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Curcumin and gold nanoparticles have been combined to create an electrode that requires 100 times less energy to convert ethanol into electricity. Curcumin - (Image: Paitoon at AdobeStock) This is the claim of researchers at the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute (CNI), South Carolina and their collaborators from the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) in India. While the research team need to do more testing, the discovery could eventually lead to hydrogen being replaced as a fuel cell feedstock. “Of all the catalysts for alcohol oxidation in alkaline medium, the one we prepared is the best so far,” said...

A new kind of fuel cell that can turn urine into electricity could revolutionize the way we produce bioenergy, particularly in developing countries. The research, published in Electrochimica Acta, describes a new design of microbial fuel cell that's smaller, cheaper and more powerful than traditional ones. The world's supply of fossil fuels is being depleted, and there is increasing pressure to develop new renewable sources of energy. Bioenergy is one such source, and microbial fuel cells can produce it. In their study, researchers from University of Bath, Queen Mary University of London and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory describe a new...

The gas age is good news Published on Saturday, March 16, 2013, updated Saturday, March 16, 2013 Methane hydrate joins shale gas and deep sea gas I have the following article in the Times on 15 March:   Move over shale gas, here comes methane hydrate. (Perhaps.) On Tuesday the Japanese government’s drilling ship Chikyu started flaring off gas from a hole drilled into a solid deposit of methane and ice, 300 metres beneath the seabed under 1000 metres of water, 30 miles off the Japanese coast.   The real significance of this gas flare probably lies decades in...

Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Date: 2003-02-26 Fossil Records Show Methane In Seafloor Sediments Released During Periods Of Rapid Climate Warming Scientists have found new evidence indicating that during periods of rapid climate warming methane gas has been released periodically from the seafloor in intense eruptions. In a study published in the current issue of the journal Science, Kai-Uwe Hinrichs and colleagues Laura Hmelo and Sean Sylva of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) provide a direct link between methane reservoirs in coastal marine sediments and the global carbon cycle, an indicator of global warming and cooling. Molecular fossils from...

UCLA researchers have designed a device that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, which could be used to power electronic devices, and to create hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars. The device could make hydrogen cars affordable for many more consumers because it produces hydrogen using nickel, iron and cobalt — elements that are much more abundant and less expensive than the platinum and other precious metals that are currently used to produce hydrogen fuel. “Hydrogen is a great fuel for vehicles: It is the cleanest fuel known, it’s cheap and it puts no pollutants...