Energy

Increasing production of second-generation biofuels – those made from non-food biomass such as switchgrass, biomass sorghum, and corn stover – would lessen our reliance on burning fossil fuels, which contributes to climate change. Several barriers have prevented the efficient conversion of that biomass. Lignin, a complex compound in cell walls, blocks access to plant carbohydrates…

A team of engineers, agronomists and economists at Purdue University’s Center for Sustainable Food, Energy and Water Systems (SFEWS), supported by the National Science Foundation, are developing novel photovoltaic (PV) module designs for use on agricultural land to cogenerate electricity while growing food crops. The enabling insights from their modeling results were just published in…

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $21.4 million in funding for research in Quantum Information Science (QIS) related to both particle physics and fusion energy sciences. “QIS holds great promise for tackling challenging questions in a wide range of disciplines,” said Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar. “This research will open up important…

One of the main challenges of second-generation biofuel production is identifying enzymes produced by microorganisms for use in a “cocktail” of enzymes to catalyze biomass hydrolysis, in which the enzymes act together to break down the carbohydrates in sugarcane trash and bagasse, for example, and convert them into simple sugars for fermentation. A group of…

Carbon-neutral fuels are crucial for making aviation and maritime transport sustainable. ETH researchers have developed a solar plant to produce synthetic liquid fuels that release as much CO2 during their combustion as previously extracted from the air for their production. CO2 and water are extracted directly from ambient air and split using solar energy. This…

A team of scientists from DESY and the University of Hamburg has achieved an important milestone in the quest for a new type of compact particle accelerator. Using ultra-powerful pulses of laser light, they were able to produce particularly high-energy flashes of radiation in the terahertz range having a sharply defined wavelength (colour). Terahertz radiation…

Scientists have found a way to produce environmentally-friendly gasoline, ammonia, biodiesel fuels and biodegradable plastics using carbon dioxide (CO₂)-consuming, light-powered nanobio-hybrid organisms. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have developed living microbial factories that can eat and convert CO₂ into useful products by using light-activated quantum dots that fire specific enzymes within microbial cells.…

A new core-shell catalyst could overcome some of the ethanol oxidation hurdles and break the carbon-carbon bonds at the right time to draw energy from ethanol. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Arkansas have created a new catalyst that can steer the electro-oxidation down a chemical pathway…

As anyone who has purchased jewelry can attest, platinum is expensive. That’s tough for consumers but also a serious hurdle for a promising source of electricity for vehicles: the hydrogen fuel cell, which relies on platinum. Now a research team led by Bruce E. Koel, a professor of biological and chemical engineering at Princeton University,…

Copper and platinum nanoparticles added to the surface of a blue titania photocatalyst significantly improve its ability to recycle atmospheric carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels. The modified photocatalyst was developed and tested by researchers at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), with colleagues in Korea, Japan, and the US. It converted sunlight…

A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota and University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered new technology that can speed up chemical reactions 10,000 times faster than the current reaction rate limit. These findings could increase the speed and lower the cost of thousands of chemical processes used in developing fertilizers, foods, fuels, plastics,…

Scientists are working toward creating a new and improved solar panel, which offers a more affordable and efficient way to generate renewable energy. A team of researchers from the University of Toledo, the University of Colorado and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has found a way to increase solar…

A cheaper, cleaner and more sustainable way of making hydrogen fuel from water using sunlight is step closer thanks to new research from the University of Bath’s Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies. With the pressure on global leaders to reduce carbon emissions significantly to solve a climate change emergency, there is an urgent need to…

Researchers from Tokyo University of Agriculture & Technology (TUAT), ORC Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and Techno Research., Ltd achieved high quality crystallization of amorphous silicon film by developing rapid heating technology with the microwave induced wireless heating lamp. The wireless lamp is excellent in energy saving, durability and maintainability, and it can be expected to be…

Do you feel the warmth coming off your computer or cell phone? That’s wasted energy radiating from the device. With automobiles, it is estimated that 60% of fuel efficiency is lost due to waste heat. Is it possible to capture this energy and convert it into electricity? Researchers working in the area of thermoelectric power…

Hydrogen is a critical component in the manufacture of thousands of common products from plastic to fertilizers, but producing pure hydrogen is expensive and energy intensive. Now, a research team at Princeton University has harnessed sunlight to isolate hydrogen from industrial wastewater. In a paper published Feb. 19 in the journal Energy & Environmental Science,…

As the world struggles to meet the increasing demand for energy, coupled with the rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere from deforestation and the use of fossil fuels, photosynthesis in nature simply cannot keep up with the carbon cycle. But what if we could help the natural carbon cycle by learning from photosynthesis to…

Hydrogen is a clean and renewable energy carrier that can power vehicles, with water as the only emission. Unfortunately, hydrogen gas is highly flammable when mixed with air, so very efficient and effective sensors are needed. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present the first hydrogen sensors ever to meet the future performance…

Scientists from TPU, Germany, and the United States have found a new way to functionalize a dielectric, otherwise known as ‘white graphene’, i.e. hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), without destroying it or changing its properties. Thanks to the new method, the researchers synthesized a ‘polymer nano carpet’ with strong covalent bond on the samples. Prof Raul…

Hydrogen is a clean and renewable energy carrier that can power vehicles, with water as the only emission. Unfortunately, hydrogen gas is highly flammable when mixed with air, so very efficient and effective sensors are needed. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present the first hydrogen sensors ever to meet the future performance…