The Air Powered Motorcycle: O2-Pursuit

 

Last month industrial designer Dean Benstead unveiled the 02 Pursuit — a prototype for a motorcycle fueled not by gas or electricity, but by compressed air.

Based on the geometry of a 250cc motocrosser, the O2 Pursuit prototype uses the breakthrough engine technology developed by Angelo Di Pietro of Engineair.

Benstead, a recent graduate of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), has harnessed the power that exists in the air tanks to mechanically drive the vehicle.

According to Benstead, testing of the motorcycle showed close to a quarter of an hour running time with stops at around 25-45 km/h. 

During stationary testing, Benstead’s team timed the speed off the back wheel, registering over 100 km/h. 

Preliminary testing of the prototype was limited to an indoors factory environment on a circular track.

“The bike is running a standard scuba tank which runs air compressed up to 200 bar, with further developments, we would be looking at running a tank at 400 bar with increased capacity to also increase the range,” he said.

The innovation was the result of Benstead’s final-year design research into the future of motorcycles, looking at air as a genuine alternative to petrol and electricity.

“Air was the starting point back in 2010, but I continued to explore this for the prototype because of its low-tech nature,” Benstead said. 

“A solar panel and a compressor now becomes your refinery and without huge battery packs to dispose of, we now have a low-cost to free powered bike with minimum impact on the environment.”

The project began mid last year at the RMIT Ecomoto, the only motorcycle-specific design studio in Australia. 

Led by RMIT Lecturer and Acting Program Director Simon Curtis, Benstead’s super motard bike project won him the Product Design – Automotive and Transport award at the 2010 Melbourne Design Awards.

The air engine developed by Engineair is still yet to be commercialized. The motor used in the 02 Pursuit was one of five prototypes in the world.

Benstead, recently named in Melbourne’s Top 100 most influential people, is currently working with Australia’s Engineair on a new design that can bring the technology to the market.

02 Pursuit specs:

• Top Speed: >100 km/h
• Weight: <100kg
• Engine: ‘Di Pietro’ 9 chamber air engine
• Engine Weight: 10kg
• Material: Aluminium
• Development: Melbourne

Radioactive waste: Technology makes waste storage safer

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers have developed new technology capable of removing radioactive material from contaminated water and aiding clean-up efforts following nuclear disasters.

The innovation could also solve the problem of how to clean up millions of tonnes of water contaminated by dangerous radioactive material and safely store the concentrated waste.

Professor Huai-Yong Zhu from QUT Chemistry said the world-first intelligent absorbent, which uses titanate nanofibre and nanotube technology, differed from current clean-up methods, such as layered clays and zeolites, because it could efficiently lock in deadly radioactive material from contaminated water.

The used absorbents can then be safely disposed without the risk of leakage, even if the material became wet.

“One gram of the nanofibres can effectively purify at least one tonne of polluted water,” Professor Zhu said.

“This saves large amounts of dangerous water needing to be stored somewhere and also prevents the risk of contaminated products leaking into the soil.”

The technology, which was developed in collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and Pennsylvania State University in America, works by running the contaminated water through the fine nanotubes and fibres, which trap the radioactive Cesium (Cs+) ions through a structural change.

“Every year we hear of at least one nuclear accident. Not only is there a risk of contamination where human error is concerned, but there is also a risk from natural disasters such as what we saw in Japan this year,” he said.

Professor Zhu and his research team believed the technology would also benefit industries as diverse as mining and medicine.

By adding silver oxide nanocrystals to the outer surface, the nanostructures are able to capture and immobilise radioactive iodine (I-) ions used in treatments for thyroid cancer, in probes and markers for medical diagnosis, as well as found in leaks of nuclear accidents.

“It is our view that just taking the radioactive material in the adsorbents isn’t good enough. We should make it safe before disposing it,” he said.

“The same goes for Australian sites where we mine nuclear products. We need a solution before we have a problem, rather than looking for fixes when it could be too late.”

With a growing need to find alternatives to meet global energy needs, Professor Zhu said now was the time to put safeguards in place.

Tesla? No, homebuilt electric Z-Kart

As major automobile manufacturers around the world pour countless dollars and man hours into the research and development of electric vehicles, George Fortin has quietly gone about making one of his own.

While it is true that his Z-Kart is just a one-seater with a range of 20 miles and a top speed of 40 mph that lacks pretty much any safety features or cargo capacity, it is nonetheless a well-engineered little buggy that looks like it would be a blast to drive.

Not bad at all, for something that was made and designed and built by a real estate broker.

More information here Translogic

Redox-Flow batteries to power 2,000 households

Above is a schematic of a redox-flow cell detailing the technology.

The energy storage units operate in conjunction with an electrolyte tank for each of the two electrodes.

The liquid electrolytes (e.g., vanadium) contain metal ions that flow through electrodes made of porous graphite fleece, separated by a membrane which is proton-permeable.

During this exchange of charge a current flows over the electrodes which can be utilised.

The battery can provide unlimited capacity simply by using larger and larger storage tanks, and it can be left completely discharged for long periods with no ill effects. And because both electrolytes contain the same materials they do not contaminate the cells and the tanks if the electrolytes become mixed. They only need to differ in terms of ion charge or oxidation stage.

“This makes it possible to build very robust and durable batteries – a decisive advantage of this battery technology,” emphasizes Fraunhofer’s Dr. Tom Smolinka.

On the downside, redox flow battery technology has relatively poor energy-to-volume ratio, and the system is more complex than standard storage batteries. For instance, insuring that the vanadium fluid flows smoothly through the large membranes and past the felt-like carbon electrodes in the cells themselves is a challenge, according to the researchers.

Fraunhofer researchers are convinced that the advantages of redox flow batteries will drive development, and in the next five years larger demo systems will be built and quickly followed by commercial redox-flow batteries.

Eventually, the focus will move on to the development of redox-flow batteries as a feasible technology for electric cars.


Giant futuristic batteries to power 2,000 households | ZDNet

Dutch Shell to capture & store CO2 underground

Shell plans to capture and store at Barendrecht CO2 emitted from its refinery at the Port of Rotterdam.

The project, the total cost of which was not revealed, will be subsidised by the Dutch state to the tune of 30 million euros.

The Dutch government said Wednesday it had approved the experimental below-ground storage of excess CO2 to curb damaging emissions, dismissing concerns of residents who live on top of the project.

The test project would kick off from 2012 with CO2 stored in a spent natural gas field with a capacity of 0.8 megatonnes underneath the eastern town of Barendrecht, a government statement said.

"After the CO2 has been stored there for several years, an evaluation will be done," it said.

"Only if no problems have arisen by then will authorisation be given for storage at a second, larger field... with a capacity of nine megatonnes."

Shell plans to capture and store at Barendrecht CO2 emitted from its refinery at the Port of Rotterdam. The project, the total cost of which was not revealed, will be subsidised by the Dutch state to the tune of 30 million euros.

The municipality of Barendrecht, provincial authorities and inhabitants, concerned about the risk of explosion and earth movement, are opposed to the project and vowed Wednesday to resist it.

"The municipality does not accept the decision," said a statement from Barendrecht, saying it hoped the move would be overturned by parliament, failing which the town would go to court.

"We will not cooperate with the issuing of plans and permits," said the statement, accusing the government of "being blind to the concerns of inhabitants of Barendrecht", thousands of whom live on top of the gas fields.

The government said "the capture and storage of CO2 is essential as a transitional technology to limit climate damage."

The Netherlands, it said, had a storage capacity of some 800 megatonnes under land and another 800 megatonnes under sea.

"This will allow us to store 40 megatonnes per year for 40 years, the equivalent of 20 percent of our current annual CO2 emissions."

NASA: OMEGA Project an algae photo-bioreactor

As a clean energy alternative, NASA invented an algae photo-bioreactor that grows algae in municipal wastewater to produce biofuel and a variety of other products. The NASA bioreactor is an Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA), which won't compete with agriculture for land, fertilizer, or freshwater.

NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., licensed the patent-pending algae photo-bioreactor to Algae Systems, LLC, Carson City, Nev., which plans to develop and pilot the technology in Tampa Bay, Fla. The company plans to refine and integrate the NASA technology into biorefineries to produce renewable energy products, including diesel and jet fuel.

"NASA has a long history of developing very successful energy conversion devices and novel life support systems," said Lisa Lockyer, deputy director of the New Ventures and Communication Directorate at NASA Ames. "NASA is excited to support the commercialization of an algae bioreactor with potential for providing renewable energy here on Earth."

The OMEGA system consists of large plastic bags with inserts of forward-osmosis membranes that grow freshwater algae in processed wastewater by photosynthesis. Using energy from the sun, the algae absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nutrients from the wastewater to produce biomass and oxygen.

As the algae grow, the nutrients are contained in the enclosures, while the cleansed freshwater is released into the surrounding ocean through the forward-osmosis membranes.

"The OMEGA technology has transformational powers. It can convert sewage and carbon dioxide into abundant and inexpensive fuels," said Matthew Atwood, president and founder of Algae Systems. "The technology is simple and scalable enough to create an inexpensive, local energy supply that also creates jobs to sustain it."

When deployed in contaminated and "dead zone" coastal areas, this system may help remediate these zones by removing and utilizing the nutrients that cause them. The forward-osmosis membranes use relatively small amounts of external energy compared to the conventional methods of harvesting algae, which have an energy intensive de-watering process.

Potential benefits include oil production from the harvested algae, and conversion of municipal wastewater into clean water before it is released into the ocean. After the oil is extracted from the algae, the algal remains can be used to make fertilizer, animal feed, cosmetics, or other valuable products.

This successful spinoff of NASA-derived technology will help support the commercial development of a new algae-based biofuels industry and wastewater treatment.

Is Ammonia the smart new Hydrogen

The trouble with hydrogen as an energy source is that, as a gas, it’s not very energy-dense, it can explode, and it’s tough to transport.

So for the last 5 years the Iowa Energy Center at Iowa State University has been holding annual conferences on the use of ammonia as a fuel, and some of that dreaming is now coming out of the lab.

The chemical formula for ammonia is NH3. Combined with CO2 you know it as urea, the main component in urine. There are patents on producing anhydrous ammonia (the kind useful as fuel) from urea but currently the main feedstock for it is natural gas. Ammonia produced in this way is called “brown ammonia.”

The most recent Iowa State ammonia conference was held in Kansas City, and featured demonstrations of a car running on ammonia, and explanations of ammonia as a direct fuel (replacing hydrogen) for fuel cells, as well as many sessions on storing and transporting it.

Wizard Power in Australia has demonstrated a closed loop energy system. In this system solar energy converts hydrogen and nitrogen gas to ammonia, the ammonia is a feedstock for energy production, and nothing gets out.

A hydrogen energy cycle solves many of the problems we have with carbon energy, and with water as the “pollution” it can help solve the world’s water shortages. Ammonia has all these advantages, plus it can deal with agricultural pollution. And it’s more cost-efficient.

That’s why SunBorne Energy of India is funding research at the University of South Florida that hopes to use ammonia to cut the costs of solar energy by half, and produce energy at lower temperatures.

But note that connection with urea again. A coal-fired power plant in Wisconsin is testing the use of chilled ammonia to extract carbon directly, which could make clean coal a reality.

So hydrogen is smart energy. It bypasses the carbon cycle and gives us water as a by-product. But ammonia is smarter, because it is more energy dense, it is readily transported, and because it connects with carbon in the same way your own bladder does.

Mafia (Cosa Nostra) Investing in Green Technology in Sicily

Italian police close in on wind energy farming scam.

Italian police are closing in on a scam involving wind farms in Sicily, Sardinia and the southern Naples region, a spokesman said Thursday.

The weekly Io Donna reported that more than 900 wind turbines, some more than 100 metres (330 feet) tall, have been erected in Sicily and thousands more are under construction "even where there is not enough wind to turn them."

Four arrest warrants have been issued in the probe codenamed "Gone With the Wind," begun in 2007, Commander Mario Imparato told AFP from Avellino, near Naples.

Seven wind farms worth more than 150 million euros (220 million dollars) have been placed under sequestration, he added. In all, 15 people are under investigation, Imparato said.

Oreste Vigorito, the head of the wind energy firm Italian Vento Power Corporation, is wanted along with three others for allegedly embezzling public subsidies for creating wind farms.

They are accused of falsifying documents such as property titles in order to receive more aid. Through a "complex mechanism" they have also allegedly inflated the amount of funds at their disposal for building the farms, Imparato said. Experts say suspicions of mafia links are strong.

"Italy has created an Eldorado for doing business with windmills by offering a price per kilowatt-hour that is three times higher than that in other European countries like France," said environmentalist Carlo Ripa di Meana.

"Thanks to regional and European subsidies, an installation becomes profitable by the second year," the head of environmental protection group National Landscape Committee told AFP.

"It's frightening. The prospect of profits like that attract huge investments from mafia organisations like Cosa Nostra in Sicily, 'Ndrangheta in (southern) Calabria and the Camorra in the region around Naples," he said.

The weekly Io Donna reported that more than 900 wind turbines, some more than 100 metres (330 feet) tall, have been erected in Sicily and thousands more are under construction "even where there is not enough wind to turn them."

These investments are the "new business plan of Cosa Nostra," which has become a leading player in Sicily's green economy, said the weekly, published by the group that owns Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera.

Green Technology and the Electric bicycle

Is the Trabi, East Germany's Clunker, On the Comeback?

East Germany's Clunker, the Trabi is on a Comeback?

The global rush into green technology could be setting the stage for a most unusual comeback: the foul-smelling Trabant, the oft-ridiculed symbol of communist East Germany, all but disappeared from German roadways after the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago. But now its makers are planning to introduce a climate-saving electric version of the Trabi, as it was affectionately known.

GM Segway: Eco City Transport for 2

Galileo; technology pointer

Galileo's Middle finger - Right Hand

The power of Galileo's observations in supplanting religious ideology is best captured in this image of his finger.

It was detached from his remains in 1737 and encased in glass and gilt, pointing heavenward: a scientific reliquary for a secular saint.

A new exhibit in Florence shows Galileo's contribution to humanity using astronomical artefacts, stunning artwork and impressive technology (Image: Biblioteca Marucelliana / Firenze)

Question; If you had the option to 'collect' one finger from a famous or revered person, which finger would you select and why?

Green Café culture

A Hand-operated Printer!

Office printers consume energy and may even pose a health risk. But the hand-powered RITI Printer, designed by Jeon Hwan Ju, is different.

Power comes from the user, who has to pull the printer head back and forth as the paper is pulled through. Cleverly, the printer also does away with expensive ink cartridges, instead making use of waste coffee.

The printed product definitely smells of coffee, which some evidence suggests could help reverse the effects of sleep deprivation. And there's no word on how permanent a coffee-printed document is.