The Searaser uses the motion of the sea to generate power

A device that uses the power of the sea to push water uphill has been developed to provide cheap renewable electricity.

The Searaser, developed by engineer Alvin Smith, is designed to pump water hundreds of feet above sea level from where it can gush downhill to drive hydroelectric generators.

The wave pump consists of two floats, one above the other, fitted to a double-acting piston. Water is pumped as the floats are forced together and apart by the motion of the waves.

Chains and weights fix the device to the sea floor and the pump is able to operate in water as shallow as 30ft (9m) as well as in extreme weather conditions.

Each of the pumps has a capacity of just 0.25mw, but they are expected to be used together in their dozens, or even hundreds, side by side along the coast or further out at sea.

Continue reading…

Nanotechnology seems to be invading all facets of modern life. Pretty soon, carbon nanotubes may even filter your water.

Researchers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in India are investigating the hollow carbon fibers as a potential water filter. They believe the unique chemical properties of nanotubes mean that only water molecules can pass through their interiors, while toxic metal ions, viruses, and bacteria cannot.

Additionally, the smooth, water-repellent interior of the nanotubes means that a filter made from the technology would have a high flow rate of water without fouling—so it would be very efficient.

Read more at Cleantechnica

Scientists at the University of South Australia, have discovered a simple way to remove bacteria and other contaminants from water using tiny particles of pure silica coated with an active nano-material.

The water treatment process is a new concept, not used anywhere else in the world, which has the potential to make a significant contribution to the health of nations worldwide.

A recent UNESCO report reveals that more than 6,000 people die every day from water-related diseases, and the availability of quality drinking water, especially in the developing world, is fast becoming a major socio-economic issue.

Continue reading…

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) have developed a way of storing solar energy for use when the sun isn’t shining.

In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year. However, solar power is usually a day-time only energy source because storing extra solar energy for later is prohibitively and grossly inefficient.

Drawing on the process of photosynthesis, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, Daniel Nocera, and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed a process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen can be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power homes, or electric cars, day or night.

Continue reading…

Customised microscopic magnets injected into the body could enable Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) scans to be viewed in colour.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) believe the micromagnets also have the potential to be used as ‘smart tags’, to identify certain cells and tissues.

Unlike the chemical solutions currently used as image enhancing contrast agents in MRI, the micromagnets rely of a precisely turnable feature – their physical shape – to adjust the radio frequency (RF) signals used to create images. The RF signals can be converted in a range of optical colours by computer, so different magnets designed to appear as different colours, could be coated to attach to different cell types, such as cancerous Versus normal. The cells could then be identified by tag colour.

Continue reading…

The ‘Anaconda’ is an innovative wave energy concept.

A device consisting of a giant rubber tube may hold the key to producing affordable electricity from the energy in sea waves.

Led by researchers from the University of Southampton, the ‘Anaconda’ is an innovative wave energy concept. The simple design means it would be cheap to manufacture and maintain, enabling it to produce clean electricity at a lower cost than other types of wave energy converter.

Continue reading…

IBM is using tiny rivers of water to cool computer chips that have circuits and components stacked on top of each other – a design the researchers say promises to advance Moore’s law, and significantly reduce energy consumed by data centres.

IBM researchers, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute, Berlin, have created a prototype device that integrates the cooling system into the 3D chips by piping water directly between each layer in the stack. These so-called 3D chip stacks – which take chips and memory devices that traditionally sit side-by-side on a silicon wafer and stacks them together on top of one another – presents one of the most promising approaches to enhancing chip performance beyond its predicted limits.

This development follows IBM’s advance in chip-stacking technology in a manufacturing environment, which when compared to 2D chips, shortens the distance information on a chip needs to travel by up to 1000 times, and allows for the addition of up to 100 times more channels, or pathways for that information to flow.

Thomas Brunschwiler, project leader, IBM, explained: “As we package chips on top of each other to significantly speed a processor’s capability to process data, we have found that the conventional coolers attached to the back of a chip don’t scale. In order to exploit the potential of high-performance3D chip stacking, we need interlaying cooling.

“Until now nobody has demonstrated viable solutions to this problem.”

Continue reading…