Garry Golden

Solar research in Nevada, ASU high temp fuel cell membranes/electrolytes, Solaria start up, nanoscale design of photocatalytic nanotubes, solid state storage of gas, University of Rochester’s ethanol genome / membrane breakthroughs, nanoscale thermoelectric energy, nano-piezotronics…

Energy research in the southwest / News on solar energy production
There might be some strategic conversations happening in the southwest – New Mexico has been positioning itself as a ‘clean energy’ hub for several years now- and it might have some healthy regional partners in Arizona and Nevada. The dream might be to launch a solar-electricity / solar-hydrogen industry?! Both have their opportunities/challenges- but the type of fundamental research happening in the nation’s southwest is promising…

1) Nevada’s dream of solar-hydrogen energy… $3M to Univ of Nevada
Electricity powers the future – and hydrogen is expected to play a critical role in this world of electron based energy. Hydrogen is not a silver bullet. It does not solve our problems overnight. But it opens the door to many wonderful opportunities- such as region al autonomy of energy supplies- and the ability for renewables to compete in the transportation fuel market.

This is the first time Nevada has made my radar for energy news – but it makes sense for the region given its open spaces and solar potential…..
“… We can utilize this great energy resource to our advantage to produce hydrogen,” Misra said. “We are uniquely positioned in Northern Nevada, as the average energy from the sun is around one kilowatt per square meter area. In Reno it is much higher than that. Because it is so bright and sunny here in Reno, we have in many ways the perfect location for photo-hydrogen generation.”
Link from Eureka Alert

2) ASU Biodesign Institute to develop fuel cell membranes and electrolytes
If you want to understand fuel cells – you must become literate on membrane technology. The memb rane is equal to the ‘chip’ of our computer age – improve performance and lower the cost – and you launch a new era of distributed power generation.

Arizona State University has a handful of emerging superstars in the world of biochemistry/chemistry and materials science. To learn more about ASU’s effort in advancing high temperature fuel cells ( e.g. PAFCs) – check out this story at:
Link from Nanotechnology Today

3) Another start up claims ‘leap’ in solar conversion…
“Solaria, a solar electric start-up, has devised a novel way to get more power from a solar cell: chopping it up into many pieces. The company’s CEO, Suvi Sharma, gave an early peek at his company’s products Wednesday at Piper Jaffray’s Opportunities in Alternative Energy investor conference in New York. Solaria is one of several companies pursuing solar concentrators as a way to increase the output coming from solar cells.”
Link from Newscom

4) Nanoscale engineering of photocatalytic films
“…The photocatalytic activity of nanostructured semiconductor films has been widely explored in designing solar cells, solar hydrogen production, and environmental remediation. Of particular interest is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) which uses nanostructured titanium dioxide films modified with sensitizing dyes. Despite the initial success of achieving 10% solar conversion efficiency, the effort to further improve their performance has not been very successful. A major hurdle in attaining higher photoconversion efficiency in such nanostructured electrodes is the transport of electrons across the particle network. The photogenerated electrons in nanostructured films for example have to travel through the network of semiconductor particles and encounter many grain boundaries during the transit. Such a random transit path for the photogenerated electrons increases the probability of their recombination with oxidized sensitizer. With the recent advance in the design of nanotube and nanowire architecture, it should be possible to use such one-dimensional nanostructures to direct the flow of photogenerated charge carriers. The obvious challenge is to use nanowire or nanotube networks as support to anchor light-harvesting semiconductor particles and facilitate the electron transport to the collecting electrode surface in a solar cell. Researchers now have demonstrated that single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) architecture when employed as conducting scaffolds in a titanium dioxide semiconductor based photoelectrochemical cell can boost the photoconversion efficiency by a factor of 2. ….”
(… an article worth reading…!) Link via Nanowerk.com

Gas storage – solid state
As a futurist, I know that I am not supposed to ‘pick winners’ related to future technologies- but I cannot resist picking strategic platforms. ( e.g. iPod or another media player– you know that digital formats are the future of music)

So here it is - the future of gas storage used in electrochemical systems (fuel cells) will be based on solid state systems. We will not compress gas into tanks (which can explode and remain bulky); we will not freeze them into liquids. Researchers are pushing strongest in the area of solid state storage. (To understand more – look at the difference between adsorption vs. absorption)

A few recent announcements regarding gas storage…

1) Natural gas storage in nanoporous honeycombs enable storage of natural gas at 180 times their own volume at a pressure of only 500 PSI ( University of Missouri-Columbia)
Link 1 from AdvancedNanoBlogspot.com; Link 2 from Biotechweb

2) Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF) Hydrogen Storage Gets A Boost
Direct H2 binding to metal atoms beefs up capacity…
Link from ACS.org

Good things coming from University of Rochester…

I am lukewarm regarding the ethanol craze. Electricity will power the future car – not another liquid hydrocarbon driven heat engine. I do not see the point of developing an alternative liquid fuel for a combustion engine and believe ethanol only extends the global era of ‘oil’ b/c it continues to enable the combustion engine.

But I admit that the research dollars dedicated towards biologically oriented energy systems is positive for the long term. This is a perfect story…

1) Locating gene for ethanol producing microorganisms -
“University of Rochester have for the first time identified how genes responsible for biomass breakdown are turned on in a microorganism that produces valuable ethanol from materials like grass and cornstalks. … The findings in today’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences may empower scientists to engineer ethanol-producing super-organisms that can make clean-burning fuel from the nation’s one billion unused tons of yearly biomass production.
Link from Eureka Alert.com

2) Super-thin Filter, 50 Atoms Thick, Sorts Individual Molecules
Umm, there’s that ‘membrane’ word again! This deals more with bio applications- but the design principle can also be use for improving ion-exchange in fuel cells.
Link from Rochester.edu

Random news…

“Thermoelectric” energy production at nanoscale
This is all new to me… but could have an impact on design of MEMS/NEMS:
US researchers have successfully demonstrated the thermoelectric effect in an organic molecule. Until now, thermoelectricity - the generation of electricity directly from heat - has largely been confined to systems consisting of metals or inorganic semiconductors. The findings open up the possibility of potential new energy sources, and also present a novel way for probing the electronic structure of molecular junctions, something that is crucial for the development of the field of molecular electronics.

More good news from researchers who work with Zinc Oxide Nanowires…
“Nano-piezotronics” could “…create a new class of electronic components and devices that could provide the foundation for a broad range of new applications…. demonstrated field-effect transistors, diodes, sensors – and current-producing nanogenerators
[Another Georgia Institute of Technology project…!]
Link from Azom.com