The feasibility of heat engines, coupled with an internal combustion engine and designed to increase the coefficient of efficiency of hydrocarbon or other chemical fuels, was considered. The prospects of the use of osmotic phenomena in aqueous solutions of thermosensitive polymers in order to improve the operation of heat engines were shown.

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are receiving an increasing level of attention for both smalland large-scale applications due their high fuel flexibility compared to other types of fuel cells. This article reviews recent work in SOFC materials research, with an emphasis on anodes that can directly utilize hydrocarbon fuels.

Combustion instabilities in gas turbine engines often give rise to acoustic resonances. These resonances occur as manifestations of different acoustic modes, of which a single or multiple modes may be present. In this work, the acoustic behavior of a model gas turbine combustor, developed at DLR Stuttgart by Meier, was investigated using both syn(thetic) gas and standard hydrocarbon fuels. Syng...

This paper describes recent developments in solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC) that use Cu-based cermets as the anode for direct oxidation of hydrocarbon fuels, including liquids such as gasoline, to generate electrical power without the need for first reforming that fuel to H2. Cu-YSZ cermets were found to be stable in hydrocarbon environments, but exhibited low performance for direct oxidation. Re...

Molten carbonate fuel cells use carbonate salts of alkali metals as electrolyte. Due to the highly corrosive nature of the electrolyte, various countermeasures are being developed. MCFCs are expected for high-efficiency power generation systems using hydrocarbon fuels, such as natural gas and coal gas. This article describes the mechanisms of operation and cell degradation, as well as the featu...

Artificial photosynthesis, the photochemical fixation and recycling of CO2 back to hydrocarbon fuels using sunlight and water, is both a significant challenge and an opportunity that, if realized, could have a revolutionary impact on our energy system. Herein, we demonstrate one of the first examples using biomass derived hierarchical porous photocatalysts for CO2 photo-fixation into sustainabl...

Photocatalytic Conversion of CO2 to Hydrocarbon Fuels via Plasmon-Enhanced Absorption and Metallic Interband Transitions Wenbo Hou, Wei Hsuan Hung, Prathamesh Pavaskar, Alain Goeppert, Mehmet Aykol, and Stephen B. Cronin* Department of Chemistry, Department of Electrical Engineering, and Department of Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, United St...