Science Daily May 26, 2023 Researchers at the State University of Pennsylvania found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas. They analyzed eight types of coals from coalfields across the United States to better understand their sorption and diffusion potential, or how much hydrogen they can hold. All eight coals showed considerable sorption properties, with low-volatile bituminous coal from eastern Virginia and anthracite coal from eastern Pennsylvania performing the best in tests. Depleted coalbed methane reservoirs’ seams contain unconventional natural gas like methane and have become an important source of fossil fuel energy over the last […]
Category Archives: Energy
More power from waste heat
Nanowerk April 29, 2023 An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – Northwestern University) studied an alloy of niobium, iron and antimony that converts waste heat into electricity at temperatures ranging from about 70 to more than 700 degrees Celsius with an efficiency of eight percent. To further increase the efficiency of the thermoelectric made of niobium, iron and antimony, the researchers focused on its microstructure. As grain boundaries reduce both the thermal and electrical conductivity of the material, for the highest possible efficiency, the thermal conductivity should be as low as possible so that the heat in the material […]
Seawater split to produce ‘green’ hydrogen
Science Daily February 1, 2023 The use of vast amounts of high-purity water for hydrogen production may aggravate the shortage of freshwater resources. Seawater is abundant but must be desalinated before use in typical proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers. An international team of researchers (China, Australia, USA – Kent State University) has demonstrated direct electrolysis of real seawater that has not been alkalised nor acidified, achieving long-term stability exceeding 100 h at 500 mA cm−2 and similar performance to a typical PEM electrolyser operating in high-purity water. This was done by introducing a Lewis acid layer (for example, Cr2O3) on transition metal oxide catalysts […]
Energy crisis: The five challenges for 2023
Phys.org December 22, 2022 Nature commissioned an international team of researchers (Italy, Germany) to outline some possible energy scenarios for 2023. How will the map of global energy change? Will sky-high energy prices boost renewables? How will the industrial landscape shift? What will the lasting economic impacts be? How will the energy crisis affect climate action? are the five crucial questions that researchers around the world will be asked to focus on in 2023. It will be up to them to find adequate answers to support government action in the coming months to deal with the emergency…read more.
Nuclear Fusion Can Unleash Even More Power Than We Realized, Scientists Say
Science Alert May 26, 2022 The research led by physicists from the Swiss Plasma Center has determined that the maximum hydrogen fuel density is about twice the Greenwald Limit – an estimate derived from experiments more than 30 years ago. The exact value depends on the power. But as a rough estimate, the increase is on the order of a factor of two in ITER. Although scientists had long suspected the Greenwald Limit could be improved upon, it has been a foundational rule of fusion research for more than 30 years, a guiding principle of the ITER design. The key […]
Calling all ‘fusioneers’! New US fusion energy website launches
Phys.org November 8, 2021 The U.S. fusion community has just completed a two-year strategic planning process to focus on a bold new direction: the construction of a prototype fusion power plant by 2035. Following a recommendation from the consensus reports created by researchers a diverse committee of stakeholders from the U.S. fusion energy community has collaborated to build usfusionenergy.org. The website will feature the latest fusion news and informative articles, events, and resources that will help anyone, anywhere, understand the promise of fusion energy. The National Ignition Facility in California announced a significant step forward for laser-driven fusion this August. […]
‘Charging room’ system powers lights, phones, laptops without wires
Science Daily August 30, 2021 An international team of researchers (Japan, USA – University of Michigan) has shown that multimode quasistatic cavity resonance can provide room-scale wireless power transfer. The approach uses multidirectional, widely distributed currents on conductive surfaces that are placed around the target volume. It generates multiple, mutually unique, three-dimensional magnetic field patterns. They demonstrated the technology in a purpose-built aluminum test room measuring approximately 10 feet by 10 feet. They wirelessly powered lamps, fans and cell phones that could draw current from anywhere in the room regardless of the placement of people and furniture. Devices harness the […]
Physicists Have Successfully Advanced a Key Device For Producing Fusion Power
Science Alert September 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (Germany, Belgium, Spain, USA – Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, MIT, University of Wisconsin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Auburn University, University of Maryland, Los alamos National Laboratory, Hungary, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, France, Russia, Poland, Japan, Austria, Ukraine, Finland, UK) sought to shape the magnets in W7-X to try and reduce the effects of neoclassical transport. Measurements, taken using an instrument called an X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer (XICS), have shown very high temperatures inside the reactor. These are supported by charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) measurements. With both data […]
Making clean hydrogen is hard, but researchers just solved a major hurdle
Phys.org July 19, 2021 To create electrically conductive paths through a thick silicon dioxide researchers at UT Austin used a technique first deployed in the manufacturing of semiconductor electronic chips. By coating the silicon dioxide layer with a thin film of aluminum and heating the entire structure, arrays of nanoscale “spikes” of aluminum that completely bridge the silicon dioxide layer were created. These can be replaced by nickel or other materials that help catalyze the water-splitting reactions. When illuminated by sunlight, the devices efficiently oxidized water to form oxygen molecules while also generating hydrogen at a separate electrode and exhibited […]
Scientists home in on recipe for entirely renewable energy
EurekAlert July 7, 2021 Researchers in Ireland have developed a technique that would enable the future production of entirely renewable, clean energy from which water would be the only waste product. They used an automated combinatorial approach and advanced quantum chemical modelling and found nine earth-abundant combinations of metals and ligands as highly promising leads for experimental investigation. They found chromium, manganese, iron to be especially promising. Thousands of catalysts based around these key components can now be placed in a melting pot and assessed for their abilities as the hunt for the magic combination continues. They have screened 444 and […]