Admit it, everyday your car emissions are contributing to pollution. If you want to reduce pollution and at the same time save money, you need to make use of hydrogen fuel cell technology; find out more by reading this article.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology is not new. It started more or less eighty years ago but since it is quite expensive, scientists and researchers don’t find it a good alternative fuel source. Aside from the hydrogen technology, other technologies have surfaced years ago such as the use of vegetable oil and sugar cane to run a car. However, these technologies did not achieve great success because of the hefty price, climate restrictions, and other issues regarding safety on the road. In short, these technologies were unstable.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology is different. In fact, there are now converted hydrogen cars roaming the streets of US, Europe, and Canada. This improved technology is now more stable. Have you tried surfing the internet? The hydrogen fuel cell kits are widely available online and anyone can get it as long as they want to take advantage of the hydrogen technology.

Experts did not find vegetable oil and sugar cane as viable options. Can hydrogen technology offer something different? If you want proof, the technology is proof in itself since it is science reality. With hydrogen technology, you will still need gasoline aside from the HHO generator and conversion tool.

The conversion tool will need electricity from the car battery and this will be used to conduct the process of electrolysis. Through the process, hydrogen will be extracted from water and in turn provide the car with added power. Obviously, at this point in time, hydrogen technology can’t replace the use of diesel or gasoline. Well, who knows what might happen in the future.

By using this hydrogen fuel cell technology, you can reduce your fuel consumption to a great extent and save lots of money. Now, why did scientists and researchers find this technology viable? The reason is that hydrogen technology is much more affordable now. In fact, car companies will soon offer the public with affordable hydrogen powered vehicles.

Conversion projects are easy to build and are quite affordable. If you’re interested with the hydrogen technology, surf the net now. Check out the available resources that are in store for you. You will surely get tremendous savings by simply investing on the fuel cell kits online.

Even if you buy the built fuel cells, the cost is still nothing compared to the savings that you will get in return. Well, if you want changes, you definitely have to spend some money. This is a very good investment because you’re not only helping yourself but you’re also helping the world.

Find guides online to help you go through with your conversion project. Perhaps you have a friend or a relative who converted their car already. Ask help from them so that the task is immediately finished. If everyone in the world consider the use of hydrogen fuel cell technology, life will improve.

If you’re feeling the economic pinch and you are currently researching the subject of electric generator kits just read on for the real scoop – you are going to find it most ‘enlightening.’ What if i told you that you can produce more than enough electrical power to run every appliance in your home, all by yourself, and almost for free – too good to be true? I suggest you read on and get the full story.

The average person buys all of their energy from the electric company; they proceed to dutifully pay unreasonable bills while wondering why they have to waste so much money on something like electricity. However, there are the lucky (or smart) ones who found an excellent alternative; they didn’t want to live that way, they discovered a way of generating their own power – as much as they want – for the rest of their lives.

Before you get more information about electric generator kits take into consideration the fact that anyone can easily get set up with this; you can be up and running and saving money with your new energy system right away – it mostly requires your motivation to do so. So you’re probably eager to get in on all the details as to what is involved here; well all this can be achieved by converting renewable energy sources that are right ‘under our nose’ into free electricity. No matter who it is, would you believe that they can make a personal energy generator using sun and wind power with little time or effort without even leaving their property?

Even if you’re probably just curious about electric generator kits hopefully you now realize how easy it is to construct your own solar panels or windmill – a system that can actually decrease your electric bills by as much as 100%! This might sound like a very difficult and very costly process; i’m pleased to report that this is no longer the case – on our side we have a leading professional in the area of solar and wind technology who ‘cracked the code’ that enables anyone to do that.

Over the past years, most people never considered wind power as a serious source of generating energy and electricity, that too, for domestic purposes. In fact, wind was perceived as just another natural phenomenon with very limited usage in life. People generally reveled when the weather was pleasant, and tried to protect themselves when storms or blizzards attacked an area.

However, the situation grew more serious over time, as the oil crisis hit the world. The prices of oil rose rapidly, and the need for an alternative, less expensive source of energy was felt acutely. Such an energy source would indeed be required pretty soon. Now, wind power fitted the bill perfectly. In addition, the supply of wind power was plentiful as well. Thus, many experts tried to combine automobile alternators to radiator cooling fans. This was expected to produce 12 volts of DC current, and was quickly stored away on automotive storage 12 volt batteries. However stretching whatever little power that was produced to 120 volts of AC current, proved to be an unpractical task for most people. And thus, these trials on wind energy harnessing came to an end.

Business houses however, remained extremely active during this period. By the latter parts of 2007, wind power driven devices, like mini generators and turbines arrived in the markets, in large quantities too. Provided that enough quantities of wind power were available, these devices, coupled with utility grids, could substantially bring down the costs incurred on electricity by people. Experts decided to experiment a bit more with these equipments, in keeping with their mental make-ups. The wind turbines were used to try to generate electricity for one’s home requirements. The potential benefits of such an experiment were huge.

It was not that all these attempts met with immediate success. Many people found the continuous roaring sound emitted by the wind turbines to be eminently disagreeable. Hence, they complained of mechanical nuisance to the local authorities, against their neighbors, demanding the turbines to be stopped. In such cases, the authorities were in fact bound to put a stop on the working of any win d turbine. The wind power generated by the turbines lacked in reliability as well. Often, the power could not even spin the turbine blades. The impact of these failed experiments was profound. People were saddled with debt, and attempted to resell their electrical equipments, including the turbines, related accessories, and the inverters that were meant to generate 12 volt usable AC current from the obtained DC power. However, not many were interested in buying these products then.

However, it was not all a story of failure and gloom. Several valuable lessons could be gleaned from these failed attempts to harness wind power. Some of these lessons were:

a) Never use wind turbines in congested city areas. The high rises and sky scrapers hamper the smooth flow of wind at these places.

b) Do not try to tap wind energy by using turbines in the urban regions. The noises affect the ecological balance of the area.

c) For best results, combine a solar electricity generator with the home wind power turbines. The former can work smoothly during daytime. As night arrives, the blades of the wind turbine can start to rotate

d) Erect home wind turbines at areas of high elevation and/or at remote places. The former would get smooth, unhampered flow of wind at such places.

e) Opt for home wind turbines if you cannot access utility power, and

f) Note the similarities between a small home wind turbine and a large scale energy firms. The structure, and hence, the complexities of the two are thus the same too, albeit in different degrees. The different components of the home turbines and larger wind energy firms, including the batteries (for smooth flow of power), the torque controller, the inverter (for conversion of DC output to 120 volt AC current) were all the same too.

Thus, you can learn from these lessons and set up your wind power system – all you need to do is refer to an instruction manual. The manual would help you know how to install the system, the ideal place to do so, as well as how to acquire different parts at an affordable price. Free availability of the batteries is also discussed in the manual. The wires of the wind power system, and the safety features related therein should also be given due importance in such a manual. So go ahead and read such a manual and get ready to benefit from wind power. This information would considerably ease the process of installation of the system and using it to your advantage.

Though still in the early stages as far as honing the technology is concerned, alternative fuelling methods are inevitably going to continue playing a major part in the debates and discussions that will only increase as the human race looks for a way to go into the future in a cleaner, greener way. Most specifically, the concept of “hybrid” vehicles is one that is leading the way as far as alternative fuelling methods are concerned. Hybrid cars still rely on an internal combustion engine to get started, but benefit from electric power once on the move. Though still in its infancy, the hybrid vehicle is gaining in popularity and in use, and the Honda Insight hit the US market in 2006, notable for gaining 70 miles per gallon – a fuel efficiency level that we could only have dreamt of twenty years ago.

Flex-fuel vehicles differ from hybrids in that they use more than one kind of fuel, rather than using electric power. The combination of fuels generally occurs in the same petrol tank, and allows cars to use greener fuels such as ethanol, giving the vehicle a markedly smaller carbon footprint. Flexible fuel has not, yet, gained the same level of popularity as hybrid technology worldwide, but has been a notable success in Brazil, where President Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva has touted the benefits of cleaner energy. “Flex” vehicles, as they are known in Brazil, are recognizable by the word “Flex” on the bodywork and their yellow fuel caps that bear the legend “E85″. This is a reference to the fuel balance that drives the engine – a combination that features 85% ethanol and 15% petrol.

The US currently has the largest number of flex fuel vehicles, with a total of 6.8 million on the roads. However, many drivers do not realize their car is a flex-fuel vehicle due to a lack of consumer awareness and an equal lack of government promotion of the technology. Stations selling the combined fuel are also few and far between, giving the overall impression of an industry paying lip service to the technology without thinking about its implementation.

Given that flex, vehicles can run on 100% gasoline, the fact that they can be sold in America without the buyer knowing that they are flex-fuel means that many such vehicles are run as gas cars. This is in marked contrast to the E85 awareness in Brazil where it is now impossible to buy pure gasoline. The technology is easier to implement in a warmer climate, as ethanol’s alcohol content is prone to cold starting problems. Given, however, that the cars can run on different combinations, it is not impossible to see a time when flex-fuel vehicles are popular worldwide.

1. INTRODUCTION: FUTURE ENERGY NEEDS

Mankind has recently enhanced its living standard and its population in an explosive way. In fact, the human population quadrupled and primary power consumption increased 16-fold during the 20th century [1]. The consumption of energy, food, and material resources is predicted to increase 2.5 fold in the coming 50 years. As a result of our efforts for better life, we have come to face, in this 21st century, serious global issues threatening our safe life or even our existence itself on our mother planet earth. These are issues such as global warming, environmental degradation, declining nutrition on land and sea from rising CO2, and rapid decrease of fossil reservoir. Since the living standard and the population of developing countries are increasing continuously, the demand of energy will be several times larger than that of today’s requirement by the time of the half way of this century.

In 2000, the world had 6.1 billion human inhabitants. This number could rise to more

than 9 billions in the next 50 years as shown in Fig.-1. This future population increase is mostly due to very rapid increase in less developed countries although the number in more developed countries will be almost constant (about 1 billion) or rather decrease [2].

Fig.-1 World Population Prospects [2]

The explosive increase in the human population inevitably requires an exponential increase in the consumption of energy, food, and material resources. One primary power source at present comes from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. However, the fossil fuels have two serious factors which prevent them from being used for a long term as primary power source. One is their limited amount that does not last long if used with the same or higher pace than that of today (Fig.-2). The other is their negative feature of emitting carbon dioxide, one of the green house gases, which causes the global warming.

Fig.- 2 Pattern of Global Energy Dependence [3]

Fig.-3 Atmospheric carbon dioxide monthly mean mixing ratios. Data prior to May 1974 are from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO, blue), date since May 1974 are from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, red). A long term trend curve is fitted to the monthly mean values [4]

Atmospheric CO2 has increased from 275 parts per million (ppm) before the industrial era begun to 379 ppm in March 2004 as shown in Fig.-3. Some scientists suggest that it will pass 550 ppm this century. Climate models and paleoclimate data indicate that 550 ppm, if sustained, could eventually produce global warming comparable in magnitude but opposite in sign to the global cooling of the last Ice Age [5].

Global energy demand continues to grow along with worldwide concerns over fossil fuel pollution, the safety of nuclear power and waste, and the impact of carbon-burning fuels on global warming. As a result sustainable energy sources like solar, wind, hydropower, biomass, geothermal, hydrogen, ocean thermal, tidal power etc are drawing prime attention, out of which solar power is the most promising one. Terrestrial solar power has too many limitations like atmospheric attenuation, daily and seasonal variation, and affects by climate conditions etc. To overcome these limitations concept of Solar Power from Space is getting momentum, which was first proposed by Czech-American engineer Peter Glaser as a solution to the oil crises of the 1970s [6]. Solar Power from Space is a proposed concept to place a gigantic solar power station in space orbiting around the earth that uses microwave power transmission to beam solar power to a very large antenna on earth where it can be used in place of conventional power sources.

2. SPACE SOLAR POWER (SSP) vs TERRESTRIAL SOLAR POWER (TSP)???????????????????

The SSP concept arose because space has several major advantages over earth for the collection of solar power. Space is free from day-night cycle, atmosphere, clouds, dust, rain, fog and other climatic changes, so it would receive 30% more intense and at least eight times more sunlight than that of at ground constantly and continuously unaffected by the weather. In geosynchronous orbit it would receive sunlight almost 24 hours a day hence avoiding the expensive storage facilities necessary for earth-based solar power systems.? Since earth?s axis is tilted, it would be in earth?s shadow only for 70 minutes maximum at late night when power demands are at their lowest, during 42 days near the equinoxes [7] as shown in Fig.-5.

Fig.-5 Daily duration of eclipses as a function of the date [7]

3. SSP: SYSTEM DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES

The SSP system is composed of a space segment and a ground power receiving site (Fig.-6). Space segment consists of mainly three parts; solar energy collector to convert the solar energy into DC (Direct Current) electricity, DC-to-microwave converter, and large antenna array to beam down the microwave power to the ground. Ground power receiving site uses a device called rectenna (rectifying antenna) to receive and rectify the microwave power beam. The rectenna system converts the microwave power back to DC power which is then converted to conventional AC (Alternating Current), and is connected to existing electric power networks.

Assuming typical values for efficiencies like 15% for solar panels to convert solar energy into DC, 70% conversion rate in the space segment from DC to microwave, 90% beam (power) collection efficiency, and 80% conversion rate for rectenna from microwave to DC in ground segment, the estimated over-all efficiency is approximately 7.5 %. With such efficiency a SSP space segment would be of size of about 50 km2 (5 km x 10 km) to generate 5 GW DC power on earth (Fig.-6).

Fig.-6 : Reference Model: 5 GW GEO based Space Solar Power Station Designed by US Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA in 1979 [8]

3.1 -SOLAR CELL: EFFICIENT STRUCTURES

In the very near future, breakthroughs in nanotechnologies promise significant increase in solar cell efficiencies from current 15% values to over 50% levels. That might decrease required size of space segment by about 3 fold. Author proposes Metal-Metal junction cavity solar cell which theoretically promises to increase solar-electric conversion efficiency many folds.

A cavity of metal m2 (work function W2) with thin polish of metal m1 (work function W1, W1 <W2 , Fig.-7) on inner surface, with a pin hole is kept at the focus of the solar concentrator coinciding the pinhole and focus. Pinhole is covered with transparent glass to protect inner polish of cavity from atmospheric reaction. Such cavity behaves as metal-metal junction solar cell (termed as M-M cavity solar cell) with various features (described below) leading to enhancement of solar-electric conversion efficiency.

?? The major loss in usual structures is the reflection loss (about 30%) but in M-M cavity solar cell once ray enters in cavity, undergoes multiple inner reflecti

Other alternatives being looked at are probably more efficient but less appealing to some, include reusing vegetable oil, a converter with filter, which can be placed in any diesel engine to allow it to take 100% used vegetable oil such as that from restaurants, it is refined slightly after being collected, and then sold at less than half the price of regular gasoline, higher end cars such as Saab and Mercedes are using this technology.

Water powered cars are also a reality by splitting the hydrogen oxygen (H2O) combo, that comprises water, and using the energy that is produced when they are put back together, these cells can be effectively be installed into cars reliant on petroleum, tailpipe emissions? Water.

Bio-gas energy sources have come up with a process of using organic wastes solids or liquids, do you remember in the movie back to the future, when the professor came back from the future at the end of the movie he stuffed garbage into the fuel tank and converting it into a usable gas product. Well at biogas energy sources they take food waste with other degradable organic matter like grass clippings, and by placing them through in holding tanks, they decompose naturally, the gas is siphoned off and the methane is used for powering generators boilers etc, or it can be refined further to make fuel for transportation.

However, the most exciting development of bio-fuel is that of using algae it is a fast growing high-yield product, 50% of it’s body weight is an energy source, it is quickly grown on ponds and requires no pesticides or fertilize to flourish, 20,000 gallons per acre per year can be produced on open surface ponds, Glen Kertz of Vertigro explains that different strains of algae can be used to meet other transportation needs for jet fuel and diesel if produced in contaminate free Vertigro, they grow the algae vertically in plastic bags hung in a green house, enabling more surface area to to exposed to sunlight and enabling an enormous amount of the water to be continually recycled, it also takes up far less space and therefore yield per acre is much more than 20,000 gallons per year.

With all these alternatives, when will it be feasible for these methods to be available the general public?

Bioliq stems from biomass technology, which isn?t new in regards to taking masses of a substance and converting it to energy. But turning those masses into diesel fuel is something that is new. How does it work? To start, all one needs are the agricultural leftovers from farms or even the trees thinned from forests. Once gathered, the straw or wood is put through an intense heating process that changes the product into a new substance. This substance is then converted to fuel. Why is this important? For environmentalists, this means a fuel that doesn?t have to be extracted from a limited supply buried beneath the earth but is created from a renewable byproduct.

Still don?t understand how straw becomes fuel? This is how it works. First, the plant material, in the absence of air, is heated to around 500?C, a process known as pyrolysis. This produces a thick oily liquid containing solid particles of coke termed biosyncrude. The biosyncrude is then vaporized by exposing it to a stream of oxygen gas, before being heated at high pressures to a temperature of around 1400?C. known as gasification.? This process transforms the liquid biosyncrude into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen termed syngas.

After any impurities are removed from this syngas, it can be catalytically converted into a range of different chemicals and fuels, including methanol, hydrogen and a synthetic version of diesel.

Members of the Karlsruhe research center have estimated that their processing could bring the costs of producing liquid biofuels down around $2.65 per gallon.

Bioliq is now taking its first steps towards commercialization. In conjunction with the German process engineering company Lurgi, the construction of a pilot plant based on the bioliq technology should be fully completed in 2012. Once the plant has been built, large amounts of fuel can then be created. The question will then be how best to distribute this new fuel in large scale so that it can effectively compete with fossil fuels. As fossil fuels decrease in supply and increase in price, tax incentives have been discussed as the answer.

So what will be the new fuel of the future? It is hard to tell at this point, but many good ideas are being tried and tested, which means hopefully they will soon be available to the whole public for use.

According to statistic, the America consumed 20 million barrels of petroleum every day in year 2006. This is really a big number but when we look at the numbers of China and India and other emerging economies the situation looks more grim.

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There is urgency to come up with alternate fuel solution to oil, the world leaders, corporate leaders and environmentalist are working closely to create alternate fuels. The research universities are working tirelessly and corporate leaders are pumping huge amount for future fuel technologies.

We all know oil is made up of fossilized remains of ancient marine plants and animals, we also know this process takes millions of years to convert fossil into crude oil. The problem is there is a long process to get oil, where as demand for consumption is growing every minute in leaps and bounds.

Now the big question is, where do we stand if we run out oil. Already signs are not good. Refineries are running at high out put still not able to keep consumption requirements, Some of the oil rigs are running dry, sure signs of bad days. Some of the oil regions are involved in long conflict, resulting into delay and short supplies. Bottom line we no longer can depend upon on oil as major energy source.

Another factor, why alternate technologies for fuel are being pursued is the risk to environment. The most damage to earth has happened in last century, with explosion of industrial revolution and expansion of industries across all fields has created tremendous impact on global warming. People are able to see changes in environment, changing weather patterns, too much or no rain in different part of world, temperature soaring and glaciers shrinking all are signs of global warming.

The future needs are not only alternate fuel to gasoline but the future fuel has to be clean and no hazard to environment, unlike oil which creates greenhouse gases a prime reason of global warming. The next fuel will be clean, environment friendly, cheap and will be available in all countries. One more thing next generation fuel will help in reducing the tension among nations fighting for oil share.

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The emerging economies China, India and Mexico are buying or leasing oil fields in Asia, Africa and Europe to keep their counties interest intact. The developed countries are busy in filling their oil reserves to safe guard national reserves. All this fight for oil and fierce competition among nation is bound to create conflict and war. The next generation fuel not only will help in reducing consumption demand but also help in keeping peace in world.

Now we have talked in length about the current issues related in respect to gap in demand supply of oil. Let’s look at alternate fuels available and which one are in research. Read more on Green Energies????”http://www.fueltoburn.com/“

Natural gas is primarily composed of methane, though traces of other elements and compounds, including water, may also be found within it. Some substances, such as water, must be removed before liquefaction because the extremely low temperature required for the process causes certain such substances to form solids. Liquefied natural gas is colorless, odorless, and produces low emissions when burned as compared to other fossil fuels.

Converting natural gas into liquefied natural gas allows for efficient transportation and storage of the resource. When natural gas is converted to LNG, its volume is significantly decreased, facilitating efficient transport by water over the long distances between continents, thus allowing for the cost efficient import and export of this valuable resource. When a specifically designed LNG carrying ocean vessel delivers its cargo to one of the import terminals in the United States, the liquefied natural gas is stored in special storage tanks until it is time for it to be converted back to a gas and delivered via pipeline to natural gas consumers. Companies providing electric power and natural gas may also ?stock up? on LNG when prices are low for use during peak demand times, a technique known as peak shaving.

The demand for natural gas in the United States is widely believed to be increasing at a higher rate than supply at the current level can fulfill. The industry is complex in that numerous levels of the supply chain must align in order to be economical. The vessels that transport liquefied natural gas, import stations where such vessels deliver the gas and the facilities which perform the process of liquefaction as well as converting the liquid back to a gas are extremely specialized and must strike a balance in order to ensure that the process is economical and efficient. Locating and extracting natural gas from within the earth, converting it into a liquid state, safely transporting it via pipeline and or ocean vessels, and converting it back into its gaseous state in an economical way is important to maintaining manageable prices for consumers.