“We have demonstrated that high-performance and environmentally sustainable lithium-ion batteries are not only possible, but also within reach.” Scientists convert waste from solar panels into advanced battery technology — and it could solve major issues with clean energy first appeared on The Cool Down.
With mechanical recycling, “if you mix the sandwich bag and the milk jug together and then try to remake an object from that, you can’t make a very good milk jug and you can’t make a very good sandwich bag,” he said. “We’re trying to bring the plastics back to the chemicals from which they’re made in the first place,” Hartwig said.
The researchers use a catalyst, a component of a chemical reaction that makes it go faster, to vaporize both polyethylene and polypropylene plastics — two of the largest volumes of plastics in existence — transforming the solid waste into gases.
The polymers are reduced to their chemical precursors, which can then be reconstructed. In a press release, the university said the process brings “a circular economy for plastics one step closer to reality.”
Dr. Wencai Zhang: “Our goal is to contribute to the supply chain of these critical materials while also making a positive environmental impact. We specifically aim to reduce the environmental consequences that can be associated with produced water.”
How can lithium, one of the most demanded minerals for clean energy products like electric vehicles, be harvested without harming the environment? This is | Technology.
🚀 LumenOrbit (YC S24) is building a network of megawatt-scale data centers in space, scalable to gigawatt capacity.
Why we should train AI in space.
To keep pace with AI development, vast new data centers and many gigawatts of new energy projects to power them will need to be deployed around the…
Lumen Orbit is building data centers in space to make use of 24/7 solar energy and passive cooling.
Researchers use AI and models to improve EV battery safety:
One of the electric vehicles’ most critical safety concerns is keeping their batteries cool, as temperature spikes can lead to dangerous consequences.
New research led by a University of Arizona doctoral student proposes a way to predict and prevent temperature spikes in the lithium-ion batteries commonly used to power such vehicles.
The paper “Advancing Battery Safety,” led by College of Engineering doctoral student Basab Goswami, is published in the Journal of Power Sources.
Magnetic confinement fusion devices are technologies that can attain controlled nuclear fusion reactions, using magnetic fields to confine hot plasmas. These devices could contribute to the ongoing transition towards more sustainable energy production methods.
Wave energy convertors can work round the clock as reliable source of renewable energy, if a cost-effective method can be arrived at.
Synthetic Plants For A Sustainable Future — Dr. Angie Burnett, Ph.D. — Program Director, Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA)
Dr. Angie Burnett, Ph.D. is Program Director at the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA — https://www.aria.org.uk/), a UK organization created by an Act of Parliament, and sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, to fund projects across a full spectrum of R\&D disciplines, approaches, and institutions, per the ARIA mission statement to “Look beyond what exists today to the breakthroughs we’ll need tomorrow”
Prior to this role, Dr. Burnett was a Research Associate in the Department of Plant Sciences, and a former David MacKay Research Associate at Darwin College and Cambridge Zero where her work focused on understanding the response of maize plants to high light and cold temperature stresses, and the genetic basis for stress tolerance, so that breeders can produce plants which are better able to withstand environmental stress.
Dr. Burnett’s background is in plant physiology. She holds a BA from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from the University of Sheffield, where she was awarded the inaugural PhD studentship from the Society for Experimental Biology. Before commencing her role at the University of Cambridge, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA and as a Consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Italy.
Important Episode Links.
Candle flames and airplane engines produce tiny soot particles from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as their precursors, both of which are harmful to humans and the environment. These carbon-based particles are also common in space, making up 10–12% of interstellar matter, and are becoming valuable for use in electronic devices and sustainable energy. However, the fingerprint signals of soot and PAHs have very short lifespans in flames—lasting only a few billionths to millionths of a second. This brief existence requires very fast cameras to capture their behavior in both space and time.
