Microbial Conversion of Methane to Electricity May 22, 2017Researchers at Penn State have engineered a strain of bacteria that is the key to converting methane to electricity. The researchers' goal was to eliminate the need to transport...
Tesla's Solar-Plus-Storage Moves Island of Kauai Toward 100% Renewables May 11, 2017Battery storage is starting to replace traditional gas peaker plants by replacing diesel powered generation on small islands.
Kawasaki Industries Wants to Make Dirty Lignite Coal Useful and Clean April 26, 2017Ask scientists to name the the world's dirtiest fuel and lignite coal wins hands-down. But Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has developed a production process that cleans up...
Westinghouse's Huge Loss Ends the Short-lived US Nuclear Renaissance March 7, 2017It's 2017 and America should be in the midst of a total, multi-state nuclear renaissance. At least that was consensus in Washington during 2006 when President Bush and Congress...
Improved Catalyst Promises Energy Savings and Reduced Pollution March 6, 2017A discovery that improves on a commonly used catalytic reaction used to break down methane could lead to significant energy savings and pollution reduction.
Symposia Chair Invites You to the Refining Topical at #AIChESpring & #GCPS March 24, 2017I recently caught up with Ian Glasglow, Symposia Chair for the 20th Topical of Refining at the 2017 AIChE Spring Meeting & 13th Global Congress on Process Safety . What is...
Tesla's New Battery Storage Farm in California Is a Big Deal February 21, 2017California is the only state in the country coping with too much solar power, and it's a problem that's still getting worse as each new utility-scale solar farm is built. With...
How Will Japan's Nuclear Reactor Explosions Affect Nuclear Energy Production? [Poll] March 15, 2011With more than 180,000 evacuated and up to 160 people affected by radiation after two nuclear reactor incidents, it's no wonder that Japan's crisis has sent shock waves throughout...
America's First Commercial Offshore Wind Array Sends Power to the Grid January 24, 2017Catching the strong Atlantic winds thirteen miles off the coast of Rhode Island, Deepwater Wind's five 6 MW offshore wind turbines started sending clean power to Block Island's...
Catalyzing Commercialization: Converting Waste Heat into Electrical Power December2016Catalyzing CommercializationWaste heat is an enormous and largely untapped source of low-cost energy. More than half of the energy consumed in the world escapes into the atmosphere in the form of waste heat. With global energy demand projected to increase by nearly 50% by 2040...
Technical Entity Trends: Overcoming Hurdles to Natural Gas Technology Implementation December2016Technical Entity TrendsDerrick WuNatural gas is a key resource that has many uses, from serving as a feedstock for producing useful chemicals to generating heat and electricity to fueling vehicles. Consumption of natural gas is increasing globally as new uses are discovered and...
Catalyzing Commercialization: DNA Sequencing: A New Diagnostic Tool for the Oil Industry November2016Catalyzing CommercializationThe U.S. oil industry is trying to do more with less, as operators seek to maximize reservoir production during a period of low oil prices. Producers are looking for cost-effective technology advances that can give them a competitive advantage to maintain profitability. One such technology may come from an unlikely source: the Human Genome Project.
World's Largest Solar Plant Goes Online in Tamil Nadu, India October 4, 2016The Paris climate agreement is the world’s best effort yet to ward off the existential threat of climate change. Fortunately, it's much closer to reality now that India formally...
BP Announces Tectonic Shift In World Energy Production June 11, 2015Starting slowly but gathering force and quickly accelerating between 2007 and the winter of 2015, the global energy market was completely upended, retooled, and reconstituted...
Two Tidal Turbine Projects Finally Hitting the Seabeds July 5, 2016Tidal power developers say 2016 is shaping up to be the new technology's coming-of-age year, with projects in France, Scotland, and Canada successfully ramping up. While older...
Solar Impulse 2 Breaks Transatlantic Record with SunPower Cells July 7, 2016Lately, solar industry records have been falling every week. And American solar panel maker SunPower can take credit for most of the mayhem. The most dramatic record fell as the...
Apple and Patagonia Move to Disrupt the Retail Electricity Business July 11, 2016Apple and a select group of US companies are starting to sell renewable power to the electricity grid, a domain traditionally controlled by monopoly utilities and third party...
Will Fuel-Cell-Powered Air Conditioning Save Developing World Grids? July 21, 2016Many energy startups claim that their new software, gadget, or platform will change the way the world uses energy, but Robert Fares, writing for Scientific American , claims that...
And now for some good news in offshore energy production… May 6, 2010According to the Boston Globe , Secretary Ken Salazar (former U.S. Senator from Colorado and current Secretary of the Interior) approved the country's first offshore wind farm...