A fuel-cell-powered aircraft set a world record by staying aloft for a whopping 23 hours and 17 minutes on just a single load.

In fact, the unmanned aircraft broke the previous record by double. Of course, the plane was built by the Naval Research Laboratory and not by students from the University of Michigan. Still, those students kept their plane in air for over 10 hours–impressive!

Of course their plane was only $2,500. I am guessing the Navy-built one cost us a whole lot more.

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A German supplier of electronics and powertrain design to most of the major automakers for the last 25 years has just secured a patent that could be a game changer for electric vehicle adoption. Their technology would allow electric vehicles to be charged as they drive over any road embedded with a recessed wireless recharging strip, using electromagnetic induction.

Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV) says the technology will be available commercially within 3 years, is insensitive to weather conditions, and is not susceptible to mechanical wear.

As Wilfried Nitschke from IAV says, “The road is then the range extender.”

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DARPA, the U.S. military’s chief high-tech office, is looking for a few good photovoltaics. Not just any garden variety solar panels, mind you.  The agency is soliciting proposals for Low-Cost Lightweight Portable Photovoltaics (PoP) that can stand up to battle conditions and environmental extremes while delivering high power conversion efficiency.  Think backpacks with built-in solar capacity, with teeth.

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Is the world ready for another ambitious ocean power program?

Blue Energy Canada Inc. and World Energy Research are moving quickly in that direction.  After signing a memorandum of understanding last month, the two companies just announced a formal agreement to build a 200 megawatt, half-billion dollar commercial tidal power project based on Blue Energy’s Davis Tidal Turbine.  Meanwhile, DARPA (the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been quietly working the other end of the scale to develop buoy-sized ocean power generating equipment.

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Abandoned land mines have been called “the worst form of pollution on earth.”  They kill up to 20,000 people every year, and according to one recent study it will take 450 years to find and clear all of them.  That estimate might be too optimistic, because new mines can be laid as fast as the old ones are cleared.  Ridding the world of land mines sounds like a Sisyphean task of epic proportions.  Or is it?  Enter DARPA (the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) and the humble bee.

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After a year-long demonstration project, the U.S. Navy is poised add its own contribution to reducing the military’s carbon bootprint - or carbon wake, as the case may be.  The Navy stands to gain up to 87% in savings for shipboard lighting, by switching from conventional light bulbs to high efficiency LED and HID systems developed through DARPA under the HEDLight (High Efficiency Distributed Lighting) program.  One recent retrofit has been accomplished by Ohio-based Energy Focus, Inc. Saving energy is just part of the picture: the quantum leap to HEDLight is also expected to yield significant gains in the Navy’s strategic efficiency.

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The next generation of portable fuel cells is being, almost literally, battle-tested by the U.S. military, which put a portable fuel cell/battery system through its paces this past February during field maneuvers in the 28th annual Cobra Gold.  Cobra Gold is the U.S. military’s long-running multilateral exercise in Thailand.  The lightweight, portable fuel cell system was developed by DARPA’s Robust Portable Power Sources program, and its  tooth-to-tail implications apply to military and civilian sustainability, too.

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The Pentagon intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant blimp which will reach an altitude of 65,000 feet and remain airborne for 10 years. The dirigible will be filled with helium and powered by an innovative system that uses solar panels to recharge hydrogen fuel cells.

“It is absolutely revolutionary,” Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force, said of the proposed unmanned airship — describing it as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane. The aircraft will provide intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below.

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h/t to sciencemag via talking points memo.

Image: ugenro on flickr.

According to Aviation Week, DARPA has issued a broad agency announcement (BAA) soliciting research proposals and plans to award 12-month contracts totaling $4.56 million to demonstrate the feasibility of alternative CTL technologies. Already investigating bio-fuels, the agency says its CTL program is intended to demonstrate processes that could meet Defense Department demand for JP-8 jet fuel from U.S. coal reserves at a cost-competitive price compared with petroleum-based fuels.

DARPA says existing direct and indirect coal liquefaction processes are “extremely expensive to implement, consume large amounts of water and produce unacceptable amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants.”

DARPA is aiming for a $1.5 billion plant that will make 100,000 barrels of fuel per day where each kilogram of coal converted uses only 0.5 kg. of water. Currently, each kilogram of coal converted uses about a kilogram of water and produces 1.3 kg of CO2 and 0.27 kg of oil, says DARPA. In fact, fuels from coal produce 80 percent more CO2 than petroleum-based fuel, but DARPA believes CTL concepts may exist that avoid the production of CO2. The need for water as a source of hydrogen is also an issue with existing methods.

It seems like flying less might also be a good option - 100,000 barrels a day!

Image source: James Gordon on Flickr