Getting inspiration from a fish, researchers are looking at making wind turbine blades out of advanced materials that will change shape to make the systems more efficient and longer lasting.
This article from U.S. News & World Report says the blades with changing aerodynamic profiles will best suit whatever the prevailing wind conditions bring:
“The idea was born from a simple observation of a fish in an aquarium,” said researcher Asfaw Beyene, a mechanical engineer at San Diego State University. “Many flying and swimming animals have superior efficiencies than manmade devices. The primary difference between natural motion and motion of manmade devices is lack of geometric adaptability to varying flow conditions.
“In flying and swimming creatures, the geometries morph to fit to a flow condition,” Beyene added. “In man-made devices, typically the geometry remains rigid in spite of widely varying flow conditions.”
Beyene is leading one team exploring morphing blades for wind turbines. Another team is working at the University of Bristol in England.
“The wind can be very harsh on blades — turbines turn off if the wind gets too much, or else the blades will break fighting the wind,” explained researcher Paul Weaver, an aerospace engineer at the University of Bristol.
“A morphing blade uses the wind to its advantage rather than fighting it, adapting its shape to get greater performance,” Weaver added. “This has the potential to significantly relieve unwanted stresses in the blades, increasing their efficiency and helping to prolong their life.”
Researchers believe that today’s glass and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic blades can be controlled by an electric signal, and future wind blades made of urethane rubber will be able to flex, bend and twist shape to reach the optimal angles that get as much energy from the wind as possible.
More state vehicles in Texas will be running on something other than the non-renewable petroleum the state is known for.
Officials at a biodiesel plant in Mississippi have finished the commissioning process for the 8-million-gallon-a-year facility.
Kum & Go L.C. has recently opened an E85 station in Neosho, Missouri. The company, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, opened the 3,400-square-foot convenience store after only 84 days of construction. 
When the ethanol by-product known as dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) is heated at high temperatures under limited oxygen to make synthesis gas, or syngas, the remains are a fine, dust-like ash. SDSU Soil Testing Laboratory manager Ron Gelderman set out to learn whether that residue could be applied to fields as a soil nutrient, since the ash likely would be discarded in a landfill otherwise.
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The depot will use a gasifier from Packer Engineering to convert grass, leaves, branches and other biomass into syngas, a gas mixture that contains carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The syngas can then be used to create cellulosic ethanol, bio-electricity or hydrogen. Although the proposal calls for trying all three fuel types, Keller said it would be more practical to concentrate on producing just one fuel when the depot is built.
The Colorado Corn Growers Association, the Governor’s Biofuels Coalition, Western Convenience Stores and Southern Colorado Clean Cities in Colorado Springs are partnering to celebrate the opening of a new E85 pump location at 227 West Fillmore Street in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on August 26. This will be the ninth station selling E85 in Colorado Springs.