Andy Coulson, a former editor of Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World newspaper, later served as a spin doctor for British Prime Minister David Cameron.
By Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com
Updated at 5:55 p.m. ET: LONDON -- A former spokesman for Britain?s prime minister was?charged Wednesday with?perjury during a high-profile court case in Scotland involving a politician?-- a move that brings the Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal closer to the heart of government.
Andy Coulson, who worked as David Cameron's director of communications, was held in London by detectives investigating claims he committed perjury during?the trial of a politician accused of taking part in adulterous, drug-fueled sex orgies at swingers' clubs.
Coulson, 44, was?transferred north from London to Glasgow, Scotland, for questioning on Wednesday, according to Britain?s Sky News.
Strathclyde Police issued a statement that said: "Officers from Strathclyde Police's Operation Rubicon team detained a 44-year-old man in London this morning under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Scotland Act 1995 on suspicion of committing perjury before the High Court in Glasgow."
'War criminal': Tony Blair heckled while testifying about Murdoch links
Coulson resigned from his job as the Cameron?s chief spin doctor in January 2011 amid growing public anger over the phone-hacking scandal.
Prior to working for Cameron, he was editor of the News of the World, the now-defunct Murdoch Sunday tabloid. He resigned from that job in 2007 - also over phone hacking.
Now he is implicated in another long-running saga ? that of Tommy Sheridan, a lawmaker and icon of left-wing Scottish politics.
Britain's PM eats humble pie over snack tax
Coulson gave evidence in a 2010 Glasgow High Court trial at which Sheridan was jailed for three years for lying under oath during his earlier defamation action against the News of the World in 2006, STV News reported.
Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images, file
Tommy Sheridan and his wife Gail make a statement outside the High Court in Glasgow, Scotland, on Dec. 23 2010.
Sheridan had won ?200,000 in damages over an article that said he had committed adultery, visited a swingers' club and taken part in drug-fueled orgies.
Giving evidence at the 2010 trial, Coulson denied being involved in, or aware of, any illegal activities, including phone hacking, the BBC reported.
Earlier this month, Coulson appeared in front of an ongoing inquiry into press standards where he revealed he still held shares in Murdoch?s News Corp. while working as working as Cameron?s director of communications.
New small solid oxide fuel cell reaches record efficiencyPublic release date: 31-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Franny White franny.white@pnnl.gov 509-375-6904 DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
System designed for household and neighborhood power generation
RICHLAND, Wash. -- Individual homes and entire neighborhoods could be powered with a new, small-scale solid oxide fuel cell system that achieves up to 57 percent efficiency, significantly higher than the 30 to 50 percent efficiencies previously reported for other solid oxide fuel cell systems of its size, according to a study published in this month's issue of Journal of Power Sources.
The smaller system, developed at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, uses methane, the primary component of natural gas, as its fuel. The entire system was streamlined to make it more efficient and scalable by using PNNL-developed microchannel technology in combination with processes called external steam reforming and fuel recycling. PNNL's system includes fuel cell stacks developed earlier with the support of DOE's Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance.
"Solid oxide fuels cells are a promising technology for providing clean, efficient energy. But, until now, most people have focused on larger systems that produce 1 megawatt of power or more and can replace traditional power plants," said Vincent Sprenkle, a co-author on the paper and chief engineer of PNNL's solid oxide fuel cell development program. "However, this research shows that smaller solid oxide fuel cells that generate between 1 and 100 kilowatts of power are a viable option for highly efficient, localized power generation."
Sprenkle and his co-authors had community-sized power generation in mind when they started working on their solid oxide fuel cell, also known as a SOFC. The pilot system they built generates about 2 kW of electricity, or how much power a typical American home consumes. The PNNL team designed its system so it can be scaled up to produce between 100 and 250 kW, which could provide power for about 50 to 100 American homes.
What is an SOFC?
Fuel cells are a lot like batteries in that they use anodes, cathodes and electrolytes to produce electricity. But unlike most batteries, which stop working when they use up their reactive materials, fuel cells can continuously make electricity if they have a constant fuel supply.
SOFCs are one type of fuel cell that operate at higher temperatures - between about 1100 and 1800 degrees Fahrenheit - and can run on a wide variety of fuels, including natural gas, biogas, hydrogen and liquid fuels such as diesel and gasoline that have been reformed and cleaned. Each SOFC is made of ceramic materials, which form three layers: the anode, the cathode and the electrolyte. Air is pumped up against an outer layer, the cathode. Oxygen from the air becomes a negatively charged ion, O2- , where the cathode and the inner electrolyte layer meet. The ion moves through the electrolyte to reach the final layer, the anode. There, the oxygen ion reacts with a fuel. This reaction creates electricity, as well as the byproducts steam and carbon dioxide. That electricity can be used to power homes, neighborhoods, cities and more.
The big advantage to fuel cells is that they're more efficient than traditional power generation. For example, the combustion engines of portable generators only convert about 18 percent of the chemical energy in fuel into electricity. In contrast, some SOFCs can achieve up to 60 percent efficiency. Being more efficient means that SOFCs consume less fuel and create less pollution for the amount of electricity produced than traditional power generation, including coal power plants.
Sprenkle and his PNNL colleagues are interested in smaller systems because of the advantages they have over larger ones. Large systems generate more power than can be consumed in their immediate area, so a lot of their electricity has to be sent to other places through transmission lines. Unfortunately, some power is lost in the process. On the other hand, smaller systems are physically smaller in size, so they can be placed closer to power users. This means the electricity they produce doesn't have to be sent as far. This makes smaller systems ideal for what's called distributed generation, or generating electricity in relatively small amounts for local use such as in individual homes or neighborhoods.
Goal: Small and efficient
Knowing the advantages of smaller SOFC systems, the PNNL team wanted to design a small system that could be both more than 50 percent efficient and easily scaled up for distributed generation. To do this, the team first used a process called external steam reforming. In general, steam reforming mixes steam with the fuel, leading the two to react and create intermediate products. The intermediates, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, then react with oxygen at the fuel cell's anode. Just as described before, this reaction generates electricity, as well as the byproducts steam and carbon dioxide.
Steam reforming has been used with fuel cells before, but the approach requires heat that, when directly exposed to the fuel cell, causes uneven temperatures on the ceramic layers that can potentially weaken and break the fuel cell. So the PNNL team opted for external steam reforming, which completes the initial reactions between steam and the fuel outside of the fuel cell.
The external steam reforming process requires a device called a heat exchanger, where a wall made of a conductive material like metal separates two gases. On one side of the wall is the hot exhaust that is expelled as a byproduct of the reaction inside the fuel cell. On the other side is a cooler gas that is heading toward the fuel cell. Heat moves from the hot gas, through the wall and into the cool incoming gas, warming it to the temperatures needed for the reaction to take place inside the fuel cell.
Efficiency with micro technology
The key to the efficiency of this small SOFC system is the use of a PNNL-developed microchannel technology in the system's multiple heat exchangers. Instead of having just one wall that separates the two gases, PNNL's microchannel heat exchangers have multiple walls created by a series of tiny looping channels that are narrower than a paper clip. This increases the surface area, allowing more heat to be transferred and making the system more efficient. PNNL's microchannel heat exchanger was designed so that very little additional pressure is needed to move the gas through the turns and curves of the looping channels.
The second unique aspect of the system is that it recycles. Specifically, the system uses the exhaust, made up of steam and heat byproducts, coming from the anode to maintain the steam reforming process. This recycling means the system doesn't need an electric device that heats water to create steam. Reusing the steam, which is mixed with fuel, also means the system is able to use up some of the leftover fuel it wasn't able to consume when the fuel first moved through the fuel cell.
The combination of external steam reforming and steam recycling with the PNNL-developed microchannel heat exchangers made the team's small SOFC system extremely efficient. Together, these characteristics help the system use as little energy as possible and allows more net electricity to be produced in the end. Lab tests showed the system's net efficiency ranged from 48.2 percent at 2.2 kW to a high of 56.6 percent at 1.7 kW. The team calculates they could raise the system's efficiency to 60 percent with a few more adjustments.
The PNNL team would like to see their research translated into an SOFC power system that's used by individual homeowners or utilities.
"There still are significant efforts required to reduce the overall cost to a point where it is economical for distributed generation applications," Sprenkle explained. "However, this demonstration does provide an excellent blueprint on how to build a system that could increase electricity generation while reducing carbon emissions."
###
The research was supported by DOE's Office of Fossil Energy.
REFERENCE: M Powell, K Meinhardt, V Sprenkle, L Chick and G McVay, "Demonstration of a highly efficient solid oxide fuel cell power system using adiabatic steam reforming and anode gas recirculation," Journal of Power Sources, Volume 205, 1 May 2012, Pages 377-384, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378775312001991
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New small solid oxide fuel cell reaches record efficiencyPublic release date: 31-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Franny White franny.white@pnnl.gov 509-375-6904 DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
System designed for household and neighborhood power generation
RICHLAND, Wash. -- Individual homes and entire neighborhoods could be powered with a new, small-scale solid oxide fuel cell system that achieves up to 57 percent efficiency, significantly higher than the 30 to 50 percent efficiencies previously reported for other solid oxide fuel cell systems of its size, according to a study published in this month's issue of Journal of Power Sources.
The smaller system, developed at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, uses methane, the primary component of natural gas, as its fuel. The entire system was streamlined to make it more efficient and scalable by using PNNL-developed microchannel technology in combination with processes called external steam reforming and fuel recycling. PNNL's system includes fuel cell stacks developed earlier with the support of DOE's Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance.
"Solid oxide fuels cells are a promising technology for providing clean, efficient energy. But, until now, most people have focused on larger systems that produce 1 megawatt of power or more and can replace traditional power plants," said Vincent Sprenkle, a co-author on the paper and chief engineer of PNNL's solid oxide fuel cell development program. "However, this research shows that smaller solid oxide fuel cells that generate between 1 and 100 kilowatts of power are a viable option for highly efficient, localized power generation."
Sprenkle and his co-authors had community-sized power generation in mind when they started working on their solid oxide fuel cell, also known as a SOFC. The pilot system they built generates about 2 kW of electricity, or how much power a typical American home consumes. The PNNL team designed its system so it can be scaled up to produce between 100 and 250 kW, which could provide power for about 50 to 100 American homes.
What is an SOFC?
Fuel cells are a lot like batteries in that they use anodes, cathodes and electrolytes to produce electricity. But unlike most batteries, which stop working when they use up their reactive materials, fuel cells can continuously make electricity if they have a constant fuel supply.
SOFCs are one type of fuel cell that operate at higher temperatures - between about 1100 and 1800 degrees Fahrenheit - and can run on a wide variety of fuels, including natural gas, biogas, hydrogen and liquid fuels such as diesel and gasoline that have been reformed and cleaned. Each SOFC is made of ceramic materials, which form three layers: the anode, the cathode and the electrolyte. Air is pumped up against an outer layer, the cathode. Oxygen from the air becomes a negatively charged ion, O2- , where the cathode and the inner electrolyte layer meet. The ion moves through the electrolyte to reach the final layer, the anode. There, the oxygen ion reacts with a fuel. This reaction creates electricity, as well as the byproducts steam and carbon dioxide. That electricity can be used to power homes, neighborhoods, cities and more.
The big advantage to fuel cells is that they're more efficient than traditional power generation. For example, the combustion engines of portable generators only convert about 18 percent of the chemical energy in fuel into electricity. In contrast, some SOFCs can achieve up to 60 percent efficiency. Being more efficient means that SOFCs consume less fuel and create less pollution for the amount of electricity produced than traditional power generation, including coal power plants.
Sprenkle and his PNNL colleagues are interested in smaller systems because of the advantages they have over larger ones. Large systems generate more power than can be consumed in their immediate area, so a lot of their electricity has to be sent to other places through transmission lines. Unfortunately, some power is lost in the process. On the other hand, smaller systems are physically smaller in size, so they can be placed closer to power users. This means the electricity they produce doesn't have to be sent as far. This makes smaller systems ideal for what's called distributed generation, or generating electricity in relatively small amounts for local use such as in individual homes or neighborhoods.
Goal: Small and efficient
Knowing the advantages of smaller SOFC systems, the PNNL team wanted to design a small system that could be both more than 50 percent efficient and easily scaled up for distributed generation. To do this, the team first used a process called external steam reforming. In general, steam reforming mixes steam with the fuel, leading the two to react and create intermediate products. The intermediates, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, then react with oxygen at the fuel cell's anode. Just as described before, this reaction generates electricity, as well as the byproducts steam and carbon dioxide.
Steam reforming has been used with fuel cells before, but the approach requires heat that, when directly exposed to the fuel cell, causes uneven temperatures on the ceramic layers that can potentially weaken and break the fuel cell. So the PNNL team opted for external steam reforming, which completes the initial reactions between steam and the fuel outside of the fuel cell.
The external steam reforming process requires a device called a heat exchanger, where a wall made of a conductive material like metal separates two gases. On one side of the wall is the hot exhaust that is expelled as a byproduct of the reaction inside the fuel cell. On the other side is a cooler gas that is heading toward the fuel cell. Heat moves from the hot gas, through the wall and into the cool incoming gas, warming it to the temperatures needed for the reaction to take place inside the fuel cell.
Efficiency with micro technology
The key to the efficiency of this small SOFC system is the use of a PNNL-developed microchannel technology in the system's multiple heat exchangers. Instead of having just one wall that separates the two gases, PNNL's microchannel heat exchangers have multiple walls created by a series of tiny looping channels that are narrower than a paper clip. This increases the surface area, allowing more heat to be transferred and making the system more efficient. PNNL's microchannel heat exchanger was designed so that very little additional pressure is needed to move the gas through the turns and curves of the looping channels.
The second unique aspect of the system is that it recycles. Specifically, the system uses the exhaust, made up of steam and heat byproducts, coming from the anode to maintain the steam reforming process. This recycling means the system doesn't need an electric device that heats water to create steam. Reusing the steam, which is mixed with fuel, also means the system is able to use up some of the leftover fuel it wasn't able to consume when the fuel first moved through the fuel cell.
The combination of external steam reforming and steam recycling with the PNNL-developed microchannel heat exchangers made the team's small SOFC system extremely efficient. Together, these characteristics help the system use as little energy as possible and allows more net electricity to be produced in the end. Lab tests showed the system's net efficiency ranged from 48.2 percent at 2.2 kW to a high of 56.6 percent at 1.7 kW. The team calculates they could raise the system's efficiency to 60 percent with a few more adjustments.
The PNNL team would like to see their research translated into an SOFC power system that's used by individual homeowners or utilities.
"There still are significant efforts required to reduce the overall cost to a point where it is economical for distributed generation applications," Sprenkle explained. "However, this demonstration does provide an excellent blueprint on how to build a system that could increase electricity generation while reducing carbon emissions."
###
The research was supported by DOE's Office of Fossil Energy.
REFERENCE: M Powell, K Meinhardt, V Sprenkle, L Chick and G McVay, "Demonstration of a highly efficient solid oxide fuel cell power system using adiabatic steam reforming and anode gas recirculation," Journal of Power Sources, Volume 205, 1 May 2012, Pages 377-384, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378775312001991
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
"Let me tell you the difference between Facebook and everyone else, we don't crash EVER!" - 'Mark Zuckerberg', The Social Network. Not quite. Facebook has been offline or slow to load for some users around the world for an hour now. Reports started flooding in to Twitter at roughly 4:26pm PST today with many users quipping that "Facebook is down. Just like it's stock price." One hour later and DownForEveryoneOrJustMe confirms the outage continues. We're awaiting a response from Facebook.
In this May 22, 2012 photo, a road crosses through an agricultural area of a forest in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, a road crosses through an agricultural area of a forest in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
FILE - In this July 2005 file photo released by the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, a Bicknell's thrush perches on East Mountain in East Haven, Vermont. The songbird that wings its way each year from austere mountaintops of the northeastern U.S. to the steamy forests of the Caribbean has inspired the creation of what conservationists hope will be a new model for nature reserves in the Dominican Republic, a country that has long struggled with deforestation. (AP Photo/Vermont Center for Ecostudies, Steven D. Faccio, File)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, a worker shovels cocao beans, the raw material in chocolate, as they dry in the sun in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary here that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, Luis Duarte fills bags with soil in an agricultural area of a forest in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary here that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, a worker walks through an agricultural area of a forest in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary here that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
SAN FRANCISCO DE MACORIS, Dominican Republic (AP) ? An elusive songbird that wings its way each year from austere mountaintops of the northeastern U.S. to the steamy forests of the Caribbean has inspired the creation of what conservationists hope will be a new model for nature reserves in a country that has long struggled with deforestation.
The reserve is taking shape in a lushly overgrown former cattle ranch measuring about 1,000 acres, at the edge of a deep green forest in the Dominican Republic's rugged northeast. Conservation-minded Dominican and U.S. investors have acquired the plot as a pilot project, hoping to protect what they say is a global biodiversity hotspot that's home to dozens of threatened species.
Tentatively known as the Reserva Privada Zorzal, the government sees the reserve as a potential example, showing that such land can be put to better uses than burning down the trees to convert it to pasture, a typical approach in this Caribbean country with only about 40 percent of its forest cover left. Neighboring Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola, has virtually none of its forest standing.
Jesus Moreno, a Dominican businessman whose family is partially funding the reserve, says the portion of the property where most of the trees have already been removed is well-suited to low-intensity, organic agriculture. He plans to grow macadamia trees and cacao, the raw material in chocolate, while allowing the forest to regenerate, in perpetuity, on three-fourths of the holding. The country's environment minister is scheduled to inaugurate the reserve project on June 5.
"I am not trying to make this into a big business and make a lot of money," said Moreno, whose family's ventures also include a nursery that grows macadamia trees and the country's only factory processing the nuts. "We are trying to create a model and break the cycle of destruction."
The concept of setting aside private land for conservation in land trusts or easements is an old one, long in use in the U.S. and elsewhere, but still rare in the Dominican Republic, a largely poor country.
Some private landowners have set aside tracts for ecotourism and nature reserves, and the government has designated more than 130 public reserves. But much of the country's forests face threats from development, agriculture and illegal timber harvesting, carving what remains into ever smaller chunks that leave species isolated and vulnerable.
In practice, the government reserves usually provide protection to endangered species in name only, said Sesar Rodriguez, the executive director of the Dominican Environmental Consortium.
Among those species at risk is the zorzal migratorio, known in English as the Bicknell's thrush. The palm-size, brownish songbird mostly comes out at dusk or dawn and, like many birds, heads south in the winter. It divides its time between the Caribbean islands and mountaintop forests in the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada that generally rise above 3,000 feet.
The bird is considered vulnerable, with an estimated fewer than 100,000 in the wild, because it occupies a narrow range of habitat that's under pressure on both sides of its migratory route, said Chris Rimmer, an ornithologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies who is an expert on the Bicknell's thrush and helped establish the reserve. Threats to the species in the U.S. include air pollution and loss of the conifer forest habitat from development and climate change.
It's not a high-profile species likely to spur public passions, and some bird species in the Dominican Republic are under a more dire threat, Rimmer readily acknowledges. But he and others are nonetheless devoted to the Bicknell's thrush, what he calls an "enigmatic" bird.
"It's much bigger than just this one little migratory songbird," Rimmer said. "If we protect it we automatically protect all the other elements of the flora and fauna, many of which are themselves under siege."
The Cordillera Septentrional range, a mist-shrouded cloud forest that shimmers an emerald green in the distance from the former pasture acquired for the reserve, is also considered habitat for vulnerable species such as the Hispaniolan parrot and mammals such as the Hispaniolan solenodon, a nocturnal burrower that resembles a possum with a long snout.
Rimmer, for one, has spent countless hours studying the Bicknell's thrush in the granite mountains of New England and the dense forests of the Dominican Republic, listening for its nasal, swirling call. "It's kind of ethereal, I guess, kind of mysterious," he said of the sound.
He and other researchers noticed that as the Dominican Republic was losing forest, female Bicknell's were being crowded out of their prime habitat by the larger males, depriving them of food they need for the journey back to North America.
He began working with the Dominican Environmental Consortium and others to find a way to expand two areas designated as protected by the government ? the Loma Quita Espuela, which Moreno's father helped found, and the Guaconejo reserves.
This loose-knit group eventually found land owned by the family of an elderly doctor that was just a few miles west of the Loma Quita Espuela reserve, prime habitat for the thrush and near the country's cacao-growing center of San Pedro Macoris, a combination of factors that seemed perfect for a blend of profit and preservation, said Charles Kerchner, an American working as a project manager for the consortium. Part of the land was still an active cattle ranch, the rest already in various stages of regrowth and some had been left untouched for so long that it had become fairly healthy secondary growth forest - not virgin, by any means, but not bad.
Most of the money for Reserva Privada Zorzal came from the Eddy Foundation of Willsboro, New York, and Moreno's family, which previously owned a controlling stake in the Helados Bon chain of ice cream stores in the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti, Kerchner said.
Danneris Santana, a vice minister in the natural resources ministry, said about a dozen new private reserves are in process of getting approval under regulations that were updated last year. Moreno and others involved in the zorzal project say several landowners in the vicinity of their site are close to adopting similar plans.
"While it's great that we are doing (the Zorzal reserve), it's an isolated project and we need others to protect their land as well," Kerchner said.
Much will depend on the economic viability of the effort. Besides the macadamia and cacao, Kerchner said they are looking for other sustainable uses of the surrounding forest, such as honey production and high-end chocolate.
The Dominican Republic is already a producer of organic cacao in the fertile hills around San Francisco de Macoris and has a growing macadamia nut crop, but the country is not a significant global supplier of either commodity. Most of the world's cacao comes from Africa and Indonesia; Hawaii and Australia are the main producers of macadamia nuts.
The backers of the project expect to allow public access but the plans are not yet defined. The property is more than an hour's drive along a bone-jarring road from the nearest town.
"To be a sustainable business, we need to get value from this forest," Kerchner said.
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ScienceDaily (May 30, 2012) ? A detailed analysis of more than 4 million absorbent minerals has determined that new materials could help electricity producers slash as much as 30 percent of the "parasitic energy" costs associated with removing carbon dioxide from power plant emissions.
The research by scientists at Rice University, the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) was published online this week in the journal Nature Materials.
Coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants account for about half of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that humans add to the atmosphere each year, but current technology for capturing that CO2 and storing it underground can gobble up as much as one-third of the steam the plant could otherwise use to make electricity.
In the new study, researchers found that commonly used industrial minerals called zeolites could significantly improve the energy efficiency of "carbon capture" technology.
"It looks like we can beat the current state-of-the-art technology by about 30 percent, and not just with one or two zeolites," said study co-author Michael Deem, Rice's John W. Cox Professor of Bioengineering and professor of physics and astronomy. "Our analysis showed that dozens of zeolites are more efficient than the amine absorbents currently used for CO2 capture."
Commercial power plants do not capture CO2 on a large scale, but the technology has been tested at pilot plants. At test plants, flue gases are funneled through a bath of ammonia-like chemicals called amines. The amines are then boiled to release the captured CO2, and additional energy is required to compress the CO2 so it can be pumped underground. The "parasitic energy" costs associated with current technology is high; up to one-third of the steam that could be used to generate electricity is siphoned off to boil the amines and liquefy the CO2.
Deem said the new study is the first to compare the "parasitic energy" costs for a whole class of carbon-capture materials. The study found dozens of zeolites that could remove CO2 from flue gas for a lower energy cost than amines could.
Zeolites are common minerals made mostly of silicon and oxygen. About 40 exist in nature, and there are about 160 human-made types. All zeolites are highly porous -- like microscopic Swiss cheese -- and the pore sizes and shapes vary depending upon how the silicon and oxygen atoms are arranged. The pores act like tiny reaction vessels that capture, sort and spur chemical reactions of various kinds, depending upon the size and shape of the pores. The chemical industry uses zeolites to refine gasoline and to make laundry detergent and many other products.
In 2007, Deem and colleagues used computers to calculate millions of atomic formulations for zeolites, and they have continued to add information to the resulting catalog, which contains about 4 million zeolite structures.
In the new study, the zeolite database was examined with a new computer model designed to identify candidates for CO2 capture. The new model was created by a team led by co-author Berend Smit, UC Berkeley's Chancellor's Professor in the departments of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry and a faculty senior scientist at LBNL. Smit and his UC Berkeley group worked with study co-author Abhoyjit Bhown, a technical executive at EPRI, to establish the best criteria for a good carbon capture material. Focusing on the energy costs of capture, release and compression, they created a formula to calculate the energy consumption for any materials in the zeolite database.
Running the painstaking calculations to compare the CO2-capture abilities of each zeolite would have taken approximately five years with standard central processing units (CPUs), so Smit and his colleagues at UC-Berkeley and LBNL created a new way to run the calculations on graphics processing units, or GPUs -- the processors used in PC graphics cards. Deem said the GPU technique cut the compute time to about one month, which made the project feasible.
Smit said, "Our database of carbon capture materials is going to be coupled to a model of a full plant design, so if we have a new material, we can immediately see whether this material makes sense for an actual design."
Study co-authors include graduate students Li-Chiang Lin and Joseph Swisher, both of UC Berkeley; Adam Berger of the EPRI; Richard Martin, Chris Rycroft and Maciej Haranczyk, all of LBNL's Computational Research Division; and postdoctoral fellows Jihan Kim and Kuldeep Jariwala of LBNL's Materials Science Division. This research was supported by the Department of Energy, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and EPRI's Office of Technology Innovation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Li-Chiang Lin, Adam H. Berger, Richard L. Martin, Jihan Kim, Joseph A. Swisher, Kuldeep Jariwala, Chris H. Rycroft, Abhoyjit S. Bhown, Michael W. Deem, Maciej Haranczyk, Berend Smit. In silico screening of carbon-capture materials. Nature Materials, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3336
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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11 a.m.: National Hurricane Center: Beryl strengthens
The latest update from the National Hurricane Center shows Beryl gaining strength, with sustained winds at 60 mph. The storm is located 125 miles to the east of Jacksonville and moving west at 10 mph. Tropical storm conditions are expected to reach the coast late this morning or early afternoon. Landfall is expected this evening. Rain totals of 3 to 6 inches are possible.
8:45 a.m.: Mayor asks residents to take caution, prepare for storm
At a morning news conference at the city's Emergency Operations Center, Mayor Alvin Brown encouraged residents to take caution and prepare for subtropical storm Beryl.
"I am encouraging all area residents to stay indoors and off the streets as the storm approaches,? Brown said. "And please do not go into the water today. Stay out of the water ??it's about safety."
Brown also encouraged business owners to close early today to allow employees to get home safely and prepare for the storm.
No mandatory evacuations have been issued, he said.
Residents should prepare, however, for localized flooding, downed trees and downed power lines. "Don't become compacent; take this very seriously," he stressed.
An emergency shelter for those with special needs will open at noon today at the Legends Center at 5130 Soutel Drive near Moncrief Road in Northwest Jacksonville.
He said that he expects garbage pick-up on Monday will be halted.
At this time, there are not plans to close Jacksonville International Airport and there are no bridge closures, he said. Updates on the Jacksonville Port Authority are forthcoming.
Additionally, the mayor said he signed a declaration of emergency, paving the way for federal assistance if needed.
Updates on the city's official Memorial Day activities are expected later this morning.
For more information, residents can call 630-2489 (630-CITY) or visit jaxready.org.
Our earlier story:
Subtropical storm Beryl is churning ever closer to the Southeast U.S. coast, threatening Memorial Day beachgoers with dangerous surf and drenching rains from Northeast Florida to the Carolinas.
The National Hurricane Center said Beryl was centered at 8 a.m. about 165 miles east of Jacksonvile. Forecasters said the system has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and is moving west-southwest at 10 mph.
In advance of the storm, the City of Jacksonville and Mayor Alvin Brown have canceled today's Jacksonville Jazz Festival activities with the sole exception of the jazz brunch event at downtown's Omni Hotel.
With dangerous rip currents present, the city also has closed the beaches for swimming.
The city will open a special-needs shelter at the Legends Center at Soutel and Moncrief in Northwest Jacksonville at noon. Anyone electricity- and oxygen-dependent should use this shelter if there are power outages or flooding.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect for the Northeast Florida, stretching from south of St. Augustine northward along the coasts of Georgia and parts of South Carolina. The Miami-based hurricane center says the storm is expected to make landfall Sunday night or early Monday.
Beryl is technically considered a "subtropical storm," its thunderstorms capable of generating dangerous surf and rains of up to 3 to 6 inches.
Posted by admin on May 28, 2012 in Home | 0 comments
If you?re looking to sell your home, then before you start visiting realtors and posting ads, you should take a second look at your home. You may be thinking that your home only worth so ?much, when in fact with a few improvements and a bit of work you could boost value tremendously. Many people wanting to sell their homes tend to set the price at a low level, just because they neglected to invest in some easily accomplished home improvement projects.
The following are a few ideas for home improvement jobs that will be worth the money you invest. Some projects homeowners to do try to improve home value only do a very little in their favor, while other projects that cost only a fraction of what those others do make your value shoot up. You want to avoid the first kind while seeking after the second as much as possible.
Improvement #1: Repainting
A big thing that drives buyers away when they?re looking for a home is when the walls of a house look damaged, ugly, or tacky. If you look around your house and see unpleasant colors or signs of disrepair, it?s time to repaint. Repainting is something that you can do yourself for an extremely cheap price, and it will completely change how your home appears to people coming over to buy.
Improvement #2: Security Boosting
New homeowners are always looking at how safe a home is, particularly if they have children or lots of valuables. Investing in home security options like an alarm system or security shutters will drive your home right to the top of many people?s lists, because that?s an option that not many sellers are providing. Installing security shutters or other security options can be a fast and affordable process that pays off big time when you put your house up for sale. You can visit SGG website to find out more about the security options available for your home.
Improvement #3: Anything Appearance Related
Improving how your home looks to potential buyers is a job worth doing, and it?s something that you can do for free for the most part. Cleaning up a bit, investing in new decorations and color coordinated accents can be very cheap and extremely effective. You?ll have people gasping with delight once they come into your home and see how well decorated. You can buy all the elements needed to do these things very easily at dollar stores, local supermarkets, and home improvement stores.
With just a bit of work you can increase your home value by some significant percentiles. Invest in these home improvements that will pay off, instead of in projects that end up being a waste of money, and you?ll feel better and gain from it once your house is finally sold.
It could actually appear to be very unlikely, yet you can discover a number of excellent mastercard options when it comes to women and men who currently have low credit scores. One or two want an initial down payment, the rest purely time as well as good friends. Considering the economic situation and credit crunch which is actually going on as we speak, you?ll find it really quite onerous to obtain lines of credit inspite of having a decent credit ranking and track record. Nonetheless, credit firms have to make a profit, and they will come up with particular financial loans possibly even to folks that have less-than-perfect credit. A few unguaranteed credit cards can be obtained, yet with high service fees and interest charges.
The initial element to assess is actually why an individual has got less-than-perfect credit. Could it be due to budget mismanagement, or perhaps health issues, divorce or separation, the passing away of a close relative, redundancy, or some other good reason? There are actually out of the blue mishaps that could very well hurt an indivdual?s credit history. If the actual problem lies within budget management, or absence of, that could be sorted out simply by instructing one?s self on the issue of cash and borrowing, and just how crucial it actually is to put together installments promptly as prescribed. Should there be a disaster, that can often be a little simpler to sort out.
Adverse credit credit card opportunities intended for people who have got weak credit really are on the market, without being plentiful. There are a pair of things to have a shot at: a guaranteed card, and a co-signer account.
A secured credit card account is a mastercard or advance where by you will lodge with the firm a sum the same as your borrowing limit. They hold on to the lodgement, without or with interest, and you actually use the visa card exactly like a mainstream visa card. You make charges, and also you carry out installments punctually. You need to make certain that the supplier is going to be confirming your personal visa or master card or finance activities to the credit rating companies, in order that it is going to display in your current credit standing report.
A co-signer account is usually a charge card or lending product whereby you are placed onto the credit card account with an additional person who?s the key cardholder and who has got a good credit score. You are able to start using this card account exactly like a standard credit card account, and then make appropriate installments. It is vital that you never forget a settlement or even be late, when you consider that doing this can certainly negatively affect the personal credit record of your respective co-signer at the same time. Some people make money to the co-signer, and so they then send the cash on to the loan service in order that they do know beyond doubt the repayment is conducted on time.
Instructing yourself with reference to credit and cash is definitely the very best option to greatly enhance your own competence to enrich your own personal consumer credit score. It might just take quite some time, nevertheless it can be done.
Antiquarian & Collectible Pictures of Faberg? from a private collection. Faberge?s animal subjects are actual portraits of pets which belonged to the Imperial family, and others are of wild animals and birds executed in colorful precious stones with a fine feeling for the different forms.
BK BAZHE is a writer, poet, and artist. He is the author of DAMAGES (creative nonfiction) ?Winner in the Writers Digest Awards and IDENTITIES (poetry). He is published and exhibited in Europe and America.
More info at: BK Bazhe Website:
http://www.bazhe.com
Amazon Books & Art by BK Bazhe:
http://astore.amazon.com/bazhe-20
YouTube Videos by BK Bazhe:
Google Blog by BK Bazhe: http://bazhe.blogspot.com
Websites are built for people. The reason you built a website, I imagine is to promote your business to people. For most business people after spending a few hundred dollars or thousands of Naira designing a
, getting people to visit it becomes the next worry. However, you should start thinking about how to drive visitors to your website from the day the thought of
first came to you.
This article will show you how to ensure you build a website that will get visitors from day one as well show techniques that can be used to increase website traffic.
Write Quality Content
A website built to attract visitors must have quality content. Earlier in this going online series we talked about the phrase content is king. It remains so. And by content, I mean largely text content. A lot of businesses often focus on the aesthetics of a website with little attention to text content.
They prefer images, flash, slides, JavaScript based, and all other types of flashy but ineffective content. These types of contents may make a website look professional and rich, but adding them at the expense of good old text content will only hurt your website traffic. The thing is that most visitors to your business website will come via search engines and search engines are still not good at handling most non-text content.
Remember that no matter how beautiful a website looks, without visitors no one will see and admire the beauty (that is assuming they are there to admire your website). Having visitors on your website should be your top priority, converting those visitors into customers is equally important. So, embedding important text content in flash, JavaScript or images is not a good content strategy. Whenever you use rich media add search engine robot readable text content that will enable robots to know what the content is all about.
Each page on your website should have between 250 to 1,000 words. You can add rich content after that. So, when designing a website, make sure you provide quality content for your web designer. It is also good to ensure your website has at least 10 quality pages at launch with plans of continually adding new content.
Know your Keywords
Yes, your website needs quality text content, but that should not be seen as license to fill your website with garbage. For your information, garbage is any content that is written with no consideration on how visitors view your business. It may be written in Queens English with fantastic grammar and logic, but it is still garbage.
To attract visitors to your website, you need to write text content that includes phrases that visitors and potential customers would use when searching for the content on the internet. These phrases used by web searchers are called keywords.
Building your keywords starts from knowing your visitors and customers and brainstorming on the keywords they are likely to use when searching for your content on the internet. The result of the brainstorming should them be refined using keyword tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
Once you know your keywords, use them in creating your content. Add them in important sections of your website like title tag, h1 tag, other head tags, link texts, image alt text, and of course the body of your text content.
To get visitors to your website, they have to find you first. Visitors will only find you if you use similar words as the one they use when searching the web. So, pay more attention to your keywords for more visitors to your website.
Build Links to your content
Link building is very important to your website. The links pointing to your website affects how easily visitors will find your website. More links to your site will make your website rank higher on search engines making them easily accessible to visitors.
Link building is an ongoing process. You have to make it your mission to build links to your website. The best link building strategy is writing articles (Guest posts) and placing them on other quality and relevant websites. You add your link on the post with relevant keywords as link text pointing to a relevant page on your website. The worst link building strategy is spamming.
Other link building strategies include blog commenting, blogging, forum posts and commenting, online directory listings, social media and bookmarking sites, link exchange, and building link magnets with interesting content and compelling features.
Blog on your website
Earlier, we met the phrase content is king. Putting content on your website does not end after the initial web design, it an ongoing process. Blogging is a great way of building regular content on your website, which will in turn attract visitors to your website. Blogs are also link magnets.
Do a thorough keyword research of your industry and write interesting articles on your blog covering all relevant areas. Blogging will enable you add content regularly, which means regular crawling from search engines. It will also keep visitors coming as they crave for more fresh and interesting content from you.
Use Search engine webmaster tools
Search engines are one of the top sources of visitors for most websites. To ensure your website gets all the help it needs to rank well on search engines, register with the webmaster tools of leading search engines like Google and Bing. Registering with webmaster tools will enable you add your sitemap that will make it easier for search engine robots to find important contents on your website.
Webmaster tools will also enable you spot errors that could be preventing search engine robots from properly crawling your website. These errors if not spotted and corrected could lead to poor ranking for your website and low number of visitors. In fact, having a website without registering a webmaster account is like being on Facebook without having a personal profile.
Engage in Social Networking Sites
Social media is huge with hundreds of millions of people using these sites every day. So, part of your strategy in increasing your website visitors should be driving visitors to your website from these social media sites. Build your presence on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and use them to drive visitors to your website.
Advertise
Online advertising is also another way to increase visitors to your website. But, the point of your online advertising should be to promote your products and services and not just your website. So, you need to build relevant landing pages to be targeted by the advert.
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Actress Angelina Jolie and her right leg arrive for the 84th Academy Awards on Feb. 26.
By Kurt Schlosser
When Angelina Jolie struck her much-lampooned pose at the Oscars in February, little did we know that months later we'd still be up in arms about stars' legs on the red carpet.
An informal survey of?entertainment slideshows?-- and other places on the Internet where attractive body parts are showcased -- reveals that legs attached to female celebrities appear to be stepping out more than normal of late.
Certainly showing a little skin or a lot of leg is nothing new, especially in Hollywood. Jolie made news for going a step (sorry, these puns are?way too?easy) further when her gam got glam and leapt 2 feet out of her black gown.
Now every star in a dress with a high slit is being compared to Jolie, even if they're just standing there with no intention?of turning an appendage into an Internet meme. Well, except for?model Anja Rubik and her hip bone at the Costume Institute Gala earlier this month. That's no ordinary pose.
Check out this random sampling of a few well-known celebrities. Are these outfits over the top? I'm no dressmaker, but the physics of being able to walk while wearing a long gown demands that that gown have a little give. Jolie went beyond the give part and took her pose up a notch. So critical style eyes are now looking below the waist of some of Hollywood's biggest stars to find the copycats.
AP, Getty Images (2)
Kim Kardashian, Jessie J and Nicole Kidman, all in Cannes, France, this week.
Reuters, Getty Images (2)
Carrie Underwood, Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron dressed to impress.
The high slit is poised to rule the red carpet until the first snow flies up skirts next winter. In an era of trout pout and side boob (hi Miley!), there's little use fighting it and demanding that stars put on some @$%*! clothes. (If only?you used symbols to swear at us in the comments ... like the old days ... when women covered?up!)?
ZZ Top said it best: "She's got legs, she knows how to use them."
Are you bothered by more revealing outfits on stars? Where do you draw the line? Step on over to our Facebook page to discuss.
Capcom today announced the limited edition Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector?s Set, which will be available at a price of $149.99 in North America on September 18th, 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Honoring one of the most popular videogame franchises of all time, the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector?s Set is a must ? have for Street Fighter video game aficionados. Created as a celebration and tribute to its fans, the limited edition set is individually numbered and jam-packed with Street Fighter games, video, art, music, and exclusive collectibles. The items are housed in a specially created chest complete with a certificate of authenticity.
Click the thumbnails for a full-size gallery of what?s in the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Set:
The limited edition Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector?s Set includes the following:
Past and Present Street Fighter Games ? Playable on current gen PS3 and Xbox 360 console systems, the four critically-acclaimed titles selected from the star-studded catalog are: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike Online Edition, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition with all costume DLC, and Street Fighter X Tekken including all character and Swap Costume DLC.
Exclusive Video ? The two-disc Blu-Ray set includes a documentary that highlights the profound influence the franchise has had on fans ? and vice versa ? throughout the years. The collection of videos also includes Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV Anime movies as well as all episodes of the Street Fighter animated series and Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.
Light-up Ryu Statue ? A specially commissioned and highly-detailed collectable Ryu statue stands prominently at 8? tall and features the iconic character in mid-Shoryuken, with flames lit from below.
11-Disc Soundtrack ? Street Fighter game music spanning the past 25 years, in addition to remixes and fan-created music inspired by past Street Fighter games.
64-page Hardcover Art Book ? A tribute to Street Fighter game fans from all over the world, the art book includes fan pieces submitted by professional and aspiring artists alike.
Ryu?s Belt ? Created to regulation specs, the full-size martial arts black belt is a replica of the one Ryu wears and even includes his classic ?F?rinkazan? in kanji!
Certificate of Authenticity ? Each Collector?s Set comes individually numbered complete with a certificate of authenticity.
Here?s a video overview of the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector?s Set:
New international tournaments are being organized too?
A hyper combo-powered milestone, the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary festivities will continue throughout 2012 (?The Year of the Dragon?) and will include the Collector?s Set and a series of high stakes global tournaments with over a half million dollars in support, the highest the fighting game community has ever witnessed.
Capcom is currently organizing a series of tournaments throughout the year in locations across the globe that will include over $500,000 worth of cash, non-cash prizing, and amenities. This high-stakes tournament series will culminate in a grand finals event held in San Francisco on Dec. 8, 2012 and will include players who qualify in the preliminary tournaments throughout the year. The tournament series will feature the following monumental titles from the past and present: Street Fighter X Tekken, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike Online Edition, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.
Revealed today, the list below includes the most current dates and locations (subject to change) for the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary global tournament series:
? July 28-29 in Austin, TX ? August 11-12 in the NY area (location pending) ? August 26 in Taipei, Taiwan (location pending) ? Mid-September in the Tokyo Region, Japan (date and location pending) ? September 27-30 in London, England (in conjunction with Eurogamer Expo) ? October 13-14 in Sao Paulo, Brazil (in conjunction with Brazil Game Show) ? October 27-28 in Los Angeles, CA ? October 31 ? November 4 in Paris, France (in conjunction with Paris Games Week) ? December 8 Finals in San Francisco, CA
Adding an extra level of white-knuckled excitement to the competition, the first-place Street Fighter X Tekken player will be crowned champion and be handed the keys to an all-new custom designedScion FR-S Sports Coupe. Capcom has partnered with Scion, Five Axis and Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), to create a one-of-a-kind Street Fighter-themed sports car, complete with video entertainment hardware from SCEA and a modified exterior from Five Axis including a custom FIVE:AD aero kit, spoiler, wheels, as well as many more premiere components from leading automotive aftermarket companies.
Are you interested in the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector?s Set?
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Public release date: 31-May-2012
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"Let me tell you the difference between Facebook and everyone else, we don't crash EVER!" - 'Mark Zuckerberg', The Social Network. Not quite. Facebook has been offline or slow to load for some users around the world for an hour now. Reports started 
Fine Animals ? http://www.BAZHE.com
