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New technology allows hydrogen to be directly injected into the cylinders like an internal combustion engine.

As the world scrambles to transition to green fuels to achieve carbon neutrality, promoting power sources that use hydrogen as a clean fuel is one strategy to further the move. Now, researchers in South Korea have developed a new technology for a passenger car hydrogen engine that promises to make it more viable for mass production.

The powertrain developed by researchers at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) and the Zero-Carbon Engine Research Lab of Hyundai-Kia Motor Company (HMC) is a 2-liter direct injection hydrogen engine that runs entirely on hydrogen fuel.

Smirkdingo/iStock.

Their research, recently published in the journal Nature, introduces a photocatalytic method that leverages light energy to activate water, potentially opening up new avenues in chemistry, particularly in the synthesis of compounds from simpler materials.

Removing membranes could shave off as much as 30 percent of battery costs since they are the most expensive components.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati in the US have developed a new design that could make lithium-ion batteries much cheaper to produce. This can have a profound impact on the large-scale energy storage systems needed to store renewable energy, a press release said.

Lithium-ion batteries, extensively used for power electronic devices, have also found their way into electric vehicles (EVs) thanks to their superior energy density over conventional batteries. These can also be deployed to store renewable energy when production is high, but the demand is low.

Reducing turbulence with heartbeat-inspired flow control.

Hydrogen is often touted as a future energy solution, especially when generated through environmentally friendly methods. Beyond its energy potential, hydrogen plays a crucial role in producing active ingredients and various essential compounds. To generate hydrogen, water (H₂O) can be transformed into hydrogen gas (H2) through a sequence of chemical reactions.

However, as water molecules are very stable, splitting them into hydrogen and oxygen presents a big challenge to chemists. For it to succeed at all, the water first has to be activated using a catalyst – then it reacts more easily.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Armido Studer at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at Münster University (Germany) has developed a photocatalytic process in which water, under mild reaction conditions, is activated through triaryl phosphines and not, as in most other processes, through transition metal complexes.

Japan’s space agency has launched a rocket on September 6 at 7:42 PM EDT carrying a telescope that’s more advanced than NASA’s Chandra and other X-ray observatories already in orbit. The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission — or XRISM but pronounced as “crism” — is a mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions by the European Space Agency. Lia Corrales, a University of Michigan astronomer and mission participant, told The New York Times that XRISM represents “the next step in X-ray observations.”

The telescope is considered more powerful than its predecessors because of its tools. One of them, called Resolve, is a microcalorimeter spectrometer with the capability to measure tiny increases in temperature when X-rays hit its 6-by-6-pixel detector. It must operate in an environment that’s a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, enabled by a multistage mechanical cooling process inside its refrigerator-sized container with liquid helium. But so long as it’s working, the tool can measure each individual X-ray energy and can provide information on its source’s composition, motion and physical state.

Continue reading “Japan launched an X-ray telescope more advanced than its peers” »

With the goal to lower the price of solid-state EV batteries by employing cheaper raw materials and processes without sacrificing safety, a joint venture with China’s biggest car maker is now moving to the production stage.

With the rapid growth of the smart and wearable electronic devices market, smart next-generation energy storage systems that have energy storage functions as well as additional color-changing properties are receiving a great deal of attention. However, existing electrochromic devices have low electrical conductivity, leading to low efficiency in electron and ion mobility, and low storage capacities. Such batteries have therefore been limited to use in flexible and wearable devices.

On August 21, a joint research team led by Professor Il-Doo Kim from the KAIST Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) and Professor Tae Gwang Yun from the Myongji University Department of Materials Science and Engineering announced the development of a smart electrochromic Zn-ion battery that can visually represent its charging and discharging processes using an electrochromic polymer anode incorporated with a “π-bridge spacer,” which increases electron and ion mobility efficiency.

Their research was published as an inside cover article for Advanced Materials on August 3 under the title, “A π-Bridge Spacer Embedded Electron Donor-Acceptor Polymer for Flexible Electrochromic Zn-Ion Batteries.”

The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced its approval of the Revolution Wind project. Located off the coast of Rhode Island, it will supply 704 megawatts (MW) of clean energy, more than 16 times the current offshore wind capacity of the United States.

Revolution Wind. A simulated view of the project from Nomans Land, Massachusetts. From BOEM planning document.

Currently, the United States has only a small fraction of the world’s offshore wind power. Its first commercial offshore wind farm, near Block Island in the Atlantic, only began operation in 2016, with a nameplate capacity of 30 megawatts (MW). Since then, it has added just 12 MW, for a total of 42 MW.