British Airways and Velocys, which makes renewable fuels, are partnering to make jet fuel from household waste. The first conversion plant will produce enough fuel to power all the airline’s Dreamliner flights from London to San Jose, California, and New Orleans. The fuel is expected to be clean enough to save about 60,000 tons of...
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With Britain’s North Sea oil production dwindling, British Airways had little choice but to look for alternatives to petroleum power. Still, air travel is among the most polluting forms of transport. Commercial airlines are researching non-fossil alternative fuels, an effort long underway by the world’s military as a national security issue.
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China says its oil and coal are peaking
China’s oil production could peak as early as next year and its coal production in 2020, according to a government-funded study by the China University of Petroleum. China’s rich natural-gas reserves won’t begin to flag until 2040, the study concludes. But gas production is water-intensive and China can’t spare enough water to get all that...
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As its domestic fuel supplies begin to fall short, China will seek to import more oil and coal as an interim measure. It’s already moving to tie up available supplies. This will place greater demands on global oil and coal reserves, driving up prices and sparking new drilling and mining ventures. However, because China’s population...
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New developments in artificial hearts
At any moment, about 3,000 people in the United States alone are waiting for a replacement heart – one whose tissue is compatible with the recipient. Artificial hearts are the solution, but designs so far have been clunky and fraught with problems. Now medical engineers at ETH Zurich, a Swiss science and technology university, have...
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The combination of 3D printing and stem-cell technology will make replacing failing organs routine by the middle of this century.
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Dubai, the land of flying taxis?
The tiny Arab nation of Dubai has granted permission to the German company Volocopter to conduct a five-year test of its electric flying taxis in the country. The air taxi, made from carbon fibers, weighs less than 1,000 pounds and looks like a giant drone. It has nine batteries powering 18 rotors. The batteries can...
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As desperate as some of us are to fly over urban traffic gridlock, flying taxis will remain a pricey specialty service. It will be years, perhaps decades, before artificial intelligence can evolve a system of air-traffic control for autonomous aircraft. Also, the ungainly design of the taxis will limit the number that can be airborne...
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Charging electric cars without stopping?
What if electric cars could be charged on the go, never needing to stop to refuel? That’s the implication of technology created by Stanford University engineers. The group transmitted electricity across a 3-foot distance to a moving object. The technology involves magnetic resonance coupling, in which an electrical current in one set of wires creates...
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Wireless recharging of batteries in electric cars, or robots, will give mobile machines far more range and will upset the battery industry, which has emerged as a key industry for future technologies. However, it’s likely to take decades for Stanford’s invention, or something like it, to pop up along roadways.