at the UN, IRI is now negotiating
with a company for funding and development of at least one of our bioenergetics
products which includes patent-pending Therapeutic
Electric Clothes. In keeping with this theme, Chemistry World just
announced in Story #1 a means for Self-Powering Cloth Electronics,
which is a great match with tin oxide nanoparticles with high quantum
efficiency.
Our Story #2 and #3 are complimentary and also
represent breakthroughs in energy harvesting of ambient RF
energy. IRI predicts that the world will see more and more of
this future energy type of invention, so that small products will no
longer need batteries! Developed on both sides of the ocean in the
past month, it is an invention whose time has come and includes
"battery-free wireless" by taking energy from other sources
like TV, radio, Wi-Fi, and cellular networks. Video included in Story
#3.
At our Sixth
Conference on Future Energy in July at the University
of Maryland, Dr. Max Formichev-Zamilov from Penn State explained that
bubble fusion was suppressed by the competing scientists who also
wanted government funding (listen to his video lecture online for
free). It now seems that Dr. Taleyarkhan from Purdue is bouncing back
with the help of New Energy Times in Story #4. The conspiracy deepens
as the facts about the previous suppression attempt are now surfacing.
Both Dr. Max and Dr. Taleyarkhan specialize in this type of fusion,
better technically known as "cavitation fusion"
which also has ties to zero point energy as well.
Now talk about future bioenergetics, Star Trek fans are once
again vindicated with the introduction of the Scanadu Scout in Story
#5, thanks to NASA. Put it next to your temple for ten seconds and
the closest thing to a Star Trek "Tricorder" will send your skin/core temperature, heart rate,
respiratory rate, blood pressure, ECG data, and SpO2 level to your
smart phone! I once heard
from a public affairs rep for William Shatner that he was working on
a book about all of the current technology that was inspired by the
Star Trek television series. Well here is another big one that we all
have been waiting for, guaranteed to reduce your doctor bills. Maybe
all of the data will be electronically available to your doctor too
so he can give a diagnosis by email perhaps and then send you a bill
of course J.
Sincerely,
Thomas
Valone, PhD, PE.
Editor
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1) WATER BASED FLOW BATTERIES CAN TRIPLE EV
RANGE AT A QUARTER OF COST
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By Jim Motavalli · September
03, 2013 PluginCars
Let's
start out by saying that a collaboration between GE Global Research
and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is promising
great things from water-based "flow" batteries.
The claim is triple the driving range for electric cars equipped with
lithium-ion battery packs, at a quarter the price.
Dr.
Grigorii Soloveichik, a chemist and project leader at the GE unit,
told me, "We're confident about the energy density and costs,
but we also have to show that the batteries can quickly charge and
discharge." He said that the new batteries should be easily able
to beat a Department of Energy goal of 240 miles on a charge.
Before
you get too excited, GE and Berkeley are still in the lab stage. Dr.
Soloveichik said that what's happened so far is "some
experiments to show it's real." The joint operation is planning
to produce, within a year, a chemical cell "that will
demonstrate what will be needed to produce a working battery."
The actual pack "for a small vehicle" is likely to take
three years, he said. To get to a pre-production pack stage, two or
three more years are needed, Dr. Soloveichik said. Don't expect to
see these cells in the 2015 Nissan LEAF.
Dr.
Soloveichik said that the key to the research lab's flow battery is
"really cheap stuff, inexpensive materials." According to
GE, the flow battery uses a water-based solution with inorganic
chemicals "that are capable of transferring more than one
electron, providing high energy density."
Down This Road
Before
I
definitely hope the water battery happens, but by now I've visited at
least half a dozen college labs where a white-coated academic told me
excitedly about a breakthrough, with cars on the road in a year. Or
maybe two years, tops. Pushing the battery envelope must be really
hard, because none of that tech has made it to market yet. Read up on Envia and the Prieto Battery.
If
it's any consolation, while they are waiting for their breakthroughs
to materialize, the scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory can now use a City CarShare membership to access Dash, a
carmaker-supported electric vehicle sharing operation in the Bay
Area. The East Bay operation, in conjunction with Toyota and to
launch September 11, involves more than 24 Scion iQ electric vehicles
with approximately 50-mile range. The cars will be based around the
Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton.
The
program mirrors other manufacturer-supported EV sharing operations
run by Daimler (Car2Go in San Diego and other cities) and BMW (DriveNow in San Francisco). It's an
especially popular concept in California, because EVs are so popular
there-even with the current state of EV battery technology.
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2)ELECTRIC
FIELDS ASSIST WOUND HEALING
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New Scientist, September 2013
CELLS
can't see or hear, but some of them have a sense we lack: they can
detect the electric fields generated by a wound. Identifying how they
do this could help efforts to boost wound healing.
The
flow of ions across a cell membrane creates tiny electric fields.
Tissue damage changes that field, and cells involved in tissue repair
seem to sense this change.
To
work out what might cause these cells to respond to electric fields, Min Zhao and Alex Mogilner at Stanford
University in California and their team looked at fish skin cells,
which are often used to study cell motion. When placed in an electric
field to mimic the field formed around a wound, whole cells moved
towards the positive electrode, as if moving towards an injury.
Curiously, though, smaller fragments of cellular material in the fish
skin cell sample headed in the opposite direction.
The
cells and fragments have one thing in common - both possess bundles
of proteins that help them move. The team realised that these
proteins act as tiny electromagnetic compasses: they propel cells
towards a wound, but send cell fragments away (Current Biology, DOI:
10.1016/j.cub.2013.02.026).
Inducing
electric currents at sites of injury could improve wound healing therapies, says
Zhao.
This
article appeared in print under the headline "Internal compass
points to injury"
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3)ENERGY HARVESTERS REPORT
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Hearst Electronics Magazine, Sept 2013
Energy harvesters challenge batteries in wireless
sensors
Emerging
Energy Harvesting Devices a report from Yole Développement
Lyon,
France - Yole Développement announces its new analysis
"Emerging Energy Harvesting Devices". In this report, Yole
Développement analysts describe why and how emerging energy harvesting
devices will be increasingly used in the dynamic wireless sensor
business.
Building
and industry will drive market growth to +51%/year
Until
now, batteries were dominantly used to power those networks, but
progress in low power electronics and communication protocols are
enabling sensor networks to run of energy harvesters in conditions
where it's not practical to replace batteries. Yole Développement's
report is an overview of the energy harvesting applications with a
focus on building and industrial applications.
Building
applications are by far the main use for energy harvesters with 1M
units sold in 2011. They are used in commercial building where large
networks of wireless switches (for lighting) and sensors (presence,
humidity) are installed. The clear market drivers for energy
harvesters are the huge installation cost reduction (no wiring), and
their being maintenance free. Hence, production will be multiplied by
a factor of more than 10 between 2012 and 2017.
"The
industrial market will be the second key area for energy harvesters,
again with applications in wireless sensors that are used to monitor
machines and processes", announces Antoine Bonnabel, Technology
& Market Analyst, MEMS Devices & Technologies at Yole
Développement. Energy harvesters increase the autonomy of the battery
and thus the measurement data rates which are today limited with
batteries. Maintenance free is also a great argument for EH in those
applications where accessibility is sometimes critical (oil & gas
industry for instance). "Today, sales are limited because there
is no real agreement on a low power radio protocol, as in buildings,
but this will soon change and will allow significant price reduction
and production ramp-up to several hundred thousand units in
2017", said Antoine Bonnabel.
Other
emerging applications will also likely adopt energy harvesters to
replace batteries in wireless sensors applications and will add
additional volumes to the global energy harvester business:
transportation (helicopters, trains), automotive TPMS, environmental,
medical.... Yole Développement report provides a deep understanding
of the market drivers and challenges for energy harvesters, and
identifies the real businesses among hype applications.
"Overall,
the global emerging energy harvesting business at the wireless module
level will grow from $19 M in 2012 to $227 M in 2017, meaning an
impressive growth of + 51 % /year", stated Yann de Charentenay,
Senior Analyst at Yole Développement.
Mechanical
and thermal harvesters are the most dynamic technologies
Wireless
sensor modules require a power source from tens of microwatts up to
tens of milliwatts, and energy harvesters have now enough power
output in many applications to provide an infinite lifetime to those
modules. The scope of technology candidates is very broad, with very
variable technological maturity. In this report, Yole Développement's
experts analyze and provide a detailed description of different
energy harvesting technologies currently used and under development,
along with their strengths and limitations. Those technologies have
been segmented by mechanical, thermal and solar PV categories. Yole
Développement's report provides market share of each technology per
application, trend until 2017, and market forecast.
Mechanical
and thermal are the most dynamic and innovative technologies and will
experience a rapid adoption in several markets (building, industry,
transportation) that will drive their sales to reach respectively 39%
and 25% of the total energy harvesting sales in 2017. Price erosion
will be very significant (12%/year) thanks to production ramp up.
"Energy
harvesting devices produced by MEMS technologies will be mainly
thermal thin-film technology whose production will start industrially
in 2012", announces Yole Développement. Other mechanical
vibration MEMS harvesters will take longer time to be adopted
specially for TPMS due to cost challenge.
Analysis
of energy harvesting industry dynamic
The
report identifies and positions the key energy harvesting market
players depending on technologies developed, level of maturity,
business model and targeted markets. The dynamics of
the
supply chain is analyzed, in order to understand:
-
Who are the key market players, in each application field at both
transducer and module level
-
How the competitive landscape will evolve.
About the report
Authors:
Antoine
Bonnabel, works as market & technology analyst for MEMS devices
and technologies at Yole Développement. He holds a M.Sc. in
microelectronics and microsystems from Grenoble Institute of
Technologies and a M.Sc. in marketing and business management from
Grenoble Graduate School of Business.
Yann
de Charentenay has worked for Yole Développement in the field of
MEMS, materials and compound semiconductors since 2003. He has contributed
to more than 60 marketing & technological analyses since the
beginning of our collaboration.
Catalogue
price: Euros 3,990.00 (single user license) - Publication date:
November 2012.
For
special offers and the price in dollars, please contact David Jourdan
(jourdan@yole.fr).
Companies cited in the report:
A.raymond,
ABB, Advanced ceramics, Alphabet energy, Arveni, Bently Nevada (GE
Energy), Boston Scientific, CEA Leti, Continental, Cymbet
Corporation, Dust Networks / Linear Technology, Emerson, EnOcean,
Ferrotec, GE Bently Nevada (GE Energy), Global Thermoelectric, Hager,
Holst centre / IMEC, Infineon, Infinite Power Solutions, Kavlico,
Kryotherma, Laird technologies, Legrand, Lightning switch, Linear
technology, Lord, Lumedyne, LV Sensors, Marlow Industries, Maxim,
Medtronic, MEMS@MIT, MEMSIC, MEMSIC, Microchip, Microgene systems,
Micropelt, Microstrain, Midé, MIT, National instrument, Nextreme,
Perpetua, Perpetuum, Phononic devices, Piezotag, Powercast, Saint
Jude, Savi Technology, Schneider electric, Shraeder , Siemens
Corporate Technology, Smartire, Somfy, Sorin Group, ST
Microelectronics, Swatch, Tellurex, Texas Instrument, TPL micro
power, Transense, Visityre, Xtrion, Yokogawa...
About Yole Développement
Beginning
in 1998 with Yole Développement, we have grown to become a group of
companies providing market research, technology analysis, strategy
consulting, media in addition to finance services. With a solid focus
on emerging applications using silicon and/or micro manufacturing,
Yole Développement group has expanded to include more than 50
associates worldwide covering MEMS, Microfluidics & Medical,
Advanced Packaging, Compound Semiconductors, Power Electronics, LED,
and Photovoltaics. The group supports companies, investors and
R&D organizations worldwide to help them understand markets and follow
technology trends to develop their business.
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Kevin Bullis, Technology
Review, September 2013
People
could soon get cleaner energy from a compact fuel-cell generator in
their backyards, at costs cheaper than power from the grid. At least,
that's the hope of Redox Power Systems, a startup based
in Fulton, Maryland, which plans to offer a substantially cheaper
fuel cell next year.
Redox
is developing fuel cells that feed on natural gas, propane, or
diesel. The cells, which generate electricity through electrochemical
reactions rather than combustion, could allow businesses to continue
operating through power outages like those caused by massive storms
such as Hurricane Sandy, but they promise to be far cleaner and
quieter than diesel generators. They can also provide continuous
power, not just emergency backup power, so utilities could use them
as distributed power sources that ease congestion on the grid,
preventing blackouts and lowering the overall cost of electricity.
Redox's
claims sound a lot like those made in 2010 by Bloom Energy (see "Bloom Reveals New Fuel Cells"), a
well-funded fuel-cell startup in Sunnyvale, California. But Bloom's
fuel cells are based on relatively conventional technology, and so
far they have proved far too expensive for homes. Redox claims to
have developed fuel cells based on novel materials that could cut
costs by nearly 90 percent. The first product will be a 25-kilowatt
generator that Redox says produces enough electricity for a grocery
store. The company eventually plans to sell smaller versions for
homes.
Redox's
fuel cells are based on highly conductive materials developed at the
University of Maryland that help increase power output by a factor of
10 at lower temperatures (see "Gasoline Fuel Cell Would Boost Electric
Car Range"). The company says its fuel cells will pay for
themselves with electricity-bill savings in two years.
Redox,
a self-funded company founded just two years ago, is basing its cost
estimates on data derived from manufacturing key components of the
fuel-cell systems. But it hasn't started making complete systems,
which would include several stacks of the fuel cells and other
equipment such as pipes and pumps for distributing fuel to them.
The
type of fuel cell Redox makes is called a solid-oxide fuel cell. Like
all fuel cells, it produces power through electrochemical reactions.
Unlike those being developed for use in cars, it can run on a variety
of fuels, not just hydrogen. Redox's cells will release carbon
dioxide, but emissions per kilowatt-hour should be lower than those
associated with power from the grid.
Though
Bloom also uses solid-oxide fuel cells, Redox's are more advanced,
says Mark Williams, a former technical director for fuel cells at the
U.S. Department of Energy, who is not connected to Redox. He says
they're among the most powerful solid-oxide fuel cells ever made,
producing about two watts per square centimeter versus 0.2 watts for
Bloom's cells.
Warren Citrin, the company's CEO, says
the fuel-cell systems will cost about $1,000 per kilowatt, compared
with $8,000 per kilowatt for Bloom.
However,
the company's claim of a two-year payback is a rough estimate; it
doesn't include the cost of financing, for example, and it factors in
expected economies of scale from producing about 400 fuel-cell
systems per year, although the company has yet to manufacture even
one complete system so far.
Citrin
says the company has made the individual ceramic plates that fit
inside the fuel-cell system. It started with small, experimental
"button" fuel cells from the University of Maryland and,
working with contract manufacturers, demonstrated that it's possible
to manufacture the larger, 10-centimeter-wide versions needed in a
commercial system. It's also started testing stacks of these cells.
Citrin
says the company plans to finish a 25-kilowatt prototype by the end
of the year, in time to start selling complete systems by the end of
2014.
Because
Redox hasn't yet manufactured complete systems, it remains to be seen
how reliable they will be. Fuel cells are notorious for requiring
expensive maintenance and not lasting more than a few years, which is
one of the reasons they haven't taken off yet.
Eric Wachsman, director of the University
of Maryland Energy Research Center, who developed the original
technology, believes the system will perform well over time because
it operates at lower temperatures than other versions, reducing
damage to the fuel cells. He says data from individual cells suggest
that the systems could last for 10 years-still far short of the
lifetime of a power plant, but within the payback period.
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5) ELECTRIC MEDICINE WITH
IMPLANTS
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Susan Young, Technology Review August 31, 2013
In
early human tests, SetPoint Medical has found that
an electronic implant helped reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid
arthritis in six of eight patients. The company, which is based in
Valencia, California, is one of many groups exploring the potential
of electronic implants to treat diseases by delivering pulses to
nerves that regulate organ or body functions.
Earlier
this month, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, medical-device
manufacturer Boston Scientific, and others invested $27 million in SetPoint.
Although nerve-stimulating devices have been available for many
years, GSK and academic researchers argue that the field of
bioelectronic therapies is just beginning to ramp up and that in the
future many conditions could be treated with electrical impulses.
The
arthritis-regulating device is implanted in the patient's neck and
wraps around the vagus nerve, a bundle of nerve fibers that
communicates sensory information from internal organs and controls
involuntary body functions such as heart rate and digestion. The
device stimulates the nerve at regular intervals in a particular
pattern that regulates the immune system, which is overactive in
rheumatoid arthritis.
Brain
implants have previously been used to treat movement disorders and
some psychiatric conditions (see "Brain Implants Can Rest Misfiring Circuits").
Devices are also used to stimulate nerves outside the brain. An electrical device that stimulates
the vagus nerve is already used to treat some cases of drug-resistant
epilepsy and depression, and another is undergoing testing as
a treatment for congestive heart failure. But SetPoint is covering
new ground by testing peripheral-nerve stimulation as a treatment for
immune disease.
"The
industry is expanding rapidly," says Kenneth Gustafson, a biomedical
engineer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who is
studying electrical nerve stimulation as a way to treat bladder
dysfunction. The precedent set by pacemakers, deep brain implants,
and other such devices enables researchers to "take that
existing technology and repurpose it for all these new applications,"
he says.
Researchers
say the main advantage of the electrical devices over drug treatments
is that they may not cause as many side effects.
"Electrostimulation can be much more selective," Gustafson
says. "The targets are neural circuits that are not behaving as
they should." Drugs, on the other hand, often affect many
pathways in the body.
SetPoint
has been running animal and human trials using devices developed by
another company to treat epilepsy. In the future, trials will use a
proprietary device that is smaller and specifically engineered for
the infrequent stimulation needed to treat rheumatoid arthritis. The
company will soon launch another small patient study to test
stimulation in patients with Crohn's disease, an autoimmune condition
that attacks the gastrointestinal system.
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6)
BLACKOUT: 1 BILLION LIVE WITHOUT ELECTRIC LIGHTS
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By Bryan Walsh @bryanrwalsh, Time, Sept. 05,
2013
http://business.time.com/2013/09/05/blackout-1-billion-live-without-electric-light/#ixzz2ffnwLSUS
o A
summary of the expected impact for the President's Power Africa
Initiative.
About
1.3 billion people around the world lack access to electricity.
What
did you do when the sun went down? If you're
reading this, chances are you switched on a light. But for the 1.3
billion people around the world who lack access to electricity,
darkness is a reality. There is no electric light for children to do
their homework by, no power to run refrigerators that keep
perishables or needed medicine cold, no power for cooking stoves or
microwaves. What light they have mostly comes from the same sources
that humans have relied on forever-firewood, charcoal or dung-and the
resulting smoke turns into indoor pollution that contributes to more
than 3.5 million deaths a year. "For us, life does not stop
after dark," says Michael Elliott, president and CEO of the
development nonprofit ONE. "For 550 million people in
sub-Saharan Africa and many more than that
around the rest of the world, it does."
That
lack of electricity is called energy poverty, and it's a development
challenge that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. It's easy to
see why. Extreme poverty, global hunger, HIV/AIDS and malaria are all
immediate threats to human life. Not having somewhere to plug in a
cell phone, by contrast, might seem like an inconvenience at worst.
But energy poverty is connected to a host of deeper ills: 90% of the
children in sub-Saharan Africa go to primary schools that lack
electricity, which means no fans or air conditioners in the
equatorial heat, no computers, no lights for evening classes.
Economic growth is stunted as a result-60% of African businesses cite
access to reliable power as a binding constraint on their operations.
Energy poverty is even a political issue. In Pakistan, which has just
half the electrical-generation capacity of the state of Virginia,
frustration over an antiquated grid helped get President Asif Ali
Zardari kicked out of office this year.
(MORE: Grid Politics)
The
good news is that the issue is slowly receiving more notice. This
summer, President Barack Obama announced his Power
Africa initiative, which promises more than $7 billion over the next
five years to bring electricity access to 20 million new households
in countries like Ethiopia and Ghana. Development groups like ONE
have begun making energy poverty a priority, weaving it into
long-standing health and economic programs. "A light where
currently there is darkness. The energy needed to lift people out of
poverty," Obama told South African students in June.
"That's what opportunity looks like."
The
Price of Progress
But the challenge is enormous. While some 1.7 billion people have
acquired access to electricity globally since 1990, the rate of
electrification has been slower than the rate of population growth in
the most energy-poor countries. Just to get all of sub-Saharan
Africa-a region that generates about as much electricity as Spain-up
to levels that comparatively well-off South Africa enjoys would
require 330 gigawatts of new capacity. (Power Africa should account
for about 10 gigawatts.) The World Bank estimates that it would take
$1 trillion a year in global investment to eliminate energy poverty
by the year 2030-more than twice what is being spent now. And even
that level of investment would guarantee the poorest of the poor only
enough electricity to run a floor fan, a mobile phone and two compact
fluorescent lights for five hours a day.
The
reality is that banishing energy poverty won't be easy or cheap, and
it may come with an environmental cost. Much of Africa can and will
be supplied with renewable energy sources-especially rural areas
beyond the reach of any grid, where solar fits perfectly. But the fastest
population growth is happening in the developing world's exploding
urban areas, which will eventually need the same reliable,
grid-delivered electricity that developed cities enjoy. Some of that
electricity will be generated by fossil fuels, including carbon-heavy
coal. The result may well be an increase in greenhouse gases, but
given that the average Ethiopian emits less than 1% of the carbon
that the average American does, Africans should hardly feel climate
guilt. For those who live in darkness, electricity by nearly any
means will be worth the price.
MORE: A Bump on the Road to Green
Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/09/05/blackout-1-billion-live-without-electric-light/#ixzz2ffnwLSUS
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