July 2009 Archives

We wrote on this blog about electric cars, motorcycles and other vehicles. Flight Design, a German company, is testing a hybrid motor for an airplane.

"Like cars, aircraft need the most power to get going, take off and climb. Planes need much less power for cruising. Flight Design's engine uses a 40-hp electric motor directly connected to a normal gasoline-burning 115-hp Rotax 914 airplane engine via belt drive to provide about five minutes of boost power.

The pilot pushes the single power lever forward for takeoff, and both motors are running to provide the equivalent of a 160-hp engine. Once the four-seat airplane is at altitude, the pilot reduces power for cruise and the electric engine is no longer delivering power. This leaves a 115-hp gasoline engine to provide the cruise power, which is more efficient than the 160-hp engine the hybrid system replaces.

Like its car cousin, the aircraft engine can also use regenerative braking. When a pilot reduces power for descent, the windmilling propeller is used to recharge the battery pack for the next flight."

(Hat tip David)

Via: Wired.com

I like contests for solving problems or generating new ideas. The X-prize will probably lead to affordable commercial space travel in the future, and the World Solar Challenge contributes to the knowledge and usability of solar cells. Recently a contest between Indian and Dutch students competed to create a cheaper and less polluting tuktuk.
Dutch students created a kit for tuktuks to run on liquid LPG. Drivers will need 40% less fuel, and the engine will generate 40% less polution than a usual tuktuk engine. The kits will be available next year, according to Enviu, the organisation that launched the contest.

























Via: Nu.nl (Photo by Waerth)

Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels. We are a modern "museum" that helps making the world understandable, using the Internet.

Dolphins have fun, so why not copy them?

The French government is an agressive defender of the interests of "Big Content". The infamous "HADOPI" law also known as "three-strikes-you-are-out" is being pushed incessantly, even against the will of the courts in France and the European Parliament.

Wir möchten nach britischem und fransösischem Vorbild Rechtsverletzungen effektiv unterbinden, indem die Vermittler von Internetzugängen Rechtsverletzer verwarnen und nötigenfalls ihre Zugänge sperren.

Es ist eine gemeinsame Aufgabe von Politik und Verlagen, verstärkt das Bewusstsein für den Wert und die Relevanz von Zeitungen und Zeitschriften in der Gesellschaft als Kulturgut zu verankern. Im Online-Bereich dürfen die Verlage nicht schlechter gestellt werden als andere so genannte Werkvermittler. Falls erforderlich werden wir ein eigenes Leistungsschutzrecht für Verlage zum Schutz der Presseprodukte im Internet schaffen.

We associate data-goggles with 3D-movies, entertainment. But BMW shows us how to think differently, how IT can help us with intuitive support, augmenting reality. As with the "Sixt Sense", a great indicator of how our future might very well become.

As the number of datacenters with more and more "cloud" computing grows, energy consumption and cooling costs become a major cost factor. 

The Antares DLR-H2 is based on the Antares 20E motor glider with a wingspan of 20 metres, constructed by Lange Aviation, a company based in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. With its fuel cell propulsion system, Antares has a cruising range of 750 kilometres, achieved in a flying time of five hours. In order to accommodate the fuel cell and the hydrogen supply on board the aircraft, two additional external load carriers were slung under the specially reinforced wings.

The current propulsion system permits maximum flying speeds of approximately 170 kilometres per hour.

The total efficiency of the drive system from tank to powertrain, including the propeller, is in the region of 44 percent, making it about twice as efficient as conventional propulsion technologies based on combustion processes. Systems powered by kerosene or diesel only contribute about 18 to 25 percent of their energy to propulsion.

Botte says the idea came to her several years ago at a conference on fuel cells, where they were discussing how to turn clean water into clean power. 'I wondered how we could do this better,' she adds - so started looking at waste streams as a better source of molecules from which to produce hydrogen.
Urine's major constituent is urea, which incorporates four hydrogen atoms per molecule - importantly, less tightly bonded than the hydrogen atoms in water molecules. Botte used electrolysis to break the molecule apart, developing an inexpensive new nickel-based electrode to selectively and efficiently oxidise the urea. To break the molecule down, a voltage of 0.37V needs to be applied across the cell - much less than the 1.23V needed to split water. 

The new SunCatcher is about 5,000 pounds lighter than the original, is round instead of rectangular to allow for more efficient use of steel, has improved optics, and consists of 60 percent fewer engine parts. The revised design also has fewer mirrors -- 40 instead of 80. The reflective mirrors are formed into a parabolic shape using stamped sheet metal similar to the hood of a car. The mirrors are made by using automobile manufacturing techniques. The improvements will result in high-volume production, cost reductions, and easier maintenance.

If nothing else, the view is stunning.

We humans have an innate tendency to overestimate the progress that can be made in the short term (leading to disappointment) and underestimate the progress that has been made or can be made in longer timespans.

2008 was the first year that new power generation investment in renewables was greater than investments in fossil-fueled technologies.

More than $140-billion went into renewables worldwide in 2008, while $110-billion went into fossil fuels.

I'm not sure if this is the most important structure to cover with solar cells, but I like the idea and the design of this solar concept tent. There are also a few nice extra's, like sending a SMS to find your tent at a busy campsite, your solar tent will start to glow....





















Via: Cnet News

New cars, motorcybles, boats, fork-lift trucs and scooters, there are a lot of vehicles that run on electricity instead of petrol or gasoline. A serious drawback of those electric vehicles is the charging time of the battery. A dutch company claims to have developed a battery with a charging time of 15 to 30 minutes, instead of 8 hours. Epyon postulates: "Our technology is based on nano-technology lithium-ion energy storage media, state-of-the-art power conversion techniques and intelligent control systems which enable excellent battery life."

Could this be the breakthrough for electric vehicles everyone is waiting for?

Via: BNR Nieuwsradio

Cory Doctorow investigates in the Guardian the really hard question. It is wise to protect your digital data with encryption. But what happens if you pass away? How will your loved ones be able to access the encrypted data?

But what if I were killed or incapacitated before I managed to hand the passphrase over to an executor or solicitor who could use them to unlock all this stuff that will be critical to winding down my affairs - or keeping them going, in the event that I'm incapacitated? I don't want to simply hand the passphrase over to my wife, or my lawyer. Partly that's because the secrecy of a passphrase known only to one person and never written down is vastly superior to the secrecy of a passphrase that has been written down and stored in more than one place. Further, many countries's laws make it difficult or impossible for a court to order you to turn over your keys; once the passphrase is known by a third party, its security from legal attack is greatly undermined, as the law generally protects your knowledge of someone else's keys to a lesser extent than it protects your own.