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Category: energy – Page 370

Foreign rail firms shunted as ‘Made in China’ mantra gathers pace

Made in China motto is gaining speed in China.

SHANGHAI Foreign firms say they are struggling to gain access to China’s vast railway market as the country, seeking to transform its domestic industry into an export powerhouse, tightens the bidding criteria on rail tenders.

The complaints echo similar concerns raised in other industries including technology and renewable energy, and highlight what some foreign companies see as an uneven playing field when operating in China.

Four rail suppliers with offshore funding said they were finding it harder to win contracts thanks to the proliferation of government-supported rivals, with at least one saying it was already experiencing discrimination.

Tesla is building an electric minibus based on the Model X

Elon Musk has been a busy man lately as he works to transition the world to renewable energy and sustainable transportation with the goal of decarbonizing the global economy to meet the challenge of climate change. To meet that goal, Tesla will need to address “high passenger-density urban transport” – and Musk just confirmed plans to create a fully autonomous electric Minibus using the Model X chassis.

Tethers Unlimited Signs Contracts with NASA and Millennium Space Systems to Deliver HYDROS™ Water-Propelled Thrusters

Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) announced that it has signed a Public-Private Partnership with NASA to deliver a HYDROS™ propulsion system for a CubeSat mission. Concurrently, TUI has signed an associated contract to provide three HYDROS thrusters sized for Millennium Space Systems’ (MSS) ALTAIR™ class microsatellites to support three different flight missions. Total contract value for the two efforts is $2.2M.

The HYDROS propulsion system uses in-space electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen and oxygen gas, which it then burns in a bipropellant thruster. This water-electrolysis method allows small satellites to carry a propellant that is non-explosive, non-toxic, and unpressurized. The hydrogen and oxygen generated on-orbit will enable high-thrust and high-fuel-efficiency propulsion so these small satellites can perform missions requiring orbital agility and long-duration station-keeping.

The partnership with NASA is a cost-sharing program funded under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s “Utilizing Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Tipping Point Technologies” Program. In this effort, TUI will conduct lifetime and environmental testing of prototypes of HYDROS systems sized for CubeSats and microsatellites and then deliver a flight unit HYDROS thruster intended for testing on a CubeSat mission as part of NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstration Program, at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.

The purchase of HYDROS thrusters by MSS represents a significant commercial customer investment that will enable the HYDROS Public-Private Partnership to develop and deliver a transformative propulsion technology meeting needs for both NASA and commercial small satellite endeavors.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to partner with NASA and Millennium Space Systems to demonstrate this revolutionary thruster technology,” said Dr. Rob Hoyt, TUI’s CEO and Chief Scientist. “Traditionally it has been very difficult to launch small satellites with propulsion capabilities due to the risks that standard propellants such as hydrazine pose to the launch vehicle’s primary payload. HYDROS will enable highly-maneuverable satellites to launch as secondary payloads without posing a significant risk to primary payloads. In the future, when asteroid and lunar mining efforts begin to provide in-situ resources, the HYDROS technology will enable use of the water ice available on asteroids and the Moon to propel the spacecraft, equipment, and resources needed for a robust in-space economy.”

Apple Advances Work on Quantum Dot Displays for Future Macs, iOS Devices & Possible TV

Apple and Q-Dots.

While we know that Apple’s next display shift will be to OLED for their 2017 Anniversary edition iPhone, Apple is always looking to the next wave technology just on the horizon. So what’s beyond OLED? At the moment, many think the next trend points to Quantum Dot LED or QDLED. While the structure of a QLED is very similar to OLED technology, the difference is that the light emitting centers are cadmium selenide nanocrystals, or quantum dots. Theoretically, the advantages to this type of display is that it could reportedly deliver brighter ‘pure color’ and consumes less power, in fact close to 50% less power. The technology is also ideal for consumer devices that demand a flexible display. When Apple first introduced their vision of an Apple Watch in 2013, they presented it with a ‘continuous’ display that completely wraps around a users wrist as noted in the patent figure below. A QDLED type of display would allow such a form factor to come to market.

2AA 88 CONTINUOUS DISPLAY COMMUNICATION BRACELET

While Quantum Dot based displays are no doubt many years out, Apple is already on record having explored the technology in a string of four patent filings that we covered back in 2014 in a report titled “Quantum Dots Could Take the Retina Display to the Next Level.” Today, another Quantum Dot invention came to light.

How science could help cyclists to keep pedalling for longer

Nice.

Elite endurance athletes could be able to keep going for longer thanks to a new drink developed to give soldiers extra energy in battle, a study using former Olympians has found.

Scientists found that cyclists using the drink, which temporarily switches the body’s energy source from glucose to ketones, could travel an extra quarter of a mile than those taking a different energy supplement.

The idea of developing the ketone drink came from the US Army’s research branch, DARPA, who invited scientists to create the most energy efficient food that soldiers could take onto the battlefield.

Moving beyond semiconductors for next-generation electric switches

Computers use switches to perform calculations. A complex film with “quantum wells”—regions that allow electron motion in only two dimensions—can be used to make efficient switches for high-speed computers. For the first time, this oxide film exhibited a phenomenon, called resonant tunneling, in which electrons move between quantum wells at a specific voltage. This behavior allowed an extremely large ratio (about 100,000:1) between two states, which can be used in an electronic device as an ON/OFF switch to perform mathematical calculations (Nature Communications, “Resonant tunneling in a quantum oxide superlattice”).

Quantum wells

Efficient control of electron motion can be used to reduce the power requirements of computers. “Quantum wells” (QW) are regions that allow electron motion in only two dimensions. The lines (bottom) in the schematic show the probability of finding electrons in the structure. The structure is a complex oxide (top) with columns (stacked blue dots corresponding to an added element) where the electrons are free to move in only two dimensions. This is a special type of quantum well called a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). (Image: Ho Nyung Lee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

To meet our exponentially growing need for computing power without a corresponding jump in energy use, scientists need more efficient electronic versions of switches to perform calculations. Efficient switches need materials that switch between well-defined ON/OFF states. The results of this study could lead to a new class of energy-efficient electronics because these materials can ensure the electronic switches are ON or OFF. These electronic switches could lower power consumption in electronics enabling, for example, the development of high-speed supercomputers and cell phones with longer battery life.