Showing posts with label storage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storage. Show all posts

2013-04-04

ARES Advanced Rail Energy Storage

Train-Based Energy Storage: Making Renewable Energy Reliable With Gravity

Jim Kelly, CEO of Advanced Rail Energy Services in California, is looking forward to testing out a means of storing electricity that is efficient, innovative and unexpected –– by moving trains.

Energy Storage - Grid Scale Energy Storage - Ares North America

During periods where excess energy is available on the grid, ARES shuttle-trains draw electricity from the grid, which powers their individual axle-drive motors, as they transport a continuous flow of masses uphill against the force of gravity to an upper storage yard.  When the grid requires energy to meet periods of high demand, this process is reversed.  The shuttle-trains provide a continuous flow of masses returning to the lower storage yard with their motors operating as generators, converting the potential energy of the masses elevation back into electricity in a highly efficient process.


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2012-08-17

DNA Data Storage: The Ultimate Hard Drive

Book written in DNA code | Science | The Guardian

Scientists who encoded the book say it could soon be cheaper to store information in DNA than in conventional digital devices


Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including 11 images and a computer program, it is the largest amount of data yet stored artificially using the genetic material.

[...]

A three-strong team led by Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School has now demonstrated that the technology to store data in DNA, while still slow, is becoming more practical. They report in the journal Science that the 5.27 megabit collection of data they stored is more than 600 times bigger than the largest dataset previously encoded this way.

DNA: The Ultimate Hard Drive - ScienceNOW

To demonstrate its system in action, the team used the DNA chips to encode a genetics book co-authored by Church. It worked. After converting the book into DNA and translating it back into digital form, the team’s system had a raw error rate of only two errors per million bits, amounting to a few single-letter typos. That is on par with DVDs and far better than magnetic hard drives. And because of their tiny size, DNA chips are now the storage medium with the highest known information density, the researchers report online today in Science.

Don’t replace your flash drive with genetic material just yet, however. The cost of the DNA sequencer and other instruments "currently makes this impractical for general use," says Daniel Gibson, a synthetic biologist at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, "but the field is moving fast and the technology will soon be cheaper, faster, and smaller." [...]

Writing the Book in DNA : Wyss Institute at Harvard

The researchers used binary code to preserve the text, images and formatting of the book. While the scale is roughly what a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk once held, the density of the bits is nearly off the charts: 5.5 petabits, or 1 million gigabits, per cubic millimeter. "The information density and scale compare favorably with other experimental storage methods from biology and physics," said Sriram Kosuri, a senior scientist at the Wyss Institute and senior author on the paper. The team also included Yuan Gao, a former Wyss postdoc who is now an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University.



Book converted to DNA then 'read' to show off bio-digital storage - Future of Tech on NBCNews.com

Drawbacks to a DNA hard driveDNA data storage still has a long way to go before it makes an appearance in the local Best Buy, however. Storing even a small amount of data is still costly. Kosuri and his colleagues' book cost them thousands of dollars to synthesize and sequence, Kosuri said, and it was less than a megabyte in size. Larger works would probably cost proportionately more to make, Lonardi said. Meanwhile, a $10 flash drive can store 16 gigabytes of data.

Kosuri's method is not rewriteable, so once some data has been stored, it can't be altered.



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2012-07-12

Textile Energy Storage from Cotton T-Shirts

BBC News - T-shirts developed that could charge mobile phones


Scientists at the University of South Carolina have found a way to use a cheap T-shirt to store electrical power.
It could pave the way for clothes that are able to charge phones and other devices.

Experts predict that new technologies including roll-up smartphones and laptops will be on the market soon.

T-Shirts That Can Charge Mobile Devices - PSFK


Xiaodong Li and Lihong Bao from the University of South Carolina have published a paper in Advanced Materials on how to turn a cotton T-shirt into a source of electrical power, which could provide a way to charge mobile devices on the go.

Their flexible energy storage device was created by soaking a T-shirt in a solution of fluoride, then drying and baking it at a high temperature. The surfaces of the fibers were converted from cellulose to activated carbon, while retaining flexibility. The T-shirt could then act as a supercapacitor and was able to store an electrical charge.




University of South Carolina - News


But Li and Bao took the material even further than that. They then coated the individual fibers in the activated carbon textile with “nanoflowers” of manganese oxide. Just a nanometer thick, this layer of manganese oxide greatly enhanced the electrode performance of the fabric. "This created a stable, high-performing supercapacitor," said Li.

This hybrid fabric, in which the activated carbon textile fibers are coated with nanostructured manganese oxide, improved the energy storage capability beyond the activated carbon textile alone. The hybrid supercapacitors were resilient: even after thousands of charge-discharge cycles, performance didn't diminish more than 5 percent.

"By stacking these supercapacitors up, we should be able to charge portable electronic devices such as cell phones," Li said.

Li is particularly pleased to have improved on the means by which activated carbon fibers are usually obtained. "Previous methods used oil or environmentally unfriendly chemicals as starting materials," he said. "Those processes are complicated and produce harmful side products. Our method is a very inexpensive, green process."



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2011-08-12

Energy Bag -- Compressed air energy storage

‪Seamus and his energy bags‬‏ - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgvLvZHzJrE

Thin Red Line Aerospace - Capabilities
http://www.thin-red-line.com/press-release-05-03-11.html  

  • Thin Red Line Aerospace completes first Undersea Energy Storage Structure

    Canadian firm Thin Red Line Aerospace has completed the first structure specifically designed and built for undersea compressed air energy storage (CAES). The structure, also referred to as an “Energy Bag”, is to be anchored to the seabed off the coast of Scotland next month as part of a major renewable energy research project conceived and led by Professor Seamus Garvey of the University of Nottingham and supported by European renewable energy leader E.ON. The project is the first to investigate large scale offshore storage of wind, tidal and wave power as compressed air.

    Compressed air energy storage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_energy_storage
    • Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is a way to store energy generated at one time for use at another time. At utility scale, energy generated during periods of low energy demand (off-peak) can be released to meet higher demand (peak load) periods.[2]



    • Conceptual representation of the compressed-air energy storage concept. Off-peak (low-cost) electrical power compresses air into an underground air-storage “vessel” (the Norton mine), and later the air feeds a gas-fired turbine generator complex to generate electricity during on-peak (high-price) times. A similar concept [1] uses wind powered air compressors.

    • Types

      Compression of air generates a lot of heat. The air is warmer after compression. Decompression requires heat. If no extra heat is added, the air will be much colder after decompression. If the heat generated during compression can be stored and used again during decompression, the efficiency of the storage improves considerably.
      There are three ways in which a CAES system can deal with the heat. Air storage can be adiabatic, diabatic, or isothermic
    Compressed air energy storage has bags of potential | In-depth | The Engineer
    http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/compressed-air-energy-storage-has-bags-of-potential/1008374.article
    • ’The overall process for adiabatic compression sounds simple, but the difficulty is how you handle the heat when you compress the air to 60 and 70 times atmospheric pressure,’ said Edward Barbour, a researcher in CAES at Edinburgh University. ’There are two main problems. One is that the heat is generated very quickly and that’s difficult for the machinery to handle, and the second is that your energy density suddenly becomes very low.’
      At these pressures, the heat from compressed air can reach temperatures of 650°C. Seamus Garvey, a professor of dynamics at Nottingham University, believes he has come up with a solution that will allow for cost-effective heat storage. Garvey’s idea is to compress air in containments called Energy Bags held down on the sea bed in deep ocean water. ’Underwater bags are an attractive option because the sea acts as the pressure vessel,’ he said. ’You don’t have to pay for the full structure, just the structural material required to hold the bag down. No matter how full or empty your container is, the pressure stays the same, and that’s lovely for the machinery at the sea surface.’
    • Designed and developed for Garvey’s project by Canadian firm Thin Red Line Aerospace, the bags use a butyl rubber bladder and a polyester-reinforced fabric for the outer surface. Special coated steel or aramid straps provide the main structural strength. At depths of around 600m, there will be enough pressure in one 20m-diameter bag to store around 70MW hours of energy. That’s around the same as 14 hours of energy generation from the largest offshore turbines currently in operation.
    • As momentum picks up in CAES research, Garvey’s concept is gaining attention. It remains to be seen whether adiabatic compressed air energy storage will be viable, and whether Energy Bags are the right way forward. But without someone thinking outside the box, the concept of AA-CAES is likely to remain firmly on the drawing board.


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    2010-07-08

    New Super Battery Created Under Super-High Pressures



    Super-High Pressures Used to Create Super Battery: 'Most Condensed Form of Energy Storage Outside of Nuclear Energy'

    Using super-high pressures similar to those found deep in the Earth or on a giant planet, Washington State University researchers have created a compact, never-before-seen material capable of storing vast amounts of energy.


    Washington State University chemist Choong-Shik Yoo, seen here with students, has used super-high pressures to create a compact, never-before-seen material capable of storing vast amounts of energy. (Credit: Washington State University)



    Washington State University - World Class Face to Face

    WSU Researchers Use Super-high Pressures to Create Super Battery

     "If you think about it, it is the most condensed form of energy storage outside of nuclear energy," says Choong-Shik Yoo, a WSU chemistry professor and lead author of results published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

    The research is basic science, but Yoo says it shows it is possible to store mechanical energy into the chemical energy of a material with such strong chemical bonds. Possible future applications include creating a new class of energetic materials or fuels, an energy storage device,  super-oxidizing materials for destroying chemical and biological agents, and high-temperature superconductors.

    The researchers created the material on the Pullman campus in a diamond anvil cell, a small, two-inch by three-inch-diameter device capable of producing extremely high pressures in a small space. The cell contained xenon difluoride (XeF2), a white crystal used to etch silicon conductors, squeezed between two small diamond anvils.



    Nature Chemistry | Article

    Two- and three-dimensional extended solids and metallization of compressed XeF2

    Minseob Kim, Mathew Debessai & Choong-Shik Yoo

    The application of pressure, internal or external, transforms molecular solids into extended solids with more itinerant electrons to soften repulsive interatomic interactions in a tight space.  [...] Here, we present new discoveries of novel two- and three-dimensional extended non-molecular phases of solid XeF2 and their metallization. At ∼50 GPa, the transparent linear insulating XeF2 transforms into a reddish two-dimensional graphite-like hexagonal layered structure of semiconducting XeF4. Above 70 GPa, it further transforms into a black three-dimensional fluorite-like structure of the first observed metallic XeF8 polyhedron. [...]


    a, Transparent phase III at 3 GPa, typical for phases I, II, III and IV below 40 GPa. b, Yellowish phase IV at 47 GPa. c, Reddish phase IV at 53 GPa. d, Black phase V at 74 GPa. All images are under transmitted lights. Scale bars: 100 µm (a)…


    a, A 2 × 3 × 1 supercell of phase IV in Pnnm–2 at 52 GPa. b, View along the c axis of phase IV, showing the lone-pair electrons of Xe and F roughly overlapping. c, Unit cell of the fluorite-like 3D extended phase V in Fmmm at 98 GPa. (See Su…


    While the science is still fundamental, it’s still fun to consider what the applications would be:
    • new energetic material or fuel
    • an energy storage device
    • super oxidizing materials
    • high-temperature superconductors

    Sources
    Super-high pressures used to create super battery: 'Most condensed form of energy storage outside of nuclear energy'
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100704162218.htm
    University Relations - WSU Researchers Use Super-high Pressures to Create Super Battery
    http://www.wsunews.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=20580&TypeID=1
    Two- and three-dimensional extended solids and metallization of compressed XeF2 : Nature Chemistry : Nature Publishing Group
    http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nchem.724.html
    Super battery is most powerful energy storage ever (besides nuclear power) - SmartPlanet
    http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/science-scope/super-battery-is-the-most-powerful-energy-storage-ever-besides-nuclear-power/2758/

    Related
    WSU Chemistry: Yoo, Choong-Shik
    http://www.chem.wsu.edu/faculty-research/yooc
    Choong-Shik Yoo Group: Novel Energetic Materials Research
    http://yoo.chem.wsu.edu/researchprojects/novelmaterialresearch
    New ultra-battery is the most powerful non-nuclear energy storage ever
    http://gizmodo.com/5580592/new-ultra+battery-is-the-most-powerful-non+nuclear-energy-storage-ever
    New ultra-battery is the most powerful non-nuclear energy storage ever
    http://io9.com/5580592/new-ultra+battery-is-the-most-powerful-non+nuclear-energy-storage-ever?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+gizmodo/full+(Gizmodo)
    Superpowered energy-storing wonder stuff created in lab • The Register
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/05/wonder_energy_stuff/

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    2010-01-14

    Storage in the cloud with Google Docs

    Clipped from: Google Docs Expands To Allow More Information To Live On The Cloud - PSFK

    Google Docs Expands To Allow More Information To Live On The Cloud




    Clipped from: Official Google Docs Blog: Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs

    Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs


    Instead of emailing files to yourself, which is particularly difficult with large files, you can upload to Google Docs any file up to 250 MB. You'll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don't convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year. This makes it easy to backup more of your key files online, from large graphics and raw photos to unedited home videos taken on your smartphone. You might even be able to replace the USB drive you reserved for those files that are too big to send over email.


    Clipped from: Google GDrive Launches. Just Don’t Call It That.

    techcrunch logo

    Google GDrive Launches. Just Don’t Call It That.



    “This is not GDrive” said Google Docs product manager Vijay Bangaru yesterday while showing me something that sure does look exactly like the fabled GDrive.

    “How is it different,” I asked.

    “That’s hard to say, because GDrive doesn’t exist.”

    [...]

    Three Third Party Apps Available Now

    Three partners have been working with Google to build value add features on top of the new product. The most interesting, Memeo Connect (from Memeo), lets users sync files between the desktop and Google Docs.

    Syncplicity is offering businesses an automated backup and file management application. And Manymoon, an online project management application, is also now integrated with Google Docs file storage.

    Sources:
    1. Google Docs Expands To Allow More Information To Live On The Cloud - PSFK
    2. Google GDrive Launches. Just Don’t Call It That.
    3. Official Google Docs Blog: Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs
    Related:
    1. Official Google Enterprise Blog: Store and share files in the cloud with Google Docs
    2. Upload any file to Google Drive, sorry, Docs.
    3. Business Technology Solutions | PCMag.com
    4. Gdrive debuts: 1GB free file storage in the Google cloud – Computer Chips & Hardware Technology | Geek.com
    5. Google Docs Becomes Google ‘Any File’ as Cloud Wars Heat Up | Epicenter | Wired.com
    6. Google Docs: Not the Only Free Cloud Storage in the Sky - PC World
    Labels: , , ,

    2009-08-14

    Ceramatec’s Batteries Could Power Your Home

    clipped from www.javno.com

    Battery Powered House Stores Sun’s Energy
    Battery Powered House Stores Sun’s Energy

    Scientists have made a prototype of a battery that could store enough energy for a whole house to be run for an entire day, reports the Popular Mechanics website. A small disc is in question that could prove to be the solution for the most efficient and cheapest storage of solar energy.

    The Key to the Battery-Powered House


    The new battery runs on sodium-sulfur—a composition that typically operates at greater than 600 F. “Sodium-sulfur is more energetic than lead-acid, so if you can somehow get it to a lower temperature, it would be valuable for residential use, Ralph Brodd, an independent energy conversion consultant, says.
    http://www.reallycoolbattery.com/index.html_files/index.009.png
    clipped from www.heraldextra.com

    New battery could change world, one house at a time

    ASHLEY FRANSCELL/Daily Herald
    Ceramatec President Ashok V. Joshi and his team

    		blog it

    Sources:
    1. Battery Powered House Stores Sun’s Energy - World - Javno
    2. Battery Powered House – Solar Panels and Home Battery Solutions - Popular Mechanics
    3. Ceramatec Battery Technology
    4. New battery could change world, one house at a time
    Related:
    1. Ceramatec’s Disc Shaped Batteries Could Power Your Home | Batteries
    2. Ceramatec :: Homepage
    3. Tiny battery traps solar power to run a house for 24 hrs - Science - Health & Science - NEWS - The Times of India
    Labels: , , , , , ,

    2009-06-28

    CMR -- A Breakthrough In Storage Technology

    clipped from www.physorg.com

    'Colossal' Magnetic Effect Under Pressure

    (PhysOrg.com) -- Millions of people today carry around pocket-sized music players capable of holding thousands of songs, thanks to the discovery 20 years ago of a phenomenon known as the “giant magnetoresistance effect,” which made it possible to pack more data onto smaller and smaller hard drives. Now scientists are on the trail of another phenomenon, called the “colossal magnetoresistance effect” (CMR) which is up to a thousand times more powerful and could trigger another revolution in computing technology.
    'Colossal' Magnetic Effect Under Pressure

    The structure models for F-type and A-type magnetic ordering in manganite in response to pressure. The arrows inside orbitals indicate the spin direction of d electrons.



    GMR 101
    [ gmr 101 animation ]
    Visualize MR and
    GMR Heads in
    action [ go ]



    advanced GMR animation

    Observe the
    physics of GMR
    in motion[ go ]



    		blog it


    clipped from ftp.aps.anl.gov

    A “Colossal” Magnetic Effect under Pressure

    Photo: Yang Ding (left) of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Daniel Haskel (right) of Argonne shown with x-ray instrumentation used to probe the magnetic ordering of Mn ions in a manganite material at high applied pressures and cryogenic temperatures.


    		blog it
    Sources:
    'Colossal' Magnetic Effect Under Pressure
    GMR: A Giant Leap for IBM Research
    A “Colossal” Magnetic Effect under Pressure | Advanced Photon Source
    Related:
    Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: "'Colossal' Magnetic Effect Under Pressure"
    ‘Colossal’ Magnetic Effect Under Pressure | Carnegie Institution for Science
    Carnegie Institution for Science
    HPSynC - Welcome
    Slashdot | "Colossal Magnetic Effect" Could Lead To Another Breakthrough In Storage Tech
    Labels: , , , , , ,

    2009-04-26

    Andasol 1 Solar Power -- Molten Salt Technology

    Clipped from: How to Use Solar Energy at Night: Scientific American

    How to Use Solar Energy at Night

    Molten salts can store the sun's heat during the day and provide power at night

    Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now coursing through pipes at the Andasol 1 power plant. That salt will be used to solve a pressing if obvious problem for solar power: What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?

    The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.

    Clipped from: Solar Millennium AG - We re Developing the Future. - Home

    Logo Solar Millennium



    Andasol 1, the first parabolic trough power plant in Europe, has initiated its test run. This solar-thermal power plant is an important reference for Solar Millennium's expertise in project development and technology. Andasol 1 will supply up to 200.000 people with climate-friendly electricity and save about 149,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared with a modern coal power plant.

    Clipped from: Andasol Projects

    Andasol Projects

    nTechnology:
    „Solar-only“ Parabolic Trough Power Plant

    nInstalled Capacity:
    3 x 49,9 MWel

    nStorage:
    Two-tank molten salt storage for 7 full load hours

    nProject Site:
     Plateau of Guadix, Province Granada, Spain

    nNet electricity production:
     3 x 157 Mio. kWh/a

    nInvestmentbudget:
    approx. 260 Mio. € per plant



    Clipped from: How to use solar energy at night or during rainy days | Solar Power | The Green Optimistic

    The molted salt technology is very simple in theory. The molted salt has 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium-nitrate. The salt melts at 430 Fahrenheit and is kept liquid at 550 Fahrenheit in an insulated cold storage tank. The molted salt is pumped to the top of the tower, where sunlight heats it in a receiver to 1050 degrees Fahrenheit. The 1050 F heated salt flows back down to a second insulated hot storage tank. Hot salt goes into a steam generator which produces very hot steam for a turbine.



    Molted salt technology is almost 93% efficient compared to directly harvesting the sun energy. The other 7% lost during the heat transfer to water is not so significant if we compare to other technologies of storing the energy that comes from the sun.

    Andasol 1 is the first solar-thermal power plant ever built, and the investments costs go up to $380 million (300 million euros).


    Clipped from: YouTube - Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

    Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant



    Sources:
    1. How to Use Solar Energy at Night: Scientific American
    2. Solar Millennium AG - We re Developing the Future. - Home
    3. Andasol Projects
    4. How to use solar energy at night or during rainy days | Solar Power | The Green Optimistic
    5. YouTube - Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

    Related:
    1. Andasol solar power station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    2. ANDASOL - EU Project
    3. Andasol 1 Goes Into Operation - Renewable Energy World
    4. Salt n' Solar: The Revolution in Technology | Use Celsias.com - reduce global °Celsius
    5. A New Solar Dawn – Solar Energy Even When It’s Dark


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