Meeting 10.13.05

Engineering Building

I.                   Presentation of Findings

II.                Renewable

1.      Hydrogen Fuel Cells

a.       Iceland has a national policy to have hydrogen power, US doesn't

b.      look into state economy   

2.      Bio-diesel

3.      Biomass

4.      Ethanol

a.       need to make sure you are using renewable energy to generate it  not fossil fuels because it takes more energy to make it than it gives

b.      CO2 emissions are less than gasoline

III.             Solar

1.      Photovoltaic/Solar Cells

a.       how long does the sun have to shine on these cells to produce?

b.      area of bus * amount of energy generated = amount of energy needed?

c.       energy stored in battery?

2.      Photo-thermal

IV.             Direct photosynthesis of Hydrogen- doesn't exist

1.      need more research of ways to split hydrogen

2.      Lithium to split hydrogen?

V.                Wind- not applicable in Maryland, don't have enough wind

VI.             Wave Power

VII.          Hydro-power

1.      fish problems, flood problems important because of near bay

VIII.       Geothermal- not feasible in MD

IX.             Nuclear- out of our league

X.                Solar Decathlon Presentation- 20 houses running on solar power

1.      11 kW of electricity, 25% efficient

2.      linear relation between amount of pressure u store it and the amount of energy you have from hydrogen

3.      storing energy in hydrogen, not batteries so it is benign and is a closed system

4.      list of hydrogen bus- pilot system in Georgetown?

XI.             Send documents to Neha by Thursday OCT 20. & post on LiveJournal. Documents of research can be founded on Blackboard

XII.          Bio-diesel speaker Oct. 27, 2005

XIII.       Next meeting- We need to rule out things and for Oct 27, 2005- have a document which states which ones are out and in and why, what more do you need to find out about the ones we wanna do.