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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 306

Dec 22, 2021

Decentralized Rendering Engine Raises $30M as Metaverse Graphics Go Big

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

Multicoin, Alameda and the Solana Foundation are backing Render Network’s vision for a decentralized alternative to Pixar’s massive rendering farms.

Dec 21, 2021

Elon Musk Introduced The First Tesla Home

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

This summer Tesla finally decided to jump into the housing market, to provide products for the upcoming homes being built by a home builder called E-home. With the technological advances that Tesla has shown. It will be interesting to see what products Tesla will provide for these homes.

This could be an innovation that might shake at the housing markets and an agreement was made between Tesla and the real estate developer. Tesla would supply Powerwalls electric, Vehicle chargers, and Solar panels to all set E-home Inc, which is a subsidiary of international incorporated.

When interviewed, the corporation stated that the Tesla products will be installed in 20 new single-family homes, which will be at the north park community in porter Texas. Also, E-home is having to build 100 single-family homes by the end of 2021 within Texas.

Dec 21, 2021

The Role Of Blockchain In The Development Of The EV Industry

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, climatology, existential risks, sustainability

You may not see them coming, but the effects of climate change are starting to be felt in certain parts of the world. An example of this is the destruction of several coral reefs around the globe in recent years. As devastating as that sounds, it is only the prologue to a long list of potentially catastrophic events yet to arrive. In the long term, climate change threatens to eventually drive humans towards extinction. Therefore, while little steps, like planting more trees and turning out lightbulbs when not in use, are certainly useful, bigger steps are needed to fend off the devastating effects of climate change.

An internal combustion engine is one of the prime contributors to climate change-causing carbon emissions. Such engines produce large quantities of nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons that harm the environment and cause respiratory disorders in individuals. Due to these—and many more—reasons, electric vehicles, or EVs, need to replace the ones with traditional combustion engines.

EV owners can save about US$700 a year on fuel costs alone. Also, the maintenance expenses of EVs are lower than those of standard vehicles. So, owning EVs can help them save money and reduce their extreme reliance on fossil fuel, thereby slowing down its inevitable depletion from the earth. Additionally, EVs are incredibly efficient as they only consume approximately 25–40 kWh per 100 miles. Most importantly, EVs reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 178 million kg. What’s more, despite the high fuel efficiency and smaller carbon footprint, EVs can outperform vehicles with traditional combustion engines easily.

Dec 21, 2021

A Mining Company Is Using Hydrogen Power in Its Trucks, Cutting CO2 Emissions

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, engineering, sustainability, transportation

And it’s a hybrid mix of hydrogen and electric power.

Global mining company Anglo American is experimenting with hydrogen to power the giant mining trucks.

Mining trucks consume 35.3 gallons (134 liters) of diesel per hour with their enormous weight of around 220 metric tonnes and therefore emitting vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Continue reading “A Mining Company Is Using Hydrogen Power in Its Trucks, Cutting CO2 Emissions” »

Dec 21, 2021

Biodegradable e-ink designed for environmentally friendly 3D-printed electronics

Posted by in categories: electronics, sustainability

New natural-source e-ink biodegrades once discarded.

Dec 21, 2021

Graphite will be in deficit from 2022 — here’s what EV battery makers need to do to secure the critical mineral

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

As the electric car revolution ramps up, so does the need for critical minerals used in batteries, such as graphite. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, there will be a global graphite deficit starting in 2022, and demand from the battery sector is expected to rise 30% annually until 2030. The US has no manufacturing plants that can supply automotive-grade graphite at scale. Meanwhile, China controls 84% of the global supply. Electrek spoke with Don Baxter, CEO of Ceylon Graphite, about how graphite is used in EVs, the supply chain issue, and how EV battery manufacturers can successfully source the vital mineral.

Electrek: How is graphite used in battery electric vehicles?

Don Baxter: Processed graphite comprises 95% of the anode (negative electrode) of lithium-ion batteries that power EVs, whereas the cathode (positive electrode) is made up of various materials such as nickel and cobalt.

Dec 21, 2021

The Wikipedia of perovskite solar cell research

Posted by in categories: internet, solar power, sustainability

An international team of experts has collected data on metal halide perovskite solar cells from more than 15,000 publications and developed a database with visualization options and analysis tools. The database is open source and provides an overview of the rapidly growing knowledge as well as the open questions in this exciting class of materials. The study was initiated by HZB scientist Dr. Eva Unger and implemented and coordinated by her postdoc Jesper Jacobsson.

Halide perovskites have huge potential for and other optoelectronic applications. Solar cells based on metal-organic perovskites achieve efficiencies of more than 25 percent, they can be produced cheaply and with minimal energy consumption, but still require improvements in terms of stability and reliability. In recent years, research on this class of materials has boomed, producing a flood of results that is almost impossible to keep track of by traditional means. Under the keyword “ solar,” more than 19,000 publications had already been entered in the Web of Science (spring 2021).

Now, 95 experts from more than 30 international research institutions have designed a to systematically record findings on perovskite semiconductors. The are prepared according to the FAIR principles, i.e. they are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. By reading the existing literature, the experts have collected more than 42,000 individual data sets, in which the data can be filtered and displayed according to various criteria such as material compositions or component type. Researchers from several teams at HZB were involved in this Herculean task.

Dec 20, 2021

World’s First 3D-Printed House Made Of Local Raw Earth — And it Closes the Roof With a Dome

Posted by in categories: habitats, sustainability

A Bologna-based architecture firm has used clay and 3D printers to create sustainable domed housing with little waste.

Dec 20, 2021

Engineers produce the world’s longest flexible fiber battery

Posted by in categories: computing, sustainability, wearables

Researchers have developed a rechargeable lithium-ion battery in the form of an ultra-long fiber that could be woven into fabrics. The battery could enable a wide variety of wearable electronic devices, and might even be used to make 3D-printed batteries in virtually any shape.

The researchers envision new possibilities for self-powered communications, sensing, and computational devices that could be worn like ordinary clothing, as well as devices whose batteries could also double as structural parts.

In a proof of concept, the team behind the new battery technology has produced the world’s longest flexible fiber battery, 140 meters long, to demonstrate that the material can be manufactured to arbitrarily long lengths. The work is described today in the journal Materials Today. MIT postdoc Tural Khudiyev (now an assistant professor at National University of Singapore), former MIT postdoc Jung Tae Lee (now a professor at Kyung Hee University), and Benjamin Grena SM ‘13, Ph.D. ‘17 (currently at Apple) are the lead authors on the paper. Other co-authors are MIT professors Yoel Fink, Ju Li, and John Joannopoulos, and seven others at MIT and elsewhere.

Dec 20, 2021

This sustainable desalination pod makes seawater drinkable naturally

Posted by in category: sustainability

The James Dyson Award recently recognized a team of Malaysian designers for their sustainable desalination pod concept called WaterPod that works on solar distillation to convert seawater into drinkable water. Developed by Bennie Beh Hue May, Yap Chun Yoon, and Loo Xin Yang, the WaterPod is designed to be floated at sea, and therefore accessible to sea nomads.


WaterPod is a low-cost yet environmentally-friendly desalination method to generate drinkable water.