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Category: energy – Page 189

A research team at the University of Wisconsin – Madison has identified a new way to convert ammonia to nitrogen gas through a process that could be a step toward ammonia replacing carbon-based fuels.

The discovery of this technique, which uses a metal catalyst and releases, rather than requires, energy, was reported on November 8, 2021, in Nature Chemistry and has received a provisional patent from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

“The world currently runs on a carbon fuel economy,” explains Christian Wallen, an author of the paper and a former postdoctoral researcher in the lab of UW–Madison chemist John Berry. “It’s not a great economy because we burn hydrocarbons, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We don’t have a way to close the loop for a true carbon cycle, where we could transform carbon dioxide back into a useful fuel.”

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Freshwater is scarce in many parts of the world. While currently there is enough fresh water on earth to support consumption, it is not available in a way where supply meets demand. To solve this issue, engineers at ETH Zurich have developed a new device that can harvest drinking water 24 hours around the clock, with no energy input, even under the blazing sun.

It consists of a specially coated glass pane, which both reflects solar radiation and also radiates away its own heat through the atmosphere to outer space. The resulting device thus cools itself down to as much as 15 degrees Celsius below the ambient temperature. At the bottom of the pane, the moisture in the air condenses into the water which is collected.

The glass pane is coated with layers of a specially designed polymer and silver, which allows it to firstly reflect sunlight away to prevent it from heating up. The coating causes the pane to emit infrared radiation at a specific wavelength window to the outer space, with no absorption by the atmosphere nor reflection back onto the pane.

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Are we governed by donkeys? COP26 was just a farce of vested interests kissing the butts of fossil fuel legacy industries that are so out of date that they cannot compete anymore and need underhand, secret handshake deals just to keep themselves in the luxury they enjoy…at our expense. So here is my Manifesto for the next decade. It is time to start voting for the right people and harassing your representatives to get them to make the right decisions that will benefit the majority, not a few CEO’s who are so corrupt it is like the plot of a new film…

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IBM has created a quantum processor able to process information so complex the work can’t be done or simulated on a traditional computer, CEO Arvind Krishna told “Axios on HBO” ahead of a planned announcement.

Why it matters: Quantum computing could help address problems that are too challenging for even today’s most powerful supercomputers, such as figuring out how to make better batteries or sequester carbon emissions.

Driving the news: IBM says its new Eagle processor can handle 127 qubits, a measure of quantum computing power. In topping 100 qubits, IBM says it has reached a milestone that allows quantum to surpass the power of a traditional computer.

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From super-strength concrete to fortified infrastructure, this is what the ‘wonder material for the 21st century’ is now bringing to construction. For more by Tomorrow’s Build subscribe now — https://bit.ly/3vOOJ98

Executive Producer and Narrator — Fred Mills.
Producer — Adam Savage.
Video Editing and Graphics — Thomas Canton.

Special thanks to Dr Lisa Scullion and University of Manchester. Additional footage and images courtesy of University of Manchester, Absolute Photography, Gerdau Graphene, Graphene Flagship, HS2 Ltd, ICON Technology, Kansas State University, NASA/Pat Rawlings, Nanotech Energy and Skanska.

Follow us on Twitter — https://twitter.com/TomorrowsBuild/

Continue reading “Construction’s Graphene Revolution Has (Finally) Begun” | >

What would humanity be like if it was Level 4 on the Kardashev Scale? In this video, Unveiled takes a dramatic trip into the future to discover how the human race would change and evolve if it ever hoped to be a Type IV Civilization. We’re talking a whole universe’s worth of power and energy here, so hold on to your hats!

This is Unveiled, giving you incredible answers to extraordinary questions!

Find more amazing videos for your curiosity here:
What If Humanity Was a Type II Civilization? — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Aj_bnZ3Gs.
What If Humanity Was a Type V Civilization? — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGB7hPX0wc0

Are you constantly curious? Then subscribe for more from Unveiled ► https://wmojo.com/unveiled-subscribe.

Continue reading “What If Humanity Was A Type IV Civilization? | Unveiled” | >

The UK’s Reaction Engines has announced a joint venture to create compact, lightweight ammonia reactors it says can be used to decarbonize difficult sectors like shipping and off-grid energy generation – and surprisingly, also aviation.

We’ve written before about ammonia’s potential in the clean transport sector; check out our ammonia clean fuel primer piece from September. Compared against hydrogen, ammonia’s much easier and cheaper to store and transport, and although it only carries about 20 percent as much energy as hydrogen by weight, it carries about 70 percent more energy than liquid H2 by volume.

The weight issue generally rules ammonia out of aviation discussions; at less than half the specific energy of jet fuel it looks less attractive than hydrogen. But hydrogen’s volume issues must also be taken into account. Today’s airliners are built for jet fuel so retro-fitting large-volume long-range hydrogen tanks can mean you lose seats. And anyone who’s flown economy can attest, airlines really like fitting in as many seats as they can.

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In a nutshell: In the 21st century, there’s a new space race, primarily between Tesla (SpaceX) and Amazon (Blue Origin). Both are concentrating on traditional methods of launching satellites into space—namely, big rockets. However, a small space startup called SpinLaunch is developing a cheaper and environmentally cleaner way of launching satellites.

SpinLaunch is using a gigantic centrifuge to shoot stuff into space. By “stuff,” we mean things that can withstand the G-force created by being spun at 5,000 miles per hour (over 10,000 Gs), which is a category of stuff that does not yet include satellites. However, it did launch a missile-like projectile tens of thousands of feet into the air last month, using only 20 percent of the accelerator’s power.

The design is relatively simple. A carbon fiber tether holds the projectile inside a span vacuum chamber as it spins up to speed. Once the centrifuge has reached the desired velocity, the launch vehicle is released out a tube taller than the Statue of Liberty (50.4 meters). It is not unlike launching your friends off the merry-go-round when you were a kid. A more mature and controlled application of the principle would be the hammer throw event in the Olympics.

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