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Category: sustainability – Page 305

All-polymer blend solar cells are expected to play an important role in the transition to clean energy technologies because they can be easily produced in large-scale flexible sheets. However, their performance has lagged behind that of more traditional silicon alternatives, as well as other organic solar cells.

All-polymer blend are formed by combining two polymer solutions that solidify into a film on an electrode with in the form of interpenetrating networks, a kind of “phase-separation.” The introduction of solvent additives to the polymer solution has been shown to increase the efficiency of all-polymer blend solar . However, the exact process underlying this improvement has not been fully understood. Now, in a study recently published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials, researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology have investigated the performance enhancement mechanism using photoconductive atomic force microscopy (PC-AFM). Their findings are expected to help accelerate the widespread application of polymer-based solar cells.

“The empirical nature of solvent additive-mediated efficiency enhancement has hindered the optimization of all-polymer blend solar cell performance, so there has been an urgent need for a greater understanding of the process,” explains senior author Hiroaki Benten. “To that end, we used PC-AFM to interrogate the nanoarchitecture that underpins the performance enhancement.”

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A team mapping radio waves in the Universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it’s unlike anything astronomers have seen before. The team who discovered it think it could be a neutron star or a white dwarf—collapsed cores of stars—wi…

Electric bicycle sales have been on a skyward trajectory since early in the pandemic, and new numbers show they are selling more units than electric cars and plug-in hybrids combined. Those figures recently released by the Light Electric Vehicle Association trade group help bolster the case for personal electric vehicles as alternatives to larger cars […].

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Electric bicycle sales have been on a skyward trajectory since early in the pandemic, and new numbers show they are selling more units than electric cars and plug-in hybrids combined.

Those figures recently released by the Light Electric Vehicle Association trade group help bolster the case for personal electric vehicles as alternatives to larger cars and trucks.

According to data released by the LEVA, the US saw nearly 790,000 electric bike imports in 2021. That marks a 70% increase from the 463,000 imports in 2020.

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The innovative project Green H2-Hub Haren in the Emsland region in northern Germany uses H-Tec Systems electrolysers for sector integration.

The Green H2-Hub Haren project in Haren in Lower Saxony, northern Germany uses two electrolysers from H-Tec Systems. This was announced by project leader CEC Haren GmbH & Co. KG and electrolyser manufacturer H-Tec Systems. The order was placed with H-Tec Systems by the electricity and gas distribution network operator Westnetz. This research and development project is intended to enable the establishment of a decentralized hydrogen facility. At the site, green hydrogen will be produced from wind energy and stored in connection with specific regional applications, primarily for the mobility sector. The H2-Hub targets various hydrogen applications in rural areas – in particular in the field of agriculture – based on the production and use of sustainably generated hydrogen. In addition, the project is intended to significantly increase the city of Haren’s rate of self-sufficiently produced renewable energy. The goal is to implement a model that will also develop and prepare a comprehensive integration of other rural locations and regions in Lower Saxony into the H2 supply infrastructure.

The town of Haren aims to be completely self-sufficient with green energy. New storage systems as part of the H2 Hub enable a significant use of excess electricity from times of peak generation. The 16 wind turbines of the community wind farm Fehndorf-Lindloh are connected to a PEM electrolysis system, as well as an additional battery storage system in combination with a superordinate energy management system. In addition, a hydrogen filling station and a gas network feed-in point will be built. In this way, the project allows the transfer of surplus electricity to other sectors, such as heating or transport.

A key approach of sector integration in connection with renewable energies is to stabilize wind energy through PEM electrolysis with connected storage. The production of hydrogen will be realized with the help of two electrolysis systems from H-Tec Systems. This will enable new potential for the utilization of this energy in the form of power-to-gas or power-to-fuel.

Continue reading “German town goes self-sufficient with wind and green hydrogen” | >

If you are a scientist, willing to share your science with curious teens, consider joining Lecturers Without Borders!

Established by three scientists, Luibov Tupikina, Athanasia Nikolau, and Clara Delphin Zemp, and high school teacher Mikhail Khotyakov, Lecturers Without Borders (LeWiBo) is an international volunteer grassroots organization that brings together enthusiastic science researchers and science-minded teens. LeWiBo founders noticed that scientists tend to travel a lot – for fieldwork, conferences, or lecturing – and realized scientists could be a great source of knowledge and inspiration to local schools. To this end, they asked scientists to volunteer for talks and workshops. The first lecture, delivered in Nepal in 2017 by two researchers, a mathematician and a climatologist, was a great success. In the next couple of years, LeWiBo volunteers presented at schools in Russia and Belarus; Indonesia and Uganda; India and Nepal. Then, the pandemic forced everything into the digital realm, bringing together scientists and schools across the globe. I met with two of LeWiBo’s co-founders, physicist Athanasia Nikolaou and math teacher Mikhail Khotyakov, as well as their coordinator, Anastasia Mityagina, to talk about their offerings and future plans.

Julia Brodsky: So, how many people volunteer for LeWiBo at this time?

Anastasia Mityagina: We have over 200 scientists in our database. This year alone, volunteers from India, Mozambique, Argentina, the United States, France, Egypt, Israel, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Botswana, Portugal, Croatia, Malaysia, Spain, Colombia, Italy, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Poland, the United Kingdom, Austria, Albania, Iran, Mexico, Russia, and Serbia joined us. Their areas of expertise vary widely, from informatics, education, and entrepreneurship, to physics, chemistry, space and planetary sciences, biotechnology, oceanography, viral ecology, water treatment, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, astrobiology, neuroscience, and sustainability. We collaborate with hundreds of schools, education centers, and science camps for children in different parts of the world. In addition, our network includes more than 50 educational associations in 48 countries that help us reach out to approximately 8,000 schools worldwide.

Continue reading “How Lecturers Without Borders Shares The Joy Of Science” | >

The RVFL was used in combination with four different techniques: the Jellyfish Search Algorithm (JFSA); the Artificial Ecosystem-based Optimization (AEO); the Manta Ray Foraging Optimization (MRFO) model; and the Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA). Through the four models, the academics assessed the PV-fed current, the cooling power, the average air chamber temperature, and the coefficient of performance (COP) of a PV-powered STEACS for air conditioning of a 1m3 test chamber under diversified cooling loads varying from 65 to 260W.

The system was built with six solar panels, an air duct system, four batteries, a charge controller, TECs, an inverter, heat sinks, a test chamber, and condenser fans. “The TECs were mainly connected with the air duct arrangement and placed close to each other [and] were placed between the air duct and heat sinks,” the researchers explained. “When direct PV current was fed to TECs arranged on the sheet of the air duct system, one face [became] cold, defined as a cold air duct, and another side [became] hot, called “hot air.” The air ducts were composed of an acrylic enclosure wrapped with a protection sheet.”

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