Points of Interest | Green Energy News

September 28, 2003 – Vol.8 No.27

POINTS OF INTEREST.

A weekly collection of websites worth visiting.

Air Products and Chemicals is one those companies that would like to provide hydrogen to a hydrogen economy. Why then would it have any interest in developing batteries? Perhaps it knows a good technology when it sees it. Perhaps because it thinks its expertise in chemicals can help further a technology along. Perhaps because it recognizes the market potential of batteries in automobiles now and in the future. (Hybrid vehicles, which are growing in number, have expensive, high-tech batteries as will fuel cell vehicles.) Or it just likes to diversify.

The motivations are unknown, and matters only to Air Products. Yet with a number of companies getting involved with lithium technology batteries - lithium-ion and lithium-polymer - the technology must be seen to have a prosperous future.

Air Products has signed a joint development agreement with Solicore for the further development of that company’s ultra-thin flexible lithium polymer battery technology. Solicore, which sells products under the Flexion Batteries name, makes batteries thin enough to be incorporated in a credit card (a smart card), that is flexible and moldable to any shape, and is environmentally friendly in a disposal sense. http://www.solicore.com/ http://www.flexionbatteries.com/ http://www.airproducts.com/

When we think of conserving the heat in our homes in the winter, or keeping them from getting too hot in the summer, we often only think of adding more insulation and caulking to keep out drafts or preserve our artificially chilled air. We don’t often think of ways to reflect heat to keep our homes from getting too hot, or to reflect heat generated within the house from escaping to the cold outdoors.

Reflectix makes a variety of reflective insulation products for homes, business and industry for a wide - really wide - range of uses. The company’s website shows - with detailed tips on installation - many ways in which its products can be used. The company, too, has announced it is expanding its line to include Natural Fiber Duct Liner to be used with metal ducts to absorb noise, reduce heat loss or gain, and retain good airflow within the duct by reducing air resistance within it, according to the company.

The Duct Liner uses natural fibers that contain over 80 percent recycled material, according to the company, and is eligible for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) credits with the U.S. Green Building Council. http://www.reflectixinc.com/