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POPSFlexible Batteries That Never Need to Be Recharged The organic solar cell used in the prototype is the same technology being developed by Konarka. It's based on a mix of electrically conducting polymers and fullerenes. The cells can be cut or produced in special shapes and can be printed on a roll-to-roll machine at low temperature, offering the potential of low-cost, high-volume production. To preserve the life of the cells, which are vulnerable to photodegradation after only a few hours of air exposure, the researchers encapsulated them inside a flexible gas barrier. This extended their life for about 3,000 hours. Artificial light, on the other hand, may impose limitations.
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POPSA New Biofuel: Propane The reaction is driven by heat, requiring no catalysts. At supercritical temperature and pressure, Peterson says, "water does bizarre things. It becomes like a nonpolar solvent" and mixes with the organic compounds. Once the reaction has taken place, the solution is kept under high pressure and cooled to room temperature so that the propane comes out of the solution and floats to the top. "We've demonstrated that we can make propane," says Peterson. "Now we're trying to optimize the reaction rate and get it to a scalable stage." Peterson says the biopropane conversion has a good energy balance: not much fossil fuel needs to be burned during production. The reaction does not require the input of a large amount of energy because the heat that's key to the biopropane conversion is recoverable using a heat exchanger, a device that transfers heat in and out of a fluid.
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POPSThe CFL's downside Wow, think I will be a lot more careful with my CFL bulbs in the future. Just wonder what to do when the time comes to replace them. I definitely won't be putting them in a location where they are likely to be broken. This really makes the movement to outlaw incandescent bulbs in some countries look even more insane.
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