US – Page 169 – TechConnect Briefs

CIGS PV Power Enhancement from Photonic Crystal Fiber Concentrators

Shepard S., Carver G., Louisiana Tech University, US

Two of the most promising means of reducing the cost per kilowatt of photovoltaic (PV) systems are: 1) to reduce the cost – which includes recent progress made in CIGS; and/or 2) to increase the [...]

Process-Fluid-Lubricated Polycrystalline Diamond Bearings for application in Marine Hydrokinetic Machines

Sexton T.N., Cooley C.H., US Synthetic Corp., US

Polycrystalline diamond thrust and radial bearings have proven to be successful in harsh environments, such as those encountered in down-hole oil and gas drilling tools. They are particularly well suited for applications where a harsh [...]

Offshore Renewable Resources – Improving the Cost-of-Energy

Roznitsky S., HighSeasWind, US

The U.S. has an abundance of wind and wave offshore resources suitable for industrial-scale power generation, the best resources are in deep waters. Cost-of-Energy (COE) is defined as Production Facility’s Total Costs (C) divided by [...]

Offshore Wave and Wind Together – Afloat

Brown N.A., Float Incorporated, US

Offshore wind and wave power are, or can be, remarkably complimentary. Given a stable floating platform to share, important economies of renewable power production and storage are possible. (A figure shows how wind and wave [...]

Mobile Wave Energy Harvesting System

Sharon A., Briggs J., Wirz H., Boston University - Fraunhofer CMI, US

Conventional approaches to harvesting energy from ocean waves and currents suffer from at least three major drawbacks: 1) expensive underwater power transmission cables, 2) storm damage susceptibility, and 3) energy output is not delivered at [...]

Catalytic Subcritical Hydropyrolysis of Waste Biomass into Gasoline Range Hydrocarbons

Tungal R., Shende R.V., South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, US

Catalytic aqueous phase reforming (CAPR) of the biomass has a great potential for the production of H2 and hydrocarbons. This study reports synthesis of novel nanoscale bifunctional catalytic material and its utilization in CAPR process [...]

Novel Building Integrated Solar Concentrators

Chatten A.J., Farrell D.J., Bose R., Dixon A., Poelking C., Gödel K.C., Mazzer M., Barnham K.W.J., Imperial College London, US

In developed countries 60% of the electricity consumed is attributable to commercial and public buildings. Even in the UK, the solar energy incident on buildings is more than 7x the electrical energy they consume. This [...]

Replacing Crude Oil by Renewable Sugar through a Cell-free Synthetic Biology Technology

Percival Zhang Y-H., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, US

“What will replace oil and when” is one of the central questions for the coming sustainability revolution. Since approximately 70% of crude oil is used for the transportation sector in the USA, this question would [...]

Improvement of Biogas Production from Animal Manure via Bacteria Enrichment using CASCADE Technology

Zhi Y., Zhou C., Cascade Clean Energy, Inc., US

Computer Modeling: We applied a machine learning system – Computer Assisted Strain Construction and Development Engineering, or CASCADE for short, to a collection of organisms and found correlations and predictive patterns between the organisms’ genetic [...]

Advanced Biofuel Cell Composed of Highly Modified Electrodes for Biomedical Applications

Leung S.W., Lai J.C.K., Idaho State University, US

A biofuel cell comprised an anode and cathode modified with highly branched polymers, nano Au sol-gel, and reaction specified bioenzymes was constructed. In this study, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) were the enzymes [...]