Krishnan Rajeshwar, ECS senior vice president and co-founder of UTA’s Center for Renewable Energy, Science and Technology

New research headed by ECS senior vice president Krishnan Rajeshwar has developed “green fuels” to power cars, home appliances, and even impact critical energy storage devices.

Solar fuels addressing global issues

Rajeshwar’s research works to address critical global and environmental issue by creating an inexpensive way to generate fuel from harmful emissions such as carbon dioxide.

(MORE: Read additional publications by Rajeshwar.)

The University of Texas at Arlington professor and 35 year ECS member has developed a novel high-performing material for cells that harness sunlight to split carbon dioxide and water into usable fuels like methanol and hydrogen gas.

From harmful to helpful

“Technologies that simultaneously permit us to remove greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide while harnessing and storing the energy of sunlight as fuel are at the forefront of current research,” Rajeshwar said. “Our new material could improve the safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of solar fuel generation, which is not yet economically viable.”

(MORE: Read the full study as published in ChemElectroChem Europe.)

This from University of Texas at Arlington:

The new hybrid platform uses ultra-long carbon nanotube networks with a homogeneous coating of copper oxide nanocrystals. It demonstrates both the high electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes and the photocathode qualities of copper oxide, efficiently converting light into the photocurrents needed for the photoelectrochemical reduction process.

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For most of history, fuel cells existed only as laboratory curiosities. As far back as 1839, the English scientist William Grove had the idea that the reactants of a battery could be gases fed into it from external tanks.

Since their humble beginnings, fuel cells have come a far to prove as a viable alternative to combustion. Currently, researchers at the University of Basel are studying how sunlight could split water into hydrogen and oxygen, creating a fuel cell that could produce clean energy from water.

(MORE: Read “Battery and Fuel Cell Technology.”)

Artificial photosynthesis has proven to be one of the most promising tools in producing clean, renewable resources. This process occurs when water is photo-electrochemically, with the aid of sunlight, separated into its H₂ and O₂ components.

Of the two reactions that occur, water oxidation typically provides researchers with the most hurdles to overcome. The new research works to develop an efficient, sustainable water oxidation catalyst.

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Morocco has officially opened the Noor I power plan — a massive solar power plant in the Sahara Desert that is poised to provide renewable energy to more than one million Moroccans.

Projects show the Noor I power plants with the capability of generating up to 160 megawatts of power. Thousands of solar panels cover an expansive piece of the desert, making it one of the world’s biggest solar thermal power plants.

But Morocco is well on the way to developing the single largest solar power production facility in the world, with Noor II and Noor III already underway.

This from NPR:

Morocco currently relies on imported sources for 97 percent of its energy consumption, according to the World Bank, which helped fund the Noor power plant project. Investing in renewable energy will make Morocco less reliant on those imports as well as reduce the nation’s long-term carbon emissions by millions of tons.

Read the full article.

Because of the climate in the Sahara Desert, the systems will work by capturing the sun’s energy as heat and converting water into steam, thus turning the turbines.

This differs from a traditional photovoltaic system, where the thermal system carries the ability to function without direct sunlight. Additionally, energy storage technologies are not necessary for evening use.

Sweden, a world leader in clean energy solutions, is make new innovations in harnessing the energy of wave power.

In an effort to combat the detrimental effects of climate change, countries around the world are looking for the next big thing in energy. In Sweden, part of that answer may be in buoys drifting in the ocean.

For the first time, Wave Energy Converters the Sotenäs Wave Power Plant on the Swedish West Coast is generating electricity and transporting it to the Swedish grid through buoys.

This from Seabased:

The connection of the six meter diameter buoys to the corresponding linear generator Wave Energy Converters on the seabed represents the final step in bringing each unit on line, together making up a system establishing many World firsts, including the world’s first multiple unit wave power plant and the world’s first subsea generator switchgear.

Read the full article.

Currently, Sweden is one of the global leader in clean energy solutions. Since the country’s oil crisis in the 1970s, the country has transitioned from an energy infrastructure from 70 percent dependency on oil to just a 20 percent dependency.

“This is a very significant achievement,” said Mats Leijon, CEO of Seabased. “We are very happy to have come this far and I wish to thank Fortum and the Swedish Energy Agency for their confidence and support all throughout this, sometimes tough, journey.”

In order to meet increasing water demands and combat the devastating effects of climate change, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is looking toward scientific innovation to help quench the Persian Gulf’s thirst.

Increasing water shortage in UAE

The first issue that leads to UAE water shortages is the essentially non-existent rainfall paired with the country’s high water consumption. The UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi receives only 75mm of rainfall annually, with the country as a whole receiving less than 100mm of rainfall each year . Pair that with a water consumption that is the highest in the world, coming in at 82 percent above global average, and the situation starts to look serous.

But that’s not the only issue in the UAE’s water supply problems. Climate change is making this land even hotter and drier than ever before, with a study stating that the effects of climate change may make the Persian Gulf uninhabitable by 2071.

(MORE: See how ECS scientists are addressing water and sanitation issues around the world.)

For this reason, the UAE is turning toward German and Japanese researchers, offering a $5 million reward to researchers who could help solve this problem.

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The capture and recycling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be the first stop toward a “methanol economy.”

For the first time, researchers have successfully proven that carbon dioxide captured from the environment can be transformed into methanol. This not only removes damaging carbon dioxide emissions, but also produces an exciting alternative fuel. For some, this is an inevitable step toward an economy where fuel and energy storage would be primarily based on methanol.

The study was led by the University of Southern California professors G. K. Surya Prakash and George A. Olah and was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“Direct CO₂ capture and conversion to methanol using molecular hydrogen in the same pot was never achieved before. We have now done it!” Prakash says.

Methanol is especially attractive because of its use as an alternative fuel in fuel cells and for hydrogen storage. Some believe that methanol is the future, with 70 million tons already being produced annually via the production of plastics.

This from Phys.org:

In the new study, the researchers developed a stable catalyst based on the metal ruthenium that does not decompose at high temperatures. The catalyst’s good stability allows it to be reused over and over again for the continuous production of methanol.

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With plunging oil prices, it is proving to be more difficult than ever to entice buyers into purchasing an electric vehicle. While the low oil prices may be good for consumers’ gas tanks, the transportation sector continues to account for 27 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions.

The question then arises of how electric car manufacturers can steer folks back toward electric vehicles and away from gas-guzzling cars?

(MORE: Read Interface: PV, EV, and Your Home)

Impact of falling oil prices

“It definitely makes the transition to sustainable energy more difficult,” said Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, at a business conference in Hong Kong about the impact of the free-falling oil prices.

Tesla rose to prominence in 2003 when oil prices soared, making electric vehicles all the more tempting. With oil prices continually on the decline, it’s now up to companies like Tesla to compel buyers and stress the importance of transitioning toward cleaner vehicles.

New features for electric cars

For companies like Tesla, that means developing things like autonomous cars with “summon” features – allowing the user to call their car just like a pet. Even aesthetic aspects have become more important, with Tesla focusing on futuristic designs.

“What we’re aspiring to do is to make the cars so compelling that even with lower gas prices, it’s still the car you want to buy,” Musk said.

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While society as a whole is moving toward cleaner, more renewable energy sources, there is one key component that is typically glossed over in the energy technology conversation: energy storage.

Developments in solar and wind are critical in the battle against climate change, but without advances in energy storage, our efforts may fall short. What happens when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing?

The folks at Popular Science are providing a friendly analogy to explain the the importance of energy storage.

As electronics advances, the demand for high-performance batteries increases. The lithium-ion battery is currently leading the charge in powering portable electronic devices, but another lithium-based battery contender is on the horizon.

The lithium-air battery is one of the most promising research areas in current lithium-based battery technology. While researchers such as ECS’s K.M. Abraham have been on the Li-air beat since the late 90s, current research is looking to propel this technology with the hopes of commercializing it for practical use.

A new contender: Lithium-air batteries

Recently, Khalil Amine, IMLB chair; and Larry Curtiss, IMLB invited speaker, co-authored a paper detailing a lithium-air battery that could store up to five times more energy than today’s lithium-ion battery.

(MORE: Submit your abstract for IMLB today!)

This work brings society one step closer to the commercial use of lithium-air batteries. In previous works regarding Li-air, researchers continuously encountered the same phenomenon of the clogging of the pores of the electrode.

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New material could help SOFCs operate more efficiently and cheaply.
Image: Bloom Energy

Solid oxide fuel cells may be producing cleaner energy at a more efficient level soon, thanks to a development at the University of Cambridge.

A new thin-film electrolyte material, developed by a team including ECS member Sergei Kalinin, has the potential to propel portable power sources due to its ability to achieve high performance levels and very low temperatures.

Advancing fuel cells

With a huge scientific focus shift toward developing new energy technologies, fuel cells have emerged as a big contender. Transitioning from a simple laboratory curiosity in the 19th century to a main contender for powering electric vehicles, researchers have dedicated much energy to building an efficient, cost effective fuel cell.

(MORE: Read “Battery and Fuel Cell Technology“)

This from University of Cambridge:

By using thin-film electrolyte layers, micro solid oxide fuel cells offer a concentrated energy source, with potential applications in portable power sources for electronic consumer or medical devices, or those that need uninterruptable power supplies such as those used by the military or in recreational vehicles.

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