In the Labs: IBM Cools Solar, Dirt Power & Better Fuel Cells

IBM Makes Concentrated Solar Breakthrough: Like a kid with a big magnifying glass, IBM has magnified the sun’s rays more than 2,000 times in a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system to produce 230 watts off a square centimeter PV chip. The trick is to keep the silicon chip from vaporizing under such intense heat. Big Blue has lots of experience cooling semiconductor chips. The computer giant used a very thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound between the chip and the heat sink. The extremely thin layer of metal sucked heat off the chip, keeping it operating at 85 degrees Celsius when otherwise it would fry at temps upwards of 1,600 degrees. IBM says it has no intention of getting into the solar energy business but could license the technology to CPV firms, like SolFocus and Whitfield Solar.

Harvard Undergrads Win $200 For “Dirt-Powered” Fuel Cell: A team of Harvard students and alumni have developed a microbial fuel cell aimed at solving lighting challenges in Africa and won $200,000 in the World Bank’s Lighting Africa 2008 Development Marketplace competition. The fuel cell runs organic-rich materials such as soil, manure or food scraps. The team had help from microbiology professor Peter Girgius, who pioneered the technology and formed the startup Living Power Systems around the cells, which collect extra energy from microbial metabolism. The students have now formed their own social enterprise around the technology, Lebônê Solutions.

MIT Creates More Powerful Fuel Cell: Engineers at MIT have taken a granular approach to fuel cells and through a process called layer-by-layer assembly have boosted the power output of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) by 50 percent. The key is replacing the center membrane, currently made of Nafion, with a film that is less permeable to methanol. The scientists “were able to tune the structure of the film a few nanometers at a time,” and reduce internal leakage of fuel. Replacing Nafion is something researchers elsewhere are working on as well. Sharp recently claimed to have created the highest-power density DMFC ever.