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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 263

May 10, 2019

China charts a path into European science

Posted by in categories: energy, science

The promise of investments in infrastructure and research appeals to many of the economically challenged nations in central and eastern Europe. These countries have battled brain drain, persistent corruption and lack of support for research and development. In this region, Chinese companies are — among other projects — building a bridge to connect two parts of Croatia, although this project stalled in 2012, in part because of funding problems. They are also financing the construction of an energy-efficient ‘smart city’ near the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, which would be the first such development in Europe, according to promoters.


As the Belt and Road Initiative spreads to central and eastern Europe, China’s investments in research and technology are raising concerns in the West.

By Antoaneta Roussi

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May 9, 2019

Google’s gesture-controlled sensor has been cleared by the FCC

Posted by in categories: energy, space

Google has won approval from US regulators to create sensors that can be triggered with hand gestures, dubbed “Project Soli,” Reuters reports.

The news: Google started work on Soli in 2015 but hit a roadblock because the sensors were required to operate at lower power levels than the company planned. These restrictions are in place to stop new products from interfering with other (more important) technologies—in this case radio astronomy and a satellite service. Now the US Federal Communications Commission has granted Google a waiver to let it operate Soli sensors at higher power levels, between 57 and 64 gigahertz. The FCC said this will “serve the public interest.”

How it works: The sensors use radar to capture motion in three-dimensional space. It means users can press invisible buttons or use a virtual dial, for example. The radar signal can penetrate fabrics, meaning it could work through a pocket or backpack.

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May 9, 2019

Reversible chemistry clears path for safer batteries

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, military

Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) and US Army Research Lab (ARL) have taken a critical step on the path to high energy batteries by improving their water-in-salt battery with a new type of chemical transformation of the cathode that creates a reversible solid salt layer, a phenomenon yet unknown in the field of water-based batteries.

Building on their previous discoveries of the water-in-salt electrolytes reported in Science in 2015, the researchers added a new cathode. This new cathode material, lacking , operates at an average potential of 4.2 volts with excellent cycling stability, and delivers an unprecedented comparable, or perhaps higher than, non-aqueous Li-ion batteries. The authors report their work on May 9 in the journal Nature.

“The University of Maryland and ARL research has produced the most creative new chemistry I have seen in at least 10 years,” said Prof. Jeffrey Dahn of Dalhousie University in Canada, an expert in the field not affiliated with the research. “However, it remains to be seen if a practical device with long lifetime can be created.”

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May 9, 2019

Designer Julia Daviy Introduces Her Digitally Customizable 3D Printed Skirt

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, education, energy, information science, sustainability

3D printing is moving ever closer to gaining a true home in mainstream commercial applications, thanks to the impact the technology is having on consumer fashion products such as jewelry, footwear, and clothing. While 3D printed fashion was still considered to be more of a novelty a few years ago, efforts have been increasing to make it more common – even in the classroom. Additionally, the technology is helping to usher in a more sustainable and eco-friendly way of manufacturing garments…and designer Julia Daviy is helping to lead the charge.

In addition to designing clothes, Daviy is also an ecologist and clean technology industry manager, and uses 3D printing to make cruelty-free, zero-waste clothing. She believes that the technology will change how the world produces clothing, especially when it comes to some of the more problematic issues of garment manufacturing, such as animal exploitation, chemical pollution, energy consumption, and material waste.

“Our goal was never to demonstrate the viability of 3D printed clothing and leave things at that. We’ll have succeeded when beautiful, comfortable, ethically manufactured and environmentally friendly clothes are the standard,” Daviy stated. “The innovations we’ve made on the production and marketing side of the equation are just as important as the technological breakthroughs that have gotten us this far.”

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May 9, 2019

A superior, low-cost catalyst for water-splitting

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

In a significant step toward large-scale hydrogen production, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a low-cost catalyst that can speed up the splitting of water to produce hydrogen gas.

Splitting water using electricity is a widely-explored method to generate hydrogen gas, a long sought-after clean power source for fuel cells, batteries and zero-emission vehicles. One of two major reactions involved in this process—called the Oxygen Evolution Reaction—is notoriously slow, restricting the overall efficiency. Researchers have focused on developing better catalysts — materials that can speed up the reaction while remaining neutral. The most efficient catalysts today are made from such as ruthenium and platinum, which are both expensive and rare.

An IISc team has now developed a low-cost catalyst by combining cobalt oxide with phosphate salts of sodium. The material cost is over two hundred times less expensive than the current state-of-the-art ruthenium dioxide catalyst, and the reaction rate is also faster, says Ritambhara Gond, PhD student at the Materials Research Centre (MRC), IISc, who is the first author of the paper published in Angewandte Chemie.

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May 8, 2019

Innolith brings 1,000 km electric vehicle within range

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

Innolith AG, a world leader in rechargeable inorganic battery technology, has announces that it is developing world’s first 1,000 Wh/kg rechargeable battery. Under development in the company’s German laboratory, the new Innolith Energy Battery would be capable of powering an electric vehicle for over 1,000 km on a single charge. The new Innolith battery would also radically reduce costs due to the avoidance of exotic and expensive materials combined with the very high energy density of the system.

In addition to its range and cost advantages, the Innolith battery will be the first non-flammable lithium-based battery for use in electric vehicles. This battery uses a non-flammable inorganic electrolyte, unlike conventional EV batteries that use a flammable organic electrolyte. The switch to non-flammable batteries removes the primary cause of battery fires that have beset the manufacturers of EVs.

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May 8, 2019

Germany opens first electric highway that lets trucks draw power from overhead cables

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

Germany spent 84 million euros developing the Siemens-made eHighway and a hybrid truck, which Siemens say will massively lower fuel costs.

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May 7, 2019

Nanoporous aramid nanofibre separators for nonaqueous redox flow batteries

Posted by in category: energy

Redox flow batteries are attractive for large-scale energy storage due to a combination of high theoretical efficiencies and decoupled power and energy storage capacities. Efforts to significantly increase energy densities by using nonaqueous electrolytes have been impeded by separators with low selectivities. Here, we report nanoporous separators based on aramid nanofibres, which are assembled using a scalable, low cost, spin-assisted layer-by-layer technique. The multilayer structure yields 5 ± 0.5 nm pores, enabling nanofiltration with high selectivity. Further, surface modifications using polyelectrolytes result in enhanced performance. In vanadium acetylacetonate/acetonitrile-based electrolytes, the coated separator exhibits permeabilities an order of magnitude lower and ionic conductivities five times higher than those of a commercial separator. In addition, the coated separators exhibit exceptional stability, showing minimal degradation after more than 100 h of cycling. The low permeability translates into high coulombic efficiency in flow cell charge/discharge experiments performed at cycle times relevant for large-scale applications (5 h).

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May 2, 2019

Fusion power is attracting private-sector interest

Posted by in category: energy

Reactor designs are inspired by everything from smoke rings to shrimps.

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May 1, 2019

A Device That Harvests Drinking Water Out Of Plain Air Just Won $1.5 Million

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Two California designers have won a $1.5 million prize after building a shipping container that can harvest water from the air. David Hertz and Rich Groden were named the winners of the Water Abundance XPrize for their innovative creation, which can produce enough water to satisfy the needs of 100 people.

The competition, which began in 2016, asked designers to build a device that could extract at least 2,000 liters of water a day from the atmosphere while only using clean energy and costing no more than 2 cents a liter. Nearly 100 teams entered the challenge, which was eventually whittled down to two finalists. Hertz and Groden’s team, called Skysource/Skywater Alliance, won the prize because their invention “demonstrated the greatest ability to create decentralized access to water,” per a press release.

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