Technology Update
This is a archive for Technology Update.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 @ 02:02 PM gHale
A new technology called Power Felt is a thermoelectric device that converts body heat into an electrical current which soon could create enough energy to make a call just by touching it.
Power Felt consists of tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric. The technology, developed at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University, uses temperature differences – room temperature versus body temperature – to create a charge.
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“We waste a lot of energy in the form of heat,” said Corey Hewitt, a researcher and Wake Forest graduate student. “For example, recapturing a car’s energy waste could help improve fuel mileage and power the radio, air conditioning or navigation system. Generally, thermoelectrics are an underdeveloped technology for harvesting energy, yet there is so much opportunity.”
Potential uses for Power Felt include lining automobile seats to boost battery power and service electrical needs, insulating pipes or collecting heat under roof tiles to lower gas or electric bills, lining clothing or sports equipment to monitor performance, or wrapping IV or wound sites to better track patients’ medical needs.
“Imagine it in an emergency kit, wrapped around a flashlight, powering a weather radio, charging a prepaid cell phone,” said David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. “Power Felt could provide relief during power outages or accidents.”
Cost has prevented thermoelectrics from wider usage in consumer products. Standard thermoelectric devices use a much more efficient compound called bismuth telluride to turn heat into power in products including mobile refrigerators and CPU coolers, but researchers said it can cost $1,000 per kilogram. Like silicon, they liken Power Felt’s affordability to demand in volume and think someday it could cost only $1 to add to a cell phone cover.
Currently, 72 stacked layers in the fabric yield about 140 nanowatts of power. The team is evaluating several ways to add more nanotube layers and make them even thinner to boost the power output.
There is more work to do before Power Felt is ready for market. “I imagine being able to make a jacket with a completely thermoelectric inside liner that gathers warmth from body heat, while the exterior remains cold from the outside temperature,” Hewitt said. “If the Power Felt is efficient enough, you could potentially power an iPod, which would be great for distance runners. It’s definitely within reach.”
Wake Forest is in talks with investors to produce Power Felt commercially.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 @ 01:02 PM gHale
Cyber security threats continue to mount and if you look at budgets for next year, proposed increases in spending show there is a need to keep improving network defenses. The problem is security is a moving target.
In just one application inadequate security configurations are the cause of 80 percent of the United States Air Force’s network vulnerabilities.
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There is now a program in development that uses automated computer configurations that adjust as quickly as the threats, said researchers at Wake Forest University.
A genetically inspired algorithm is in the works that proactively discovers more secure computer configurations by leveraging the concept of “survival of the fittest,” said Computer Science Associate Professor Errin Fulp and graduate student Michael Crouse. Early simulations show the increased diversity of each device’s configuration improves overall network safety, without putting undue stress on IT administrators.
“Typically, administrators configure hundreds and sometimes thousands of machines the same way, meaning a virus that infects one could affect any computer on the same network,” said Crouse. “If successful, automating the ability to ward off attacks could play a crucial role in protecting highly sensitive data within large organizations.”
The researchers’ goal is to improve defense mechanisms of similar computing infrastructures with minimal human interaction.
Cyber attacks usually take place in two phases, Fulp said. In the reconnaissance phase, a virus simply observes the landscape, identifies possible defense mechanisms and looks for the best way in. If nothing has changed since the reconnaissance phase upon return, the virus strikes. But security experts said even the slightest change in environment can make a huge difference in deterring potential attackers.
“If we can automatically change the landscape by adding the technological equivalent of security cameras or additional lighting, the resulting uncertainty will lower the risk of attack,” Fulp said.
Researchers are currently testing their work to transform cyber security. Planned assessment includes integrating the automated system into the computer science department’s annual “hackathon,” giving budding developers the opportunity to improve the system.
Monday, February 13, 2012 @ 04:02 PM gHale
By mapping the genomes of two originator cells of Miscanthus x giganteus, a large perennial grass, there could soon be a way to create a cleaner more efficient source of ethanol and bioenergy.
There are approximately 600 bits of Miscanthus DNA that can serve as diagnostic tools, said Changsoo Kim, a postdoctoral research associate in the University of Georgia Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory. The next step is to determine which pieces of DNA are diagnostic of genes that can make the plant an even better biofuel crop.
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“What we are doing right now is taking the same individual plants that were used in the genetic map and measuring their height, flowering time, the size of their stalks, the dimensions of their leaves and how far they have spread from where they were planted,” said Andrew Paterson, a Distinguished Research Professor Paterson and head of the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, and who is also a member of the Bioenergy Systems Research Institute. “And then one can use pretty straightforward statistics to look for correlations between bits of DNA and a trait.”
Miscanthus is a natural candidate for biomass farming. Its sugarcane-like stalks grow to more than 12 feet in height in soil of marginal quality; it requires very little fertilizer; it grows well in moist temperate climates across the United States, Europe and Asia; and in the eastern U.S. it can produce more biomass on less acreage than other candidate biofuel crops.
Miscanthus is also a cleaner source of energy than fossil fuels. When coal or oil burns, it releases carbon trapped under the earth’s crust into the atmosphere, which is a major cause of global climate change. Miscanthus removes carbon from the atmosphere as it grows. When it burns, it releases only the carbon it collected, effectively making it carbon neutral.
Kim and Paterson’s work will allow breeders to build on Miscanthus’ natural strengths and remove some of its weaknesses. For example, a significant challenge to producing Miscanthus for biomass in the southeastern U.S. is that it tends to flower too soon. Flowering requires nutrients and energy the plant would otherwise use to grow taller, thicker stalks and leaves.
“You don’t want it to flower,” Paterson said. “You’d like it to keep making leaves and stalks and not bother with reproduction. Nature tells it not to do that.”
The genetic map will allow Kim and Paterson to locate Miscanthus genes responsible for flowering and prevent it from happening too early in the growing season. That will leave farmers with tall, hearty plants that will yield the most biomass possible.
Their efforts caught the attention of venture capitalists and biotechnology companies that hope to make Miscanthus farming a profitable and widespread practice. One company, Mendel Biotechnology, was so interested in the potential crop they partnered with Kim and Paterson on their Miscanthus project.
Mendel distributes plants and plant seed enhanced through genetic research to farmers and other industry partners for bioenergy crop production. “There is a lot of basic research that we cannot afford to do,” said Donald Panter, senior vice president of BioEnergy Seeds at Mendel. “We are a company that is trying to commercialize a product and serve our customers, so our relationship to academia in the U.S. is critical.”
The genetic map promises to save Mendel years of field research to improve Miscanthus. Without the map, researchers and breeders must go out into farmland and take thousands of measurements of plant characteristics in many different locations to determine which plants have the greatest potential as the beginnings of a biofuel crop. With the genetic map, they can select the best plant varieties at the molecular level much more rapidly.
“This is just the beginning,” Kim said. “We want to provide breeders with a valuable resource for their future breeding efforts. That’s our long-term goal.”
Monday, February 13, 2012 @ 03:02 PM gHale
A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the industrial catalyst molybdenite could lead to catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from acidic water.
A synthesized molecule can mimic the triangle-shaped molybdenum disulfide units along the edges of molybdenite crystals, which is where almost all of the catalytic activity takes place, said Christopher Chang and Jeffrey Long, chemists who hold joint appointments with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley.
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Since the bulk of molybdenite crystalline material is relatively inert from a catalytic standpoint, molecular analogs of the catalytically active edge sites could make new materials that are much more efficient and cost-effective catalysts.
“Using molecular chemistry, we’ve been able to capture the functional essence of molybdenite and synthesize the smallest possible unit of its proposed catalytic active site,” said Chang, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). “It should now be possible to design new catalysts that have a high density of active sites so we get the same catalytic activity with much less material.”
“Inorganic solids, such as molybdenite, are an important class of catalysts that often derive their activity from sparse active edge sites, which are structurally distinct from the inactive bulk of the molecular solid,” Long said. “We’ve demonstrated that it is possible to create catalytically active molecular analogs of these sites that are tailored for a specific purpose. This represents a conceptual path forward to improving future catalytic materials.”
Molybdenite is the crystalline sulfide of molybdenum and the principal mineral from which molybdenum metal comes from. Although commonly thought of as a lubricant, molybdenite is the standard catalyst used to remove sulfur from petroleum and natural gas for the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions. Studies show in its nanoparticle form, molybdenite also holds promise for catalyzing the electrochemical and photochemical generation of hydrogen from water. Hydrogen could play a key role in future renewable energy technologies if researchers can develop a relatively cheap, efficient and carbon-neutral way to produce it.
Currently, the best available technique for producing hydrogen is to split water molecules into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen using platinum as the catalyst. However, with platinum going for more than $2,000 an ounce, the market is wide open for a low cost alternative catalyst. Molybdenite is far more plentiful and about 1/70th the cost of platinum, but poses other problems.
“Molybdenite has a layered structure with multiple microdomains, most of which are chemically inert,” Chang said. “High-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy studies and theoretical calculations have identified the triangular molybdenum disulfide edges as the active sites for catalysis; however, preparing molybdenite with a high density of functional edge sites in a predictable manner is extremely challenging.”
Chang, Long and their research team met this challenge using a pentapyridyl ligand known as PY5Me2 to create a molybdenum disulfide molecule that, while not found in nature, is stable and structurally identical to the proposed triangular edge sites of molybdenite. These synthesized molecules can form a layer of material that is analogous to constructing a sulfide edge of molybdenite.
“The electronic structure of our molecular analog can be adjusted through ligand modifications,” Long said. “This suggests we should be able to tailor the material’s activity, stability and required over-potential for proton reduction to improve its performance.”
In 2010, Chang and Long and Hemamala Karunadasa, who is the lead author of a paper on the subject used the PY5Me2 ligand to create a molybdenum-oxo complex that can effectively and efficiently catalyze the generation of hydrogen from neutral buffered water or even sea water. Molybdenite complexes synthesized from this new molecular analog can just as effectively and efficiently catalyze hydrogen gas from acidic water.
“We’re now looking to develop molecular analogs of active sites in other catalytic materials that will work over a range of pH conditions, as well as extend this work to photocatalytic systems” Chang said.
“Our molecular analog for the molybdenite active site might not be a replacement for any existing catalytic materials but it does provide a way to increase the density of active sites in inorganic solid catalytic materials and thereby allow us to do more with less,” Long said.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 @ 02:01 PM gHale
Paint may end up being the biggest safety enhancer for critical infrastructure.
That is because a low-cost smart paint can detect microscopic faults in wind turbines, mines and bridges before structural damage occurs. The environmentally-friendly paint uses nanotechnology to detect movement in large structures, and could shape the future of safety monitoring.
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Traditional methods of assessing large structures are complex, time consuming and use expensive instrumentation, with costs spiraling into millions each year.
However, the smart paint costs just a fraction of the cost and can spray onto any surface, with electrodes attached to detect structural damage long before failure occurs, said researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.
“The development of this smart paint technology could have far-reaching implications for the way we monitor the safety of large structures all over the world,” said Dr Mohamed Saafi, of the University’s Department of Civil Engineering. “There are no limitations as to where it could be used and the low-cost nature gives it a significant advantage over the current options available in the industry. The process of producing and applying the paint also gives it an advantage as no expertise is required and monitoring itself is straightforward.”
The paint uses a recycled waste product known as fly ash and highly aligned carbon nanotubes. When mixed it has a cement-like property which makes it useful in harsh environments.
“The process of monitoring involves in effect a wireless sensor network,” Saafi said. “The paint is interfaced with wireless communication nodes with power harvesting and warning capability to remotely detect any unseen damage such as micro-cracks in a wind turbine concrete foundation.
“Wind turbine foundations are currently being monitored through visual inspections. The developed paint with the wireless monitoring system would significantly reduce the maintenance costs and improve the safety of these large structures.
“Current technology is restricted to looking at specific areas of a structure at any given time, however, smart paint covers the whole structure which is particularly useful to maximize the opportunity of preventing significant damage.”
With fly ash the main material used to make the paint, it costs just one percent of the alternative widely used inspection methods.
Prototype tests show the paint is highly effective. More tests will occur in Glasgow.
“We are able to carry out the end-to-end process at the University and we are hoping that we can now demonstrate its effectiveness on a large structure,” Saafi said.
“The properties of the fly ash give the paint a durability that will allow it to be used in any environment which will be a massive advantage in areas where the weather can make safety monitoring particularly difficult.
“The smart paint represents a significant development and is one that has possibly been overlooked as a viable solution because research tends to focus on high-tech options that look to eliminate human control. Our research shows that by maintaining the human element the costs can be vastly reduced without an impact on effectiveness.”
Monday, January 30, 2012 @ 05:01 PM gHale
Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Dai-ichi nuclear plant after the tsunami struck last March.
But Professor Alexandra Navrotsky of the University of California, Davis. and others have since discovered a new way in which seawater can corrode nuclear fuel, forming uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles.
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“This is a phenomenon that has not been considered before,” said Navrotsky, distinguished professor of ceramic, earth and environmental materials chemistry. “We don’t know how much this will increase the rate of corrosion, but it is something that will have to be considered in future.”
Japan used seawater to avoid a much more serious accident at the Fukushima-Dai-ichi plant, and Navrotsky said, to her knowledge, there is no evidence of long-distance uranium contamination from the plant.
Uranium in nuclear fuel rods is in a chemical form that is “pretty insoluble” in water, Navrotsky said, unless the uranium oxidizes to uranium-VI — a process that can occur when radiation converts water into peroxide, a powerful oxidizing agent.
Peter Burns, professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a co-author of a paper on the subject, had previously made spherical uranium peroxide clusters, rather like carbon “buckyballs,” that can dissolve or exist as solids.
In the paper, the researchers show in the presence of alkali metal ions such as sodium — for example, in seawater — these clusters are stable enough to persist in solution or as small particles even when they remove the oxidizing agent.
In other words, these clusters could form on the surface of a fuel rod exposed to seawater and then be transported away, surviving in the environment for months or years before reverting to more common forms of uranium, without peroxide, and settling to the bottom of the ocean. There is no data yet on how fast these uranium peroxide clusters will break down in the environment, Navrotsky said.
Monday, January 30, 2012 @ 05:01 PM gHale
Algae produce an oil which can then undergo processing to create a useful biofuel.
Experts from around the globe all say the same thing: Biofuels made from plant material are an important alternative to fossil fuels — and algae, in particular, has the potential to be a very efficient producer. The problem is until now there has been no cost-effective method of harvesting and removing water from the algae to process it effectively.
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There is now a solution. That is if University of Sheffield Department of Chemical and Process Engineering Professor Will Zimmerman has his way. He and his team developed an inexpensive way of producing microbubbles that can float algae particles to the surface of the water, making harvesting easier, and saving biofuel-producing companies time and money.
“We thought we had solved the major barrier to biofuel companies processing algae to use as fuel when we used microbubbles to grow the algae more densely,” Zimmerman said.
“It turned out, however, that algae biofuels still couldn’t be produced economically, because of the difficulty in harvesting and dewatering the algae. We had to develop a solution to this problem and once again, microbubbles provided a solution.”
Microbubbles are not a foreign concept: Water purification companies use the process to float out impurities, but no one has used it in this context before, partly because previous methods have been very expensive.
The system developed by Professor Zimmerman’s team uses up to 1000 times less energy to produce the microbubbles and, in addition, the cost of installing the Sheffield microbubble system should be much less than existing flotation systems.
The next step in the project is to develop a pilot plant to test the system at an industrial scale. Professor Zimmerman is already working with Tata Steel at their site in Scunthorpe using CO2 from their flue-gas stacks and plans to continue this partnership to test the new system.
“Professor Zimmerman’s microbubble-based technologies are exactly the kind of step-change innovations that we are seeking as a means to address our emissions in the longer term, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to extend our relationship with Will and his team in the next phase of this pioneering research,” said Dr. Bruce Adderley, manager of climate change breakthrough technology at Tata.
Monday, January 30, 2012 @ 04:01 PM gHale
Dionysios Aliprantis wants to find a way to develop computer modeling technology that will show engineers how to chip away at the surfaces of electric motors to create new designs and shapes that can increase power generation.
“The goal is to get more power out of the same size motor,” he said. “Or, that could mean getting the same power with a smaller motor.”
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Aliprantis is not looking for a huge improvement in a motor’s performance, just a small piece.
“I’m looking for a little bit of increase, maybe 5 percent or 1 percent,” said the Iowa State University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. “But multiply that number by the number of hybrid cars, let’s say, and you could get savings in the billions of dollars. The potential here could be huge.”
Aliprantis’ is able to work on that incremental increase through a five-year, $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program. Assisting with the motor design project is Yanni Li, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering.
Aliprantis and Li want to take advantage of the fact most electric motors and generators operate in just one direction – in most applications there’s no real need for them to go into reverse. The motors, however, have always offered equal performance no matter which way they’re rotating.
And so the engineers are exploring how they can improve electric motors by optimizing performance in a preferred direction of rotation. To do that, they’ve written a computer modeling program that incrementally changes the design of the motors – just like a sculptor chipping away – and calculates when the surface shape is just right.
The teeth that hold coils of wire within an electric motor have typically build up with a symmetrical shape that maintains performance in either direction. By making the teeth asymmetrical, engineers hope the motor can pick up some power when rotating in the preferred direction.
“We are trying to develop a systematic way of getting to the right shape,” Aliprantis said. “This idea is very simple, but motors are still being designed using techniques that are essentially one hundred years old.”
Aliprantis is also busy with other projects to improve electric motors, advance alternative energy systems and improve engineering education:
• Another project looks to improve the models used to predict the dynamic performance of electric motors as engineers experiment with different power electronics and control technologies.
• Aliprantis is also collecting data on how much solar energy is available throughout a day. The idea is to improve power forecasts by developing better models of cloud cover. That would help utilities make better estimates of the power they can expect from solar panels on a given day.
• Aliprantis is part of an Iowa State faculty team that’s developing a new, multidisciplinary doctoral program in Wind Energy Science, Engineering and Policy.
Because electric motors are all around – in vehicles, wind turbines, power plants and all kinds of machinery – Aliprantis said finding new ways to improve their performance can make a real difference in the development of sustainable energy resources.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 @ 05:01 PM gHale
There may soon be a way to help utility companies predict the service life of wastewater pipeline infrastructure and take a proactive approach to pipeline replacements and maintenance.
Statistical prediction models are under development using data obtained from the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, to generate deterioration models that will help in the decision-making process regarding future infrastructure development, said Ossama (Sam) Salem, Yabroudi Chair of Sustainable Civil Infrastructures and professor of construction engineering and management at Syracuse University’s L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, and his Ph.D. student Baris Salman. The two wrote a paper detailing the models.
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“The models presented … allow utility and wastewater management companies to develop a sound maintenance plan and predict potential failures,” Salem said. “This has impact not only economically, but socially and environmentally as well.”
As wastewater utilities seek to implement asset management strategies to help justify and optimize their expenditures, understanding the current and future behavior of wastewater lines may help utilities mitigate costly emergency repairs. The deterioration models developed by Salem and Salman could assist utilities in assessing risk and identifying pipes that have the highest probability and consequences of failure. Doing so will allow utilities to proactively prevent problems, rather than simply reacting to fix problems after they occur.
While the models are useful for the data set provided, their applicability to different sewer systems depends on the characteristics of those particular networks.
Since weather conditions, soil properties and construction methods vary among cities and among infrastructure systems, different deterioration patterns may occur in different regions.
