Wind Farms Cause More Environmental Impact Than Previously Thought
When it comes to energy production, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, unfortunately. As the world begins its large-scale transition toward low-carbon energy…
Sustainability
New Lithium-Based Battery Design Makes Use of Greenhouse Gas
New lithium-based battery could make use of greenhouse gas before it ever gets into the atmosphere. A new type of battery developed by researchers at…
Scientists Develop a New Way to Turn Sunlight Into Fuel
The quest to find new ways to harness solar power has taken a step forward after researchers successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen by…
New Dual-Layer Solar Cell Sets Record for Efficiently Generating Power
Materials scientists from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have developed a highly efficient thin-film solar cell that generates more energy from sunlight than typical…
Published Study Shows Algae Using Raw Plants as a Carbon Energy Source
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and partner institutions provided today the first published report of algae using raw plants as a carbon energy source….
Engineers Create Sustainable Concrete That Reduces Energy Demand, Greenhouse Emissions
Washington State University researchers have created a sustainable alternative to traditional concrete using coal fly ash, a waste product of coal-based electricity generation. The advance…
‘Promiscuous’ Enzyme Turns Plant Waste into Sustainable Products
A new family of enzymes has been discovered which paves the way to convert plant waste into sustainable and high-value products such as nylon, plastics,…
Engineers Develop New System to Provide Low-Cost Drinking Water
Technology captures water evaporating from cooling towers; prototype to be installed on MIT’s Central Utility Plant. A new system devised by MIT engineers could provide…
Research Shows Advanced Biofuels Can Be Produced Extremely Efficiently
A chance to switch to renewable sources for heating, electricity and fuel, while also providing new opportunities for several industries to produce large numbers of…
Chemists Develop New Way to Create Lithium Metal Electrodes for Batteries
Researchers at Yale and Donghua University in China have developed a new process for creating lithium metal that may boost the energy and capacity of…
Researchers Develop A Fuel Cell That Uses Lignin
Researchers from the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University have developed a fuel cell that uses lignin, a cheap by-product from paper manufacture and…
When and Where Advanced Photovoltaics Are Economic to Install
Which is a better deal: an established, off-the-shelf type of solar panel or a cutting-edge type that delivers more power for a given area but…
A Framework for Sustainable Nanomaterial Selection and Design
Engineered nanomaterials hold great promise for medicine, electronics, water treatment, and other fields. But when the materials are designed without critical information about environmental impacts…
Flexo-Photovoltaic Effect Squeezes More Power Out of Solar Cells
Physicists at the University of Warwick have published new research in the Journal Science that could literally squeeze more power out of solar cells by…
Engineers Discover Greener and Cheaper Technique for Biofuel
Natural bacterium isolated from mushroom crop residue converts plant-based material to butanol directly. A team of engineers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) recently…
Mapping Lithium-Ion Battery Electrode Structure at the Atomic Level
Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in home electronics and are now being used to power electric vehicles and store energy for the power grid. But…
Chemists Discover a New Way to Work with Heterogeneous Catalysts
Scientists have found a new way to work with heterogeneous catalysts, which are key chemical drivers in the development of energy technology and the production…
Nanostructure Increases Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion Efficiency by a Factor of Eleven
Polymeric carbon nitrides exhibit a catalytic effect in sunlight that can be used for the production of hydrogen from solar energy. However, the efficiency of…