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Two Japanese companies are working together to develop carbon fiber materials for use in cars, according to a Reuters report. Toray Industries (3402.T) and Mitsubishi Rayon (3404.T) hope to mass produce the lightweight material by 2010 in an effot to make vehicles 40% lighter and up to 30% more fuel efficient. They also intend to develop technology to recycle carbon fiberin order to bring costs down. For years, proponents of carbon fiber materials have supported its widespread use in vehicles, but the cost of the highly engineered materials was prohibitive. Now with gasoline and steel prices on the rise, carbon fiber is becoming more economically feasible. The Nikkei business daily reported that Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. were participating in the partnership, along with Toyobo Takagi Seiko Corp and researchers from the University of Tokyo. However, both Nissan and Honda denied that they were participating in the project. A spokeswomam for Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization said teh government is also researching the further use of aluminum and other light-weight metals to replace steel.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that could make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night. A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity, while using far less energy than current methods. With this catalyst, users could rely on electricity produced by photovoltaic solar cells to power the process that produces the fuel, said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who developed the new material.

Washington, Dec 10 : In an effort to combine the properties of plastics and metals, scientists have developed a composite material, which not only conducts electricity like metals but is also light and inexpensive like plastics. The plastic-metal hybrids will be used in the very places where plastic components are equipped with printed circuit boards, for instance in cars or aircraft.

this new so-called Klimatic Base 1 AirWater Machine does its share of inventive (but not entirely unique) water purifying nonetheless, with it promising to pull drinkable water out of the air. That's done, as you might have guessed, with the aid of an apparently standard dehumidifier, which gets paired with several filters and a UV light chamber that the company says will eliminate any bacterial content that might be in the water.

Worldwide sales of copper-based carrier Ethernet access platforms rose 75 percent year-over-year to $185 million in the four-quarter period ending in 1Q08, according to the new Carrier Ethernet Access Platform Quarterly Market Tracker service published by Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com/), the market research division of TechWeb's Light Reading (http://www.lightreading.com/). Copper-based CEAP platforms include Ethernet over TDM access circuit and Ethernet over bonded copper pair (G.shdsl and MIMO on DMT/VDSL2) solutions.

The road to grid parity for PV power generation will be difficult, needing five or more years to compete with utility power, unsubsidized, on a large scale, noted Mark Thirsk, managing partner at Linx Consulting, at a recent SEMI PV forecast luncheon (Sept. 18) in Santa Clara, CA Most input materials for PV production are in relative oversupply and will not constrain production, Thirsk pointed out - and for this reason manufacturers are conservative about capacity investment. In particular, his PV module production forecast (see Fig. 1, above) shows an overstep in demand in 2008. One reason for suppliers' reluctance to build capacity for entering the silicon supply chain is that it is an inefficient process. "Only about 15% of all the silicon going into the supply chain goes into the wafers, so it's a pretty wasteful and capital intensive process, so there is a lot of reluctance to build capacity," said Thirsk. Despite the efficiency challenges, Thirsk's forecast indicates that an oversupply may occur in 2009 Because >40% of PV grade silicon is lost at the wafering step, Thirsk believes this represents a significant opportunity for the right technology. Additionally, diamond wire is a potential replacement for slurry technology, but this technology is still immature. In the crystalline silicon (c-Si) value chain, Thirsk sees opportunities for optimizing mono-crystalline wafers with metal wrap technology and backside contacts; process optimization and material improvements would improve cell efficiency, and glass, wafer, backsheet, and grid improvements can enable more efficient light capture. Looking ahead, Thirsk told the audience that while thin-film technologies will enjoy strong growth "and may be more attractive to value-add materials and equipment suppliers, thin-film cell production will remain a minority share for the medium term." (see Fig. 3, below) He closed his presentation encouraging the creation of a Moore's Law type of roadmap for the PV

But the new technologies-which could help consumers cope with these prices-are unlikely to arrive in large numbers in time for the next oil spike. According to the authors of "The Impact of Plug-in Hybrids on U.S. Oil Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions," a chapter in the new book Plug-in Electric Vehicles: What Role for Washington, published by the Brookings Institution, cars are durable goods that last well over a decade. "The transformation of the light-vehicle fleet to new internal combustion technologies or to hybrid and plug-in hybrid technologies will take decades from the time such vehicles are widely available at competitive prices," according to the authors, Alan Madian, Lisa Walsh and Kim Simpkins, researchers at consulting firm LECG. They believe it could take another decade from now until the new technologies compete on a price basis, and begin the process of replacing current fleets.

In the light of the review the Board of Anglo American has unanimously concluded that the proposed combination with Xstrata would not be in the interest of Anglo American shareholders.

The Chinese government said that it would expand an existing subsidy program to encourage the purchase of new vehicles and home appliances, thereby boosting domestic spending. China will now allocate 5B yuan ($733M) for owners of light trucks and passenger vans who upgrade to new models. It also plans to spend 2B yuan ($293M) to fund discounts of new purchases of home appliances when customers turn in old goods, which will possibly give support to domestic copper demand. The plan will apply to almost all household appliances, including air-conditioners, television sets, refrigerators, washing machines and computers. Exports of these have been weak and the plan will help local producers to de-stock more quickly.

A Cemig (MG) firmou acordo de cooperação com a Agência Norte-Americana para o Comércio e Desenvolvimento, do Governo dos Estados Unidos, garantindo um financiamento a fundo perdido de US$ 710 mil em investimentos. Os recursos serão aplicados no estudo de viabilidade de implementação de redes inteligentes de energia da Cemig e da Light (RJ), em complemento a seu programa de smart grid.

"Many drinking water treatment facilities worldwide disinfect water with ultraviolet light because it's quick and efficient, kills protozoa such as Giardia, and doesn't introduce potentially harmful disinfection by-products. But a new study ("UV Disinfection Induces a Vbnc State in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa") shows that UV treatment alone can push bacteria into a dormant state instead of killing them, and that in some cases, the bacteria can later revive and proliferate. "

"1. Chinese smelters are jointly calling on the government to scrap the 15% export tax on aluminium ingots, as they hope to benefit from a global market deficit. Yet many market participants cast doubts on the proposal as it is against Beijing's industrial policy on the light metal. 2. Beijing has cancelled approval requirement for aluminium smelting projects, but it continues to keep tight control over the sector, ordering local governments not to register new aluminium smelting..."

"Some of Lectromec's conclusions from the data review: One would typically anticipate a high number of failures at the beginning and end of an aircraft's life cycle (component life cycle article here), but incidents for aircraft with less than 10k hours represent only 7% of all reported incidents. Many of the aircraft individually reviewed in the 30 - 40k cycle range were 8 - 10 years old with about 10k cycles. Date of aircraft entering service is not readily available with the data (to be included in future data reviews). If this assumption holds, then most wire incidents around the time of the first aircraft D-check. The most common system to be reported is the emergency path lighting system. Many of the EWIS errors were found during routine service checks. The hazard of these EWIS failures to the aircraft/crew is not easily ascertained from many of the reports. Of the 725 records reviewed: 25 reports identified shorting. 15 reports including detection of smoke - 8 of these were identified as faulty smoke detectors. 5 reports including mention of electrical arcing There were some incidents that were reported to have included smoke/fire. An example of this is the following: "