[TECHNOLOGY] Futuros dispositivos de Apple podrían utilizar energía solar

Empleados de Apple han solicitado una patente para integrar celdas solares dentro de los dispositivos portátiles colocándolos bajo las capas de la pantalla sensible al tacto, de acuerdo con la solicitud. La energía solar le ayudaría a hacer dispositivos verdaderamente portátiles, liberándose de la necesidad de cables para conectarlos a la fuente de energía.

Cuando se genera electricidad con paneles solares, cuanto más grande sea el panel mejor, pero la patente advierte “de paneles solares en dispositivos portátiles”, luego de permitir espacio para los botones, pantalla y una manera de alojar el dispositivo, solo un a pequeña área se deja en la mayoría de los dispositivos para las celdas solares.

Una de las maneras sugirió que la patente es para colocar una capa sensible al tacto, una pantalla y un panel solar uno encima del otro. Esto haría del iPhone y el iPod Touch de Apple buenos candidatos para dichas fuentes de energía, ya que la pantalla ocupa casi toda la carátula de estos aparatos.

El uso de carga con energía solar en aparatos portátiles está comenzando a tomar más atención para uso más inmediato de consumidores.

Cuando Vodafone anunció su plan en abril para reducir las emisiones del gas invernadero CO2 en un 50 por ciento para el 2020, también anunció planes para cargadores de teléfono alimentados por luz solar y cargadores universales para teléfonos de los aparatos de marca Vodafone.

En la reciente conferencia ITU Telecom Africa 2008, el ministro ugandés de comunicaciones y tecnologías de información y comunicación, Ham-Mukasa Mulira habló sobre los acuerdos de uso de carga con energía solar, que había prometido.

Source: PC World|By Mikael Ricknäs (IDG News Service)

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NEW TECHNOLOGY: Ricardo Inc., Develops Next-Generation Wind Energy

Massachusetts-based wind energy company General Compression and its compressor technology partner Mechanology are using Ricardo's automotive engineering and development expertise to develop technology which aims to make wind power as reliable as conventional power.

With energy security and global warming at the very top of the political agenda in all parts of the world, renewable energy resources are increasingly seen as an important contributor to the future of regional and national grid power supplies. Of the potentially large-scale renewable energy resources wind is perhaps the most universally available, as virtually every part of the earth's surface experiences the natural force of the wind.

However, as the wind is subject to the vagaries of the weather and as such is inherently unpredictable, wind energy has traditionally been seen as an intermittent source of electrical power. General Compression's proprietary Dispatchable Wind system carries the descriptive tagline 'wind energy on demand' because it decouples wind energy capture from electrical power generation by substituting the electric generators in its wind turbines with advanced compressor systems linked to a central high pressure compressed air reservoir at each wind farm.

The reservoir acts as an energy buffer, storing compressed air which can be passed through an expander plant in order to generate electricity whenever it's needed - not just when the wind is blowing.

Dispatchable Wind is based on the use of the innovative, high energy density Dragonfly compressor under development by Mechanology, Inc. Ricardo has been chosen by Mechanology to be one of its key product development partners to assist in developing the Dragonfly such that it will meet or exceed the rigours of round-the-clock operation with an expected life in excess of 20 years.

Ricardo is applying its well-proven product engineering skills and practices in areas such as design optimization and material selection, performance modelling and analysis, mechanical dynamic analysis, reliability and robustness engineering, design for manufacture and cost optimization.

"Increasing energy efficiency has been a prime focus at Ricardo for many years," said Ricardo Inc. President Dean Harlow.

"Our deep engineering experience places us in an ideal position to assist in the development of the high energy density Dragonfly compressor. General Compression's goal of making wind power available on-demand with its Dispatchable Wind system signals a major advancement in the practical application of this important renewable energy source.

"For Ricardo, it is yet another opportunity to apply our advanced engineering skills and technology to address global energy issues in a range of rapidly developing industrial sectors."

Ricardo, the Eco-Innovation Technology Company, is a leading independent provider of technology, product innovation, engineering solutions and strategic consulting to the world's automotive, transport and new energy industries. The company's skill base represents the state-of-the-art in low emissions and fuel-efficient powertrain technology, and can be best summarized: "Ricardo is Fuel Economy."

Source: SPX|by Van Buren Twp

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UNITED STATES: After US pulls plug, future unclear for 'clean coal'

The US government's decision to end funding for a "zero emissions" coal-fired power plant project has cast doubt over the future of "clean coal" to meet growing global energy needs.

The US Department of Energy in late January decided to pull the plug on funding for the FutureGen project launched in 2003 to demonstrate how coal can be burned cleanly, with carbon emissions stored underground in a process known as sequestration.

Government officials say they remain committed to the idea of clean coal, but a public spat with a public-private alliance raises doubts about any viable project.

FutureGen, a partnership with utilities and coal companies in the US, China, Europe and Australia, announced Thursday it would continue to pursue the project despite the loss of an estimated 1.1 billion dollars in US government funding, or some three-fourths of the project.

The project, which last year selected a site at Mattoon, Illinois, "is in the best position to move ahead with the urgency that the energy and climate challenges demand," FutureGen chief executive Michael Mudd said.

"The board wants to move forward with the project," said FutureGen spokeswoman Carly Baker.

"They believe it is in the best interest of the public."

But FutureGen officials said they would continue to work with the US Congress and administration officials in an effort to secure funding.

US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman argued that FutureGen no longer needs taxpayer support.

"Innovations in technology and changes in the marketplace have created other viable options," Bodman wrote in a letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "That diminished the need for a demonstration project."

But FutureGen officials disagree. Baker said the project is developing methods "to get the technology that could be used in future plants around the world."

"There's no other plant," she said, which uses both coal gasification and carbon capture and sequestration to virtually eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, she said.

Coal has been blamed by environmentalists as a major culprit in global warming because of its high level of carbon dioxide emissions.

But it supplies about half the electric power needs in the United States and two-thirds of energy needs in China, since it costs less than most alternatives and both countries have ample domestic supplies.

President George W. Bush has long been a backer of clean coal technology, and some studies suggest coal could be competitive with other energy sources even with new technology to remove carbon and other pollutants.

Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said the administration's decision to turn its back on FutureGen after years of planning was a "cruel deception."

Julie Ruggiero, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, said the administration remains committed to clean coal efforts but wanted to change course in face of a project with "escalating costs," much of which were to be assumed by the government.

"Coal is our nation's most abundant energy resource, and we want to burn coal more cleanly," Ruggiero told AFP. "This administration has invested over 2.5 billion dollars since 2001 on clear coal research."

Ruggiero said the administration is seeking to restructure FutureGen to establish "multiple commercial sites" and "a better balance of taxpayer and private share" of costs.

Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said the government began reassessing its role after "I learned early last year that the cost estimates for this project had nearly doubled."

Sell said FutureGen would place the government at risk by surrendering the plant to mortgage holders if any of the private companies defaulted.

"Ultimately, we could not come to an agreement with the FutureGen Alliance as to how to restructure the existing project and, ultimately, we believed that the public interest mandated that we restructure our overall approach to accomplish the objectives of the FutureGen effort," Sell told a conference call of journalists.

The deputy secretary said there are over 33 plants that are being proposed using the new technology to store carbon underground.

"This fact, this changing underlying market dynamic, underpins why we believe our new approach is fundamentally better to advance the state of carbon capture and sequestration," he said.

Source: Agence France Pressee

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TECHNOLOGY: Biomechanical. Knee Brace Generates Electricity From Walking

A new energy-capturing knee brace can generate enough electricity from walking to operate a portable GPS locator, a cell phone, a motorized prosthetic joint or an implanted neurotransmitter, research involving the University of Michigan shows. A report on the device is published in the Feb. 8 issue of the journal Science. Authors include researchers from Simon Fraser University in Canada and the University of Pittsburgh, in addition to U-M.

The wearable mechanism works much like regenerative braking charges a battery in some hybrid vehicles, said Arthur Kuo, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at U-M and an author of the paper.

Regenerative brakes collect the kinetic energy that would otherwise be dissipated as heat when a car slows down. This knee brace harvests the energy lost when a human brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step.

Kuo, who called the device "a cocktail-napkin idea," says knee joints are uniquely suited for this endeavor.

"There is power to be harvested from various places in the body, and you can use that to generate electricity. The knee is probably the best place," he said. "During walking, you dissipate energy in various places, when your foot hits the ground, for example. You have to make up for this by performing work with your muscles.

"The body is clever," Kuo said. "In a lot of places where it could be dissipating energy, it may actually be storing it and getting it back elastically. Your tendons act like springs. In many places, we're not sure whether the energy is really being dissipated or you're just storing it temporarily. We believe that when you're slowing down the knee at the end of swinging the leg, most of that energy normally is just wasted."

The scientists tested the knee brace on six men walking leisurely on a treadmill at 1.5 meters per second, or 2.2 miles per hour. They measured the subjects' respiration to determine how hard they were working. A control group wore the brace with the generator disengaged to measure how the weight of the 3.5-pound brace affected the wearer.

In the mode in which the brace is only activated while the knee is braking, the subjects required less than one watt of extra metabolic power for each watt of electricity they generated. A typical hand-crank generator, for comparison, takes an average of 6.4 watts of metabolic power to generate one watt of electricity because of inefficiencies of muscles and generators.

"We've demonstrated proof of concept," Kuo said. "The prototype device is bulky and heavy, and it does affect the wearer just to carry. But the energy generation part itself has very little effect on the wearer, whether it is turned on or not. We hope to improve the device so that it is easier to carry, and to retain the energy-harvesting capabilities."

A lighter version would be helpful to hikers or soldiers who don't have easy access to electricity. And the scientists say similar mechanisms could be built into prosthetic knees other implantable devices such as pacemakers or neurotransmitters that today require a battery, and periodic surgery to replace that battery.

"A future energy harvester might be implanted along with such a device and generate its own power from walking," Kuo said.

Source: SPX

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BIOCOMBUSTIBLE: Crean primer dispositivo que transforma CO2 en biocombustible

Un equipo de científicos españoles del la Universidad española de Alicante (este) han creado el primer dispositivo basado en el cultivo de microalgas marinas que absorbe el dióxido de carbono de la atmósfera y lo convierte en una biomasa de la que se obtiene biocombustible.

El director científico de la investigación y profesor de la Universidad de Alicante, Cristian Gomis presentó hoy el prototipo de este nuevo sumidero de dióxido de carbono (CO2) que cuya novedad es su "rentabilidad", puesto que la biomasa que se obtiene del proceso también se puede transformar en productos "que tienen valor en el mercado", como celulosa o productos de farmacia.

El proyecto, denominado "Airemar", se ha desarrollado con la colaboración con la empresa Bio Fuel Systems (BFS).

Éste es el único dispositivo de estas características en el mundo que ha desarrollado una universidad y se trata de un prototipo, de un tamaño dos o tres veces inferior al sistema industrial, que se basa en el cultivo intensivo de microalgas fitoplanctónicas.

Estas algas, que se obtienen del mar y se depositan en una especie de silos en agua marina, se alimentan del dióxido de carbono que se inyecta en los depósitos.

Posteriormente se centrifugan y se convierten en biomasa que, a su vez, se transforma en biocombustible, celulosa o productos de farmacia, según explicó Gomis.

Además, precisó, los compuestos que se obtienen "tienen un valor en el mercado, con una eficiencia diez mil veces superior a la de cualquier otro tipo de cultivo energético conocido, porque ocupa diez mil veces menos superficie y lo hace 365 veces más rápido que cualquier otro cultivo que tarda un año en hacerse".

Este dispositivo se ha instalado en la universidad y podría capturar al año ocho o nueve mil kilos de dióxido de carbono, a una media de unos diez kilos diarios.

"Parece que sea poco, pero con un sólo metro cuadrado se podría inmovilizar todo el CO2 que tira un coche en un viaje de Alicante a Valencia, ida y vuelta, en un día", añadió.

Por ello, aseguró que este sistema puede llegar a "paliar" los efectos del cambio climático al no lanzar el dióxido de carbono a la atmósfera, sino reutilizarlo.

El circuito puede funcionar con agua de mar, de desalinizadoras y con agua dulce, y en él apenas se pierde un 3 ó 4 por ciento de agua, que es la que se va renovando para evitar que se estanque.

Via: EFE

Tags: new technology, Bio Fuel Systems, biocombustibles, España, CO2

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TECHNOLOGY: New technique creates cheap, abundant hydrogen

US researchers have developed a method of producing hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material, potentially providing an abundant source of this clean-burning fuel, according to a study released Monday.

The technology offers a way to cheaply and efficiently generate hydrogen gas from readily available and renewable biomass such as cellulose or glucose, and could be used for powering vehicles, making fertilizer and treating drinking water.

Numerous public transportation systems are moving toward hydrogen-powered engines as an alternative to gasoline, but most hydrogen today is generated from nonrenewable fossil fuels such as natural gas.

The method used by engineers at Pennsylvania State University however combines electron-generating bacteria and a small electrical charge in a microbial fuel cell to produce hydrogen gas.

Microbial fuel cells work through the action of bacteria which can pass electrons to an anode. The electrons flow from the anode through a wire to the cathode producing an electric current. In the process, the bacteria consume organic matter in the biomass material.

An external jolt of electricity helps generate hydrogen gas at the cathode.

In the past, the process, which is known as electrohydrogenesis, has had poor efficiency rates and low hydrogen yields.

But the researchers at Pennsylvania State University were able to get around these problems by chemically modifying elements of the reactor.

In laboratory experiments, their reactor generated hydrogen gas at nearly 99 percent of the theoretical maximum yield using aetic acid, a common dead-end product of glucose fermentation.

"This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added in the process," said Bruce Logan, a professor of environmental engineering at Penn State.

The technology is economically viable now, which gives hydrogen an edge over another alternative biofuel which is grabbing more headlines, Logan said.

"The energy focus is currently on ethanol as a fuel, but economical ethanol from cellulose is 10 years down the road," said Logan.

"First you need to break cellulose down to sugars and then bacteria can convert them to ethanol."

One of the immediate applications for this technology is to supply the hydrogen that is used in fuel cell cars to generate the electricity that drives the motor, but it could also can be used to convert wood chips into hydrogen to be used as fertilizer.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Via: Yahoo News
Tags: hydrogen, new technology, USA

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BIOCOMBUSTUBLES: Las algas y el biopetróleo

Esta es la marca y el concepto que Bio Fuel System, una empresa con sede en Alicante, va a lanzar al mercado energético y eléctrico en breves fechas. Sus claves son la reducción de costes, una producción casi inagotable, un proceso sostenible al partir de materias primas naturales -las algas- aprovechando la fotosíntesis, la energía solar y el campo electromagnético, y un producto -también carbones- que se convierte en fuente de energía alternativa y equiparable al de origen fósil, al aprovechar el CO 2 y reducir sus emisiones. Su aplicación en el mundo empresarial sirve para distintos sectores como el de la automoción, el eléctrico, el de la cosmética y el de la celulosa.

Tiene el color verde de las algas, contiene cientos de millones de seres unicelulares por mililitro cúbico, y se ha tardado varios años años en dar con la fórmula científica de cultivarlo en un medio artificial. No en vano, detrás de este futuro biocombustible están los departamentos de Biotecnología, Ingeniería Química y Ciencias del Mar de las universidades de Alicante y Valencia.

Sus padres son el profesor de Biotecnología de la Universidad de Alicante, Cristian Gomis, y el ingeniero de Termodinámica, Bernard Stroïazzo. La búsqueda de este último de un sistema que acelerara el ciclo vital de la fotosíntesis por el que las células marinas absorben el dióxido de carbono y expulsan oxígeno, crecen y se reproducen, encontró la respuesta en el biólogo marino Gomis.

En estos años se han seleccionado una treintena de cepas de familias de algas clorofíceas a las que se ha alimentado con luz solar, CO2 y una pizca de fósforo y nitrógeno. El resultado ha sido que en esas condiciones artificiales óptimas, sin cambios extremos de temperaturas, ni corrientes, ni depredadores, han acelerado sus procesos vitales y reproductivos. Si en el medio marino la concentración de estos seres es de 300 en un mililitro cúbico, en el sistema BFS llega a 200 millones.

Una sopa verde. La batería de cilindros de plástico transparentes de tres metros de altura y 70 centímetros de diámetro -que hacen de prototipo de la que será una próxima planta industrial- contiene una especie de sopa de color verde, donde cada día esos cientos de miles de millones de seres se dividen en dos cada 12 horas. Es así como la biomasa está servida.

Es igual que la del mar, aunque más densa. O como ocurrió hace 200 millones de años con el fitoplancton en una Tierra en formación, cuando los cataclismos lo sepultaron y se fosilizó, hasta que hace 150 años el hombre comenzó a extraerlo, lo llamó petróleo y creó una sociedad dependiente de este combustible.

El biopetróleo de BFS no tiene el color negro del crudo y no tiene ni azufre ni los metales pesados que se le incorporan en su fosilización. Es sólo materia orgánica con la celulosa y el silicio de la membrana celular.

Cada día se ordeña el cilindro extrayendo la mitad de su contenido, se centrifuga, se devuelve el agua al tanque para que se doble la cantidad de individuos en las siguiente 24 horas, y queda la materia orgánica en pasta para la refinería o seca para carbón. Cada kilogramo de esta masa tiene 5.700 kilocalorías. Tanto como el carbón. Capaz de alimentar plantas térmicas de electricidad, que se verían obligadas a capturar el CO2 de sus chimeneas para alimentar al biocombustible que crece en la planta de al lado, donde digiere su propio carbono y ni tan siquiera hay que transportarlo. Una refinería podría hacer lo mismo. ¿Quién da más?

Bernard Stroïazzo afirma que han logrado reproducir el "mejor intecambiador de energía del Sol que existe, el mismo que hay en los océanos en forma de fitoplancton y que es la base de la cadena alimentaria marina". Gomis señala que "las algas son seres inmortales porque están en crecimiento infinito".

Más del 50% de la masa de las decenas de miles de especies de algas que componen el fitoplancton en los océanos es aceite. ¿Para qué quieren tanta grasa? Simplemente porque tiene menos densidad que el agua y flota en el mar con el fin de estar cerca de la superficie donde llega la luz solar, que es la mitad de su dieta junto al dióxido de carbono en la fotosíntesis.

En BFS logran que, en cada dos metros cúbicos de agua, se produzcan seis kilos al día de biomasa. Esto es miles de veces más que el cultivo anual de soja, girasol o palma, usando mucho menos territorio y menos agresivamente.

El próximo objetivo de la empresa será la primera planta de producción eléctrica de 30 megavatios antes de un año. Necesitarán de una hectárea para instalar el hogar artificial de las algas en cilindros de ocho metros de altura y 70 centímteros de diámetro. Allí producirán la electricidad de 3.000 viviendas con calderas que muevan generadores y recuperen el CO2. El lugar ya está elegido en Alicante y las licencias solicitadas.

Cuatro mercados potenciales De las negociaciones que mantendrán en los próximos meses con las grandes multinacionales dependerá el éxito de su proyecto empresarial, que ha supuesto ya una inversión de 10 millones. El científico ya lo han desarrollado. Pero otro hándicap con el que se encuentran es que Bio Fuel Sysytem (BSF) se está introduciendo en un escenario internacional en el que no sólo priman los criterios económicos y de reducción de costes, sino otros por los que, incluso por la evolución de las cotizaciones y el desajuste de la demanda y la oferta, llegan a tambalearse los mercados. La automoción se plantea como uno de los primeros sectores a conquistar, pero también el eléctrico. De otra parte, en la industria cosmética se encuentra, asimismo, otro punto de mira. Los oligoelementos extraídos de algas pueden aportar un proceso natural y económico a este mercado. Y si se introdujeran en el de la celulosa, como pretenden, se contribuiría a reducir la actual deforestación.

Via: El Mundo|Levante EMV
Bio Fuel Sysytem,biopetroleum,co2,algas,fuel tech,energyblog

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Competicion de productos con energias alternativas, convocada por Metrópoli Magazine

Hace poco se publico en Metrópoli Magazine (metrópoli.com), algunos proyectos sobre energias alternativas que han estado en competición a lo largo de este 2007.

Que te parecen las propuestas 2007.
En este sitio presentate para la siguiente competición.

Tags: kinetica,new technology,renewable energy,energyblog

TECHNOLOGY: Científicos norteamericanos logran acumular energía en una batería compuesta al 90% de papel que se puede doblar

La pila del futuro tiene las semblanzas de un papel de color negro, es formada por un 90% de celulosa y por el otro 10% de nanotubos de carbono que funcionan como eléctrodos. Es superligera, se puede plegar, recargar y puede funcionar a temperaturas extremas de entre menos 40 y más 160 grados centígrados. Así lo creen los científicos Instituto Politécnico Rensselaer en Nueva York, que han publicado su trabajo en la edición digital de la revista Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Los científicos, dirigidos por Robert Linhardt, impregnaron diariamente papel de celulosa poroso con nanotubos de carbono. Con esto, junto con un electrolito para transportar corrientes eléctricas, los investigadores crearon condensadores de alta capacidad o supercondensadores, baterías y dispositivos híbridos que almacenan y proporcionan energía. Como fuente de energía, los supercondensadores proporcionan corrientes y voltajes comparables a otros supercondensadores y dispositivos de almacenamiento de energía flexibles.

Los investigadores crearon una batería de papel, litio y aluminio y la utilizaron para producir y dirigir luz. También desarrollaron una fuente de energía híbrida que combina los supercondensadores y las baterías. Estos papeles funcionaban incluso si se enrollaban sobre sí mismos, se retorcían o se doblaban, en un amplio rango de temperaturas y con electrolitos diferentes.

Posibles aplicaciones al cuerpo humano
Los científicos descubrieron que incluso la sangre y el sudor eran electrolitos adecuados para los supercondensadores, lo que sugiere muchas aplicaciones biológicas y médicas. Según los investigadores, los papeles nanocompuestos pueden servir como fuentes de energía adaptables a muchas formas y tamaños debido a su flexibilidad.

Via: El Pais

Blogalaxia Tags: RSS Tags: new technology,batería de papel,batería de litio,batería de aluminio,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,nanotubos,celulosa,Robert Linhardt,energyblog

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TECHNOLOGY: Levitation? incredible levitation effects

Levitation has been elevated from being pure science fiction to science fact, according to a study reported today by physicists. In earlier work the same team of theoretical physicists showed that invisibility cloaks are feasible.

Now, in another report that sounds like it comes out of the pages of a Harry Potter book, the University of St Andrews team has created an 'incredible levitation effects’ by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together.

Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, have worked out a way of reversing this pheneomenon, known as the Casimir force, so that it repels instead of attracts.

Their discovery could ultimately lead to frictionless micro-machines with moving parts that levitate But they say that, in principle at least, the same effect could be used to levitate bigger objects too, even a person.

The Casimir force is a consequence of quantum mechanics, the theory that describes the world of atoms and subatomic particles that is not only the most successful theory of physics but also the most baffling.

The force is due to neither electrical charge or gravity, for example, but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening empty space between the objects and is one reason atoms stick together, also explaining a “dry glue” effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling.

Now, using a special lens of a kind that has already been built, Prof Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin report in the New Journal of Physics they can engineer the Casimir force to repel, rather than attact.

Because the Casimir force causes problems for nanotechnologists, who are trying to build electrical circuits and tiny mechanical devices on silicon chips, among other things, the team believes the feat could initially be used to stop tiny objects from sticking to each other.

Prof Leonhardt explained, “The Casimir force is the ultimate cause of friction in the nano-world, in particular in some microelectromechanical systems. Such systems already play an important role - for example tiny mechanical devices which triggers a car airbag to inflate or those which power tiny 'lab on chip’ devices used for drugs testing or chemical analysis. Micro or nano machines could run smoother and with less or no friction at all if one can manipulate the force.”

Though it is possible to levitate objects as big as humans, scientists are a long way off developing the technology for such feats, said Dr Philbin.

The practicalities of designing the lens to do this are daunting but not impossible and levitation “could happen over quite a distance”.

Prof Leonhardt leads one of four teams - three of them in Britain - to have put forward a theory in a peer-reviewed journal to achieve invisibility by making light waves flow around an object - just as a river flows undisturbed around a smooth rock.

Via: Telegraph
by Roger Highfield

UNITED KINGDOM: Fruit could make 'powerful fuel'

The fuel, made from fructose, contains far more energy than ethanol, the scientists write in the journal Nature.

Separately, a British report on biofuels says all types of waste products, including plastic bags, can be used to make biodiesel fuel.

Critics of biofuels made from food crops say they drive up prices.

In both the European Union and the United States, politicians have heartily embraced biofuels as a way of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and dependency on imported oil.

'Waste' fuel
Critics say that the current biofuels - both diesel made from palm oil and ethanol made from corn - encourage farmers to switch land to fuel production, driving up the price of food in the process.

Now scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say that a simple sugar called fructose can be converted into a fuel that has many advantages over ethanol. It is called dimethylfuran - it can store 40% more energy than ethanol, and does not evaporate as easily.

The scientists say that fructose can be obtained directly from fruits and plants or made from glucose - but more work needs to be done to assess the environmental impact of this new fuel.

In Britain, researchers say that the technology now exists to create diesel fuel not just from palm oil but from a range of materials including wood, weeds and even plastic bags.

This process is called biomass to liquid and experts say that within six years up to 30% of Britain's diesel requirements could be met from this source.

Jeremy Tomkinson of the UK's National Non-Food Crops Centre said this next generation of biofuels could meet many needs beyond powering cars.

"The impact on society we're hoping will be far wider than simply 'we can give you a fuel now with a tenfold reduction in its carbon footprint'.

"Imagine now if chemicals that we use in the chemical industry also came from the same feed stock; [and that] the aircraft we fly to New York in also run on this? There's the big potential," he said.

The biggest drawback to this process is cost. Setting up new production facilities is estimated to be 10 times higher than for current biofuel refineries.

BBC

by Matt McGrath

Blogalaxia Tags: Energia,
Sostenibilidad y
Tecnologia

TECH: The space solar power

The Pentagon's National Security Space Office (NSSO) may begin a study in the near future on the possibility of using satellites to collect solar energy for use on Earth, according to Defense Department officials.

The officials said the study does not mean that the military plans to demonstrate or deploy a space-based solar power constellation. However, as the Pentagon looks at a variety of alternative energy sources, this could be one possible method of supplying energy to troops in bases or on the battlefield, they said.

The military's work in this area also could aid development of a system that could provide energy to non-military users as well, according to Lt. Col. Michael Hornitschek, chief of rated force policy on the Air Force staff at the Pentagon.

Hornitschek, who has been exploring the concept of space-based solar power in his spare time, recently briefed the NSSO on the concept of space-based solar power, and stimulated interest in conducting a formal study, according to Lt. Col. M.V. "Coyote" Smith, chief of future concepts at the NSSO. The NSSO would need to find the financial resources and available manpower to conduct the study, Smith said.

Hornitschek would lead work on the study on behalf of the NSSO if the NSSO elects to pursue it, and he said he hopes that a system could be deployed in roughly 20 years.

John Mankins, president of the Space Solar Power Association in Washington, said space-based solar power could offer a massive improvement over terrestrial solar collection devices because constant exposure to the sun avoids the nighttime periods where terrestrial systems cannot collect solar energy.

The ability to constantly gather solar energy would allow a space-based system to avoid safety concerns to other satellites or people on the ground by constantly transmitting energy to Earth at a level that is high enough to be useful but low enough so as not to cause any damage, said Mankins, a former NASA official who previously served as manager of advanced concept studies at NASA headquarters before leaving the agency in 2005.

Jeff Kueter, president of the Marshall Institute, a Washington think tank, said it is too early to determine if space-based solar power is viable, but said that if the concept is successful, it could be a potential "game changer" for energy use.

The concept could find broad bipartisan support as it could meet the desires both of conservatives seeking to end dependence on foreign energy sources, as well as liberals who are looking for an environmentally friendly source of energy, Kueter said.

While space-based solar power may sound like a high-risk proposal, it is worth investing several million dollars in the near term to study the concept because of the potential high payoff, Kueter said. If the studies indicated that the concept might be feasible, it would be worthwhile for the Pentagon to conduct flight demonstrations to prove out the technology in space, he said.

If the Pentagon chose to pursue flight demonstrations or deployment of a space-based solar power system, it could share costs by partnering with NASA, the Department of Energy and other government agencies, Kueter said.

The concept of space-based solar power might appear to threaten traditional energy industries, Kueter said. However, the rapidly increasing demands for energy and diminishing supply of natural resources means that traditional energy companies may need to find new ways of doing business in the future, and they could likely find a way to be a part of the space-based solar power effort through ways like contributing expertise in areas like energy distribution, he said.

The NSSO would likely ask experts from industries like electrical power to be involved in the study if it chooses to conduct it to draw on their experience with power distribution, Smith said.

If the NSSO initiates the study on space-based solar power, it would likely be the first time that the Pentagon has looked at the concept, Hornitschek said.

Smith said he hoped the study could create a repository of information about space-based solar power that may have been conducted by other agencies, as well as any that may have existed within the military.

Hornitschek said it is too early to estimate the likely constellation size, types of orbits or cost of a space-based solar-power constellation. However, the satellites would likely feature very large, powerful solar arrays. In addition, the cost of launching a constellation of such large satellites with the types of launch vehicles available today would be a challenge, Hornitschek said.

Mankins said a large constellation could demonstrate a significant launch opportunity to industry, and could provide the stimulus needed for industry to bring reusable launch concepts to fruition.

SPACE

spacesolar powerThe Pentagon,National Security Space Office,
alternative energy sources
Blogalaxia Tags: Energia,
Sostenibilidad y
Tecnologia

TECH: MIT team experimentally demonstrates wireless power transfer, potentially useful for powering laptops, cell phones without cords

Imagine a future in which wireless power transfer is feasible: cell phones, household robots, mp3 players, laptop computers and other portable electronics capable of charging themselves without ever being plugged in, freeing us from that final, ubiquitous power wire. Some of these devices might not even need their bulky batteries to operate.

A team from MIT's Department of Physics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) has experimentally demonstrated an important step toward accomplishing this vision of the future.

The team members are Andre Kurs, Aristeidis Karalis, Robert Moffatt, Prof. Peter Fisher, and Prof. John Joannopoulos (Francis Wright Davis Chair and director of ISN), led by Prof. Marin Soljacic.

Goodbye wires…
Realizing their recent theoretical prediction, they were able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source seven feet (more than two meters) away; there was no physical connection between the source and the appliance. The MIT team refers to its concept as "WiTricity" (as in wireless electricity). The work will be reported in the June 7 issue of Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science.

Late-night beeps
The story starts one late night a few years ago, with Soljacic (pronounced Soul-ya-cheech) standing in his pajamas, staring at his cell phone on the kitchen counter. "It was probably the sixth time that month that I was awakened by my cell phone beeping to let me know that I had forgotten to charge it. It occurred to me that it would be so great if the thing took care of its own charging." To make this possible, one would have to have a way to transmit power wirelessly, so Soljacic started thinking about which physical phenomena could help make this wish a reality.

Radiation methods
Various methods of transmitting power wirelessly have been known for centuries. Perhaps the best known example is electromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves. While such radiation is excellent for wireless transmission of information, it is not feasible to use it for power transmission. Since radiation spreads in all directions, a vast majority of power would end up being wasted into free space.

One can envision using directed electromagnetic radiation, such as lasers, but this is not very practical and can even be dangerous. It requires an uninterrupted line of sight between the source and the device, as well as a sophisticated tracking mechanism when the device is mobile.

The key: Magnetically coupled resonance
In contrast, WiTricity is based on using coupled resonant objects. Two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy efficiently, while interacting weakly with extraneous off-resonant objects. A child on a swing is a good example of this. A swing is a type of mechanical resonance, so only when the child pumps her legs at the natural frequency of the swing is she able to impart substantial energy.

Another example involves acoustic resonances: Imagine a room with 100 identical wine glasses, each filled with wine up to a different level, so they all have different resonant frequencies. If an opera singer sings a sufficiently loud single note inside the room, a glass of the corresponding frequency might accumulate sufficient energy to even explode, while not influencing the other glasses. In any system of coupled resonators there often exists a so-called "strongly coupled" regime of operation. If one ensures to operate in that regime in a given system, the energy transfer can be very efficient.

While these considerations are universal, applying to all kinds of resonances (e.g., acoustic, mechanical, electromagnetic, etc.), the MIT team focused on one particular type: magnetically coupled resonators. The team explored a system of two electromagnetic resonators coupled mostly through their magnetic fields; they were able to identify the strongly coupled regime in this system, even when the distance between them was several times larger than the sizes of the resonant objects. This way, efficient power transfer was enabled.

Magnetic coupling is particularly suitable for everyday applications because most common materials interact only very weakly with magnetic fields, so interactions with extraneous environmental objects are suppressed even further. "The fact that magnetic fields interact so weakly with biological organisms is also important for safety considerations," Kurs, a graduate student in physics, points out.

The investigated design consists of two copper coils, each a self-resonant system. One of the coils, attached to the power source, is the sending unit. Instead of irradiating the environment with electromagnetic waves, it fills the space around it with a non-radiative magnetic field oscillating at MHz frequencies. The non-radiative field mediates the power exchange with the other coil (the receiving unit), which is specially designed to resonate with the field. The resonant nature of the process ensures the strong interaction between the sending unit and the receiving unit, while the interaction with the rest of the environment is weak.

Moffatt, an MIT undergraduate in physics, explains: "The crucial advantage of using the non-radiative field lies in the fact that most of the power not picked up by the receiving coil remains bound to the vicinity of the sending unit, instead of being radiated into the environment and lost." With such a design, power transfer has a limited range, and the range would be shorter for smaller-size receivers.

Still, for laptop-sized coils, power levels more than sufficient to run a laptop can be transferred over room-sized distances nearly omni-directionally and efficiently, irrespective of the geometry of the surrounding space, even when environmental objects completely obstruct the line-of-sight between the two coils. Fisher points out: "As long as the laptop is in a room equipped with a source of such wireless power, it would charge automatically, without having to be plugged in. In fact, it would not even need a battery to operate inside of such a room." In the long run, this could reduce our society's dependence on batteries, which are currently heavy and expensive.

At first glance, such a power transfer is reminiscent of relatively commonplace magnetic induction, such as is used in power transformers, which contain coils that transmit power to each other over very short distances. An electric current running in a sending coil induces another current in a receiving coil. The two coils are very close, but they do not touch. However, this behavior changes dramatically when the distance between the coils is increased. As Karalis, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, points out, "Here is where the magic of the resonant coupling comes about. The usual non-resonant magnetic induction would be almost 1 million times less efficient in this particular system."

Old physics, new demand
WiTricity is rooted in such well-known laws of physics that it makes one wonder why no one thought of it before. "In the past, there was no great demand for such a system, so people did not have a strong motivation to look into it," points out Joannopoulos, adding, "Over the past several years, portable electronic devices, such as laptops, cell phones, iPods and even household robots have become widespread, all of which require batteries that need to be recharged often."

As for what the future holds, Soljacic adds, "Once, when my son was about three years old, we visited his grandparents' house. They had a 20-year-old phone and my son picked up the handset, asking, 'Dad, why is this phone attached with a cord to the wall?' That is the mindset of a child growing up in a wireless world. My best response was, 'It is strange and awkward, isn't it? Hopefully, we will be getting rid of some more wires, and also batteries, soon.'"

This work was funded by the Army Research Office (Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies), National Science Foundation (Center for Materials Science and Engineering), and the Department of Energy.

MIT News
by Franklin Hadley, Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies

MIT
Blogalaxia Tags: Energia,
Sostenibilidad y
Tecnologia

DUBAI: the energy Wind and The Fisher Towers

Marvelous. I was reading the update from Domokyo and I found a interesting project about eco buildings. This project is a propouse of the designer DAVID FISHER, this project is using a wind turbine between every floor.


Dr David Fisher, Architect and Town Planner, is an Italian citizen, who has been passionately working on redefining the technical and technological extremes of buildings, especially in urban centres like New York, Moscow, Hong Kong, Paris and Dubai, for over three decades now.

Fisher started as an artist in Florence , the home of Italian Renaissance. After graduating with Honors from the University of Florence in 1976, Fisher started teaching Architecture in the same university and at the School of Structural Engineering .

With David’s Tower you gonnna find the integration of a large wind turbine sandwiched between each floor giving the tower its potential for energy. Inserted at every other floor, the turbines alone might be enough of an energy generator to stop residences heads from spinning, giving the penthouse owners at the top of the building the ability to control their view rotating to their hearts content. You should imagine that such a unique tower would be destined for the Dubai skyline, but Fischer plans to build this tower in a place only fitting of its energy potential, in the windy city of Chicago.

DynamicArchitecture

Blogalaxia Tags: energy wind,Green Building,David Fisher

ESPAÑA: Dos empresas guipuzcoanas trabajan en un reactor nuclear inspirado en el Sol

Dos empresas guipuzcoanas, Inasmet y Jema, y dos vizcaínas, Ingeniería Sener e Iberdrola, son los cuatro representantes vascos que trabajan en el faraónico proyecto internacional Iter (Reactor Internacional Termonuclear Experimental), una de las iniciativas más importantes y costosas llevadas a cabo nunca y que cuenta por primera vez con la participación conjunta de todas las grandes potencias mundiales (UE, China, EEUU, India, Japón, Corea del Sur y Rusia).

El Iter se instalará en un terreno de 180 hectáreas de Cadarache, al sur de Francia, con la intención de obtener un reactor de fusión (no de fisión, actual sistema de las centrales nucleares y la bomba atómica) que quiere reproducir en la Tierra el proceso que se desarrolla en el Sol, donde los átomos de hidrógeno se unen para crear otros más grandes, en un proceso que se realiza a una altísima temperatura y del que se desprende mucha energía.

La intención es recurrir a materias primas de fácil acceso en todo el planeta, como el deuterio (o hidrógeno pesado) y el tritio, que se puede extraer del agua del mar, en lugar de uranio. En el reactor se procederá a la mezcla de ambos elementos, que dará lugar a una sustancia gaseosa que se calentará a una temperatura de unos cien millones de grados. La reacción de fusión producirá helio a alta temperatura que recalentará un plasma, confinado en la instalación.

Así, los científicos podrán estudiar la cantidad de energía generada por el plasma bajo la forma de neutrones, e intentar comprender los procesos de física atómica y de los materiales generados. La colaboración entre los siete socios se deriva de la constatación de que las energías fósiles (petróleo, gas, carbón) son perecederas y contaminantes, y las dos primeras desaparecerán este siglo.

la coordinación de inasmet El mayor proyecto mundial de investigación tiene alma vasca. Inasmet participa en Iter a través de la plataforma tecnológica de fusión, "una organización cuyo objetivo es coordinar y mejorar el posicionamiento de las empresas del Estado como proveedores de equipamiento para Iter y otros proyectos parecidos que ya están funcionando en todo el mundo", explica Iñaki Azcarate, director de la Unidad de Energía y Medio Ambiente de Inasmet.

A su juicio, la importancia del proyecto Iter radica en "construir un prototipo en el que se valide la tecnología de la fusión nuclear como modo de obtención de energía eléctrica en el futuro y su viabilidad industrial y, de salir todo correctamente, también comercial". Sería una tecnología nuclear, pero no como la actual que funciona en las centrales nucleares, basadas en la fisión.

La fisión es la rotura de un átomo en otros átomos inferiores en tamaño y peso tras ser bombardeado por un neutrón. La alternativa que pretende demostrar Iter está basada en la fusión, que consiste en el proceso contrario, que es unir dos átomos para obtener otro con un gran desprendimiento de energía.

A juicio de Azcarate, "la fusión tiene unas ventajas evidentes y directas que se basan fundamentalmente en la no producción de residuos radioactivos. Respecto a la seguridad, las centrales actuales ya están suficientemente desarrolladas".

El último gran accidente que hubo fue el de Chernobil, pero fue producto de una serie de malfuncionamientos, incluso a voluntad de los operarios que lo manejaban. "Se saltaron una serie de etapas de seguridad para hacer una prueba de funcionamiento en un régimen diferente, y aquello se descontroló sin que pudieran actuar los mecanismos de seguridad porque en cierto modo los habían desconectado. Aparte que era una central de un diseño antiguo que ya no queda en ningún otro lugar del mundo", explica Azcarate.

residuos Donde sí radica el problema fundamental en las centrales nucleares actuales es en la gestión de los residuos radiactivos. Cuando una central se cierra deja unas instalaciones muy contaminadas por la radiactividad, y ese material hay que tratarlo adecuadamente. "Pero la parte que más preocupa es el combustible agotado, porque tiene un nivel radiactivo muy alto y hay que someterlo a un procedimiento de tratamiento y gestión", asegura.

Según Azcarate, "hay soluciones para ello, pero el hecho de que tengan una vida tan larga introduce dudas sobre la eficacia de las tecnologías que se proponen para su tratamiento (la mayoría se basan en enterrarlos en yacimientos geológicos profundos con unas barreras de protección, de manera que los residuos quedan aislados de la biosfera). Esas tecnologías se están probando experimentalmente en algunos países, pero hay mucho rechazo social".

poca contaminación Por el contrario, las centrales nucleares por fusión no generan estos residuos, no hay un combustible como el uranio, que es el que después de que se agota sigue teniendo un nivel radiactivo alto. "Hay una pequeña cantidad de material que sí va a constituir un cierto residuo radiactivo aunque no tiene nada que ver con los de las otras centrales, y la energía producida y su calidad es similar", dice.

La reacción que se va a aprovechar y que se va a estudiar en el proyecto Iter se consigue mediante el confinamiento magnético de los átomos en un entorno en el que se propician temperaturas elevadas, y es aquí donde entra la participación de Inasmet, ya que los materiales necesarios para que estas condiciones se produzcan son muy especiales y resistentes a todas estas condiciones, "y nosotros nos encargamos de orientar a las empresas para que puedan desarrollar productos que lo consigan", explica Azcarate.

"Nuestra participación en la plataforma consiste en la coordinación de los diversos grupos industriales que trabajan en diferentes tecnologías, porque para poner en marcha una instalación del tipo Iter hace falta una gran diversidad de proveedores distintos. Inasmet da apoyo en todas esas tecnologías a las empresas y mejoramos en lo posible su capacitación para que puedan estar al nivel de las exigencias que requiere ser proveedor de equipamiento para unas instalaciones tan sofisticadas como éstas", subraya Azcarate.

Tal y como indica, en la plataforma tecnológica de fusión hay varios grupos, como el gestor que coordina Inasmet, el cual ha aunado a las empresas que pueden ser proveedoras de diferentes equipamientos en función de la tecnología que maneje cada una de ellas: vacío, eletrónica de potencia o de control, mecánica, electromecánica, manipulación remota, criogénica, superconductores, imanes, materiales y procesos especiales, software, instrumentación de control, ingeniería civil para la construcción de obra para la contención del edificio, ingeniería eléctrica, seguridad, etcétera.

plazos A juicio de Azcarate, los plazos van a ser muy largos: "No es seguro, pero durante 2008 tienen que empezar los procesos de preparación del terreno, edificación e instalación". El reactor se terminará en diez años, con un coste estimado en unos 4.570 millones de euros, de los que la UE aportará el 50%, y los otros seis socios el 10% cada uno, de manera que sobrará dinero para que haya una reserva en caso necesario. La explotación del reactor se desarrollará durante veinte años, con un coste de 4.800 millones de euros, de los que los europeos financiarán el 34% y los seis socios, un 11% cada uno.

fisión y fusión Para que quede claro, las bombas, los reactores actuales de fisión y los futuros reactores de fusión, si llega a haberlos, son caras distintas de un mismo principio: la conversión de materia en energía, que parte de una de las fórmulas magistrales de Einstein. En el horno nuclear del interior del Sol, dos átomos de hidrógeno se fusionan y dan lugar a un solo átomo de helio; éste tiene menos masa que la suma de los dos iniciales, así que la masa que falta se transforma en energía. Ésa es la energía nuclear de fusión. Es la que funciona en la bomba de hidrógeno y la que deberá funcionar, de manera controlada, en un futuro reactor de fusión.

Pero también está el fenómeno contrario, la fisión. Cuando un núcleo atómico se parte en fracciones que, sumadas, dan menos masa que el núcleo original, también se libera energía. Eso ocurre en los reactores nucleares actuales y en la bomba atómica, pero ahí quedan residuos.

Noticias de Gipuzkoa

TECH: Abengoa Plans Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in Kansas

Spain's Abengoa SA is planning to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas, according to David Roman of Dow Jones Newswires. The facility will use agricultural waste to produce 12 million gallons of ethanol per year. Construction plans have already received approval and operations are expected to begin by 2011. A traditional ethanol facility will also be located on site.

Roman noted that Abengoa Bioenergy, the company's alternative fuel arm, is the fifth-largest ethanol producer in the U.S. and the largest in Europe. The company plans to spend more than €400 million to develop cellulosic ethanol production technology. Abengoa Bioenergy's CEO, Javier Salgado, said the "future of [his] company lies" with cellulosic ethanol production, and that "most of [its] cash flow will be dedicated to" its development. Abengoa was one of six companies to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for the development of cellulosic ethanol; the company was given up to $76 million for the Kansas facility.

BSR News

NEW TECH: SkyFarming

The next is a cool report, from New York Magazine. Some people could think their are only freaky ideas and, Sure ... Are only freaky ideas.

The only solution to get a clean development is throgh serious policy from the Goverment together with enterprises and investigation institutes, so is nice to read the several proposes around the world. You have one Here, ¨The Sky Farming ¨.

What´s is the opinion from the DOE ?

atte. iMAT

USA: SkyFarming
by Lisa Chamberlain (NYMag)

A Columbia professor believes that converting skyscrapers into crop farms could help reduce global warming and make New York cleaner. It’s a vision straight out of Futurama—but here’s how it might work.

Urban farming has always been a slightly quixotic endeavor. From the small animal farm that was perched on the roof of the Upper West Side’s Ansonia apartment building in the early 1900s (fresh eggs delivered by bellhop!) to community gardens threatened by real-estate development, the dream of preserving a little of the country in the city is a utopian one. But nobody has ever dreamed as big as Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor of environmental sciences and microbiology at Columbia University, who believes that “vertical farm” skyscrapers could help fight global warming.

Imagine a cluster of 30-story towers on Governors Island or in Hudson Yards producing fruit, vegetables, and grains while also generating clean energy and purifying wastewater. Roughly 150 such buildings, Despommier estimates, could feed the entire city of New York for a year. Using current green building systems, a vertical farm could be self-sustaining and even produce a net output of clean water and energy.

Despommier began developing the vertical-farming concept six years ago (his research can be found at verticalfarm .com), and he has been contacted by scientists and venture capitalists from the Netherlands to Dubai who are interested in establishing a Center for Urban Sustainable Agriculture, either independently or within Columbia. He estimates it could take a working group of agricultural economists, architects, engineers, agronomists, and urban planners five to ten years to figure out how to marry high-tech agricultural practices with the latest sustainable building technology.

What does this have to do with climate change? The professor believes that only by allowing significant portions of the Earth’s farmland to return to forest do we have a real chance of stabilizing climate and weather patterns. Merely reducing energy consumption—the centerpiece of the proposal Al Gore recently presented to Congress—will at best slow global warming. Allowing forests to regrow where crops are now cultivated, he believes, would reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as least as much as more-efficient energy consumption.

There is another reason to develop indoor farming: exploding population growth. By 2050, demographers estimate there will be an additional 3 billion people (a global total of 9.2 billion). If current farming practices are maintained, extra landmass as large as Brazil would have to be cultivated to feed them. Yet nearly all the land that can produce food is already being farmed—even without accounting for the possibility of losing more to rising sea levels and climate change (which could turn arable land into dust bowls).

Depending on the crops being grown, a single vertical farm could allow thousands of farmland acres to be permanently reforested. For the moment, these calculations remain highly speculative, but a real-life example offers a clue: After a strawberry farm in Florida was wiped out by Hurricane Andrew, the owners built a hydroponic farm. By growing strawberries indoors and stacking layers on top of each other, they now produce on one acre of land what used to require 30 acres.

Why build vertical farms in cities? Growing crops in a controlled environment has benefits: no animals to transfer disease through untreated waste; no massive crop failures as a result of weather-related disasters; less likelihood of genetically modified “rogue” strains entering the “natural” plant world. All food could be grown organically, without herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers, eliminating agricultural runoff. And 80 percent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050. Cities already have the density and infrastructure needed to support vertical farms, and super-green skyscrapers could supply not just food but energy, creating a truly self-sustaining environment.

Like the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona, a real vertical farm will probably require a utopian philanthropist with deep pockets. In the eighties, Edward Bass spent $200 million of his own money to construct the Biosphere. A smaller and less complex vertical farm would probably cost that much to build today and could be funded by someone from a country where arable land is already in short supply, such as Japan, Iceland, or more likely Dubai. Despommier is convinced the first vertical farm will exist within fifteen years—and the irony is, oil money could very well build it.

1. The Solar Panel
Most of the vertical farm’s energy is supplied by the pellet power system (see over). This solar panel rotates to follow the sun and would drive the interior cooling system, which is used most when the sun’s heat is greatest.

2. The Wind Spire
An alternative (or a complement) to solar power, conceived by an engineering professor at Cleveland State University. Conventional windmills are too large for cities; the wind spire uses small blades to turn air upward, like a screw.

3. The Glass Panels
A clear coating of titanium oxide collects pollutants and prevents rain from beading; the rain slides down the glass, maximizing light and cleaning the pollutants. Troughs collect runoff for filtration.

4. The Control Room
The vertical-farm environment is regulated from here, allowing for year-round, 24-hour crop cultivation.

5. The Architecture
Inspired by the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. Circular design uses space most efficiently and allows maximum light into the center. Modular floors stack like poker chips for flexibility.

6. The Crops
The vertical farm could grow fruits, vegetables, grains, and even fish, poultry, and pigs. Enough, Despommier estimates, to feed 50,000 people annually.

The vertical farm doesn’t just grow crops indoors; it also generates its own power from waste and cleans up sewage water.

1. The Evapotranspiration Recovery System
Nestled inside the ceiling of each floor, its pipes collect moisture, which can be bottled and sold.

2. The Pipes
Work much like a cold bottle of Coke that “sweats” on a hot day: Super-cool fluid attracts plant water vapors, which are then collected as they drip off (similar systems are in use on a small scale). Despommier estimates that one vertical farm could capture 60 million gallons of water a year.

3. Black-Water Treatment System
Wastewater taken from the city’s sewage system is treated through a series of filters, then sterilized, yielding gray water—which is not drinkable but can be used for irrigation. (Currently, the city throws 1.4 billion gallons of treated wastewater into the rivers each day.) The Solaire building in Battery Park City already uses a system like this.

4. The Crop Picker
Monitors fruits and vegetables with an electronic eye. Current technology, called a Reflectometer, uses color detection to test ripeness.

5. The Field
Maximization of space is critical, so in this rendering there are two layers of crops (and some hanging tomatoes). If small crops are planted, there might be up to ten layers per floor.

6. The Pool
Runoff from irrigation is collected here and piped to a filtration system.

7. The Feeder
Like an ink-jet printer, this dual-purpose mechanism directs programmed amounts of water and light to individual crops.

8. The Pellet Power System
Another source of power for the vertical farm, it turns nonedible plant matter (like corn husks, for example) into fuel. Could also process waste from New York’s 18,000 restaurants.

9 to 11. The Pellets
Plant waste is processed into powder (9), then condensed into clean-burning fuel pellets (10), which become steam power (11). At least 60 pellet mills in North America already produce more than 600,000 tons of fuel annually, and a 3,400-square-foot house in Idaho uses pellets to generate its own electricity.

Nymag