Feature Channels: Energy

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A collaboration led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Max Born Institute (MBI) published a study in Nature in which they used a novel analysis technique—called coherent correlation imaging (CCI)—to image the evolution of magnetic domains in time and space without any previous knowledge. The scientists could not see the “dance of the domains” during the measurement but only afterward, when they used the recorded data to “rewind the tape.”

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Researchers have been looking to replace silicon in electronics with materials that provide a higher performance and lower power consumption while also having scalability. An international team is addressing that need by developing a promising process to develop high-quality 2D materials that could power next-generation electronics.

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A Missouri University of Science and Technology team of researchers led by Dr. Rui Bo, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, recently took second place in the Hydropower Operations Optimization (H2Os) Prize challenge sponsored by the United States Department of Energy (DOE).

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Nuclear and hydrogen could be the ideal fuel for recharging electric trucks, opening potential markets for developers of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).

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Synthetic energy carriers are carbon-neutral and make renewable energy transportable and storable in the long term. Synthetically produced methane is one of them. The problem: The production involves rather high energy losses; moreover, existing processes require the methane to be purified. To change this, Empa researchers have developed a new, optimized reactor concept for methanation.

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Flow batteries offer a solution. Electrolytes flow through electrochemical cells from storage tanks in this rechargeable battery. The existing flow battery technologies cost more than $200/kilowatt hour and are too expensive for practical application, but Liu’s lab in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) developed a more compact flow battery cell configuration that reduces the size of the cell by 75%, and correspondingly reduces the size and cost of the entire flow battery. The work could revolutionize how everything from major commercial buildings to residential homes are powered.

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Half a million lives could be saved each year in sub-Saharan Africa by taking action to reduce reliance on traditional wood- and charcoal-burning stoves, a new study shows.

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New PNNL-developed nanogenerator harnesses the renewable energy in ocean waves to power sensors that provide critical weather and wave information.

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Below are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Space and Astronomy channel on Newswise, a free source for journalists.

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A novel technique called Underground Gravity Energy Storage turns decommissioned mines into long-term energy storage solutions, thereby supporting the sustainable energy transition.

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Journalists who register for the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) will have access to more than 10,000 presentations on topics. ACS Spring 2023 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person in Indianapolis on March 26-30 with the theme “Crossroads of Chemistry.”

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Plant biochemists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a new level of regulation in the biochemical “machinery” that plants use to convert organic carbon derived from photosynthesis into a range of ring-shaped aromatic molecules. The research suggests new strategies for controlling plant biochemistry for agricultural and industrial applications.

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Lignin, the complex polymer that gives plants their structural integrity, makes them difficult to break down and creates challenges for the creation of biochemicals and bioproducts. Building blocks that are present in small amounts in the lignin of the bioenergy crop poplar are valuable platform chemicals that are easy to “clip-off” during plant deconstruction. Scientists engineered a new type of poplar to have more of a specific building block in its lignin and less lignin overall. This results in wood that is easier to deconstruct and more valuable as a bioproduct raw material.

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In the Arctic, plant community type strongly impacts how energy is exchanged between the land and atmosphere.

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An update to the Energy Zones Mapping Tool, the Geospatial Energy Mapper is an online tool with an extensive catalog of mapping data for energy planning. It can help identify areas that are suitable for clean energy infrastructure projects.

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Major advances in battery technologies will bring us a big step closer this year to large-scale renewable energy goals, international energy independence and a big reduction in greenhouse gases, according to an expert from Washington University in St. Louis. “One of the major challenges to a fully renewable-energy future of wind and solar power is energy storage,” said Michael Wysession, a professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St.

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Two researchers proposed in a study in Applied Materials Today that a super-lubricity switch may be found in humidity, enabling it to be turned on and off depending if friction is or isn't needed.

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RUDN ecologists compared the main methods for obtaining biofuel from microalgae and named the most effective one. Chemists took into account both the process of preparing raw materials, the yield of the final product, and the energy costs of synthesis.

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Raindrops, evaporating water, and even moisture in the air are all potentially sources of decentralized clean electricity generation, but many of the technologies that take advantage of this ambient and vast source of energy—many of which are inspired by the electricity harvesting techniques of plants and animals—remain at the lab-bench stage.

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A team from Nagoya University in Japan has observed, for the first time, the energy transferring from resonant electrons to whistler-mode waves in space.

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Experts from around the country traveled to Hauppauge, NY, to discuss research in advanced accelerator physics and technology as well as the application and impact of that work. The workshop presented a great opportunity to also spark the interest of students and engage local university faculty. Mark Palmer, of Brookhaven Lab’s Accelerator Test Facility, worked with DOE and the New York City College of Technology to give students an in-depth look at accelerator science through lectures, workshops, and an on-site laboratory tour.

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Scientists are working to transform carbon dioxide into chemical solar fuels. To advance this process, researchers have identified a new hybrid material that consists of a light-absorbing semiconductor and a cobalt catalyst. The research extends scientific efforts to identify new ways to store energy and to efforts to understand how light-absorbing hybrid systems can drive the catalytic production of chemical fuels using solar energy.

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Columbia Engineering has won a $35 million five-year grant to establish the Center for Ubiquitous Connectivity (CUbiC) and advance energy-efficient communications technologies for addressing the vastly growing connectivity bottlenecks between data-hungry wireless devices and deluged data centers. Over the next five years, CUbiC will strive to flatten the computation-communication gap, delivering seamless Edge-to-Cloud connectivity with transformational reductions in the global system energy consumption.

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Cornell is leading a new $34 million research center that will accelerate the creation of energy-efficient semiconductor materials and technologies, and develop revolutionary new approaches for microelectronics systems.

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A device that can harvest water from the air and provide hydrogen fuel—entirely powered by solar energy—has been a dream for researchers for decades.

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Catalysts boost chemical reactions from our bodies to the industrial production of compounds and controlled fuel combustion in the car. From solid to gaseous, no matter their formula, their role is to enhance the rate of chemical reactions making many processes easier.

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The steady rise in global energy consumption is causing a rapid depletion of fossil fuel resources. Since fossil fuels take thousands of years to replenish, there is an urgent need to determine alternate renewable energy sources.

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As semiconductor devices become ever smaller, researchers are exploring two-dimensional materials for potential applications in transistors and optoelectronics. Controlling the flow of electricity and heat through these materials is key to their functionality, but first we need to understand the details of those behaviors at atomic scales. Now, researchers have discovered that electrons play a surprising role in how energy is transferred between layers of 2D semiconductor materials tungsten diselenide and tungsten disulfide.

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Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a new kind of heating and cooling method that they have named the ionocaloric refrigeration cycle. They hope the technique will someday help phase out refrigerants that contribute to global warming and provide safe, efficient cooling and heating for homes.

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Scientists are increasingly seeking to discover more about quantum entanglement, which occurs when two or more systems are created or interact in such a manner that the quantum states of some cannot be described independently of the quantum states of the others.

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Bar-Ilan University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have won a call published by the Israel Ministry of Energy for the establishment of a national research institute in the field of energy storage.

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Emerging forms of thin-film device technologies that rely on alternative semiconductor materials, such as printable organics, nanocarbon allotropes and metal oxides, could contribute to a more economically and environmentally sustainable internet of things (IoT), a KAUST-led international team suggests.

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Researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory uncover the long-hidden process that helps explain why the Sun's corona can be vastly hotter than the solar surface that emits it.

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Argonne researchers put their stamp on 2022 with accomplishments as varied as quantum science, wearable medical sensors, and climate change resilience and recovery.

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The recent achievement of fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) marks a monumental scientific step in controlling the physics involved in the quest for future limitless clean energy.

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KICT developed a new technology for diagnosing faults to prevent water leaks from district heating pipes, which supply energy in an eco-friendly and economical way.

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RUDN University chemists have improved the catalyst for ethanol conversion. With it, a mixture of compounds with a high octane number was obtained. This was achieved thanks to a special substrate for the activated carbon catalyst. In the future, such developments will help to obtain more environmentally friendly fuel additives and thus reduce the carbon footprint.

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Researchers have developed a new method for discovering and making new crystalline materials with two or more elements. Such materials would be applicable to developing next-generation superconductors, microelectronics, batteries, magnets and more.

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Consumers told that not recycling their batteries ‘risked polluting the equivalent of 140 Olympic swimming pools every year’ were more likely to participate in an electronic waste recycling scheme, a new study has found.

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Argonne scientists give the lay of the land in the quest for electrolytes that could enable revolutionary battery chemistries.