Polyolefins are resistant to breaking down, making them hard to recycle. Scientists have now discovered a yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica, that uses hydrocarbons derived from polyolefin plastic wastes to produce substances that can be used to make biodegradable polyesters and polyurethanes.
Argonne’s recent research points to hydropower’s great potential to complement the variability of wind and solar power — and ultimately serve as the backbone for a clean grid.
This review explores the use of eco-friendly, biomass-derived carbon materials for high-performance rechargeable battery electrodes. It highlights recent advances in synthesizing these carbon materials, examining how their unique structures influence battery performance.
The Korean research team has succeeded in securing the technology for the domestic production of a 120kV (60kW) high-power electron-beam welding system, as well as a highly reliable process technology for manufacturing this system.
New research from The Grainger College of Engineering suggests that observing how heat flows in conjunction with electricity can give important insights into battery chemistry.
In 2006, battery research was practically non-existent at PNNL. Today, the lab is lauded for its battery research. How did PNNL go from a new player to a leader in state-of-the-art storage for EVs and the grid?
The National Virtual Climate Laboratory is a comprehensive web portal for climate science projects. It has new website features for students, faculty and researchers including career opportunities, a news section featuring climate and student news, and a calendar of workshops and events.
Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has reached a significant milestone with the publication of a groundbreaking study in a globally esteemed journal, marking a crucial stride toward the commercialization of all-solid-state batteries, free from the inherent risks of explosion and fire.
Like protons and neutrons, Lambda particles consist of three quarks bound together by gluons. But unlike protons and neutrons, which contain a mixture of up and down quarks, Lambdas also contain a strange quark.
Leafhoppers, a common backyard insect, secrete and coat themselves in tiny mysterious particles that could provide both the inspiration and the instructions for next-generation technology, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers.
The United States could triple its current bioeconomy by producing more than 1 billion tons per year of plant-based biomass for renewable fuels, while meeting projected demands for food, feed, fiber, conventional forest products and exports, according to the Department of Energy’s latest Billion-Ton Report led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
For 75 years, INL has been at the forefront of nuclear energy and technology research.
A perspective highlights the transformative impact of machine learning (ML) on enhancing carbon dioxide reduction reactions (CO2RR), steering us closer to carbon neutrality.
Dr. Hyung-Suk Oh and Dr. Woong-Hee Lee of the Clean Energy Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), in collaboration with POSTECH and Yonsei University, have developed a methodology to improve the reversibility and durability of electrodes using bifunctional platinum-nickel alloy catalysts with an octahedral structure that exhibits both oxygen reduction and generation reactions.
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will use hemp to develop a commercially viable, durable, and low-embodied-carbon insulated siding product to address what the U.S. Green Building Council says is a “crucial need for building retrofits to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.”
Researchers have developed an innovative machine learning method to estimate solar radiation components in China without the need for local ground truth data. This breakthrough addresses the scarcity of radiation component data and opens new avenues for the solar energy industry.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have created a new material that uses “redox gating” to control the movement of electrons in and out of a semiconducting material.
Theorists and computational scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University (SBU) ran a series of quantum simulations to explore one of the quirkiest features of the quantum realm: entanglement. The study takes quantum back to its roots in seeking to explain the behavior of subatomic particles.
Scientists from Ames National Laboratory have identified the first unconventional superconductor with a chemical composition also found in nature.
Electrochemistry stands at the confluence of basic and applied sciences, playing a crucial role in energy conversion and storage, material science, environmental protection and biomedical technology, etc.
A study in ACS Central Science shows that applying voltage to certain objects forms chemical bonds linking the objects together. Reversing the direction of electron flow separates the materials. This could help create biohybrid robots, improve biomedical implants and enable new battery technologies.
New research identifies the most important factors in successful fish passage, pointing toward new options for flexible dam operations.
On March 11, PPPL opened its new Quantum Diamond Lab, a space devoted to studying and refining the processes involved in using plasma, the electrically charged fourth state of matter, to create high-quality diamond material for quantum information science applications.
A team of researchers at ORNL demonstrated that a light-duty passenger electric vehicle can be wirelessly charged at 100-kW with 96% efficiency using polyphase electromagnetic coupling coils with rotating magnetic fields.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are taking cleaner transportation to the skies by creating and evaluating new batteries for airborne electric vehicles that take off and land vertically.
With the powerful, 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), astronomers have constructed a massive 1.3-gigapixel image showcasing the central part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the cosmic corpse of a gigantic star that exploded as a supernova.
A recent study has highlighted the insignificant health hazards posed by the emissions from waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities in China's Bohai Rim. This investigation brings to light the negligible impact of WtE plant emissions on public health, grounded in sophisticated regression analysis techniques.
With the Leopoldina Prize for young scientists 2023, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina honors Dr. Jingyuan Xu, who researches novel heating and cooling technologies for the energy transition at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Currently, the young engineer can boast two more significant awards: the Hector RCD Award as well as admission to the Global Young Academy, an exclusive association of international young scientists.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have tested the performance of a new device that boosts particle signals.
At high temperatures and densities, plasmas in fusion devices can develop gradients that can grow into instabilities, including edge localized modes (ELMs) that can damage reactor walls. In this research, scientists studied negative triangularity, a way the plasma shape can deviate from an oval. The research found this shaping was inherently free of instabilities across various plasma conditions, including operating reactor conditions.
High-temperature superconductor magnets have the potential to lower the costs of operating particle accelerators and enable powerful new technologies like fusion reactors. But quenches – the sudden, destructive events wherein a part of the material loses superconductivity – are a major barrier to their deployment.
A recent study introduces a novel methodology for evaluating the economic viability and competitive edge of onshore wind energy against traditional power sources. This approach underscores the potential of wind power to reach grid parity, where its cost becomes comparable or lower than conventional electricity sources. The research marks a significant step in understanding the dynamics of renewable energy markets and highlights the role of wind power in China's ambitious environmental goals.
UC San Diego engineers developed a cathode material for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries that is healable and highly conductive, overcoming longstanding challenges of traditional sulfur cathodes. The advance holds promise for bringing more energy dense and low-cost Li-S batteries closer to market.
More than 120 people gathered for the 2024 Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) Workshop at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory from Feb. 27-28. The event, which was sponsored by the DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES), is a part of the INFUSE awards program that funds laboratories or universities so they can partner with private sector companies working on the science and technology solutions that will bring fusion energy to the power grid. To date, DOE has granted 90 awards, with most ranging from $100,000 to $350,000 for a 12-month project.
Is it possible to convert CO2 back to fuels or other useful chemicals? Absolutely – but not in a very targeted way just yet. Empa researcher Alessandro Senocrate is looking at defects in materials that will help us achieve this goal.
Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a novel triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell that can achieve a certified world-record power conversion efficiency of 27.1 per cent across a solar energy absorption area of 1 sq cm, representing the best-performing triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell thus far. To achieve this, the team engineered a new cyanate-integrated perovskite solar cell that is stable and energy efficient.
Scientists are using the imperfections in magnetic fields that confine a fusion reaction to improve and enhance the plasma in an approach outlined in a new paper in the journal Nature Communications. PPPL Physicist Seong-Moo Yang led the research team, which spans various institutions in the U.S. and South Korea. Yang says this is the first time any research team has validated a systematic approach to tailoring magnetic field imperfections to make the plasma suitable for use as a power source. These magnetic field imperfections are known as error fields.
Experimentalists and theorists have provided strong evidence for the creation of an exotic isotope, nitrogen-9, which has two neutrons and seven protons. This unbalanced ratio of protons to neutrons produces a nucleus that only survives for less than one-billionth of a nanosecond. The work also provides information on nitrogen-9’s mirror nucleus, helium-9, which has two protons to its seven neutrons.
Research groups from Argonne National Laboratory receive 2023 Secretary of Energy Honor Awards, considered the highest form of recognition by the U.S. Department of Energy.
High in the sky over an Alaskan tundra, a small aircraft ran the same pattern over and over again. It swooped through clouds and flew down close to the ground. But there were no people experiencing the flight from inside the plane – it was an unmanned aerial system (UAS). UASs are aircraft that people can operate remotely from the ground. Building on years of testing, researchers working with the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Department of Energy Office of Science user facility are now gaining access to these helpful tools.
Fengqui "Frank" Li is a computational developer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who uses his background as an architect to expand the landscape of design for his research into building energy modeling and beyond.
Argonne’s enhanced NERDE data explorer provides community leaders with insights into local economic distress, employment and gross domestic product, local industry clusters, climate risk, and innovation to inform economic resilience planning.
The year-long project seeks to examine the risks to export control that still-developing SMR technology will play for the next several decades.
A greater understanding of how plants and microbes work together to store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon in the soil will help in the design of better bioenergy crops for the fight against climate change. Deciphering the mechanics of this mutually beneficial relationship is, however, challenging as conditions in nature are extremely difficult for scientists to replicate in the laboratory. To address this challenge, researchers created fabricated ecosystems or EcoFABs.
New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows that models commonly used to shape climate mitigation need to include human behaviors and rules—and shows models can be adapted to do so
Dr. Jung Unho's research team at the Hydrogen Research Department of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) has developed Korea's first clean hydrogen production technology.
The work will help researchers tune surface properties of perovskites, a promising alternative and supplement to silicon, for more efficient photovoltaics.
A collaborative team of researchers led by the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis is working toward that goal by developing an energy storage system that would have a much higher energy density than existing systems.
The recent spike of activity from the sun occurred during what NASA has dubbed the Heliophysics Big Year—a celebration of solar science centered on the April 8 total eclipse, the last that will be visible from the continental U.S. for 20 years.
The U.S. Department of Energy is supporting an Iowa State-led project to build the first “microgrid” in rural Iowa. The project will create a utility-scale microgrid in Montezuma to provide reliable, resilient and affordable electricity. The new system will feature power generation from solar panels, a battery storage system and two chargers for electric vehicles.
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