Hydrogen, if it comes from splitting water with renewable electricity, has its role as a climate-friendly energy source. It could help decarbonize challenging sectors like heavy industry, shipping, and aviation. But hydrogen makes absolutely no sense for heating homes and buildings, according to a new review of several international studies. It is simply much too […]
A new heat-management device senses temperature and in response changes its shape to heat up or cool down, all without using any external energy. By supplementing commercial heating and cooling technologies, the zero-energy device could cut down the year-round energy demand of building temperature control, its developers say. Heating and cooling accounts for nearly half […]
The most sustainable way to make hydrogen fuel is to split water using renewable electricity—but that requires access to freshwater. Now, researchers have reported a way to make hydrogen fuel from just humidity in the air. Their electrolyzer extracts moisture from air and splits it via renewably powered electrolysis to create hydrogen. It is the […]
In a leap toward low-cost batteries for large-scale grid storage, an international team of researchers led by MIT material chemist Donald Sadoway have invented a battery made of aluminum and sulfur, two of the most abundant and low-cost materials in the world. The nascent battery already has an energy density comparable to that of today’s […]
A new artificial leaf is light enough to float on water, where it can soak up sunlight and carbon dioxide from air, and use the water below to produce fuels. Researchers at Cambridge University tested their 100 cm2 artificial leaf device outdoors on a river. Depending on the catalyst used, the device either splits water […]
A radical new idea for offshore wind turbines would replace tall unwieldy towers that had blades on top with lightweight, towerless machines whose blades resemble the loops of a whisk. Now new software can help optimize these unusual designs to help make them a reality, researchers say. This new work comes as the U.S. government […]
The energy we spend on cooling indoor spaces has tripled since 1990, and it’s going to triple again by 2050 as developing and middle-income countries embrace air-conditioning. Researchers are putting a lot of sweat into innovative cooling technologies that consume less energy, but none seem ready for prime time in the near future. “Air-conditioning innovation […]
One roadblock to shrinking present-day electronics is the relatively large size of their capacitors. Now scientists have developed new “superlattices” that might help build capacitors as small as one-hundredth the size of conventional ones. Whereas batteries store energy in chemical form, capacitors store energy in an electric field. Batteries typically possess greater energy densities than […]
Removing carbon dioxide directly from the air can be expensive, and it requires setups with large land and energy footprints. Now researchers propose a portable, practical solution that relies on retrofitted train cars that capture and store carbon dioxide as they shuttle around on their normal routes. The concept, outlined in a paper published in […]
A new lithium-ion battery works at frigid temperatures of -40 °C all the way to a scorching high of 50 °C. With a cathode made of sulfur, the new lithium-sulfur battery could also pack more energy than is possible with today’s chemistries. The batteries could increase the driving range of EVs in cold climates. They […]