As methane concentrations increase in the Earth’s atmosphere, chemical fingerprints point to a probable source: shale oil and gas, according to new Cornell University research published in Biogeosciences, a journal of the European Geosciences Union.
Researchers invented a process to extract rare earth elements from scrap magnets. They patented and scaled up the process in lab demonstrations and are working with a licensee to scale the process further to produce commercial batches of rare earth oxides.
Europe has the capacity to produce more than 100 times the amount of energy it currently produces through onshore windfarms, new analysis from the University of Sussex and Aarhus University has revealed.
Scientists have discovered how diatoms – a type of alga that produce 20 percent of the Earth’s oxygen – harness solar energy for photosynthesis. The Rutgers University-led discovery, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help lead to more efficient and affordable algae-based biofuels and combat climate change from fossil fuel burning.
Advances in adapting the technology and better methods for predicting wind conditions have fanned significant growth of the use of wind turbines for electricity in the last 40 years. A new report, in Applied Physics Reviews, takes stock of where the field is now and what lies ahead. Researchers surveyed the growth of wind technology as a source of renewable energy and assessed its viability for continuing to capture larger shares of the electricity market.
Chemistry was the subject in school that Christopher Hayes enjoyed the most. However, the Long Island, New York, native entered Stony Brook University (SBU) unsure of his course of study. This past spring, he graduated with degrees in chemistry and computer science. Both are coming in handy for his summer internship in the Chemistry Division at the U.
People think of electric scooters, or e-scooters, as environmentally friendly ways to get around town. But a new study from North Carolina State University finds it's not that simple: shared e-scooters may be greener than most cars, but they can be less green than several other options.
University of Delaware scientists are part of an international team of researchers that has revealed a new approach to convert carbon dioxide gas into valuable chemicals and fuels.
While artificial leaves hold promise as a way to take carbon dioxide — a potent greenhouse gas — out of the atmosphere, there is a “dark side to artificial leaves that has gone overlooked for more than a decade,” according to Meenesh Singh, assistant professor of chemical engineering in the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Engineering.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) investigating how to make desalination less expensive have recently hit on promising design rules for making so-called “thermally responsive” ionic liquids to separate water from salt.
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire took a closer look at shale natural gas energy development (SGD) and how it is affecting the experiences of outdoor recreationists, like hikers and campers. They found a significant number of recreationists encountered SGD-related activities and a smaller number even changed their outdoor behaviors or experiences as a result of encountering SGD.
Many countries are now making rapid advances in hydrogen energy technologies and strategy – and the rest of the world has much to learn from their experience, according to the authors of a new report by the University of Adelaide.
Drive through nearly any corner of America long enough and giant solar farms or rows of wind turbines come into view, all with the goal of increasing the country's renewable energy use and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Making the shift to renewable energy sources requires biomass, too.
A team of engineers at Washington University in St. Louis has found what they believe is a more stable, less toxic semiconductor for solar applications, using a novel double mineral discovered through data analytics and quantum-mechanical calculations.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — By adopting a few beneficial management practices, farms — and particularly dairy farms — can play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, according to a team of researchers. Based on a series of climate-model projections, the researchers found that if farmers worldwide set a target to adopt practices to reduce their emission of greenhouse gases, particularly methane and nitrous oxide, by just 25 percent over the next 30 years, they could reduce overall warming by 0.21 degrees Celsius, or 6 percent of projected total warming.
New DNA analysis has revealed surprising genetic diversity in a bacterium that poses a persistent threat to the algae biofuels industry. With the evocative name Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus, the predatory pest sucks out the contents of the algae cells (thus the vampire reference) and reduces a productive, thriving, green algae pond to a vat of rotting sludge.
Inter-lab collaboration between the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is paving the way for a greener and more resilient power grid.
Stephanie Taboada and Nylette Lopez are spending the summer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory exploring catalysts, those critical components of chemical reactions that bring reacting chemicals together to get the action started and keep it moving. Though at different stages of their educational journeys, these students were brought together by a few things you could call their catalysts: a common love of science; their mentor, Brookhaven Lab Chemist Jose Rodriguez; and programs designed to increase the participation of women and other underrepresented minorities in careers in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math.
Whether studying the fundamental behavior of metals or reconstructing the evolution of the universe, researchers are finding the resources to accomplish their goals at one or a combination of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facilities. Argonne is home to five of these world-class facilities and plays host to several thousand users each year. This article highlights just a few of those users and their relationship with Argonne’s User Facilities.
The High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation program (HPC4EI) today announced the nine public/private projects awarded more than $2 million in Department of Energy funding, with aims of improving energy production, enhancing or developing new material properties and reducing energy usage in manufacturing.
The males of one species of butterfly are more attracted to females that are active, not necessarily what they look like, according to a recent research conducted at Augustana University.The paper, “Behaviour before beauty: Signal weighting during mate selection in the butterfly Papilio polytes,” found that males of the species noticed the activity levels of potential female mates, not their markings.
A chemical surface treatment boosts the catalytic activity of the wire-looking nanostructures for a key reaction in solar fuel production.
Northern Arizona University professors César Plaza, Christina Schädel and Ted Schuur used a new method to track soil carbon losses in thawing permafrost in the Arctic. The results paint an even bleaker picture of the effects of climate change than they previously thought.
In a recent study, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory performed a novel type of experiment that reveals new insights concerning how energy moves in methylammonium lead iodide, a promising perovskite crystal material that has attracted substantial interest from solar researchers.
Imagine if your printer had an “unprint” button that used pulses of light to remove toner, curbing environmental impacts compared with conventional paper recycling. A Rutgers-led team has created a new way to unprint paper that, unlike laser-based methods, can work with the standard, coated paper used in home and office printers. The new method uses pulses of light from a xenon lamp, and can erase black, blue, red and green toners without damaging the paper, according to a study in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded Rush Oak Brook Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. LEED is an internationally recognized system for certifying green (environmentally responsible) buildings and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
UPTON, NY—Scientists studying plant biochemistry at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory recently made a surprising discovery: They found that a protein that turns on oil synthesis also activates a protein that puts the brakes on the same process. In a paper just published in the journal Plant Physiology, they describe how this seemingly paradoxical system keeps oil precursors perfectly balanced to meet plants’ needs.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are working with industry to develop a “circular carbon economy,” which continually recycles carbon-based products into new products and energy.
American ingenuity is providing radical productivity improvements from advanced materials and robotic systems developed at the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
By using energy-efficient buildings and distributing means of energy generation, such as solar panels, throughout buildings, sustainable communities can achieve a yearly net zero energy balance. However, this average glosses over the local energy fluctuations that can challenge the supporting power grid. Researchers have now integrated power grid considerations into the model of a newly planned net zero energy district and examined energy fluctuations at 15-minute intervals. The analysis and recommendations are presented in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
When hurricanes strike, loss of electricity ranks as one of the top concerns for relief workers. New work, described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, looks to develop a strategy for how floating devices that harness the energy of ocean waves might be able to provide this much needed aid. A researcher at Johns Hopkins University is studying a new approach to supplying electricity that both potentially provides a way of optimizing recovery efforts and poses questions about how relief is currently conducted in disaster areas.
Huge floating solar islands on the ocean that produce enough energy to enable CO2-neutral global freight traffic - what sounds like "science fiction" researchers from ETH Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Empa, the Universities of Zurich and Bern and the Nowegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim have now calculated for the first time, as they write in the latest issue of the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS).
Argonne researchers are transforming America's transportation and energy systems with machine learning, an iterative version of artificial intelligence.
A team from Cornell University associate professor Max Zhang’s lab will work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the next year on a machine learning model designed to predict fossil fuel emissions. The project was a winning entry in the EPA-sponsored EmPOWER Air Data Challenge.
University at Albany solar energy expert Richard Perez shares his blueprint for a carbon-free future in PV-Tech Power.
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas that traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide, is commonly released from rice fields, dairies, landfills, and oil and gas facilities – all of which are plentiful in California. Now Berkeley Lab has been awarded $6 million by the state to find “super emitters” of methane in an effort to quantify and potentially mitigate methane emissions.
Stony Brook University and the Center for Sustainable Energy® (CSE) have signed a memorandum of understanding to support and accelerate the development of clean and sustainable energy research being conducted in the Research & Development Park at Stony Brook University.
The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant to faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York for research to generate power from human sweat.
Researchers have determined there's economic value to expanding the connections between the country's eastern and western power grids. Expanding the connections could allow wind power from the Midwest and solar power from the Southwest to move back and forth across the country.
Biodegradable and compostable plastic bags are still capable of carrying full loads of shopping after being exposed in the natural environment for three years, a new study shows.
Meal kit services, which deliver a box of pre-portioned ingredients and a chef-selected recipe to your door, are hugely popular but get a bad environmental rap due to perceived packaging waste.
A gene that dictates which of three sexes a papaya tree will become could spur a leap in the ultra-nutritious crop’s production.
The University of Michigan is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly following an agreement to buy renewable energy through DTE Energy that will result in about half of the purchased electricity for the Ann Arbor campus coming from Michigan-sourced renewable resources.
New research from The Ohio State University has shown that combining natural rubber with bioplastic in a novel way results in a much stronger replacement for plastic, one that is already capturing the interest of companies looking to shrink their environmental footprints.
White individuals disproportionately affect the environment through their eating habits by eating more foods that require more water and release more greenhouse gases through their production compared to foods black and Latinx individuals eat, according to a new report published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.The report takes an in-depth look at what different demographic populations eat, how much greenhouse gas those foods are responsible for, and how much land and water they require.
With an estimated daily fuel demand of more than 5 million barrels per day, the global aviation sector is incredibly energy-intensive and almost entirely reliant on petroleum-based fuels. However, a new analysis by scientists at Berkeley Lab shows that sustainable plant-based bio-jet fuels could provide a competitive alternative to conventional fuels if current development and scale-up initiatives continue to push ahead successfully.
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