Breakthrough Fuel Cell, Twice as Efficient as Generators



Acumentrics Corporation, a leading developer of solid-oxide fuel cells and uninterruptible power supplies, has won a 2007 New England Innovation Award from SBANE, the Smaller Business Alliance of New England for their novel solid oxide fuel cell.

Acumentrics manufactures 5000-watt solid oxide fuel cell systems (SOFC) for power applications. They are also developing combined-heat-and-power units (which are like boilers that produce electricity) for the home market. In 2000 they acquired a novel fuel cell technology. Since then, they have increased the output of a single fuel cell tube from 1 watt to 60 watts. Today they have over 30 units working in the field, including ones that power visitorÂ’s centers at Exit Glacier National Park in Alaska, and Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio.

One of their key innovations was making ceramic fuel cell technology shatter resistant. It is shatter resistant because of its shape — it is a tube, not a thin sheet as most others have used –with a special composition of layers that prevents them from flaking off. Solid oxide fuel cells must handle temperature swings from 20 to 800ºC. Many other solid oxide fuel cells crack when they are cycled on and off, because of thermal shock.

But what really makes Acumentrics different is that they aren’t waiting around for the mythical hydrogen economy. The fuel cells run on natural gas, propane, ethanol, diesel, biogas, and biodiesel. While using non-hydrogen fuel means that the cell will produce CO2, Acumentrics fuel cells consume half as much fuel as a comparable small-engine generator, per kW. So they produce the same amount of electricity, while consuming half as much fuel, and producing half as much CO2.

Via: Treehugger

Win a Test Drive With Audi A4 Global Drives


The latest Audi project, Audi A4 Global Drives, is all about being inspired. Audi takes us into an exciting virtual world where you can map out a great route to drive an Audi4. You can also vote on other people’s routes and the person with the most inspiring route wins a test drive along their dream route!

How exciting to be able to drive through different countries or even different continents in an Audi A4!

From a website design point-of-view, I love how innovative the A4 Global Drives site is. I almost feel as if I’m some kind of agent checking out my current mission where I need to travel to far-off distant places. Audi definitely knows how to get their customers involved with their website.

As of the writing of this post, there are currently 215 people who have entered their dream driving route, with 87% of them being men and 13% being women. C’mon, ladies, get in their and start creating your dream drive! I’m definitely going over right now to enter…