Rob Hoebe improved the original cooker. (Photo: Tomas van Dijk)
The gasification cooker that IDE graduate Rob Hoebe (MSc) developed has the potential of turning the environmental burden of rice waste into productive and health-protecting fuel.
In Vietnam, where Rob Hoebe did most of his research, rice is not only the main source of food but also an important source of air pollution because of the burning of harvest residues. Another major indoor air polluter is cooking on small, open fires that fill homes with thick choking smoke. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with cooking, Design for Sustainability, gasification, Marcel Crul, rice husk, Rob Hoebe, stove, Vietnam.
By admin
– mei 10, 2012
Comparison of before (left) and after therapy shows disappearance of tumours (shown as dark spots) from the liver. Note: tumours in the kidneys are not affected. (Photos: Frank Nijsen, UMC Utrecht)
Terminal liver cancer patients have received an experimental radiotherapy involving highly radioactive microspheres at the Utrecht Medical Centre. At sufficient doses, the liver tumours were eradicated while side effects proved minimal.
Researchers at the Reactor Institute Delft played an important role in developing the optimal radiation method for the poly-lactate covered holmium microspheres. Delivering sufficient dosages without overheating or damaging the spheres proved to be challenging, however. During the clinical trial, the RID routinely radiated holmium spheres in response to requests from medical biologist, Dr Frank Nijsen, and head of radio pharmacy, Dr Fred van het Schip (UMC Utrecht). One time, when Dr Menno Blaauw, a RID researcher involved in the holmium project, couldn’t help wondering how the patient fared after the treatment, he phoned his UMC contact, who replied that he didn’t know, as the patient had just left for a skiing holiday. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with Frank Nijsen, Holmium, Menno Blaauw, radio therapy, RID, UMC Utrecht.
By admin
– mei 10, 2012
Design of the Delft Solar Boat (Illustration: Roel Stein)
Like its predecessor, the Delft solar boat will rely on hydrofoils to lift it out of the water and allow speeds up to 36 kilometres per hour or more. But this time, the fins will be auto-adjusting.
The student team is preparing their vessel for the fourth Frisian solar boat race, which will take place from July 8-4. The biannual event is a race for solar-powered boats over 220 kilometres, inspired by the legendary skating event called the Elfstedentocht.
Two years ago the TU Delft team featured hydrofoils for the first time. And although their boat did reach a top speed of 36 km/h, it came in third over all. That was a bit of a bummer after the victories at the first two editions in 2006 and 2008. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with Frisian solar boat race, hydrofoils, solar boat.
By admin
– april 26, 2012
Sander Tensen: ‘getting there slowly but surely’. (Photo: Jos Wassink)
TU researchers are testing ammonia from urine as a feed for fuel cells. The DHV-led project aims to make plants for wastewater treatment self-sufficient in energy.
A number of technologies have been developed to remove nitrates and phosphates from sewage water as energy-efficiently as possible. The recently distinguished Anammox method developed by Professor Mark van Loosdrecht (AS) is one such technological application. DHV consultancy chose another tack: in an experimental plant near Groningen, they removed the nutrients chemically in order to optimise energy production. This DHV water innovation project was awarded the 2010 ‘Vernufteling’ award, as it saves energy and recycles phosphates at the same time. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with ammonia, DHV, fuel cell, nitrates, phosphates, phsop, sewage water purification.
By admin
– april 26, 2012
Photoanodes convert light into electrons that combine with protons to form hydrogen gas. (Illustration: Berkeley Lab)
Artificial photosynthesis it could be called: making hydrogen from sunshine. “Five years ago we were a factor thousand removed from commercial viability, now only a factor three.”
Imagine pouring water into a tank with a partition plate in the middle. You close the lid, put the tank in the sunlight and sit back to watch the miracle happen: on both sides bubbles emerge on the plate. They grow, detach and bubble upwards. Hydrogen for free as long as the sun shines. The tank will also produce oxygen, but that is of less importance.
Until now, this sun-powered fuel production was mostly mythical. Nonetheless, important advances have been made. Last Monday, Dr Christina Enache defended her thesis, in which she tested a number of materials on their suitability as photoanodes (that produce electrons under sunlight). And although she didn’t find a material that was suitable enough (she tested titanium dioxide, indium-vanadium oxide and iron oxide), her work has been most valuable to other researchers at ChemE (faculty of Applied Sciences), says her PhD supervisor, Dr Roel van de Krol: “Thanks to Christina’s work we now have a far better idea of which oxides may work as a photoanode and what the challenges are.” Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with photo anode, solar hydrogen, sunlight.
By admin
– april 26, 2012
Kouwenhoven in zijn lab - Foto: Sam Rentmeester
An elementary particle that was predicted 75 years ago by the Italian physicist, Ettore Majorana, has now been detected by Professor Leo Kouwenhoven and his Kavli institute team, in collaboration with FOM and TU/e. As a world’s first, the researchers succeeded in creating a device and circumstances in which the Majorana fermions emerged. They published their findings in Science.
All elementary particles in physics have their own antiparticle or opposite charge, such as the electron and the positron. But there is only one particle that is its own particle: the Majorana fermion, as proposed by the Italian physicist, Ettore Majorana, who derived it from Dirac’s equation (a 1927 connection between special relativity and quantum mechanics). After Majorana’s enigmatic death, the mysterious (anti)particle was more or less forgotten. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with Leo Kouwenhoven, Majorana.
By admin
– april 19, 2012
Prof. Johan Smit shows HTS cable in High Voltage Lab - Photo: JW
Feeding in 100 gigawatt of power from Africa to Europe, as the Desertec plan proposes, demands enormous research and investments. The power capacity is hundred times larger then the BritNed cable connecting Netherlands and the UK.
At the IEEE student lecture on the Desertec project (bringing solar and wind power into Europe on a large scale), Professor Johan Smit and Dr Oleg Chevchenko gave an update on the research and development on high power transmission cables.
Despite the complexity, there are two golden rules when scaling up power.
First, you go to higher voltages to reduce losses. In the Netherlands the maximum is 450 kV, but the next steps are 600 and 800 kV. Secondly, when transporting over long distances, you need to switch over from AC to DC (direct current). A nice example of both technologies is the Chinese 800 kV DC 1000 kilometre long overhead line connecting hydroplants with the cities Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It was built by Siemens and put into operation in 2009. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with HTSC, HVDC, power transmission, Supergrid.
By admin
– april 19, 2012
Lake Vleuwemeer - Photo: Gerrit Bikker | Wikimedia
Water in many of the large shallow Dutch lakes is turbid and of a colour between grey and green. But it’s not only algal bloom that mucks up our waters, discovered Dr Ellis Penning from Deltares.
Many lakes that were clear and transparent in the 1960s have lost their eco quality since then, owing to an overload of nitrates and phosphates dumped into the sewage and onto the fields. Algae began to dominate the waters, making them murky and too dark for water plants to survive in. Underwater deserts emerged unseen.
Primed by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD in 2000), water managers have taken to improving the ecological water quality. An obvious starting point is reducing the amount of ‘nutrients’ that flow into the surface waters. However, for many large shallow lakes, this measure has proven insufficient: the water is as opaque as before, suffocating any life at the bottom. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with algal bloom, Deltares, ecology, Ellis Penning, mud, murky, nutrients, Veluwemeer, Veluwenee, water quality.
By admin
– april 5, 2012
High-energy photons create multiple electron-hole pairs in quantumdots. (Illustration: Wieteke de Boer)
Surprising behaviour of electrons in quantum dots may raise the maximum efficiency of solar cells to 44 percent by producing two electrons for one photon.
Researchers in the Chemical Engineering (Applied Sciences) department are quite familiar with quantum nanodots, or q-dots. These tiny lumps of semiconductor material may be tuned to absorb specific wavelengths of light, just be adapting the size (or the material). The silicon q-dots in the most recent study for example measured 3.5 nanometers across and were tuned to infrared radiation (wavelength 800 nm). Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with photonics, q-dots, quantumdots, Siebbeles.
By admin
– maart 29, 2012
Two new research projects at the PV research group aim to improve the efficiency and stability of thin film solar cells. Professor Miro Zeman aims for 14 percent long-term efficiency. The group received grants totaling 750,000 euro. Continued…
Posted in Articles, Delta.
Tagged with Miro Zeman, thin solar cells.
By admin
– maart 23, 2012
