Recent Articles
Small Nuclear Reactors Get a Boost
Nov 11, 2012 Energy Talks Comments Off
Western Troy Capital Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WRY, “Western Troy”) announced August 17th 2009 that it plans to form a wholly owned private corporation to provide small nuclear reactor electric power generating stations for installation in remote locations in Canada and other markets. That likely excludes the U.S. American’s are very unlikely to benefit from the new reactor designs due to regulatory, political and special interest opposition. It’s a shame, as U.S. market access would add a lot of unit volume and reduced costs for everyone. It’s not even considering that two leading reactor makers are U.S. firms, Hyperion for one and the new Babcock & Wilcox design for another. It makes you wonder what the U.S.
Modern Led Devices Vs. Traditional Light-emitting Sources
Nov 10, 2012 Lighting Design & Controls Comments Off
Groshan Fabiola asked: Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) represent various types of semiconductor devices that produce incoherent narrow-spectrum light fascicles when powered with a steady-state voltage electrical source, producing the effect known as electroluminescence. LEDs come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors, nowadays serving for a multitude of purposes: illuminating traffic signals, railroad crossing signals and display panels, facilitating optical fiber communications, providing backlighting for LCD televisions and displays, being integrated in remote control and optical devices (infrared LEDs), or being used simply for decorative purposes (LEDs can emit light of various colors blue, green, yellow, orange, red and purple, to name only a few). LED lights have come a long way, today’s offer comprising highly reliable, durable and economical designs that can take various forms (LED bulbs, LED pods, LED tubes, LED displays, etc) and fulfill many different roles (functional or purely aesthetical). LEDs are by far superior to traditional light sources such as incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent lamps, as they use less energy and produce less heat (unlike conventional light sources which consume a lot of electrical energy but transform only a fraction of the used energy into light, converting the rest of it into heat, LED lights are very economical, consuming less electrical energy and transforming a great part of it into light), have an impressively long life span (LED lights can last for more than 10 years), light up more quickly (in most cases LEDs can achieve full brightness in a matter of microseconds, compared to some fluorescent lamps that usually light up after 0,5 or 1 second and achieve full brightness in an average of 30 seconds) and can directly focus the light they emit (unlike incandescent and fluorescent light sources that generally include an external reflector that redirects the luminous rays in the desired direction). Compared to conventional sources of light, LED bulbs and other similar LED devices can directly emit light of a certain color without the aid of color filters. Consequently, the colored light produced by LED bulbs is considerably brighter, clearer and more vivid, rendering colored-light producing LED bulbs the perfect devices for interior and exterior illumination of architectural structures, commercial panels and various decorative objects. In addition, LED lights such as LED bulbs, LED pods and LED tubes don’t burn out unexpectedly like incandescent bulbs; when they fail, LEDs tend to dim out gradually, continuing to fulfill their purpose even in the event of a malfunction. While traditional light sources are unreliable and sometimes even unsafe (incandescent bulbs can sometimes explode due to fluctuant voltage), LED lights are durable, reliable, safe and efficient. All the mentioned advantages of LEDs render such devices the perfect replacement for incandescent and fluorescent light sources and nowadays LED light sources are already extensively used in many different industrial branches.
A New 5 Stroke Internal Combustion Engine
Nov 10, 2012 Energy Talks Comments Off
Never count out the leaders in real world technology. For readers familiar with auto racing the name Ilmor Engineering will sound a claxon. Ilmor is a creature of some sort of partnership with legend Roger Penske as a co-owner and surely a managing role of some kind. Honda, of motorcycle and auto fame is the major racing engine customer for the whole of the U.S.
A Case for Natural Gas CHP Systems
Nov 9, 2012 Energy Talks Comments Off
A combined heat and power system (CHP) is the cogeneration or simultaneous generation of multiple forms of energy in an integrated system. CHP systems consume less fuel than separate heat and power generating systems. According to the Environmental Protection Agency in their Combined Heat and Power Partnership report, (EPA), CHP systems typically consume only three-quarters the amount of energy separate heat and power systems require. By combining both heat and power into the same energy systems, efficiency gains for the total system. Heuristically, high temperature and high pressure fuel ratios results in higher efficiency systems. In addition, the thermal energy produced from the CHP system could be used to drive motor applications or to produce heat, steam, and hot water. As an initial step to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, natural gas turbines could improve overhaul efficiency of 65-80%. In addition, the CHP offers lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in comparison to conventional standalone systems. Gas turbines CHP systems operate under a homodynamic principle called the Brayton cycle
