Phys.org November 19, 2024 The renewable energy industry is heavily reliant on rare earth elements. A team of researchers in the US (UT Austin, University of Kentucky, University of Wyoming, industry) estimated coal ash resources and potential for extraction of rare earth elements using data for the US. According to the data ~ 52 gigatons (Gt) of coal was produced in the US (1950–2021). Power plants account for most of the coal use. About 70% of coal ash was potentially accessible for rare earth element extraction (1985–2021) and was disposed in landfills and ponds with the remaining coal ash was used […]
Tag Archives: Renewable energy
Solar-powered desalination system requires no extra batteries
MIT News October 8, 2024 In the developing world, where there are unreliable energy sources of water, they rely increasingly on saline groundwater. Traditional renewable desalination technologies require sizable energy storage for sufficient water production, leading to increased cost, maintenance and complexity. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, UK, Germany) demonstrated a simple control strategy using photovoltaic electrodialysis (PV-ED) to enable direct-drive optimally controlled desalination at high production rates. This control scheme was implemented on a fully autonomous, community-scale PV-ED prototype system and operated for 6 months in New Mexico on real brackish groundwater. The prototype fully harnessed 94% […]
Carbon-capture batteries developed to store renewable energy, help climate
Science Daily May 15, 2024 To investigate the deactivation and reactivation mechanisms of the aqueous Na–CO2 battery during extended cycling, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed the cathode to include non-precious intermetallic catalysts. As the cell underwent repeated cycles, the voltage polarization during discharge progressively rose, eventually led to the cell’s deactivation and formation of decomposition products clogging the electrode surface. Results obtained from comprehensive characterization techniques provided insight into the decomposition products. They showed an electrochemical approach for regeneration of the aqueous cells. According to the researchers their findings provide a path toward creating long-duration systems with self-healing […]
For sustainable aviation fuel, researchers engineer a promising microorganism for precursor production
Phys.org May 9, 2024 Isoprenol is a precursor for a promising SAF compound DMCO (1,4-dimethylcyclooctane) and is produced in several engineered microorganisms. Recently, Pseudomonas putida has gained interest as a future host for isoprenol bioproduction as it can utilize carbon sources from inexpensive plant biomass. A team of researchers in the US (industry, PNNL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) engineered metabolically versatile host P. putida for isoprenol production. They employed two computational modeling approaches to predict gene knockout targets and optimize the “IPP-bypass” pathway in P. putida to maximize isoprenol production. Altogether, the highest isoprenol production titer from P. putida was […]
Researchers take major step toward developing next-generation solar cells
Science Daily March 22, 2024 The efficiency of p–i–n perovskite solar cells fabricated in air still lags behind those made in an inert atmosphere. An international team of researchers (China, USA-University of Colorado) introduced an ionic pair stabilizer, dimethylammonium formate (DMAFo), into the perovskite precursor solution to prevent the degradation of perovskite precursors. It inhibited the oxidization of iodide ions and deprotonation of organic cations, improved the crystallinity and reduced defects in the resulting perovskite films. They showed the generation of additional p-type defects during ambient air fabrication that suggested the need for improving bulk properties of the perovskite film […]
Tests show high-temperature superconducting magnets are ready for fusion
MIT News March 4, 2024 The SPARC Toroidal Field Model Coil (TFMC) Program was a three-year effort between 2018 and 2021 that developed novel rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconductor technologies and then successfully utilized these technologies to design, build, and test a first-in-class, high-field (∼20 T), representative-scale (∼3 m) superconducting toroidal field (TF) coil. The program was executed jointly by the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) as a technology enabler of the superconducting high-field pathway to fusion energy, and as a risk retirement program for the no insulation (NI) TF magnet […]
New water batteries stay cool under pressure
Science Daily February 21, 2024 The sluggish ions-transfer and inhomogeneous ions-nucleation induce the formation of randomly oriented dendrites on Zn anode, while the chemical instability at anode–electrolyte interface triggers detrimental side reactions. A team of international researchers (Australia, China) designed a multifunctional hybrid interphase of Bi/Bi2O3 a novel synergistic regulation mechanism involving chemically inert interface protection mechanism suppressing side reactions, and thermodynamically favorable Zn atomic clusters dissociation mechanism impeding dendrites formation. Assisted by collaborative modulation behavior, the Zn@Bi/Bi2O3 symmetry cell delivered an ultrahigh cumulative plating capacity and ultralong lifetimes of 300 h even at high current density and depth of […]
Researchers develop world’s most efficient quantum dot solar cell
Nanowerk February 21, 2024 Research has predominantly focused on inorganic cation perovskite-based colloidal quantum dots (PQDs) even though organic cation PQDs have more favorable bandgaps. Researchers in South Korea developed solar cells using narrow bandgap organic cation based PQDs and demonstrated substantially higher efficiency compared with their inorganic counterparts. They employed an alkyl ammonium iodide-based ligand exchange strategy, which proved to be substantially more efficient in replacing the long-chain oleyl ligands than conventional methyl acetate-based ligand exchange while stabilizing the α phase of organic PQDs in ambient conditions. They showed a solar cell with the organic cation PQDs with high […]
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 […]
Silver nanoparticles spark key advance in thermoelectricity for power generation
Nanowerk May 1, 2023 To facilitate the development of thermoelectric modules for various operating temperature ranges, a connection technology that is suitable for heat-sensitive thermoelectric materials and capable of realizing both low-temperature connections and high-temperature service is required. Researchers at the University of Houston used low-temperature sintering of silver nanoparticles as an approach to connect the electrode and metallization layer of low- (Bi2Te3-based), medium- (PbTe-based) and high-temperature (half-Heusler-based) thermoelectric modules. Due to the low melting point of Ag nanoparticles and the high stability in the sintered bulk, the processing temperature of the module was decoupled from the operating temperature, avoiding […]