Energy innovation

By creating an aggregated place for university innovations, the iBridge Web site has compiled research from sources across the United States in a variety of areas, from the broad – environment and energy, to the more narrow - wind, solar, biofuel, and sustainable.

The innovations listed on the iBridge Web site are updated on an ongoing basis, so keep checking the links above, or search on your own, to find out what is new.

The Latest Innovations

Washington State University 30 JAN 12	Rapid Reduction of Toxic Furfural to Less Toxic Furfural Alcohol by Ralstonia Eutropha Strain JMP134. Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass to separate lignin and cellulose and hemicelluloses is a necessary step before ethanol fermentation by yeast. Furfural, a key inhibitor of yeast, is produced during heating in the pretreatment. Several approaches have been tried to deal with furfural toxici...
Washington State University 30 JAN 12	Genes Encoding Chavicol/Eugenol Synthase from the Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata) This technology involves the production of chavicol/eugenol and potential and current applications in antibacterials/plant defense/analgesics, polymer building blocks, and in biofuel/bioenergy production.
Washington State University 30 JAN 12	Suppressor Mutants Affecting Hypocotyl Length Camelina is one of the crops that is being actively explored and researched in recent days for its potential use as a biofuel crop. Value-added traits that would reduce input costs should aid in exploiting this crop as an alternative fuel crop. This particular technology relates to the use of Ara...
Washington State University 30 JAN 12	Thermochemical Conversion of Lignocellulosic Materials in Advanced Anaerobic Digesters for the Production of Methane During the torrefaction and pyrolysis of lignocellulosic materials, a sizable fraction of the biomass (8 - 15 mass %) is converted into C2 - C4 oxygenated organic compounds. These small organic compounds can be condensed and recovered in the form of an aqueous phase containing up to 50 mass % of ...
Washington State University 30 JAN 12	Exploiting Leaf Starch Synthesis as a Transient Sink to Increase Plant Productivity and Yields Improvements plant productivity (biomass) and yield have centered on increasing the efficiency of leaf Co2 fixation and utilization by non-photosynthetic sink organs. This technology focuses on exploiting leaf starch synthesis as a transient sink to increase plant productivity and yields. In part...
University of Michigan 25 JAN 12	Plasmonic Back Reflector for Multi Functional Solar Cells Plasmonic Back Reflector for Multi Functional Solar Cells
AzTE 19 JAN 12	Hybrid Space Vector PWM Schemes for Interleaved Three-Phase Converters <p>Three phase <span class="caps">PWM</span> converters are widely used in numerous <br /> applications including adjustable speed motor drives, uninterruptible power <br /> supplies and grid integration of renewable and distributed resources such as <br /> solar photovoltaics. Some of the import...
AzTE 16 JAN 12	Improved Harvesting and Extraction of Carotenoids from Haematococcus Algae The natural red pigment and high-value antioxidant <p>astaxanthin has great potential for aquaculture and human consumption. The green <br /> microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis is the most popular production strain because <br /> it grows rapidly and produces comparatively large amounts of astaxa...
AzTE 16 JAN 12	Ratiometric optical dual oxygen and pH sensor with three emission colors The efficiency of biofuel production depends on the <p>photosynthetic activity of microbes; to maximize their growth it is necessary to <br /> continually monitor the environmental conditions. Traditional monitoring methods <br /> (such as using electrodes to measure CO2 consumption and/or O2 gen...
AzTE 16 JAN 12	Improved Harvesting and Extraction of Carotenoids from Haematococcus Algae The natural red pigment and high-value antioxidant <p>astaxanthin has great potential for aquaculture and human consumption. The green <br /> microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis is the most popular production strain because <br /> it grows rapidly and produces comparatively large amounts of astaxa...
See All 576 innovations