Credit: RavenBrick

Last week I had a post about Sage Electrochromatics and the company’s line of smart windows. But, there is another company, RavenBrick, that says it has a less expensive, film-based approach to smart glass, smart windows (and smart walls) that offer many of the same features without needing any of the wiring required by windows like Sage’s.

RavenBrick says its special film can quickly turn a window opaque – at a preset point – just by using the sun itself. So, let’s say you have a house or building where it would be useful to have sunlight warming the interior when it is colder outside, but where it would also be convenient to block the sunlight on hot days. RavenBrick says it can make a film, preferably used between panes in a single insulating glass unit, that can do that. The film is clear in the IGU at a low temperature but the material in the film goes through a phase change and turns opaque at a higher temperature.

That ability is pretty intriguing by itself. But there are several more important things to note about the company’s film. RavenBrick says the film can be customized and fine-tuned along several important technical and aesthetic parameters. For example, the opacity can come two different ways: by darkening or by whitening. In the former case, the phase changes causes the film to block most of the light and, in the latter case, the phase change instead causes the film to diffuse the light.

One of the film’s creators, Wil McCarthy, wouldn’t reveal what’s in the film, even in general terms (patents pending), other than to say that it was a “nanostructured optical material.” But he told me that the film could be customized along several parameters including what temperature the phase change occurs, what portion of the light spectrum is blocked, what level of diffusivity is desired, etc.

McCarthy, who helped launch RavenBrick, says its technically possible to adjust the temperature change point to a precision of 0.1°C, but for practical purposes he said it makes more sense to develop a commercial product that would be set to change at just one “sweet spot,” such as 80°F, or perhaps offer products customized to few particular geographic regions.

The company calls an IGU that uses its darkening film a RavenWindow. A RavenWindow would still allow some light transmission - about 5%. McCarthy said the effect is like putting a pair of sunglasses: the change happens quickly, but still allows a useful view from the interior.

An IGU that uses the whitening film is dubbed a RavenLight, and may be more practical in, say, skylight situations where the presence of diffused light is more important than a clear view.

Still another version of the film could turn a window into a mirror with 95% reflectivity.

Of interest to DIYers, the company literature notes that these films could be used in post-construction applications. But McCarthy told me that slapping the film on an existing window would not be as efficient as sealing the film in a double-paned IGU.

RavenBrick has one more major trick up its sleeve: it’s RavenSkin Smart Wall System. Think of it as a thermal battery. McCarthy says its possible to build an entire wall, composed of basically the same reversible phase-change material used in the window film, that would absorb sunlight and other ambient thermal energy during the day, and then gradually release heat in the evening. The wall, for example, could be constructed of material that would gradually reverse a sun-induced phase change and release its heat energy at, say, 72°F.

RavenBrick is a small company still in its startup phase. Its core technology is this customizable phase-changing material. McCarthy and others at the company often use the term “programmable matter” and say the film is just one example.

Programmable matter is something that McCarthy has been thinking about for some time. Some of his work is conceptual (science fiction stories) and some technical (he has gained several related patents, e.g., one on the use of “programmable dopant inside bulk materials, as a building block for new materials with unique properties”).

Once an aerospace engineer working for a NASA contractor, McCarthy is now focused on making the RavenBrick a success. Besides not needing electrical connections for his company’s products, McCarthy bristles at comparisons to Sage and similar companies. He acknowledges that his smart windows don’t come with the convenience of a light switch, but he notes that two big differences, cost and scalability, favor RavenBrick’s approach. McCarthy says RavenWindow film can be manufactured cheaply, even at the current size limit of 1.3 m², for what would be an MSRP of $25 per ft² with a six-year payback period. Standard film-making technology could easily ramp the size up to several meters X infinity and would drive the MSRP to only a few dollars per ft².

From a business strategy point of view, McCarthy says the biggest difference is that RavenBrick, unlike Sage, “is not interested in making its own windows or competing with the big players in the window industry.” It is only interested in making or licensing the film to the window makers, and providing other R&D services.

Testing of RavenBrick products is underway. McCarthy said ASTM testing has been underway for some time: Three of the four ASTM tests have been successfully completed, the last test is underway and McCarthy is hopeful that a 30-year lifespan will be certified.

He also said the National Renewable Energy Lab would be installing and testing the windows this summer in some of the lab’s executive offices.

Stay tuned. RavenBrick’s films might fly onto our windows in the next few years.

Here is a short video on RavenBrick:

These are a drop in the bucket, but it is still nice to see business reports like these for a change.

Carbo Ceramics Inc. approves  construction of a fourth production line at Toomsboro, Georgia proppant manufacturing facility

President and CEO Gary Kolstad commented, “Carbo is the world leader in providing high conductivity ceramic proppant to the oil and gas industry, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to grow our manufacturing capacity in order to support and improve the investments of our clients. The newly approved production line is designed to increase our capacity by an additional 250 million pounds per year. When combined with the incremental capacity of Toomsboro line three (anticipated completion before the end of the year 2010), our global capacity should increase nearly 40 percent from our current level, to approximately 1.75 billion pounds annually. We anticipate completion of this fourth line before the end of 2011 at an estimated cost of $62 million.”

Maryland Glass & Mirror Co. and Flat Glass Distributors make capital investments

Take Maryland Glass & Mirror Co. in Baltimore, for example. It recently invested about $1.75 million in new equipment. While the company typically operates on a cash basis—“If we can’t pay for it, we don’t buy it”—officials felt strongly that an investment in new equipment was necessary to grow the business. The addition of a tempering furnace, in particular, enabled the distributor/fabricator to offer its customers a more extensive choice of products. And although it required a major cash outlay, it will save the company money in the long run. “We’re our own largest customer,” said David Dalbke, president. “We have purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars of tempered glass products from other sources. Now, we have control and can produce a quality product in a just-in-time delivery fashion.”

At Flat Glass Distributors, Jacksonville, Fla., the decision to invest in capital equipment was part of its effort to “redefine customer service” through improved turnaround times and higher product quality. So far, it’s paying off, said David Cates, vice president of sales and marketing.

Credit: Willis Tower

I wrote about The Ledge in the Chicago’s Willis Tower when it first opened, and some of the science and technology that makes it possible. Now, I’ve been advised by my youngest daughter and her fiancé that while I am visiting this weekend they want an engagement photo to be taken of them in one of the four available glass boxes that extend 103 floors over the Wacker Drive area.

That creates something of a dilemma. Despite my rational understanding of glass strength, I learned to my surprise a couple of years ago that I had an irrational fear of extreme heights. This occurred when I tried to step onto the glass floor in the CN Tower in Toronto. And, word has it, The Ledge makes the CN’s glass floor look like a walk in the park.

So, somehow, I’ve got to work up enough nerve to watch my “baby” and her beloved boyfriend take their steps onto the ethereal Ledge, and at the same time keep myself composed enough to adjust my camera correctly for the conditions and snap the perfect picture.

Without question, The Ledge is an example of taking glass technology in one direction. On the other hand, The growing infamy of The Standard hotel overlooking Manhattan apparently represents a different – and somewhat inevitable – direction that glass-centric architecture and construction can go. Adding . . . that it appears from an older story in People that the managers for The Standard sometimes sort of have tried to clean up its reputation.

There was a time when some people thought foam carbon composites technology would give lead-acid chemistry a new lease on life in a world of hybrid and hybrid-electric vehicles. The great hope was the carbon foam batteries could deliver enough energy density to make the transition, and Firefly Energy was going to lead the way.

Not anymore. Various newspaper reports indicate that the Peoria-based Firefly went out of business last week, a death that appears to be more or less caused by the company’s inability to impress the DOE that its battery design would be a game-changer or that its business plan would be successful. In other words, Firefly is a casualty of the (defensible) decision by DOE to select strategic “winners” - and by omission, “losers” – in next-generation energy storage systems.

I’m sure there are those around Firefly that feel they got shafted, and it is unfortunate that money was lost and jobs eliminated, but it seems they got their chance. The company received several rounds of development funding from the DOD and was backed by several venture capitalist firms. Prototypes of Firefly’s 3D² batteries were submitted to the DOE and some batteries were tested in buses in Peoria, but the DOE apparently felt that the densities and benefits were exaggerated and lacked verification, and development of improvements was going too slow.

Firefly, not unexpectedly, disagreed with the DOE’s assessment, but alas, the battery business is very competitive in the U.S., but the stakes and competition are even more cutthroat on the world scale.

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Jeff Stevenson is a Laboratory Fellow in the Energy Materials Group at the Pacific Northwest National Lab, and has been working on SOFCs for more than a decade. This video, shot at the recent ICACC’10 conference in Daytona Beach, Fla., provides some history on the development of these fuel cells, and discusses some of the remaining science and manufacturing challenges that are hindering their widespread commercialization.

Stevenson also discusses some of the work being done by the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance, a government-industry collaboration, that is working on methods to employ SOFCs that can make cleaner use of coal and other fossil fuels for energy generation, and describes some of the “early adopters” of SOFC systems, such as systems being used for auxiliary power units (APUs) used by some tractor-trailer operators.

Besides working at PNNL, Stevenson serves as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and reviews and edits manuscripts in the field of SOFCs.

7 minutes.