A solar booster shot for natural gas power plants

Natural gas power plants can use about 20 percent less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. ...

'Fat worms' inch scientists toward better biofuel production

Fat worms confirm that researchers from Michigan State University have successfully engineered a plant with oily leaves—a feat that could enhance biofuel production as well as lead to improved animal feeds.

Are we closing in on dark matter?

As the search for dark matter intensifies, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago and the National Academy of Sciences organized a colloquium that brings together cosmologists, particle ...

Celtic Renewables aims to process next-gen biofuel

(Phys.org)—A distillery agreement between two companies in Scotland is to turn whiskey byproducts into fuel. Those who look forward to a bright future of biofuels that are easier on the environment will be interested in ...

Compact and flexible thermal storage

Biogas plants, combined heat and power plants don't just generate electricity, they also produce heat. However, unlike the electricity they yield, the heat generally dissipates unused. A new technology is set to change this: ...

'Poop to power' program turns pig manure into sustainable energy

The nearly 9,000 hogs at Loyd Ray Farms in Yadkin County, N.C., produce 400,000 gallons of manure every week. Since the waste had too high a nitrogen content to be used as fertilizer, owner Loyd Bryant used to pump that waste ...

Sunn hemp shows promise as biofuel source

Work by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests that farmers in the Southeast could use the tropical legume sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) in their crop rotations by harvesting the fast-growing annual ...

Chemicals and biofuel from wood biomass

(PhysOrg.com) -- A method developed at Aalto University in Finland makes it possible to use microbes to produce butanol suitable for biofuel and other industrial chemicals from wood biomass. Butanol is particularly suited ...

Robotic boats to travel across Pacific Ocean

(PhysOrg.com) -- Last Thursday, November 17, four unmanned Wave Gliders left the coast of San Francisco and began a 300-day journey across the Pacific Ocean. The vehicles, which are self-propelled and remotely piloted, will ...

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