It’s Getting a Lot Easier to be Green: Good Product News for 2012

Business and product announcements to cheer about: the world’s most fuel-efficient hybrid car is ready to go; there’s a new way to store energy that outperforms most batteries and is much cheaper to produce; and technology exists to generate electricity by turning shredded paper into sugar which in turn is used as fuel. Meanwhile, in the US incandescent light bulbs are finally on their way out. They will be phased out in 2012 and all light bulbs will be required to meet new energy efficiency standards.

From Reuters (26 December 2011):

Toyota Motor Corp launched the world’s most fuel-efficient hybrid car, as the company looks to fight off competition from pure electric vehicles.

The compact car, dubbed ‘Aqua’ in Japan and the ‘Prius C’ overseas, has a listed fuel efficiency of 35.4 km/litre (83.3 mpg), beating the current top Prius, which gets 32 km/litre.

Rivals Nissan Motor Co and General Motors Co are seeking to share the green limelight with their Leaf and Chevrolet Volt electric cars, though sales volumes are expected to stay relatively low until the high price of batteries comes down significantly.

Toyota is aiming for monthly Aqua sales in Japan of 12,000 units, with a starting price of 1.69 million yen (US$21,600).

The Japanese automaker, which dominates the hybrid field, is aiming to launch about 10 new gasoline-electric models by 2015 and offer a fuel-sipping option across its entire line-up around 2020.

The firm last week forecast a 20 percent surge in 2012 sales as it recovers from the March earthquake in Japan and flooding in Thailand that hit production around the world.

Source: www.reuters.com

Energy-store membrane better than batteries

Straits Times report (24 December 2011):

A team from the National University of Singapore’s Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative has come up with a new way to store energy that outperforms most batteries.

That has important uses, especially for storing the energy produced by alternative technologies like solar and wind power.

The polystyrene-based polymer membrane (right) can store up to 0.2 farads (a unit of charge) per square centimetre when sandwiched between two metal plates, compared with a millionth of a farad for a standard capacitor.

And it is four to eight times as cheap as lithium-ion batteries. Most rechargeable batteries are based on liquid electrolytes, making them more expensive to produce and make larger.

The research, led by Dr Xie Xian Ning, was published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science and highlighted in Nature.

Source: www.lexisnexis.com

BBC News Technology (21 December 2011):

Sony has unveiled a paper-powered battery prototype in Japan.

The technology generates electricity by turning shredded paper into sugar which in turn is used as fuel.

If brought to market, the innovation could allow the public to top up the power of their mobile devices using waste material.

The team behind the project said such bio-batteries are environmentally friendly as they did not use harmful chemicals or metals.

The Japanese electronics giant showed off its invention at the Eco-Products exhibition in Tokyo last week.

Employees invited children to drop piece of paper and cardboard into a liquid made up of water and enzymes, and then to shake it. The equipment was connected to a small fan which began spinning a few minutes later.

The process works by using the enzyme cellulase to decompose the materials into glucose sugar. These were then combined with oxygen and further enzymes which turned the material into electrons and hydrogen ions.

The electrons were used by the battery to generate electricity. Water and the acid gluconolactone, which is commonly used in cosmetics, were created as by-products.

Researchers involved in the project likened the mechanism to the one used by white ants and termites to digest wood and turn it into energy.

Their work builds on a previous project in which they used fruit juice to power a Walkman music player.

“Using a ‘fuel’ as simple as old greetings cards – the sort of cards that millions of us will be receiving this Christmas – the bio battery can deliver enough energy to power a small fan,” said Yuichi Tokita, senior researcher at Sony’s Advanced Material Research Lab.

“Of course, this is still at the very early stages of its development, but when you imagine the possibilities that this technology could deliver, it becomes very exciting indeed.”

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

David Biello in Scientific American (1 January 2012):

Happy New Year! And welcome to the year of light…bulbs. Why you ask? Well, it’s not just because LEDs lit up the iconic New Year’s ball drop here in New York City again. No, it’s because this is the year that lighting will finally become more efficient.

The old, incandescent lightbulb turns 90 percent of the electricity it uses into heat rather than light. And in 2012, it will be phased out in the U.S.—or at least radically upgraded. Lightbulbs will be required to meet new energy efficiency standards. So the old 100-watt lightbulb will have to produce the same light using just 72 watts.

Lighting is the original killer app of modern energy—and one that the world continues to embrace. By adopting lighting technologies that use less energy the nations of the world will cut down on the fossil fuels, often coal, burned to produce that light.

So whether it’s new, long-lasting but expensive light-emitting diodes, the swirls of a compact fluorescent or just more efficient incandescents, 2012 will be the year that lighting’s environmental impact gets lighter.

Source: www.scientificamerican.com