Dairy farming is growing by leaps and bounds in China, which also means that this industry has also become one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. However Huishan Dairy, one of the biggest of its kind in China, has put together a win-win solution to this problem. It will be installing a system that would generate electricity from methane gas collected from fermenting cow manure. Apart from generating electricity, this strategy will prevent methane from reaching the atmosphere, produce organic fertilizer which is safer than raw manure and also reduce waste and odor.

A research group led by Fernandi Galembeck from the University of Campinas, Brazil is working on an idea that could help turn electricity from the atmosphere into an alternate source of energy. The study revolves around electricity that is formed when water vapor collects on microscopic particles present in air. The team has named it ‘hygroelectricty’ which means ‘humidity electricity’.

Source: American Chemical Society

If researchers at the University of Stanford are successful in achieving their goal we may be able to charge our personal electronic devices by just walking around. The research which is going to start in October 2010 and continue till 2015 aims to develop a variety of processes and materials that would interact with a variety of fabrics in different environments to capture energy.

Source: University of Southampton

Researchers at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute have been able to program microbes to ooze oil. If this works out well, it can lead to significant reduction in cost and energy used in the production of biofuels. The photosynthetic microbes called cyanobacteria offer several advantages compared to plants like switchgrass and corn that are used for producing biofuels. They yield many times more energy compared to biomass and need only the sun’s energy for producing fuel compared to millions of acres of farmland required by plants for the same purpose.

If we could use solar energy for our daily energy needs the world’s energy troubles would vanish for good. However the technology for storing and converting solar energy for practical has been largely inefficient and around 5-6 times more expensive than what it costs to produce electricity. This is not to say that there have been no significant developments in the sector. In early 1990s a promising solar cell was developed by Michael Graetzal but its electrolyte and cathode made the process expensive and inefficient thereby limiting its use.

Several groups of scientists are developing devices and systems that work on such a low amount of power that they can draw energy from ambient radio waves, thus helping reduce and in some cases even eliminate the requirement of batteries. One such product is a hard hat that is fitted with a tiny microprocessor and beeper. It sounds a warning when any dangerous equipment is nearby which makes it useful on a construction site.

Source: New York Times

Scientists have developed nanometer-scale sensing devices which can generate power on their own. These devices were tested on about a thousand nanogenerators that do not have any mechanical moving parts. They performed over lengthy periods of time without flagging down. According to the leader of this project Professor Zhong Lin Wang, the team is working on scaling up the nanogenerators so that they can be used for practical purposes.

Source: Nature Publishing

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has come out with an advancement in hybrid electric vehicle technology which has the potential of providing significant benefits that go beyond the transportation sector. The development is a PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) traction drive power electronics system that provides significant vehicle-to-grid support and mobile power generation capabilities. This technology will eliminate the requirement for a separate charging mechanism that is generally used in PHEVs. This will reduce cost as well as the area occupied.

We use many electronic devices these days which need frequent recharging. However even the most conscientious rechargers may find themselves with an exhausted laptop or iPhone when they need it badly. But what if you could charge your iPhone/laptop by just walking or biking for a few minutes? Stuff of science fiction? Its reality. A handful of companies have already developed such devices which will be available to the public soon. These include High Tide which has come out with a generator called RollerGen.