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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 432

Jul 23, 2020

Fast food waste and lithium trash are the next big biofuel

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

Researchers from Brazil have found a way to use leftover kitchen grease and lithium battery waste to create a reliable, eco-friendly biofuel.

Jul 22, 2020

Tesla shares rise as it extends profit run for fourth straight quarter

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Soon I mean very soon he will beat Apple.


The earnings make Elon Musk’s electric car maker eligible to be included in the S&P 500 index and come a day after he qualified for a $US2.1 billion payout.

Jul 22, 2020

German NGO Cites Passive Cooling as Vital to Sustainable Buildings

Posted by in category: sustainability

German Sustainable Building Council also highlighted importance of NatRefs in ACs at ATMO/DTI Conference.

Using shading for passive cooling, © Simy27, 2020.

Passive cooling design, as well as natural refrigerant-based air conditioning, are vital to achieving sustainable cooling in buildings, according to Anna Braune, Director of Research and Development at the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), a Stuttgart, Germany-based NGO.

Jul 22, 2020

Ford unveils electric Mustang Mach-E race car with 1,400 horsepower

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Ford Motor has developed a racing version of its upcoming all-electric Mustang Mach-E crossover with 1,400 horsepower and a top speed that’s not street legal.

The company plans to use the prototype vehicle, which it’s calling the Mustang Mach-E 1400, to show off the potential performance of all-electric vehicles as the new crossover begins arriving in dealerships later this year.

“It’s an all-around athlete,” Mark Rushbrook, motorsports director of Ford Performance, told CNBC. He called the vehicle a “learning platform” for the company to utilize aspects of for its future all-electric vehicles.

Jul 22, 2020

Miami chemists’ breakthrough technique enables design at the interface of chemistry and biology

Posted by in categories: biological, chemistry, sustainability

A technique developed by Miami University associate professors of chemistry and biochemistry Dominik Konkolewicz and Rick Page may help enable more rapid and efficient development of new materials for use in pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and other applications.

Konkolewicz’s and Page’s technique uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to illuminate how proteins and synthetic polymers interact in chemical substances known as bioconjugates.

Jul 22, 2020

Oxygen breathes new life into solar cell research

Posted by in categories: chemistry, solar power, sustainability

(Nanowerk News) Scientists in Australia and the United States have been able to ‘upconvert’ low energy light into high energy light, which can be captured by solar cells, in a new way, with oxygen the surprise secret ingredient. The results are published in Nature Photonics (“Photochemical upconversion of near-infrared light from below the silicon bandgap”).


Scientists in Australia and the United States have been able to ‘upconvert’ low energy light into high energy light, which can be captured by solar cells, in a new way, with oxygen the surprise secret ingredient.

The results are published in Nature Photonics (“Photochemical upconversion of near-infrared light from below the silicon bandgap”).

Continue reading “Oxygen breathes new life into solar cell research” »

Jul 21, 2020

Tesla and SpaceX are partnering up to create new materials to use on Earth and in space

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, Elon Musk, space travel, sustainability

Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla plans to use a different alloy for the upcoming Cybertruck electric pickup.

When Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck last year, one of the most interesting features was the fact the vehicle isn’t going to be built using a traditional automotive body system but with an exoskeleton.

The automaker wrote about the exoskeleton:

Jul 20, 2020

Tuscon Electric Power Makes Dramatic Pivot Toward Renewable Energy

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Remember just 2 years ago when the utility companies that supply electricity to customers in Arizona went into a tizzy over a ballot initiative that would mandate them to get 50% of their electricity from renewable sources by the year 2030? Oh, the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth could be heard from sea to shining sea. It was a direct frontal assault on the American way of life. It was so dire, the utilities ponied up $40 million of their own money (actually it was their customers’ money) to defeat it.

Jul 20, 2020

Battery breakthrough gives boost to electric flight and long-range electric cars

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

In the pursuit of a rechargeable battery that can power electric vehicles (EVs) for hundreds of miles on a single charge, scientists have endeavored to replace the graphite anodes currently used in EV batteries with lithium metal anodes.

But while metal extends an EV’s driving range by 30–50%, it also shortens the battery’s useful life due to lithium dendrites, tiny treelike defects that form on the lithium anode over the course of many charge and discharge cycles. What’s worse, dendrites short-circuit the cells in the battery if they make contact with the cathode.

For decades, researchers assumed that hard, solid electrolytes, such as those made from ceramics, would work best to prevent dendrites from working their way through the cell. But the problem with that approach, many found, is that it didn’t stop dendrites from forming or “nucleating” in the first place, like tiny cracks in a car windshield that eventually spread.

Jul 20, 2020

Battery Breakthrough to Give Flight to Electric Aircraft and Boost Long-Range Electric Cars

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

New battery technology developed at Berkeley Lab could give flight to electric aircraft and supercharge safe, long-range electric cars.

In the pursuit of a rechargeable battery that can power electric vehicles (EVs) for hundreds of miles on a single charge, scientists have endeavored to replace the graphite anodes currently used in EV batteries with lithium metal anodes.

But while lithium metal extends an EV’s driving range by 30–50%, it also shortens the battery’s useful life due to lithium dendrites, tiny treelike defects that form on the lithium anode over the course of many charge and discharge cycles. What’s worse, dendrites short-circuit the cells in the battery if they make contact with the cathode.