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Category: energy – Page 191

Flame-Throwing Tractor Needs No Chemicals to Get Rid of Weeds

Organic farmers are returning to an unusual tool in the fight against weeds — fire. Called ‘flame weeding’ the process involves either using a small, handheld flamethrower, or installing a pretty hardcore row of flamethrowers onto the front of a tractor and slowly driving through fields of crops singeing the weeds in between the rows.

Flame Engineering, Inc. specializes in developing and selling flame weeding equipment and says the technique is rooted in science. The company’s website explains that the technique is not about blasting the weeds to kingdom come, but rather about focusing on destroying cell structure.

“Flame weeding is what we like to call a ‘slow kill.’ Essentially, you are destroying cell structure in the plant leaf. The weed will no longer put energy toward growth (photosynthesis) taking the kill through the root system. YES, flame weeding will kill the roots too! Even on big weeds (over 6″), you will see a stunning effect and even a kill within a few days, depending on how established the root system is and how long the plant was exposed to heat.”

Aerogel integrated wood provides better insulation than existing plastic-based materials

One day soon, buildings could become more energy-efficient—and environmentally sustainable—with insulating material developed from wood by researchers in Sweden. The newly-developed material offers as good or even better thermal performance than ordinary plastic-based insulation materials, according to researchers reporting recently in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Yuanyuan Li, an assistant professor at Wallenberg Wood Science Center, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, says that the new insulating material is an aerogel integrated wood which is made without adding additional substances.

Wood cellulose aerogels themselves are nothing new—researchers have been developing advanced types of aerogels and other composites for the last several years in the Wallenberg Wood Science Center at KTH—but Li says the new method represents a breakthrough in controlled creation of insulating nanostructures in the pores of wood.

Japan’s trial of a deep ocean turbine could offer limitless renewable energy

Japan is both power-hungry and fossil-fuel reliant making for a bad combination but that could all soon change. The nation has now successfully tested a system relying on the deep ocean that could provide a reliable steady form of renewable energy, according to a report by Bloomberg published Tuesday.

A project over ten years in the making

The invention comes from Japanese heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. The company has been developing a subsea turbine that harnesses the energy in deep ocean currents for over ten years.

Loss-Free Excitonic Quantum Battery

Circa 2019

Robust quantum energy storage devices are essential to realize powerful next-generation batteries. Herein, we provide a proof of concept for a loss-free excitonic quantum battery (EQB) by using an open quantum network model that exhibits exchange symmetries linked to its structural topology. By storing electronic excitation energy in a symmetry-protected dark state living in a decoherence-free subspace, one can protect the charged EQB from environment-induced energy losses, thereby making it a promising platform for long-term energy storage. To illustrate the key physical principles and potential functionality of this concept, we consider an open quantum network model of a para-benzene-like structure.

Global plastic use and waste on track to triple by 2060

A world severely blighted by plastic pollution is on track to see the use of plastics nearly triple in less than four decades, according to findings released Friday.

Annual production of fossil-fuel-based plastics are set to top 1.2 billion tonnes by 2060 and waste to exceed one billion tonnes, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Even with aggressive action to cut demand and improve efficiencies, plastic production would almost double in less than 40 years, the 38-nation body projects in a report.

21 oil wells now found leaking methane near California homes

A total of 21 oil wells have been found to be leaking methane in or near two Bakersfield neighborhoods, and more than two dozen are being tested by state and regional air regulators.

California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, said in an update on its website that state and regional air regulators are in the area again today to interview residents and take additional methane readings.

Repairs are at various stages for the nearly two dozen wells, several of which were found to be leaking at least 50,000 parts per million of methane — a level at which the colorless, odorless gas can explode if ignited.

Toyota’s prototype ‘cartridge’ is a way to make hydrogen portable

One of the myriad issues with hydrogen as a clean energy source is infrastructure, as it’s very expensive to move around and store an extremely explosive gas. Toyota and its subsidiary Woven Planet believe they may have a solution with a new portable hydrogen cartridge prototype. The idea is that they can be filled up at a dedicated facility, transported where needed, then returned when you receive your next shipment.

The cartridges would be relatively small at 16 inches long, 7 inches in diameter and about 11 pounds in weight. Toyota calls them “portable, affordable, and convenient energy that makes it possible to bring hydrogen to where people live, work, and play without the use of pipes… [and] swappable for easy replacement and quick charging.”

They could be useful for “mobility [i.e. hydrogen cars], household applications, and many future possibilities we have yet to imagine,” Toyota said. It didn’t mention any specific uses, but it said that “one hydrogen cartridge is assumed to generate enough electricity to operate a typical household microwave for approximately 3–4 hours.”

Chief Marketing Officer

DeLorean released images and information on its upcoming 2024 electric car.

DeLorean is unapologetically human. A New Energy mobility brand.

We have a clear vision of our future, knowing it does not represent today. The DMC-12 was never meant to be a static interpretation of the brand, the brand would constantly evolve. Our icons are reimagined. DMC is and always was in constant evolution. An Icon is validated over time but to constantly reimagine mobility allows new icons to come into existence.

DeLorean is a legacy mobility company focused on redefining human connections through creative technologies.