TechConnect - The Nano Issue

010

writinG by :: christopher di virGiLio

Stations will offer truckers the chance to
stay cool and cut emissions
Printing
Press

writinG by :: Joe KuLLman

alongside the park-and-plug station that will consist of auxiliary air conditioning units and electrical docking outlets, allowing the driver to rest comfortably and preserve cargo temperatures,” Shaffer says, adding that he hopes the program will take off.

“The electricity to operate the park-and-plug stations would be paid for through a type of pre-paid or debit card issued to the drivers by the freight companies,” Shaffer says. “It will certainly be more cost effective (for the trucking companies) and ultimately benefit our air quality.”

The future of lighting
and solar power
technology is flexible
– literally

+ GET CONNECTED
epa.gov/cleandiesel
azdeq.gov

ong-haul truck
drivers soon will
be able to idle
down during rest
periods in Arizona
as part of a program to reduce
diesel emissions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $1.73 million to the state Department of Environmental Quality for a truck stop electrification program that will target Arizona Department of Transportation rest stops and invite privately owned truck stops to participate in the installation of “park-and-plug” stations, says Mark Shaffer, ADEQ director of communications.

The stations will provide truckers with the ability to shut down their engines during rest periods instead of leaving them idling, which will save fuel and cut emissions.

“Yuma and Nogales, Ariz., are the target areas based on their high particulate quality,” according to Shaffer. “Both cities are listed as ‘PM10’ non-attainment locations, which translates to the size of the air particulate in (10) microns (or less).” A human hair is about 50 microns wide.

Each park-and-plug station will cost about $15,000, and bids are being sought for installation of 80 stations across the state.

“Typically, the driver will pull

+ WHAT CAN WE DO TO LIMIT OUR DIESEL EMISSIONS? On high-pollution days, ADEQ suggests using public transportation, car pooling and limiting your driving.

+ IS BIO-DIESEL A VIABLE
ALTERNATIVE?

Bio-diesel is a great alternative to diesel fuel because it burns much cleaner, according to ADEQ.

ight sources may be so flexible they can be cut with scissors and

then shaped and reshaped into spheres, tubes or triangles. Sheets of flexible materials containing solar cells could be printed like a newspaper.

In his Printed and Flexible Electronics and Photonics Laboratory at the Arizona State University Research Park, Ghassan Jabbour is using nanoparticles to develop techniques to yield more durable, low-cost, high-ef-ficiency solar cells and solid-state lighting sources.

He’s using nanomaterials to build electronic and photonic components so small they can be printed onto flexible plastics, textiles or thin metal foils. More than making electronic and photonic devices much more portable, Jabbour, a professor in the School of Materials and director of the Advanced Photovoltaics Center, is confident such methods can produce solar cells that will convert a higher percentage of sunlight into

electrical energy than achieved to date.

Because of unique properties that materials exhibit at the nanoscale, mixtures of certain nanomaterials produce “a broader absorption spectrum of incident solar light,” Jabbour explains, meaning they can be used to achieve a more effective conversion of that light into electrical power. Plus, the same nanomaterials can be incorporated into functional devices using common printing methods.

Printing of new nanomaterials for electronic circuitry opens a broad range of applications: Imagine a flat and exceedingly flexible surface containing nanosized circuitry. It could be molded into electronic devices in almost limitless sizes and shapes.

Progress to date has lured funding from several industry sources, including Tempe-based Solterra Renewable Technologies Inc., which is supporting some of Jabbour’s research through a $1.9 million grant.

“Stable, clean and affordable sources of energy are critical to achieving sustainable economic growth on a global level,” says Stephen B. Squires, the company’s president and chief executive.

Technology capable of widely distributing green energy “can be the key to worldwide development of fair economic systems that produce the greatest good for humankind,” Squires says. “We think advanced solar technology is the answer to this challenge, and the magnitude of this challenge calls for high-volume, low-cost printing techniques for deployment of solar energy systems.

Jabbour’s knowledge of both the evolving technology of the solar industry and the intricacies of printed electronics, Squires says, “is essential to improving the performance and cost metrics necessary for our vision of dramatic change for energy generation and consumption.”