Friday, October 1, 2010
Türanor, the world's largest solar-powered boat, generates a real challenge for the future
An ambitious project to construct a solar-powered boat got its first piece of publicity on 31 March 2010, when it was put in the waters of the northern German city of Kiel.
In the Knierim boatyard, a team of experts had been working on the boat over the past 13 months. It is now floating in the Baltic Sea, where it will remain for a test period of several months before being ferried to the Mediterranean.
Its name, Türanor, was inspired by the JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings; it means "power of the sun".
Photo: planetsolar.org
Photovoltaic panels covering a total area of more than 600 sq metres pave the boat's surface and additional panels are attached to outriggers on its starboard, port and stern sections, which can be retracted in stormy weather. The vessel's motor will be powered by the solar energy that can be stored in the world largest lithium ion battery.According to the constructors, Türanor can travel at average speed of 7.5 knots (14 km/h) without sunlight; the stored energy could run it for three days, while with enough sunlight it could potentially go forever.
The completed boat weighs 85 tons; power generated by the sun is 93.5 kW (127.0 HP) with an average engine consumption of 20 kW (26.8 HP). Forty people can go on board.
Raphaël Domjan, the initiator of the project, and Gérard d’Aboville, the first man to row across the Atlantic and the Pacific, are two of the Türanor’s helmsmen.
This 31-metre-long, 15-metre-wide, 7.5-metre-high vessel will sail in a world tour of 150 000 kilometres that will take approximately 160 days, crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, travelling through the Panama Canal, the Pacific and the Indian oceans, and finally through the Suez Canal back to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Türanor’s first journey is planned next year, when it will chase the rays of the sun on an equatorial route, and will follow an east-west path along the equator, in order to take advantage of the sunshine and to capture as much solar power as possible to run the boat.
Solar-powered boats could revolutionise future sea travels; this challenging example should inspire scientific research in using environmental friendly approaches in every field.
Written by: Jasmina Nikoloska for Energetika.NET
Posted by Jasmina Nikoloska
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Generating energy from nuclear fusion – Is it possible?Nuclear fusion is the natural process of converting hydrogen into helium at temperatures of 10-15 million Kelvin, providing enough energy to power the Sun and stars.
This almost endless process has inspired a vigorous world-wide research programme, aimed at harnessing fusion energy for human needs.
Photo:treehugger.com
Seemingly a perfect energy source to supply the world's energy needs for millions of years to come, nuclear fusion in and of itself generates no carbon dioxide emissions or harmful waste, and poses no threat to a surrounding human population.
But to exploit this energy from nuclear fusion on Earth is different and more difficult; much more efficient fusion reactions than those at work on the Sun would have to be selected, in this case, those between the two heavy forms of hydrogen: deuterium (D) and tritium (T).
Despite the progress achieved in fusion experiments, no device has yet made more energy than it consumes: Fusion has only been achieved by putting far more energy into a system than the fusion itself produces.
Fusion on Earth occurs under specific conditions at very high temperatures, greater than 100 million Kelvin, from a very hot gas or plasma of hydrogen in a controlled environment using a powerful magnetic field.
In order to harness fusion energy, scientists and engineers are learning how to control very high temperature plasmas.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Research Reactor (ITER), in southern France, is a multinational research and engineering project designed to prove the scientific and technological feasibility of a full-scale fusion power reactor. It is an experimental step between today’s studies of plasma physics and future electricity-producing fusion power plants.
It is designed to produce approximately 500 MW of fusion power sustained for more than 400 seconds. ITER will be the first fusion experiment with an output power higher than the input power.
The ITER project faces funding problems; a shortfall of building costs in 2012-2013 of 1.4 billion euro is expected to be covered by European Union research funds. This raises concerns among scientists working on other research programmes, who argue that the proposal could “rob researchers of vital funds”.
The original plan was to build the bones of the experiment in 10 years for a budget of 5 billion euro. Many now expect it to be in the region of 15 billion euro, Time's Ecocentric published recently.
The Joint European Torus (JET), at Culham Science Centre, Oxfordshire, UK, investigates the potential of fusion power as a safe, clean and virtually limitless energy source for future generations. The largest tokamak in the world, it is the only operational fusion experiment capable of producing fusion energy.
While JET represents a pure scientific experiment, the reactor-scale experiment ITER is designed to deliver 10 times the power it consumes. The next foreseen device, DEMO, is expected to be the first fusion plant to reliably provide electricity to the grid.
If successful, this will offer a viable alternative energy supply within the next 30 to 40 years.
Photo:treehugger.com
Seemingly a perfect energy source to supply the world's energy needs for millions of years to come, nuclear fusion in and of itself generates no carbon dioxide emissions or harmful waste, and poses no threat to a surrounding human population.But to exploit this energy from nuclear fusion on Earth is different and more difficult; much more efficient fusion reactions than those at work on the Sun would have to be selected, in this case, those between the two heavy forms of hydrogen: deuterium (D) and tritium (T).
Despite the progress achieved in fusion experiments, no device has yet made more energy than it consumes: Fusion has only been achieved by putting far more energy into a system than the fusion itself produces.
Fusion on Earth occurs under specific conditions at very high temperatures, greater than 100 million Kelvin, from a very hot gas or plasma of hydrogen in a controlled environment using a powerful magnetic field.
In order to harness fusion energy, scientists and engineers are learning how to control very high temperature plasmas.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Research Reactor (ITER), in southern France, is a multinational research and engineering project designed to prove the scientific and technological feasibility of a full-scale fusion power reactor. It is an experimental step between today’s studies of plasma physics and future electricity-producing fusion power plants.
It is designed to produce approximately 500 MW of fusion power sustained for more than 400 seconds. ITER will be the first fusion experiment with an output power higher than the input power.
The ITER project faces funding problems; a shortfall of building costs in 2012-2013 of 1.4 billion euro is expected to be covered by European Union research funds. This raises concerns among scientists working on other research programmes, who argue that the proposal could “rob researchers of vital funds”.
The original plan was to build the bones of the experiment in 10 years for a budget of 5 billion euro. Many now expect it to be in the region of 15 billion euro, Time's Ecocentric published recently.
The Joint European Torus (JET), at Culham Science Centre, Oxfordshire, UK, investigates the potential of fusion power as a safe, clean and virtually limitless energy source for future generations. The largest tokamak in the world, it is the only operational fusion experiment capable of producing fusion energy.
While JET represents a pure scientific experiment, the reactor-scale experiment ITER is designed to deliver 10 times the power it consumes. The next foreseen device, DEMO, is expected to be the first fusion plant to reliably provide electricity to the grid.
If successful, this will offer a viable alternative energy supply within the next 30 to 40 years.
Written by: Jasmina Nikoloska for Energetika.NET
Posted by Jasmina Nikoloska
Friday, September 17, 2010
Biofuel from Scotch whisky could power carsOver the past two years, scientists from Edinburgh Napier Biofuel Research Centre have been developing an innovative method to produce a new form of biofuel, one made from whisky by-products.
The £260 000 research project was funded by the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept Programme, the Daily Telegraph wrote on 17 August 2010.
Scottish scientists recognised the available potential in the £4 billion local whisky industry, in that by using two main by-products of the whisky distillation process – pot ale, or the liquid from the copper stills, and draff, or the spent grains – it could be possible to develop the next generation of biofuel.
Photo: popsci.com
Both waste products form the basis of butanol production; butanol gives 30 per cent more output power than ethanol, and can be used as fuel.
As a starting point, scientists used a 100-year-old process originally conducted by Chaim Weizmann; Weizmann had initially studied butanol fermentation as part of a programme to produce rubber synthetically.
With 1600 million litres of pot ale and 187 000 tons of draff produced by the malt whisky industry annually, the university claims that there is true potential for this biofuel to be available alongside traditional fuels.
The new biofuel can be used in ordinary cars without any special adaptations. It can also be used to make other green renewable bio-chemicals, such as acetone.
After filing for a patent on the new technology, the team plans to commercialise its product, creating a “spin-out” company and making the product available at petrol stations within a few years.
Photo: popsci.com
Both waste products form the basis of butanol production; butanol gives 30 per cent more output power than ethanol, and can be used as fuel.As a starting point, scientists used a 100-year-old process originally conducted by Chaim Weizmann; Weizmann had initially studied butanol fermentation as part of a programme to produce rubber synthetically.
With 1600 million litres of pot ale and 187 000 tons of draff produced by the malt whisky industry annually, the university claims that there is true potential for this biofuel to be available alongside traditional fuels.
The new biofuel can be used in ordinary cars without any special adaptations. It can also be used to make other green renewable bio-chemicals, such as acetone.
After filing for a patent on the new technology, the team plans to commercialise its product, creating a “spin-out” company and making the product available at petrol stations within a few years.
See more: http://energetika.net/eu/novice/expert-commentary/biofuel-from-scotch-whisky-could-power-cars
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