This new method skips a step and converts energy from motion directly into stored chemical energy.
For those who slept through their high-school physics classes, batteries work by converting chemical energy into electricity.
Wall Street values the reserves of coal companies at 7 cents per million Btu of chemical energy.
Where there is no light, as in the deep sea, creatures rely on chemical energy (or chemosynthesis).
That means that low-temperature waste heat can be used to produce high-quality chemical energy hydrogen for the first time.
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Fuel cells use the chemical energy of fuel to generate electricity without combustion.
The hydrothermal vents, cold seeps and methane vents we shall shortly discover are all ecosystems which depend on chemical energy.
Solar Energy Storage: Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a system for converting solar energy to chemical energy and, subsequently, to thermal energy.
Although C4 plants evolved to cope with low levels of carbon dioxide, the workaround comes at a price, since it takes additional chemical energy.
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Even more appealing, this reaction occurs at low temperatures, generating hydrogen energy that is greater than the chemical energy stored in xylose and the polyphosphate.
FORBES: Could Hydrogen Breakthrough Revive The Fuel-Cell Car?
Until this new system was developed, capturing kinetic energy required converting mechanical energy into electricity, which would then be converted into chemical energy for long- or short-term storage.
The question is when storing of electricity in batteries or a fuel cell feedstock will become more eonomicial than burning a form of chemical energy to gain mechanical power.
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Because nuclear energy (stored among particles inside atoms) is millions of times more dense than chemical energy (stored among atoms in molecules), nuclear reactors belong high on our long list of energy alternatives.
The battery, developed by Zhong Lin Wang and colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology, converts the kinetic energy from motion into chemical energy, which can then be used to power any device.
In another exciting development, researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a self-charging power cell that's able to directly convert mechanical energy into chemical energy, making it possible to harvest up to five times more energy from footsteps.
If only some way can be found to transport and store hydrogen, the fuel cell has two powerful things going for it: It doesn't pollute and it converts 55% of the chemical energy in the fuel into useful work.
Here's one example why we should care: in 1977, diving in the human occupied vehicle Alvin, scientists investigating a volcanic ridge 2500 m (1.5 miles) below sea-level found something totally unexpected -- lush ecosystems thriving at hydrothermal vents fueled by chemical energy released from the Earth's interior.
For producers of many chemical and energy products, which reduce the country's scarce natural resources and harm the local environment, Beijing has completely eliminated the rebates to keep those goods in China.
But until recently, the only way to make lasers powerful enough to blow something tough into pieces was to use a chemical laser, which produces its energy through a chemical reaction.
We know from scientific studies on Earth that, given the right chemical elements and some energy, organic compounds form.
Japanese investors are wagering that cheap energy prices could lead to a revival of the American steel and chemical industries, as well other energy-intensive manufacturing.
The chemical industry, the nation's largest consumer of natural gas, both for energy and as a chemical feedstock, is rapidly moving offshore in search of cheaper gas--and taking jobs and capital with it.
Over the last two decades, engineering and chemical breakthroughs have produced significant energy gains in ethanol production.
Ecuador and Nicaragua are working more closely with Brazil in helping to construct hydroelectric energy plants and chemical industries, respectively.
Its polymer technology also carries the potential for other application markets, including water desalination, ultra-capacitors and energy generation, chemical and biohazard resistant fabrics, and immersion coatings.
In one corner is a group called Consumers for United Rail Equity (CURE), which includes electric utilities like Entergy and Xcel Energy, and chemical companies like Dow and DuPont.
However, it is not the forces of energy trapped in chemical bonds or even the awesome power of the atom that we are now beginning to unleash, but human potential itself.
This means that the cost of conversion plus the cost of storage will have to be similar to the cost of providing energy on demand from the energy stored in chemical or nuclear fuels.
FORBES: Storage, Not Generation, is the Challenge to Renewable Energy
It makes all the difference in the world where your energy is and what chemical form it takes.
Xtreme, which has attracted backing from venture capital firms and corporate investors like Dow Chemical, Fluor and BP Alternative Energy, is developing large-scale digital power systems for renewable energy and micro-grid applications.
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