German student creates electromagnetic harvester that gathers free electricity from thin air

A German student has built an electromagnetic harvester that recharges an AA battery by soaking up ambient, environmental radiation. These harvesters can gather free electricity from just about anything, including overhead power lines, coffee machines, refrigerators, or even the emissions from your WiFi router or smartphone.

This might sound a bit like hocus-pocus pseudoscience, but the underlying science is actually surprisingly sound. We are, after all, just talking about wireless power transfer — just like the smartphones that are starting to ship with wireless charging tech, and the accompanying charging pads.

Dennis Siegel, of the University of Arts Bremen, does away with the charging pad, but the underlying tech is fundamentally the same. We don’t have the exact details — either because he doesn’t know (he may have worked with an electrical engineer), or because he wants to patent the idea first — but his basic description of “coils and high frequency diodes” tallies with how wireless power transfer works. In essence, every electrical device gives off electromagnetic radiation — and if that radiation passes across a coil of wire, an electrical current is produced. Siegel says he has produced two versions of the harvester: One for very low frequencies, such as the 50/60Hz signals from mains power — and another for megahertz (radio, GSM) and gigahertz (Bluetooth/WiFi) radiation.

The efficiency of wireless charging, however, strongly depends on the range and orientation of the transmitter, and how well the coil is tuned to the transmitter’s frequency. In Siegel’s case, “depending on the strength of the electromagnetic field,” his electromagnetic harvester can recharge one AA battery per day. He doesn’t specify, but presumably one-AA-per-day is when he’s sitting next to a huge power substation. It makes you wonder how long it would take to charge an AA battery via your coffee machine, or by leeching from your friend’s mobile phone call.

As a concept, though, Siegel’s electromagnetic harvester is very interesting. On its own, a single harvester might not be all that interesting — but what if you stuck a bunch of them, magnetically, to various devices all around your house? Or, perhaps more importantly, why not use these harvesters to power tiny devices that don’t require a lot of energy? Sensors, hearing aids (cochlear implants), smart devices around your home — they could all be powered by harvesting small amounts of energy from the environment.

NASA’s cold fusion tech could put a nuclear reactor in every home, car, and plane

The cold fusion dream lives on: NASA is developing cheap, clean, low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology that could eventually see cars, planes, and homes powered by small, safe nuclear reactors.

When we think of nuclear power, there are usually just two options: fission and fusion. Fission, which creates huge amounts of heat by splitting larger atoms into smaller atoms, is what currently powers every nuclear reactor on Earth. Fusion is the opposite, creating vast amounts of energy by fusing atoms of hydrogen together, but we’re still many years away from large-scale, commercial fusion reactors. 

LENR is absolutely nothing like either fission or fusion. Where fission and fusion are underpinned by strong nuclear force, LENR harnesses power from weak nuclear force — but capturing this energy is difficult. So far, NASA’s best effort involves a nickel lattice and hydrogen ions. The hydrogen ions are sucked into the nickel lattice, and then the lattice is oscillated at a very high frequency (between 5 and 30 terahertz). This oscillation excites the nickel’s electrons, which are forced into the hydrogen ions (protons), forming slow-moving neutrons. The nickel immediately absorbs these neutrons, making it unstable. To regain its stability, the nickel strips a neutron of its electron so that it becomes a proton — a reaction that turns the nickel into copper and creates a lot of energy in the process.

The key to LENR’s cleanliness and safety seems to be the slow-moving neutrons. Whereas fission creates fast neutrons (neutrons with energies over 1 megaelectron volt), LENR utilizes neutrons with an energy below 1eV — less than a millionth of the energy of a fast neutron. Whereas fast neutrons create one hell of a mess when they collide with the nuclei of other atoms, LENR’s slow neutrons don’t generate ionizing radiation or radioactive waste. It is because of this sedate gentility that LENR lends itself very well to vehicular and at-home nuclear reactors that provide both heat and electricity.

According to NASA, 1% of the world’s nickel production could meet the world’s energy needs, at a quarter of the cost of coal. NASA also mentions, almost as an aside, that the lattice could be formed of carbon instead of nickel, with the nuclear reaction turning carbon into nitrogen. “You’re not sequestering carbon, you’re totally removing carbon from the system,” says Joseph Zawodny, a NASA scientist involved with the work on LENR.

So why don’t we have LENR reactors yet? Just like fusion, it is proving hard to build a LENR system that produces more energy than the energy required to begin the reaction. In this case, NASA says that the 5-30THz frequency required to oscillate the nickel lattice is hard to efficiently produce. As we’ve reported over the last couple of years, though, strong advances are being made in the generation and control of terahertz radiation. Other labs outside of NASA are working on cold fusion and LENR, too: “Several labs have blown up studying LENR and windows have melted,” says NASA scientist Dennis Bushnell, proving that “when the conditions are ‘right’ prodigious amounts of energy can be produced and released.”

I think it’s still fairly safe to say that the immediate future of power generation, and meeting humanity’s burgeoning energy needs, lies in fission and fusion  But who knows: With LENR, maybe there’s hope for cold fusion yet.

A Device that Generates Electricity from Human Respiration

With the advancement of technology in the field of medical science; The question of how to develop a better and permanent way to power electronic organ implant and organ assistance devices arises. The existing ones work on batteries so the patient has to undergo an operation every time for a battery replacement.

In recent times researchers have found ways to generate electricity from a person's blood sugar, and piezoelectric devices that generate electricity from muscle movement. Also devices that harvest energy from ambient wireless transmission waves.

Researchers from the university of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a small device that can generate electricity from human breathing. The team behind the project includes: Assistant Professor Xudong Wang, postdoctoral Researcher Chengliang Sun and graduate student Jian Shi.

How it works?

Now the device harvests energy from plastic microbelt (PVDF MB; ref. the picture above) that vibrates when passed by low-speed airflow such as in the case of  human respiration. These microbelts are made of a special plastic called polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). Now the interesting thing is PVDF a not only a high quality plastic with exotic properties but also exhibits Piezoelectric properties, what that means is it produces small amounts of electricity under mechanical stresses or vibrations for that matter. 

The major challenge for the researchers was to create the device small and flexible enough and that is able to make use of the low airflow speed during normal respiration, typically about 2 m/sec of airflow speed. Another challenge was to determine the perfect thickness of the PVDF microbelts so that small vibrations due to airflow could produce a microwatt of electrical energy, that could be useful for sensors or other device implants. Wang’s team achieved this by using an ion-etching process to carefully thin the material while preserving its piezoelectric properties and mechanical strength.

The business end of the device is just the blue part or tubular channel shown in the picture, the green part is just a lung simulator. During testing, the device reached typical power levels in the order of millivolts, it reached up to 6 volt during maximum airflow speeds. Researchers believe that the device could one day act as a power source to implantable medical devices. 

The research was published in the September issue of the journal Energy and Environmental Science.

MIT's Energy Harvester Makes Electricity from Vibrations

The world is going the silicon way, with the increasing use of wireless equipment for remote sensing and data collection equipment in various industries; the problem that arises is the replacement of the batteries in the equipment, especially when the site is in remote and inaccessible locations like Oil pipelines, industrial machinery and bridges. 

The best solution to the problem is to harness the energy around the equipment itself;  like ambient light, electromagnetic radio-waves which are almost everywhere these days and mechanical vibrations. Mechanical vibration energy is pretty significant in industrial machinery, pipelines and bridges.

Harnessing the vibration energy could make replacing batteries redundant.

Researchers at MIT have designed a device that's the size of a U.S. quarter coin and harvests energy from low-frequency vibrations, such as those that might be felt along a pipeline or bridge or the humming of a machine. The tiny energy harvester technically known as a micro-electro-mechanical system called in short as MEMS, picks up a wider range of vibrations than existing designs and is able to generate 100 times the power of devices of similar size.

How it works?

Now these kind of vibration energy harvesters are nothing new, researchers have been using Piezoelectric material like quartz and other crystals to make such kind of devices. These piezoelectric material  naturally accumulate electric charge in response to mechanical stress applied on them. In recent years researchers have been using a piezoelectric material called PZT (Lead zirconate titanate) for engineering MEMS devices that generate small amounts of power.

In the exiting harvesters engineers use a cantilever approach for harvesting the vibration energy. A small microchip with layers of PZT is glued to the top of a tiny cantilever beam. As the chip is exposed to vibrations, the beam moves up and down like a wobbly diving board, bending and stressing the PZT layers. 

However the design has its limitation; The cantilever beam itself has a resonant frequency, a specific frequency at which it wobbles the most. Outside of this frequency range, the beam’s wobbling response drops off and as a result the amount of power that can be generated also reduces significantly. 

So something that produces power at various frequencies had to be designed to harvest power at the best levels.

Sang-Gook Kim, a member of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories and Arman Hajati who conducted the research as a PhD student at MIT came up with a design that increases the device’s frequency range, or bandwidth, as a result maximizing the power density, or energy generated per square centimeter of the chip. Instead of taking the classic cantilever based approach, the team took a different route by engineering a microchip with a small bridge like structure that’s anchored to the chip at both ends. The researchers deposited a single layer of PZT to the bridge, placing a small weight in the middle of it.


In vibration testing the research team found that the designed generated electric power at a wide range of frequencies which amounts to 45 microwatts of power with just a single layer of PZT an improvement of two orders of magnitude compared to existing designs. This design also brings down the cost of manufacturing which gives it a major advantage.
For further development the team plans at optimizing the design to respond to lower frequencies and generate more power. Arman Hajati who is currently a MEMS development engineer at FujiFilm Dimatix says the target is to achieve at least 100 micro-watts of power which is enough power a network of smart sensors on a pipeline making them work forever without maintenance.

Source
Paper Ref.

Wave Disc Engine the next step in Combustion Engines

Internal Combustion Engines more or less have had the same basic design since the first time they were created, except for the Wankel engine also called the rotary engine which did not gain a lot of popularity in the auto industry due to its short coming of inefficiencies. With the new generation of Hybrid cars which utilize a combination of electric motors and combustion Engines there is a need to develop a new design of engines and move away from the of concept of piston cylinder and valves.

Researchers at Michigan State University have built a model prototype gasoline engine design that's unlike any other engine design seen before. It works on the principle of shock waves and utilizes what is called a 'shock wave generator', which is basically a disc/rotor having precisely designed wave-like pattern carved into channels.

How this engine works is; As the rotor spins, the channels allow the air-fuel mixture to enter into the system via central inlet ports. The rotor then spins, blocking the exit of gases. As a result the pressure inside the arrangement  builds ups and this generate a shock wave that compresses the mixture. This results in igniting the fuel and which further rotates the disc resulting in generation of power, the outlet opens due to rotation and let the hot gases escape. This process continues and keeps the engine running.

The man leading the Team behind the project is Dr. Norbert Muller an Associate professor of Mechanical engineering at the MSU. The major benefit of the engine is it has no peripheral moving parts. The engine doesn't require cooling system, transmission and the related fluids resulting in a lighter, more fuel-efficient  vehicle. The engine can be coupled with a generator and can produce electricity which can be stored in batteries from where it could be used to drive a Hybrid vehicle.

A conventional combustion engine typically only converts only 15% of its fuel energy into usable power. Dr. Muller says that the wave disc design could obtain an efficiency of 60% with the added benefit of reduced weight. If used in hybrid cars would result in 30% lighter and 30% cheaper vehicles then the existing plug in hybrids. With the added benefit of 90% less CO2 emissions.

The prototype was presented to the energy division of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E), which is backing the Michigan State University Engine Research Laboratory with $2.5 million in funding. The team hopes to build  a car-sized 25-kilowatt (33.5 HP) version of the prototype ready by the end February 2012.

After all the good things said the project is still in theory and only on paper. A working prototype of the engine is yet to be seen only then the claims can be justified.

Hypersonic Sound- the future of sound

What is sound?

Sound as we hear it is a disturbance which is created in the air due to a vibrating body.

Now sound is classified into 3 basic types

1)      Infrasonic  (Less than 20Hz)

2)      Audible sound (20Hz to 20,000Hz)

3)      Ultrasonic sound (More than 20,000Hz)

Hypersonic  Sound

Now you might be wondering what is this Hypersonic  Sound..

Hypersonic  sound is a landmark and groundbreaking invention invented by an American inventor  Woody Norris. 

To explain it in a simple way, consider a light bulb in a dark room. When you turn on the light, naturally the whole room is light up. But when we talk about a projector or a laser for that matter we only see a focused beam of light from a source.Similarly a normal speaker creates sound and it’s audible across the whole area it reaches. Now getting back to Hypersonic sound we can say it’s similar to a beam of sound just like a laser beam! What I mean is the sound created by a Hypersonic speaker can be only heard if it is pointed towards your ears. i.e. if you come in the focus of the speaker. Isn’t it cool? If your watching T.V. with a hypersonic speaker, only the people coming in the focus of the speaker can hear the sound  everyone else around wont be able to hear any sound. 
(No more fights!!)

How it works?

It makes use of ultrasonic frequencies; they are very directional as their wavelength is very short.So Mr. Woody Norris figured a way to convert standard audio content to ultrasonic levels, this audio then demodulates in a certain way in the air and turns into audible sound. In a  Hypersonic  speaker there are billions of tiny speakers which create the focused sound unlike a normal speaker which just has a single speaker.

Applications 

This is a very great invention and can have great applications which we can’t even imagine. Mr. Norris also created a harmless weapon called LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device),which can emit discomforting sound to irritate the enemy and make him virtually paralyzed, without the need to injure or kill.Its alraedy in use in Iraq.This is can be very helpful in modern urban warfare. It also has  great applications in the entertainment industry. This is a new technology and its applications are still to be discovered completely. 
Mr.Woody also runs a company by the name  American technology corporation

Bridgestone unveils its Non Pneumatic (Airless) tire concept

The concept of pneumatic or inflatable tires dates back to 1888 when 'John Dunlop' invented the first air-filled tire for bicycles. Since then pneumatic tires have been put to use in a wide variety of automobiles and vehicles with varying sizes and capacities. However with the benefits comes the problem of maintenance and age. Add to that the accidents that happen around the world due to tire bursting in moving vehicles.

This past week at the 2nd Tokyo Motor Show 2011 in Japan, Japanese tire manufacture Bridgestone Corporation unveiled its new puncture-less air-free tires concept. Although the concept is not something very new, back in 2005 Michelin had showcased a similar kind of technology named TWEEL (i.e. Tyre/WhEEL). Since then there hasn't been any significant development until this one from Bridgestone.

The main difference that sets Bridgestone's airless tire different from Michelin's TWEEL is the kind of materials used for the development and the design.

The Bridgestone airless tire is made from reusable thermoplastic resin. The tire has a very minimum use of rubber which makes it more environment friendly. Bridgestone claims that the tire is made out of 100% recyclable material. The tire has a unique structure of spokes stretching along the inner sides of the tires supporting the weight of the vehicle and obviously there is no need for periodical refilling, what that means is the tires require less maintenance. At the same the worry of puncture is eliminated.

The main aim for Bridgestone is pursuing this technological development with the aim of achieving what it calls  a "cradle to cradle" process that aims to proactively maximizes the cyclical use of resources from worn tires into new tires by the use of recyclable resources. What that means is, these tires can be developed by using existing recycled materials.

The tire is still under development and testing. Bridgstone plans to put it in mass production and start sales in 2013.