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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mannie who wrote (12416)	7/15/2011 12:31:18 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24232

This is cool. Energy-harvesting shock absorber that increases fuel efficiency wins R&D 100 award July 14, 2011 by Lisa Zyga The shock absorber harvests energy from vibrations experienced by a vehicle's suspension system into electricity that can charge the battery and power vehicle electronics. Image credit: Lei Zuo An energy-harvesting shock absorber that can be installed in a vehicle’s suspension system to absorb the energy from bumps in the road, convert the energy into electricity, and improve fuel efficiency by 1-8% has recently won the R&D 100 award. Nicknamed the “Oscar of Invention,” the annual award is given out by R&D Magazine to recognize the top 100 innovative technologies introduced during the previous year. Previous winners have included the ATM (1973), liquid crystal display (1980), Nicoderm anti-smoking patch (1992), lab on a chip (1996), and HDTV (1998). The new shock absorbers were designed by Professor Lei Zuo and graduate students Xiudong Tang and Zachary Brindak at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, with funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The development joins regenerative braking and other techniques that address the vast amount of energy wasted by vehicles. Although transportation accounts for 70% of oil consumption in the US, only 10-16% of the fuel energy is used to drive the car - to overcome road resistance and air drag. The rest is lost due to braking, vibrational energy dissipation, exhaust heat, and other inefficiencies. Zuo’s team developed and patented two different types of shock absorbers: linear and rotational. The new linear shock absorber consists of a small magnetic tube with high flux intensity that slides inside a larger, hollow coil tube. The rotational version employs a compact motion magnification mechanism. Due to bumps and vibrations from normal driving, the sliding tubes or rotating generator can produce an electric voltage. When installed in a medium-sized passenger car traveling at 60 mph, the shock absorber can generate 100-400 watts of energy under normal driving conditions, and up to 1600 watts on particularly rough roads. Trucks, rail cars, and off-road vehicles get a return of 1-10 kilowatts, depending on road quality. The harvested energy is then used to charge the battery and power the vehicle’s electronics, which is typically 250-350 watts with optional electronic systems turned off. This energy reduces the load on the vehicle’s alternator, which usually has a capacity about 500-600 watts. In this way, the harvested energy could increase fuel efficiency by 1-4% in conventional cars and by 8% in hybrid vehicles. As a side benefit, the shock absorber also creates a smoother ride due to the ability to adjust the suspension damping and implement self-powered vibration control. The electricity-generating shock absorber can be retrofitted into today’s vehicles by replacing conventional shock absorbers - in which the vibration energy is wasted as heat - without modification of the vehicle suspension structure. The researchers estimate that the installation cost can be recouped in 3-4 years for typical passenger vehicles, and 1-2 years for trucks. “If just 5% of the 256 million registered vehicles in this country adopt this technology, we will create a market of over six billion dollars,” said Zuo in a press release. “The total energy we can recover per year from the suspensions is more than the amount produced by the Niagara Falls Power Plant.” Zuo added that the shock absorber is not yet commercially available, but the patent is ready for licensing. The researchers recently received a grant from the SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund to speed up commercialization. physorg.com

To: Mannie who wrote (12416)	7/16/2011 11:56:59 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24232

Some anecdotes from this morning's Drum On mid Vancouver island we have had just a few nice days from MAY. It has rained almost steady (off and on) from July 1. This morning,,,,rain and fog and the river is up. Our vegetable garden is too wet to walk in. Down south you folks are dying of heat. We have Rupert or Anchorage weather and the mid and sw continent is like the Mojave Desert. I guess if this is the harbinger of CC and more things to come, we will be eating a lot of potatoes in our house. My chickens look misreable. Actually the greenhouse is doing well but peppers and tomates are barely on the vine. I actually lit the fire this morning, mostly to hear it crackle and dry my shoes and shirts. Anyone running out of water down south....you can have some of ours. It is too hot for rain gear so I just go out in shorts and get wet. The last time we had a summer like this was when Mt. St Helens blew. Hang in there. = northern BC - heavy snowfall after the ski hill closed, Rain almost every day in a normally dry climate. " Wettest spring in thirty years"; it rains every time our hay farmer brings out a piece of machinery. Greenhouse tomatoes have few flowers & no fruit = There is concern about the corn crop :- desmoinesregister.com. "Corn plants are putting out male tassels and female silks this week. Next week, pollination will create the kernels that are the heart of the corn crop, which could bring in a record $17 billion to Iowa this year. Agronomists and meteorologists agree that 86 degrees is the best condition for corn reproduction. Instead, the tassels and kernels will get temperatures averaging 95 degrees or more." = The band of exceptional drought--the highest level measured--persists almost from coast to coast across the south. 14 states have some level of abnormally dry or drought conditions in all or nearly all counties. Here in Minnesota we are looking at temperatures in the mid nineties for the next few days, with heat index up to 116 and in that range for much of the area--the highest in the country. thinkprogress.org.