Greetings!

This past month was a game-changer for our institute. On August 9^th, I was fortunate to Zoom with the Legislative Director of our Maryland Congressman Glen Ivey mainly to present our favorite climate solution, Gigaton Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). Then two days later, on August 11^th, the US DOE announced the “world’s largest investment” of $1.2 billion to remove over two megatons of CO2 per year, “a key step in scaling up direct air capture (DAC) technology.” Then, a few days later, IEEE Spectrum on August 15^th was on a similar bandwagon but with an even better bid to “capture gigatons of carbon dioxide dissolved in ocean water.” Of course, this double synchronicity was very impressive to the Congressman’s office, when I got back to him and certainly raised the issue to a notable level, so my journal articles on the subject have now become even more relevant, and years ahead of their time. Visit our IRI Blog page to access the links to all of those climate journal articles targeting gigaton CDR that we have authored in just the past few years. All of this also provides a summary of Story #3 where Bloomberg news explores the innovative profitability of carbon cleanup hubs around the country, as the related story views its future maturity.

To finish off the public education fulfillment of IRI’s mission this month, I met with Mayor Kabir of College Park here at IRI, with a tour of our office and laboratory. We also discussed Phase Change Insulation advocacy for the city of College Park Maryland, as well as painting roofs white to reflect the heat instead of the primarily black roofing prevalent throughout the city. The response from his office is above.



Story #1 this month updates the story we announced in FE eNews back in October 2020 about Prof. Thibado at the U of Arkansas and his amazing free energy invention. For those unfamiliar with this once in a lifetime breakthrough with a perpetual source of motion from thermal fluctuations, the short one-minute graphic YouTube video is great. The circuit design was chosen to overcome the condition set by the second law of thermodynamics, which says that useful energy can't be collected when both the circuit and the ripples are in thermal equilibrium, even if we use a diode. It is called a Graphene Energy Harvester (GEH) and charging capacitors with the GEH is published in August 2023 in Physical Review E. We hope to see a GEH solid state IC available for sale in the near future as Paul has promised.

Story #2 raises the “very interesting consequence that allowed the harvesting of the quantum fluctuations” declared by Prof. Hess at Trinity College in Dublin. This same question has also been explored in my Proposed Use of Zero Bias Diode Arrays as Thermal Electric Noise Rectifiers and Non-Thermal Energy Harvesters" which is a peer-reviewed paper presented at SPESIF February 24, 2009 sponsored and published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP). With this comparison, it is gratifying to see the latest development by MIT that actually controls and “biases the quantum vacuum” fluctuations which are previously purely random zero point energy published in Science magazine. As a follow up to Story #1, you have to wonder if perhaps the nonthermal random quantum fluctuations will someday charge capacitors as well.

Story #3 is introduced above.

Story #4 is an appealing topic for those with all-terrain vehicle (ATV) experience. From an Helsinki based company comes an 18-wheel ATV equipped with 18 wheels but also with 18 motors and 18 springy suspension legs. The ATV’s 18 wheels distribute load and force over 18 motors in independently suspended wheels. This 18-wheel-drive electric ATV is made entirely from recyclable materials.

Story #5 gives us hope that Li-ion batteries may soon be a thing of the past. In this nice resource article, we see a summary of some of the best alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. From partly biodegradable batteries to sodium batteries, to zinc metal batteries, we are seeing a wide selection of possible future energy storage solutions emerging from all over the world.

Sincerely

Tom Valone, Editor