Next Big Future November 9, 2018 A 100-mile power line at 765 kilovolt carrying 1000 MW of power can have losses of 1.1% to 0.5%. China’s 1.1 megavolt line can have power losses that 10 to 20 times less than 345 kilovolt lines. When fully operational the link will be capable of transporting 12,000 megawatts of electricity over 3,000 km. China’s high voltage grid will be nearly 23,000 miles long. It will be able to deliver about 150 gigawatts of electricity. This is roughly the output of 150 nuclear reactors. In a study published in Nature in 2016, it was […]
Tag Archives: Energy
New moon: China to launch lunar lighting in outer space
Phys.org October 19, 2018 Researchers in China are developing “illumination satellites” which will shine in tandem with the real moon but are eight times brighter. By reflecting light from the sun, the satellites could replace streetlamps in urban areas. If the first test goes well three more to follow in 2022. The extraterrestrial source of light could also help rescue efforts in disaster zones during blackouts. In the 1990s, Russian scientists reportedly used giant mirrors to reflect light from space in an experimental project called Znamya or Banner… read more.
New, highly stable catalyst may help turn water into fuel
Science Daily September 28, 2018 Much of the previous work was performed with electrolyzers made from just two elements — one metal and oxygen. A team of researchers in the US (University of Illinois, Argonne National Laboratory) developed a porous material — a pyrochlore oxide of yttrium ruthenate which was more porous and had a new crystalline structure. As a porous structure is highly desirable when it comes electrocatalysts, the new materials could split water molecules at a higher rate than the current industry standard…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Organic Mega Flow Battery transcends lifetime, voltage thresholds
Science Daily July 23, 2018 Researchers at Harvard University designed and built a new organic compound called Methuselah molecule that can store electrical energy and has a very long life before it decomposes. In experiments in their laboratories the molecule had a fade rate of less than 0.01 percent per day and less than 0.001 percent per charge/discharge cycle — which extrapolates to less than 3 percent degradation over the course of a year — and useful operation for tens of thousands of cycles. The molecule also proved highly soluble, meaning it can store more energy in a smaller space. […]
Researchers charge quest to end ‘voltage fade’
Nanowerk July 23, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – Cornell University, UC San Diego, Argonne National Laboratory, industry, China, Germany) identified nanoscale defects or “dislocations” in Lithium-rich NMC cathode materials as they charged batteries at a range of voltages going up to 4.4 volts. They demonstrated that heat treating the cathode materials eliminated most of the defects and restored the original voltage showing that voltage fade had been reversed. According to the researchers while heat treating is not scalable, the physics and materials science-based approach to characterizing and then addressing the nanoscale defects offers promise for finding new […]
A smart safe rechargeable zinc ion battery based on sol-gel transition electrolytes
Phys.org July 20, 2018 Reversible sol-gel transition hydrogels are normally in flowing liquid state at or below room temperature and can transform into stationary gels when heated above a critical temperature and transition can be reversed after cooling down. Researchers in China synthesized a temperature-sensitive sol-gel transition electrolyte comprising proton-incorporated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PNA) incorporating it into a rechargeable Zn/α-MnO2 battery system. After heating above the low critical temperature, a gelation process occurs in the PNA sol-gel electrolyte shutting down the battery. After cooling down, the transition is reversed to liquid state and an original electrochemical performance can be restored. Because […]
Bacteria-powered solar cell converts light to energy, even under overcast skies
Science Daily July 5, 2018 Researchers in Canada have genetically engineered E. coli to produce large amounts of lycopene that is particularly effective at harvesting light for conversion to energy. The pigment‐producing cells are coated with TiO2 nanoparticles and the mixture is applied to a glass surface. With the coated glass acting as an anode at one end of their cell, they generated a current density of 0.686 milliamps per square centimetre — an improvement on the 0.362 achieved by others in the field. According to the researchers the hybrid materials can be manufactured economically and sustainably. With sufficient optimization, […]
Researchers predict materials to stabilize record-high capacity lithium-ion battery
Science Daily May 29, 2018 In 2016 a French research team reported that by replacing cobalt with manganese more than doubles the battery capacity but performance degraded significantly. A team of researchers in the US (Northwestern University, MIT) found that the reason behind the material’s high capacity was because oxygen participates in the reaction process. They predicted that mixing chromium or vanadium with lithium-manganese-oxide will produce stable compounds that maintain the cathode’s unprecedented high capacity. They will experimentally test these theoretical compounds in the laboratory…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Better, faster, stronger: Building batteries that don’t go boom
Nanowerk May 29, 2018 Dendrites fill pre-existing microscopic flaws–grooves, pores and scratches at the interface between the lithium anode and the solid electrolyte separator increasing pressure on lithium. An international team of researchers (USA – Michigan Technological University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, India) explored how the metal reacts to pressure. They provide a statistical model that explains the conditions under which lithium undergoes an abrupt transition that further facilitates its ability to alleviate pressure. They also provide a model that directly links the mechanical behavior of lithium to the performance of the battery… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE 1 , 2 , 3
Prototype nuclear battery packs 10 times more power
Phys.org June 01, 2018 Researchers in Russia developed a nuclear battery prototype consisting of 200 diamond converters interlaid with nickel-63 and stable nickel foil layers. The amount of power generated by the converter depends on the thickness of the nickel foil and the converter itself, because both affect how many beta particles are absorbed. For maximum power density they found that the nickel-63 source should be 2 micrometers thick, and the optimal thickness of the converter based on Schottky barrier diamond diodes is around 10 micrometers… read more. The findings have prospects for medical and space industry applications. TECHNICAL ARTICLE