From: Integrity Research Institute [iri2@comcast.net]
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 FUTURE ENERGY eNEWS
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      May 2010

Dear Subscriber,
 

On this Memorial Day, as we remember our military service men and women, IRI is pleased to announce a collaboration for future energy developments that will help all sectors of society, including our Defense Department. This FE eNews serves as the IRI announcement of the Fourth International Conference on Future Energy (COFE4) to be held under the auspices of SPESIF-2011 (see #1 story) on March 15-17, 2011 at the University of Maryland in the Washington DC metro area. The exciting part of SPESIF is also to have five concurrent conferences all under the same roof, all focused on energy and propulsion. Our second story (#2) announces a www.kickstarter.com campaign for a laudable future energy project called the "Ultimate Energy Showdown" produced and directed by filmmaker Chris Toussaint who I have known for years, ever since we worked on the "Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point" video back in the mid-1990's, produced and sold by www.LightworksAV.com . He already has found some amazing energy inventors, all of whom will be put to the test for ten days each, to prove the performance claims. Just like "The Biggest Loser", our country needs a TV show like Ultimate Energy Showdown to focus attention on how important an energy breakthrough will be for reducing the megaton weight of our carbon emissions. Emerging "green" and exotic technologies are here today. Technologies that if implemented would completely revolutionize our planet's power needs with a green industrial revolution. Your pledge of support at any level will help kick this project off of the starting gate. IRI is also able to accept tax-deductible donations earmarked for this project, according to IRS standards for nonprofits, with a small administrative fee. Watch the short intro video online to see what Ultimate Energy Showdown is all about. Lastly, the #3 story about the solar discovery by the U of CA at Berkeley is a true breakthrough. Their product converts 95% of the 85% of sunlight that it absorbs into electricity! We'll see if the inventor can be a speaker at COFE4

Sincerely,
 
Thomas Valone, President
 
IN THIS ISSUE
1) COFE4 joins SPESIF-2011 Conference in DC
2) New TV Series On Emerging Energy
3) Material Traps Light on the Cheap
4) Power Kites Harvest Wind Energy
5) From Waste Biomass To Jet Fuel
 
 
QUICK LINKS
 
 
 
 
 
 
1) COFE4 Joins SPESIF-2011 in Washington DC
 
Integrity Research Institute Press Release, May 30, 2010,
 
Washington DC - After three Conferences on Future Energy held in the DC area in the past ten years (1999, 2006, 2009), the Integrity Research Institute (IRI), is teaming up with the prestigious Institute for Advanced Studies in the Space, Propulsion and Energy Sciences (IASSPES) from Madison AL to host a joint conference under the umbrella of Space, Propulsion & Energy Sciences International Forum (SPESIF) to be held in 2011 at the University of Maryland. SPESIF has gained the affiliation with the American Institute of Physics which publishes the peer-reviewed papers Proceedings of SPESIF each year (for the AIP Conference Proceedings page for 2010, see http://scitation.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=APCPCS&Volume=1208&Issue=1 in CD and bound book format ). Other exciting symposia that also are a part of SPESIF each year include the Symposium On New Frontiers In The Space Propulsion Sciences, the Symposium On High-Frequency Gravitational Waves, a Symposium on Astrosociology, and the Meeting On Future Directions In Space Science And Technology.
 
Conference on Future Energy Theme and Objective
The push for future sources of new energy is a long-term program and several Conferences on Future Energy (COFE) have been held in the past, with past Conference Proceedings available (http://www.integrityresearchinstitute.org/cofe.html). However, much of these new ideas, technologies, and concepts  have already been developed. Therefore COFE has the objective of being a venue to expose these worthwhile ideas while maintaining a flow of innovative theories and concepts and keeping the doors open for advances in more non-conventional approaches that could yield tremendous technological and economic dividends in both investment dollars and potential applications for future generations. The future energy umbrella includes energy, force production and bioenergetics.

 
Papers presented at the COFE section of SPESIF should deal with experiments, theories, and approaches that will help man achieve both a short-term and long-term solutions to fueless energy for electricity generation and travel, as well as drugless energy medicine. Short-term objectives support the near-term environmental initiative for humankind to live on the earth without burning fossil fuels and off the Earth, to the Moon and Mars. Long-term objectives will lay down the scientific foundation necessary for future generations to extend mankind's ability to survive in other parts of our solar system. These long-term objectives are more pronounced and designed to stretch the intellectual capabilities and imagination of mankind in advanced technical disciplines. This will broaden our understanding and usage of the space environment for communications, power generation/storage, and propulsion. Papers are invited in the following sessions:

D01. New Energy and Bioenergy Developments
D02. Hydrogen and Hydroxy Generators
D03. Alternative Electricity Generation
D04. Solar and Space Solar Power
D05. Advanced Nuclear Energy
D06. Bioelectromagnetics Developments 
 
 
The "Call for Papers" has been issued for the upcoming SPESIF-2011 joint conference of COFE and the other above-listed symposia, with abstracts due August 15, 2010 and draft manuscripts due a month later. Papers and presentations are invited in all technical areas of the SPESIF-2011, organized by IASSPES. SPESIF-2010 will be held March 15 - 17, 2011, at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Papers approved by the Technical and Editorial Committees will be publishable in an American Institute of Physics (AIP) proceedings. Interested authors or presenters are invited to submit abstracts for approval by email through the technical chairs listed within the individual descriptions with a copy sent to the editorial chair at abstracts@ias-spes.org  for cataloging. The email submission should indicate in the SPESIF forum, number and title of the technical session in which they wish their abstracts to be considered. The general deadline for submission of abstracts for papers and presentation is August 15, 2010. After this date, approval will depend generally on space availability. The abstract guidelines/template can be found at :
 
For More Information
Inquiries can be made by email to spesif@ias-spes.org   or by calling (256) 694-7941.
 
 
 
 
2) Ultimate Energy Showdown TV Series
 
Free Spirit Productions Press Release, May 1, 2010
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ChrisToussaint/ultimate-energy-showdown-series
 
Ed. Note:
This project is endorsed by Integrity Research Energy as having scientific integrity - TV
 
 About This Project

At the dawn of the 21st century humanity stands upon a precipice.

Climate change threatens to forever alter our planet, as we know it. Excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are the result of over a century of polluting fossil fuel technologies. Environmentally-caused health issues are soaring. Recent catastrophic events have underscored the point.

But there is hope.

Emerging "green" and advanced exotic technologies are here today. Technologies that if implemented would completely revolutionize our planet's power needs. A green industrial revolution. Providing mass numbers of people worldwide can get up to speed on which technologies are real, safe and worth their weight in crude oil.

Ultimate Energy Showdown is a television series that demonstrates and proves or disproves new energy devices that could power our homes, automobiles, and the electric grid. It combines the do-it-yourself , practical "does it work?" philosophy of MythBusters (Science Channel) with the scientific integrity and creative imagination of NOVA (PBS station). We'll feature 3-4 cool devices or processes on each episode.

Our hosts Matt & Carter challenge the validity of each inventor and invention presented. One is more open minded than the other, creating a critical debate that holds the viewers' interest and provokes global audience interactions through the "cloud".

I've assembled a professional team to develop and pitch this television series to international cable TV networks and produce high quality episodes for a reality-series budget. We feel strongly that we can get a cable deal as well as an Internet streaming deal if we can reach the decision-makers with a professional pitch package.

To reach them, I need funds to print materials and demo DVDs, hone our sizzle reel, and attend 3 of the major television markets/conferences coming up, to meet with and pitch the concept to network executives. These events are:

Factual Entertainment Forum (Real Screen) - June 2-3, 2010 - www.factualentertainment.com
Great American Pitchfest - June 26-27, 2010 - www.PitchFest.com
LATV Fest (NATPE)- July 12-15, 2010 - www.LATVfest.net

Obviously, we will have to expend some of our own money upfront to cover a good part of these expenses before our Kickstarter campaign is up. Costs will include attendance fees, printed materials like one-sheets and business cards, as well as DVD copies of the sizzle reel. We will also include consultation with Mark & Jeanne Simon, founders of www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com which will cost about $350.

We are passionate about this subject and the impact it could have on society. Type in "Free Energy" at www.Yahoo.com and you'll see over 1 billion hits - the interest is out there! With multiple media programs focussed on Green Energy Alternatives, we feel the barriers are finally being broken down to allow for this kind of information to reach mainstream audiences. We feel it can shift the conversation from Doom and Gloom about the environment to one of Hope. So that when these technologies do come to market, millions of people will know that they are not just "perpetual motion machines" promoted by scammers, and they'll be armed with knowledge to go out and buy them instead of relying on the coal, oil and nuclear industries for our energy security.

Visit our websites for more details about my films, our team and the concept -
http://www.freespiritproductions.com
http://www.ultimateenergyshowdown.com (under construction)

Project By: 
Chris Toussaint [email: c2saint@verizon.net ]
 Santa Monica, CA

Project Location: Los Angeles, CA

Christopher Toussaint is an award-winning documentary film & video maker whose credits include two new-paradigm science documentaries-Cold Fusion: Fire From Water (1999), winner of an Aurora Platinum Best of Show Award, an Axiem Silver Award, Honorable Mention from the Columbus Film Festival and a Telly Award (distributed by Monarch Films/The Video Project/Liberty Entertainment) and Roswell: The UFO UnCoverup (1998) winner of 3 EBE Awards from the International UFO Congress and a Finalist in the Telly Awards (distributed by UFO Video). Currently he is the Director of Transvision and President of Free Spirit Productions in Santa Monica.

From 1992 to 1996 he was the Director of Acquisitions and Sales for Lightworks Audio & Video where he also produced numerous audio and video programs such as the best-selling video, Opening To Angels (1994), honored by the Film Advisory Board, Excellence In Media and the 17th Annual Telly Awards, Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point (1997), a feature documentary awarded a Finalist statuette in the 18th Annual Telly Awards, an Aurora Gold Award and Best Special Interest Documentary from the Profit Producers, The Second Coming of Science (1996) with Dr. Brian O'Leary, and Hidden Memories (1996) with Budd Hopkins.

He also has edited numerous documentary specials and TV programs & promos including, Raw For Life, The Science of Miracles with Gregg Braden, Experiencing The Soul, Sweat Equity and Emmy award winner Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center: 75 Years of Service.

He is past Executive Director of The Producers Consortium where he produced the short, Columbus Go Home, about the protest of indigenous peoples over the selection of Christopher Columbus' descendent as Grand Marshal of the Rose Bowl Parade, and the documentary feature, Future Options, focusing on alternatives for creating a more environmentally-sustainable society. He also organized and hosted "Getting At The Heart of Truth", a monthly speaker series held at the Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica featuring independent producers of alternative, socially-conscious films.

Other programs he has produced and/or directed include Investing Your Conscience series for KWHY-TV, the Business Channel; Star Flight, New Age music video & a Silver Award winner at the Houston International Film Festival; and Rodeo Clown, documentary short & Finalist in the National Student Film Festival.

Toussaint graduated from the University of Maryland and started as a 16mm film editor for American National Enterprises and Alan Landsburg Productions. He has since served as cameraman, editor, writer, production assistant, researcher and/or director on numerous commercials and long-form programs in television, theatrical features, educational films and home video including The New Candid Camera, Disney Channel's American Teacher Awards, The Earth Day Special for ABC, Girlfriends with Vanessa Williams and In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy.

Pledge your support today by visiting: Ultimate Energy Showdown series http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ChrisToussaint/ultimate-energy-showdown-series where a introductory trailer is online.

For More Information

www.freespiritproductions.com
www.transvision.bbnow.org 

 
3) Material Traps Light on the Cheap
 
Katherine Bourzac, Technology Review, February 26, 2010
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24665/?nlid=2777&a=f

The flexible composite requires far less silicon than today's solar cells
Light Trap
solar cells

A new photovoltaic material performs as well as the one found in today's best solar cells, but promises to be significantly cheaper. The material, created by researchers at Caltech, consists of a flexible array of light-absorbing silicon microwires and light-reflecting metal nanoparticles embedded in a polymer.
 
Computational models suggest that the material could be used to make solar cells that would convert 15 to 20 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity--on par with existing high-performance silicon cells. But the material would require just 1 percent of the materials used today, potentially leading to a dramatic decrease in costs. The researchers were led by Harry Atwater, professor of applied physics and materials science at Caltech.
 
The key to the new material's performance is its ability to trap light. The longer a photon bounces around inside the active part of any solar cell, the greater the chance it will dislodge an electron. All high-performance solar cells have antireflective coatings that help trap light. But these cells use require far more silicon and must be sawed from wafers, a wasteful process.
 
"The promise of light trapping has always been that you could use less silicon and bring the costs down, but it's been difficult to implement," says Eli Yablanovitch, professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved with the research.
Many groups have turned to structures such as nanowires and microwires in an effort to solve this problem. The Caltech group's photovoltaic material, which uses silicon microwires, demonstrates a new level of performance largely due to the addition of reflective nanoparticles.

Silicon Microwires
Atwater's group grew arrays of silicon microwires from a gas on the surface of a reusable template. The template dictates how thickly the forest of wires will grow, and the diameter of each wire. The arrays are arranged sparsely, and without further treatment, make a poor solar material. But the wires are treated with an antireflective coating and coated in a rubbery polymer mixed with highly reflective alumina nanoparticles. Once the polymer sets, the entire thing can be peeled off like a sticker. Over 90 percent of the resulting material is composed of the cheap polymer, and the template can be used again and again.
 
"These materials are pliable, but they have the properties of a silicon wafer," says Atwater. When light hits the composite solar mats, it bounces around, reflecting off the alumina particles until it can be absorbed by a microwire.
 
Even though the microwire arrays are quite sparse, the reflective particles ensure that very little light escapes before it's absorbed. The Caltech group has not yet published details of the material's performance as part of a solar cell, but the composite has demonstrated very good numbers for light absorbance and electron carrier collection.

Solar Cell Requirements
"There are three things a solar cell has to do: it has to absorb the light, collect all the [electrons], and generate power," says Atwater. The material can absorb 85 percent of the sunlight that hits it, and 95 percent of the photons in this light will generate an electron. Until the results are published, the Caltech group won't disclose their power generation results.
 
"What's exciting is, you can use a lot less material to make a solar cell--two orders of magnitude less," says Yi Cui, professor of materials science at Stanford University. This will do more than just lower the material's costs. "Once you use less material for deposition, your manufacturing line is shorter," Cui explains. This has two business implications: it should take less capital investment to build the factories needed to make the cells, and it should be possible to produce them at a faster rate.
 
Atwater's group is now working on making the photovoltaic material over a larger area and incorporating it into prototype solar cells. The results published so far come from proof of concept experiments using square centimeters of the material. "We have to do the normal unglamorous engineering: making low-resistance electrical contacts, and making large areas, hundreds of square centimeters," says Atwater. He adds that although the material is put together in a novel way, it can be made using a combination of techniques that are well established 
and scalable.

 back to table of contents

4) Power Kites Harvest Wind Energy
 
Tessa Henderson, Energy Harvesting Journal, February 11, 2020
http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/power-kites-to-harvest-wind-energy-00002030.asp

kitesExperts say that the energy in winds miles above the earth is sufficient to provide the world's energy needs. One company working towards harnessing this energy is Kite Gen Research, based in Italy. Kite Gen uses kites or "semi-rigid automatically piloted high efficiency air foils" which harness energy from winds at altitudes of up to a thousand metres. The kites are attached to power generators on the ground by high resistance lines which control the kites' direction and angle to the wind. Kite Gen says their method is faster and more constant than using traditional windmills.

 
A clear advantage of this technology is visually suggested in the illustration below where the Kite Gen concept is compared with a wind turbine, whose most efficient part are the wing tips in red, where the highest speeds are reached. Using a kite only the essential components remain - the high speed wings and the generator which is moved to ground level. The resulting structure, base foundation included, is much lighter and cheaper. Moreover the operative height can be adjusted according to wind conditions.
 
The KSU (Kite Steering Unit) allows a power kite or an array of power kites to be automatically piloted over a predefined flight path. The power kite is manoeuvred by differentially unrolling and recovering the two lines on two winches controlled by engines. Each Kite Gen power plant is composed of several KSUs and at the core is software that receives data from on-board avionic sensors and autonomously pilots the power kites, so that their flight patterns can be controlled, synchronized and directed to maximise the production of energy.
 
Kite genThe Kitegen is a simple aerodynamic system where the kites create lift dynamically by flying at 70-80 m/sec; this is the speed reached by the tips of the blades of a conventional wind turbine. In the simplest configuration (called "stem"), the system uses a single kite linked to a power generator located on the ground. When the kite moves up it generates energy that is transformed into electric power by the generator. When it reaches its maximum height, it is placed in an aerodynamically non-lifting configuration, so that it can be pulled down at a very small energy cost. A single stem could have a maximum power of a few MW. Larger plants could be operated in the "carousel" configuration. In this case, the kites fly at a constant height and at much higher altitudes, pulling a generator that moves on a circular rail. For a large carousel system, the maximum power obtained could be 1 GW or even higher.
 
Kite Gen is putting this technology to use in a new project called KitVes. The main objective of the KITVES Project is to provide power aboard vessels including supplying energy to on board services and auxiliaries and supplying energy for traction purposes on electric motors-powered vessels.
  
For more read : Energy Harvesting and Storage for Electronic Devices 2009-2019 and attend Energy Harvesting & Storage Europe and Wireless Sensor Networks & RTLS Summit 2010 
 
 
 
5) From Waste Biomass  to Jet Fuel
Kevin Bullis, Technology Review, February 25, 2010,
 
Fuel made from waste by-products could lower greenhouse gas emissions.
A novel chemical process developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison converts cellulose from agricultural waste into gasoline and jet fuel. It produces fuel by modifying what until now had been considered unwanted by-products (levulinic acid and formic acid) of breaking cellulose down into sugar.
 
Biofuel Tap
Biomass
The work was described in this week's issue of the journal Science.
The process is one of a number of new technologies that make conventional fuels such as gasoline and diesel from biomass rather than petroleum. Unlike ethanol--today's most common type of biofuel--these new fuels can easily be used in conventional automobiles and transported with existing infrastructure. What's more, the jet fuel it produces stores enough energy to power commercial or military airplanes.
Up to now, however, methods to make these advanced biofuels have often involved biological processes in which microbes break down sugars derived from biomass, including cellulose.
 
The Wisconsin method could prove more reliable than those processes because it is a chemical process that's easier to maintain. What's more, carbon-dioxide created during its production can be easily captured--an advantage over conventional biofuels.
To convert cellulose, a large component of biomass, into fuel, researchers first need to break it down into simpler components, such as simple sugars. Microorganisms then process those sugars to make liquid fuels.
 
Cellulose can be broken down by treating it with acids, but these reactions are difficult to control--the sugars are often further converted into formic and levulinic acids. "Rather than fight it, we wondered if we could start with the unwanted product to make fuel," says James Dumesic, professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It is "an entirely different approach to making biofuels," says Bob Baldwin, thermochemical process manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO, who was not involved with the work. In the Wisconsin process, the acids are combined to form gamma-valerolactone, an industrial chemical.
 
Catalysts made of silica and alumina then help convert this to a gas called butene, which is easily converted to liquid hydrocarbon fuels, including gasoline and jet fuel.
One advantage of the Wisconsin process compared to biological routes to biofuels is that it could decrease greenhouse gas levels, says Doug Cameron, managing director and chief science advisor at Piper Jaffray.
 
Conventional biofuels are at best carbon neutral--growing crops for biofuels takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but this is released again when the crops are grown and processed and the biofuels are manufactured and burned. The new process produces a pure and high-pressure stream of carbon dioxide, which is easy to capture and permanently store. As a result, the net carbon emissions could be negative--part of the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants would be prevented from returning to the atmosphere.
 
 
However, economics questions remain. Baldwin says that although the process produces high yields of the desired fuels, it requires a large number of processing steps, including separating cellulose from other components of biomass, which could make it expensive. It will also need to compete with other thermochemical processes that can be adapted to work with biomass, such as those that have been used to convert coal into liquid fuels.
 
Related Events
Space, Propulsion & Energy Sciences International Forum (SPESIF-2011)
College Park MD, Washington DC Metro area.
Tuesday, March 15 - Thursday, March 17, 2011
http://www.ias-spes.org/SPESIF.html
 
 
MIT Energy Conference
Boston, MA
Friday, March 05, 2010 - Saturday, March 06, 2010
http://www.mitenergyconference.com


 
 
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