Green Energy News | April 12, 1998

April 12, 1998 – Vol.3 No.2

ENERGIES... week of April 12,1998

THE HOLY GRAIL OF RENEWABLE ENERGY? Associated Press and Science magazine reported this week that scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado have built a solar powered device that can release hydrogen from water in one step. Until now the only way to use energy from the sun to take hydrogen from water was through an inefficient two-step process - get electricity from solar panels, then use electrolysis to split the water molecules.

But don’t get too excited. The one-step process is still too expensive and inefficient for commercialization. For now, the device is just a successful experiment. Pick up a copy of Science or check the NREL website at www.nrel.gov/ . (If information hasn’t been posted by the time you read this, check in at the site from time to time. It’s interesting, anyway.)

DESIGNER MATERIALS FOR BATTERIES. Rechargeable lithium batteries are appealing for applications where weight and size matter, like portable electronics and electric cars. Until a recent discovery, lithium batteries have been expensive because of the high cost of the only available cathode material, LiCoO2. Nature magazine reports that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts have found a way to reduce the cost of the batteries as much as 400%, while making them more efficient and lighter still - replace the cobalt based cathode material with one of their own design.

Instead of going through an almost infinite number of possibilities, scientists first calculated what the electrical (and presumably economic) properties of the ideal cathode should be, and then set forth to make their own material. The result was a transition metal using aluminum in place of the cobalt. The aluminum substitution raises the voltage of the battery, lowers the density of the material and is, of course, inexpensive.

Researchers hope to have manufacturing samples ready in six months. Their work is backed by Pacific Lithium Limited of New Zealand which is developing their “Elastomer” battery which could cost up to one-fifth that of available lithium batteries.

MORE THAN FUEL FOR THE BARBECUE. Biomass charcoal fuel may be the perfect way to make better use of waste wood from building construction, the wood products industry and other sources. Even chemically treated wood could be used to make charcoal - with the remaining toxins cleaned or reclaimed as mineral resources.

Waste wood fills up landfill dumps. Healthy, carbon-storing trees are cut down for firewood in all parts of the world. Charcoal can be easily transported and handled, even mixed with coal for burning in conventional power plants. Check out Transnational Technology at http://www.techtp.com.