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How do Electrofuels work?

According to the US Department of Energy, that’s where the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s Electrofuels program comes in. The 13 projects that make up the program seek to develop renewable liquid fuels that use microorganisms to harness chemical or electrical energy to convert carbon dioxide into liquid fuels, without using petroleum or biomass. For example, scientists at Columbia University are using bacteria to optimize the conversion of carbon dioxide and ammonia into a liquid transportation fuel similar to gasoline.

If successful, the projects supported by ARPA-E could change the game – breaking our dependence on imported oil and powering our vehicles with homegrown fuels.

Check out the infographic above to see how tiny organisms are making a big impact, or see electrofuels projects in action at ARPA-E’s 2012 Energy Innovation Summit, held February 27-29 right outside Washington, D.C. For more information, visit http://energyinnovationsummit.com/

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Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are looking for ways to thermochemically treat biomass to arrive at an end product that is similar to oil. One way to get there is through a process called gasification. Gasification takes biomass and heats it with steam and air to produce synthesis gas, or syngas. Syngas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide — the building blocks of fuels and chemicals. After the syngas goes through another catalytic process, it is possible to make almost any type of related fuel or chemical.

But copying Mother Nature is rarely easy. During the syngas process, tars and other undesired components are also created. These tars can foul the refining process and must be removed from the syngas before the fuel-synthesis step. NREL has patented a fluidizable tar reforming catalyst that converts tars into additional syngas to make thermochemically derived biomass syngas ready for fuel synthesis.

“In the end you want to create something that’s going to look just like gasoline, with a cost similar to gasoline, but that is derived from biomass,” NREL Principal Scientist Kim Magrini said. “There is an added benefit to this process because you are taking biomass, which has carbon in it, and putting it into your fuel, which gets combusted into carbon dioxide — which is food for future biomass. If you look at the life-cycle analysis, it has a greater than 90 percent closure on the carbon loop.”

In fact, thermochemically derived fuels have a number of benefits. The flexibility of thermochemical processes, such as gasification and pyrolysis, provides cost-effective options for manufacturing cellulosic ethanol and advanced biofuels. Often called “drop-in” fuels, these advanced biofuels are compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure, which will speed commercial adoption. And, as Magrini noted, advanced biofuels produced via thermochemical conversion could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: NREL

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According to NREL, the sun is shining on homeowners in less affluent neighborhoods who are discovering they can afford solar energy after all — by leasing rather than buying the panels on their roofs.

The new business model lets homeowners save money the very first month, rather than breaking even a decade after an initial investment of $5,000 to $10,000.

Analysts with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the solar lease business is surging in southern California. And the model is being adopted in less affluent neighborhoods that had avoided customer-owned systems.

The NREL study found a positive correlation between customers outright buying solar energy systems and customers living in neighborhoods where the average household income was $150,000 or more.

But for third-party-leased solar panels, that positive correlation appeared in neighborhoods where the average household income was just $100,000 or more.

The study did not look at individual adopters, who can have many different reasons for installing solar. Still, the study strongly indicates an attraction for third-party leasing in neighborhoods with less affluence than those most likely to go for the customer-owned option.

If what’s true in southern California proves true for the nation, it means that rooftop solar power could attract an additional 13 million Americans — and that could push solar energy into the mainstream.

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory takes a look at the ways to cut the cost of solar cells.

Engineers and technicians from Ampulse, NREL, and Roth & Rau go over plans for installing parts in the pilot production line for making solar cells via a chemical deposition process. For more information visit http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/feature_detail.cfm/feature_id=1804 
Credit: Dennis Schroeder

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The Ashden Awards takes a look at the future for local clean energy for the poor.

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The pickings are slim these days for aesthetically pleasing hybrid vehicles, but BMW aims to change that with its i8 plug-in hybrid concept. We got a chance to see the i8 concept at the Geneva Auto Show, and the car was even hotter in person.

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