Channel 1 Networks
Aaron is the webmaster of Channel 1 Networks and video editor/camera man for most all produced media content.
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Posts by Channel 1 Networks
Boulder Army Store’s Huge Summer Sale!
Aug 2nd

The Boulder Army Adventure store is having thie HUGE Summer Sale. Everything in the place has a discount so you’ll want to at least stop in and see what they’ve got. As always they are Boulder’s best place to get any adventure gear and the people there are always helpful with answering your questions. So get yourself in gear and get to the Boulder Army store before August 10th. Fall’s right around the corner and school will be in session, so now’s the time to get going on that last summer adventure.
CU-Boulder team develops potential new hydrogen fuel technology
Aug 1st
The CU-Boulder team has devised a solar-thermal system in which sunlight could be concentrated by a vast array of mirrors onto a single point atop a central tower up to several hundred feet tall. The tower would gather heat generated by the mirror system to roughly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,350 Celsius), then deliver it into a reactor containing chemical compounds known as metal oxides, said CU-Boulder Professor Alan Weimer, research group leader.
As a metal oxide compound heats up, it releases oxygen atoms, changing its material composition and causing the newly formed compound to seek out new oxygen atoms, said Weimer. The team showed that the addition of steam to the system — which could be produced by boiling water in the reactor with the concentrated sunlight beamed to the tower — would cause oxygen from the water molecules to adhere to the surface of the metal oxide, freeing up hydrogen molecules for collection as hydrogen gas.
“We have designed something here that is very different from other methods and frankly something that nobody thought was possible before,” said Weimer of the chemical and biological engineering department. “Splitting water with sunlight is the Holy Grail of a sustainable hydrogen economy.”
A paper on the subject was published in the Aug. 2 issue of Science. The team included co-lead authors Weimer and Associate Professor Charles Musgrave, first author and doctoral student Christopher Muhich, postdoctoral researcher Janna Martinek, undergraduate Kayla Weston, former CU graduate student Paul Lichty, former CU postdoctoral researcher Xinhua Liang and former CU researcher Brian Evanko.
One of the key differences between the CU method and other methods developed to split water is the ability to conduct two chemical reactions at the same temperature, said Musgrave, also of the chemical and biological engineering department. While there are no working models, conventional theory holds that producing hydrogen through the metal oxide process requires heating the reactor to a high temperature to remove oxygen, then cooling it to a low temperature before injecting steam to re-oxidize the compound in order to release hydrogen gas for collection.
“The more conventional approaches require the control of both the switching of the temperature in the reactor from a hot to a cool state and the introduction of steam into the system,” said Musgrave. “One of the big innovations in our system is that there is no swing in the temperature. The whole process is driven by either turning a steam valve on or off.”
“Just like you would use a magnifying glass to start a fire, we can concentrate sunlight until it is really hot and use it to drive these chemical reactions,” said Muhich. “While we can easily heat it up to more than 1,350 degrees Celsius, we want to heat it to the lowest temperature possible for these chemical reactions to still occur. Hotter temperatures can cause rapid thermal expansion and contraction, potentially causing damage to both the chemical materials and to the reactors themselves.”
In addition, the two-step conventional idea for water splitting also wastes both time and heat, said Weimer, also a faculty member at CU-Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute. “There are only so many hours of sunlight in a day,” he said.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and by the U.S. Department of Energy.
With the new CU-Boulder method, the amount of hydrogen produced for fuel cells or for storage is entirely dependent on the amount of metal oxide — which is made up of a combination of iron, cobalt, aluminum and oxygen — and how much steam is introduced into the system. One of the designs proposed by the team is to build reactor tubes roughly a foot in diameter and several feet long, fill them with the metal oxide material and stack them on top of each other. A working system to produce a significant amount of hydrogen gas would require a number of the tall towers to gather concentrated sunlight from several acres of mirrors surrounding each tower.
Weimer said the new design began percolating within the team about two years ago. “When we saw that we could use this simpler, more effective method, it required a change in our thinking,” said Weimer. “We had to develop a theory to explain it and make it believable and understandable to other scientists and engineers.”
Despite the discovery, the commercialization of such a solar-thermal reactor is likely years away. “With the price of natural gas so low, there is no incentive to burn clean energy,” said Weimer, also the executive director of the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, or C2B2. “There would have to be a substantial monetary penalty for putting carbon into the atmosphere, or the price of fossil fuels would have to go way up.”
C2B2 is an arm of the Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory involving CU-Boulder, the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. The collaboratory works with industry partners, public agencies and other institutions to commercialize renewable energy technologies, support economic growth in the state and nation and educate the future workforce.
For more information on the chemical and biological engineering department visit http://www.colorado.edu/chbe/. For more information on C2B2 visit http://www.c2b2web.org. For more information on the Biofrontiers Institute visithttp://biofrontiers.colorado.edu.
City Rangers have a relatively quiet week, and other OSMP news
Aug 1st
• South Boulder Peak on a report of a lost hiker.
Rangers worked with RMR to find the hiker and get her back down safely.
• A report of a private citizen illegally grazing their horses on the Abbott property.
The private citizen set up water tanks and hay bales on the Abbott property.
A summons was issued with a mandatory court appearance.
• A report of an injured climber on the Dome. The climber fell approximately 8-10 ft,
potentially breaking their ankle. Rangers worked with RMR on this call.
• A party in Settler’s Park that had a warrant for their arrest.
Rangers worked with Boulder PD on this arrest.
• A report of two criminal trespasses. One happened in front of the Rolling Rock property,
while the other took place within the West South Boulder Creek Trailhead.
The suspect has not been found at this time.
• A report of an injured hiker on the Lower Bear Canyon trail. The hiker sprained their left ankle. Rangers worked with AMR on this call.
Cottonwood Pond Restoration
The restoration work at Cottonwood Pond and along Goose Creek is progressing. This project is a partnership between OSMP and Public Works and is funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Cottonwood Pond, a former gravel pit, will be filled and restored to native wetland and riparian habitat. When completed, Goose Creek will meander through wetland and riparian habitat before reaching Boulder Creek. Of all wetland types, the Front Range has experienced the biggest loss of acreage in the riverine wetland type; this project will also increase riverine wetland habitat. The restoration project will also eliminate the Eurasian water milfoil and curly leaf pondweed, both aggressive non-native aquatic weeds, which currently infest the pond.
Community Outreach
OSMP Opening Art Show Evening a Success – Several hundred people, including many of the artists with work on display, turned out for the opening reception for the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks art show, Art Inspired by the Land. The show celebrates art created by the community and inspired by OSMP lands. Enjoy this selection of photos from the event, many featuring the artists posing with their work.
The art show is located in the Boulder Public Library Canyon Gallery (1001 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder).
The show is open to the public and will run from July 20 – August 28 during normal library hours. Drop in and see how Open Space inspires local artists!
Wittemyer Trail Construction Volunteer Project, Sat. August 10th, 8 AM
Give a little of your summer at the second volunteer project to help build the new summit trail leading up the west side of Mt. Sanitas! Volunteers will clear the trail corridor, haul slash and construct trail. The Wittemyer West Sanitas Trail is being constructed to provide for a new approach to the summit of Mt. Sanitas from the west side. This project is physically arduous with a steep hike to the project site.
Sign up here: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?AP=2073189375
Vegetable Harvesting at Cure Organic Farm, Thurs. August 15th, 8:45 amJoin OSMP to assist Anne Cure and her interns in harvesting tomatoes and other veggies. The City of Boulder Agricultural Specialist will discuss the history of agriculture in the area and organic vegetable production on OSMP. Learn what it takes to grow vegetables in this region (soil type, water, etc). Anne will share her particular farming methods that help the farm ecosystem and the community.
Sign up here: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?AP=1452253309
Ask Coyote Bob!
Have you visited the OSMP kids page? Kids can complete puzzles and ask Coyote Bob questions.
https://bouldercolorado.gov/osmp/kids-pages
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