Thursday, December 25, 2008
Bulbs with halogen insert save electricity
Thursday, December 18, 2008
NEC unveils Eco Centre energy-saving server news
NEC India today unveiled its energy saving Eco Centre server, which cuts power consumption by 55 per cent. NEC said the power saving server also occupies upto 50 per cent less space and is approximately 58 per cent lighter than conventional servers.
The server supports "Windows Server 2003," "Windows Server 2008," and "Red Hat Enterprise Linux," NEC India said in a statement.
"Loaded with a-cut-above technology, it assists our customers in cutting their power consumption costs and space costs significantly,''said Abhilesh Guleria, country manager, IT platform business, NEC India Pvt. Ltd. He added that NEC had concluded development on the Eco Centre.
The Eco Centre uses highly efficient batteries and incroporates optimum cooling functions of high-density packaging and the adoption of advanced low-power CPUs, chipsets and memory. It is said to achieve maximum energy-saving benefits by capitalising on the optimisation technology of NEC's "Sigma System Centre" integrated with VMware's "VMware ESX 3.5" to streamline allocation of operations in response to hardware demands.
With energy-saving IT devices attracting considerable attention in the battle against global warming, NEC intends to actively market the product as the core product in its "Real it cool project," an initiative that aims to cut the power used by customer IT platforms by 50 year on year, and to realise a cumulative reduction in CO2 emissions from IT devices by approximately 910,000 tons by 2012.
NEC says the new server is ideally suited for the large-scale application servers and Web servers being used in major enterprises and government agency data centres.
NEC India Pvt. Ltd is a joint venture between NEC Asia Pte Ltd HQ in Singapore and NEC Corporation HQ in Japan, and was established in New Delhi in August 2006.
The server supports "Windows Server 2003," "Windows Server 2008," and "Red Hat Enterprise Linux," NEC India said in a statement.
"Loaded with a-cut-above technology, it assists our customers in cutting their power consumption costs and space costs significantly,''said Abhilesh Guleria, country manager, IT platform business, NEC India Pvt. Ltd. He added that NEC had concluded development on the Eco Centre.
The Eco Centre uses highly efficient batteries and incroporates optimum cooling functions of high-density packaging and the adoption of advanced low-power CPUs, chipsets and memory. It is said to achieve maximum energy-saving benefits by capitalising on the optimisation technology of NEC's "Sigma System Centre" integrated with VMware's "VMware ESX 3.5" to streamline allocation of operations in response to hardware demands.
With energy-saving IT devices attracting considerable attention in the battle against global warming, NEC intends to actively market the product as the core product in its "Real it cool project," an initiative that aims to cut the power used by customer IT platforms by 50 year on year, and to realise a cumulative reduction in CO2 emissions from IT devices by approximately 910,000 tons by 2012.
NEC says the new server is ideally suited for the large-scale application servers and Web servers being used in major enterprises and government agency data centres.
NEC India Pvt. Ltd is a joint venture between NEC Asia Pte Ltd HQ in Singapore and NEC Corporation HQ in Japan, and was established in New Delhi in August 2006.
MIT research enables harnessing solar power at night
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."
Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.
The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.
Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.
'Giant leap' for clean energy
Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that "this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."
Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.
The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.
Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.
'Giant leap' for clean energy
Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that "this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
ITC pioneers chlorine-free technology to kake eco-friendly paper news
lTC has introduced the environment friendly paper, "Paperkraft Premium Business Paper," which has been crafted by ITC using a pioneering technology, the first of its kind in India called "ozone treated elemental chlorine-free technology".
ITC says Paperkraft is a superior and environmentally-friendly, multipurpose paper for offices and homes, and helps consumers "go green".
Better known for its luxury hotels and top of the line cigarettes - ITC is India's largest tobacco company - the company says the paper has been launched in line with its triple-bottom line commitment to building economic, environmental and social capital for the nation.
It said development of the eco-friendly paper is an integral part of its initiatives to augment natural and resources.
The Paperkraft premium business paper is being marketed by the education and stationery products business of ITC, which has a widespread distribution network across the country, through which it delivers its student stationery products branded as "Classmate".
In terms of quality, Paperkraft is said to be the whitest and brightest 75 grams per square inch (GSM) business paper manufactured in India. A proprietory chemical treatment has enabled it to become an eco- friendly paper with a higher archival life.
Conventional paper production involves the use of elemental chlorine in the bleaching process during manufacture. The byproducts of this process include large number of organo-chlorine chemicals, which are toxic and adversely impact the environment.
ITC's ECF technology virtually eliminates the production of such toxins by substituting elemental chlorine with chlorine dioxide. This "ozone treatment", is an advance over ECF, resulting in even lower chemical usage and reduced water pollution.
These efforts encompass all critical elements of environmental sustainability and have led ITC to be the only company in the world, of its size and diversity, to achieve the milestones of being carbon positive, water positive and achieving close to 100 per cent solid waste recycling. Furthermore, ITC sources the raw material from its social and farm forestry project, which covers over 85,000 hectares and has created over 35 million mandays of employment.
ITC says Paperkraft is a superior and environmentally-friendly, multipurpose paper for offices and homes, and helps consumers "go green".
Better known for its luxury hotels and top of the line cigarettes - ITC is India's largest tobacco company - the company says the paper has been launched in line with its triple-bottom line commitment to building economic, environmental and social capital for the nation.
It said development of the eco-friendly paper is an integral part of its initiatives to augment natural and resources.
The Paperkraft premium business paper is being marketed by the education and stationery products business of ITC, which has a widespread distribution network across the country, through which it delivers its student stationery products branded as "Classmate".
In terms of quality, Paperkraft is said to be the whitest and brightest 75 grams per square inch (GSM) business paper manufactured in India. A proprietory chemical treatment has enabled it to become an eco- friendly paper with a higher archival life.
Conventional paper production involves the use of elemental chlorine in the bleaching process during manufacture. The byproducts of this process include large number of organo-chlorine chemicals, which are toxic and adversely impact the environment.
ITC's ECF technology virtually eliminates the production of such toxins by substituting elemental chlorine with chlorine dioxide. This "ozone treatment", is an advance over ECF, resulting in even lower chemical usage and reduced water pollution.
These efforts encompass all critical elements of environmental sustainability and have led ITC to be the only company in the world, of its size and diversity, to achieve the milestones of being carbon positive, water positive and achieving close to 100 per cent solid waste recycling. Furthermore, ITC sources the raw material from its social and farm forestry project, which covers over 85,000 hectares and has created over 35 million mandays of employment.
New power for a powerless world rises from the ocean
Green energy, a term used as an antidote to fossil fuels that have worsened global warming, takes on a new form as it suddenly seems plausible to harness the smallest of currents to produce a lot of energy. Scientists claim that a revolutionary device operating on slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world.
Existing technologies require an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots. The new technology device can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe.
The new device - inspired by the mechanism used by fish to swim against great currents - consists of a system of cylinders attached to springs and positioned horizontal to the water flow. Gushing water leads to vortices that push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations can then be converted into electricity. Cylinders arranged over a cubic metre of the sea or riverbed in a flow of three knots produce up to 51 watts. Seemingly more efficient than similar-sized turbines or wave generators, the amount of power produced is likely to increase sharply if the flow is faster or if more cylinders are added.
A "field" of cylinders built on the seabed over a 1km by 1.5km area, and the height of a two-storey house, with a flow of just three knots, could generate enough power for around 100,000 homes. Just a few of the cylinders, stacked in a short ladder, could power an anchored ship or a lighthouse.
The technology has been developed in research funded by the US government and scientists say that potential costs would be as low as 3.5 pence per kilowatt-hour, compared to about 4.5p for wind energy and between 10p and 31p for solar power. They add the technology would require up to 50 times less ocean acreage than wave power generation. The system, conceived by scientists at the University of Michigan, is called Vivace, or "vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy".
Eddies or vortices, formed in the water flow, can move objects up and down or left and right. Fish curve their bodies to glide between the vortices shed by the bodies of the fish in front of them. Their muscle power alone could not propel them through the water at the speed they go, so they ride in each other's wake. Leonardo DaVinci first observed such vibrations 500 years ago in the form of ''Aeolian Tones''.
With about 0.1 per cent of the energy in the ocean, the energy needs of 15 billion people could be taken care of. The technology is less likely to be harmful to aquatic wildlife than dams or water turbines. And as the installations can be positioned far below the surface of the sea, there would be less interference with shipping, recreational boat users, fishing and tourism.
The engineers are now deploying a prototype device in the Detroit River, which has a flow of less than two knots. Their work, funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Office of Naval Research, is published in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering.
Existing technologies require an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots. The new technology device can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe.
The new device - inspired by the mechanism used by fish to swim against great currents - consists of a system of cylinders attached to springs and positioned horizontal to the water flow. Gushing water leads to vortices that push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations can then be converted into electricity. Cylinders arranged over a cubic metre of the sea or riverbed in a flow of three knots produce up to 51 watts. Seemingly more efficient than similar-sized turbines or wave generators, the amount of power produced is likely to increase sharply if the flow is faster or if more cylinders are added.
A "field" of cylinders built on the seabed over a 1km by 1.5km area, and the height of a two-storey house, with a flow of just three knots, could generate enough power for around 100,000 homes. Just a few of the cylinders, stacked in a short ladder, could power an anchored ship or a lighthouse.
The technology has been developed in research funded by the US government and scientists say that potential costs would be as low as 3.5 pence per kilowatt-hour, compared to about 4.5p for wind energy and between 10p and 31p for solar power. They add the technology would require up to 50 times less ocean acreage than wave power generation. The system, conceived by scientists at the University of Michigan, is called Vivace, or "vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy".
Eddies or vortices, formed in the water flow, can move objects up and down or left and right. Fish curve their bodies to glide between the vortices shed by the bodies of the fish in front of them. Their muscle power alone could not propel them through the water at the speed they go, so they ride in each other's wake. Leonardo DaVinci first observed such vibrations 500 years ago in the form of ''Aeolian Tones''.
With about 0.1 per cent of the energy in the ocean, the energy needs of 15 billion people could be taken care of. The technology is less likely to be harmful to aquatic wildlife than dams or water turbines. And as the installations can be positioned far below the surface of the sea, there would be less interference with shipping, recreational boat users, fishing and tourism.
The engineers are now deploying a prototype device in the Detroit River, which has a flow of less than two knots. Their work, funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Office of Naval Research, is published in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering.
US company tapping waste heat for electricity generation
A US company is in the process of harnessing waste heat, which is produced as a result of some other process and is not utilised, for electricity generation.
Ener-G-Rotors, based in Schenectdy, New York, is in the process of developing technology that will harness this waste heat that is usually generated in relatively low temperature ranges between 65 and 150 degrees centigrade.
The company says that most existing heat-harvesting technologies are efficient at temperatures only above 150 degrees centigrade. Therefore, it plans to replace the turbine that generates electricity in a typical generator with a device called a gerotor.
The company claims that this device is "near frictionless." The technology is based on the Rankine cycle, in which heated fluid flowing through a tube heats a pressurised fluid in a second tube via a heat exchanger.
The second tube is a closed loop. The working fluid flowing through it, in the case of Ener-G-Rotors, a refrigerant with a low boiling point, vaporises and travels into a larger space called an expander, where it expands, exerting a mechanical force that is converted into electricity.
The expanding vapour in Ener-G-Rotors' system turns the gerotor, which are two concentric rotors. The inner rotor is attached to an axle, while the outer rotor is like a collar around it. The rotors have mismatched gear teeth, which the vapour passing between forces apart, causing the gears to mesh, and thereby turning the rotor.
The company says that since the rotor design is simpler than that of a turbine, it would be potentially easier and cheaper to manufacture, while being much more durable. It says it has also come up with a proprietary way of mounting the rotor on rolling bearings that makes movement nearly frictionless, allowing it to turn more easily so the gas doesn't need to exert too much force to generate electricity.
Altogether, the system combines its synergies to work at lower temperatures, imparting less energy to the gas.
According to the company's CEO Michael Newell, it would be able to convert 10 to 15 per cent of low-temperature waste heat into electricity, delivering a payback in two years or less in most cases. Ener-G-Rotors plans to market its systems to customers directly, as well as operate its own systems and sell power.
On its initial marketing plan are industries such as chemicals, paper, oil, and food that use a lot of energy, and in the process also generate large amounts of waste heat. Thereafter, the company plans to participate in solar-thermal and geothermal projects, and target end consumers with a one-kilowatt system.
The company's first beta unit, a five-kilowatt system, is destined for a combined heat-and-power plant at Harbec Plastics. It is also installing beta systems at a steam plant for New York utility Consolidated Edison and at a landfill-gas-burning plant for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
In need of funding, Ener-G-Rotors has managed to raise "a few hundred thousand" in grants and angel funding, and is now seeking $5 million for the first tranche of a $20 million venture-capital round.
The going too is getting tougher, with competition in the space heating up as a clutch of companies, both large and small, work on similar lines. United Technologies is one of them, which makes aircraft, aerospace systems, and air conditioning. Another is a smaller companies called ElectraTherm, with systems already installed.
CEO Newell says his company can stand out, as its technology is more efficient and simpler than ''anything else out there right now." He says that there are not many technologies that are going to work, and his company has the ''lowest cost of any of the technologies out there."
Ener-G-Rotors, based in Schenectdy, New York, is in the process of developing technology that will harness this waste heat that is usually generated in relatively low temperature ranges between 65 and 150 degrees centigrade.
The company says that most existing heat-harvesting technologies are efficient at temperatures only above 150 degrees centigrade. Therefore, it plans to replace the turbine that generates electricity in a typical generator with a device called a gerotor.
The company claims that this device is "near frictionless." The technology is based on the Rankine cycle, in which heated fluid flowing through a tube heats a pressurised fluid in a second tube via a heat exchanger.
The second tube is a closed loop. The working fluid flowing through it, in the case of Ener-G-Rotors, a refrigerant with a low boiling point, vaporises and travels into a larger space called an expander, where it expands, exerting a mechanical force that is converted into electricity.
The expanding vapour in Ener-G-Rotors' system turns the gerotor, which are two concentric rotors. The inner rotor is attached to an axle, while the outer rotor is like a collar around it. The rotors have mismatched gear teeth, which the vapour passing between forces apart, causing the gears to mesh, and thereby turning the rotor.
The company says that since the rotor design is simpler than that of a turbine, it would be potentially easier and cheaper to manufacture, while being much more durable. It says it has also come up with a proprietary way of mounting the rotor on rolling bearings that makes movement nearly frictionless, allowing it to turn more easily so the gas doesn't need to exert too much force to generate electricity.
Altogether, the system combines its synergies to work at lower temperatures, imparting less energy to the gas.
According to the company's CEO Michael Newell, it would be able to convert 10 to 15 per cent of low-temperature waste heat into electricity, delivering a payback in two years or less in most cases. Ener-G-Rotors plans to market its systems to customers directly, as well as operate its own systems and sell power.
On its initial marketing plan are industries such as chemicals, paper, oil, and food that use a lot of energy, and in the process also generate large amounts of waste heat. Thereafter, the company plans to participate in solar-thermal and geothermal projects, and target end consumers with a one-kilowatt system.
The company's first beta unit, a five-kilowatt system, is destined for a combined heat-and-power plant at Harbec Plastics. It is also installing beta systems at a steam plant for New York utility Consolidated Edison and at a landfill-gas-burning plant for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
In need of funding, Ener-G-Rotors has managed to raise "a few hundred thousand" in grants and angel funding, and is now seeking $5 million for the first tranche of a $20 million venture-capital round.
The going too is getting tougher, with competition in the space heating up as a clutch of companies, both large and small, work on similar lines. United Technologies is one of them, which makes aircraft, aerospace systems, and air conditioning. Another is a smaller companies called ElectraTherm, with systems already installed.
CEO Newell says his company can stand out, as its technology is more efficient and simpler than ''anything else out there right now." He says that there are not many technologies that are going to work, and his company has the ''lowest cost of any of the technologies out there."
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