Energy
press releases.

Energy17 Apr 2024

Fracking the future: how Congolese oil extraction has shaped its history and its fate

In 1969, the recently independent Republic of Congo discovered an enormous oil field off its coast. The find represented both a rare opportunity for the burgeoning nation, and a potential threat – the revenue generated by oil extraction could either pave the way for a stable socialist society, or doom the country to exploitation much like that it had endured under French colonialism. A new paper in Critical Historical Studies, “Enclosed Futures: Oil Extraction in the Republic of Congo,” demonstrates ...

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Energy16 Apr 2024

Neutrons rule the roost for cage-free lithium ions

An international team of scientists found a way to improve battery design that could produce safer, more powerful lithium batteries. The team used quasi-elastic neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to set the first benchmark, one-nanosecond, or one billionth of a second, for a mixture of lithium salt and an organic polymer electrolyte. “It all comes down to the study of materials,” said Eugene Mamontov, ORNL Chemical Spectroscopy group leader. “And polymer electrolytes won’t catch fire the way liquid electrolytes do in lithium batteries.” The team used the neutron technique to validate computer ...

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Energy16 Apr 2024

Cooler transformers could help electric grid

Most people do not give the U.S. electric grid a second thought — we flip a switch and the lights come on. Behind the scenes are thousands of power plants and utilities linked by millions of miles of transmission lines. And to make raw electricity useful, grid transformers convert high voltage to lower voltage that millions of households can plug into. Transformers are aging and approaching an average of being 30 to 40 years old. Plus, they face more stress than ever before brought on by factors such as renewable energy and by extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves, and winter storms. Case in point — the 2021 event in Texas that ...

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Energy16 Apr 2024

Evidence for reversible oxygen ion movement during electrical pulsing: enabler of the emerging ferroelectricity in binary oxides

Ferroelectric binary oxides thin films are garnering attention for their superior compatibility over traditional perovskite-based ferroelectric materials. Its compatibility and scalability within the CMOS framework make it an ideal candidate for integrating ferroelectric devices into mainstream semiconductor components, including next-generation memory devices and various logic devices such as Ferroelectric Field-effect Transistor, and Negative Capacitance Field-effect Transistor. It has been reported that challenges ...

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Energy15 Apr 2024

Global North energy outsourcing demands more attention

Manufacturing nations in the Global North are stockpiling energy and emission problems by outsourcing energy-intensive industrial processes to countries in the Global South, a new study reveals. Global North countries use their advantages in capital and technology to grab a large amount of energy through outsourcing - creating a ‘false decoupling’ of energy consumption from economic growth. But backward production technologies in the Global South tend to result in more energy consumption per unit of output – leading to greater carbon emissions ...

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Energy11 Apr 2024

*FREE* Growing tribal clean energy in the US

New US federal legislation sets aside nearly $14 billion for 574 federally recognized indigenous nations and villages, which can be used to support tribal climate responsiveness and energy sovereignty. In a Policy Forum, Kimberly Yazzie and colleagues present a roadmap for designing, implementing, and funding projects and people to accelerate the renewable energy transition while also benefiting the indigenous entities involved. According to the authors, this opportunity positions indigenous communities to develop their economies and energy projects ...

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Energy11 Apr 2024

Nanoscale movies shed light on one barrier to a clean energy future

DURHAM, N.C. -- Left unchecked, corrosion can rust out cars and pipes, take down buildings and bridges, and eat away at our monuments. Corrosion can also damage devices that could be key to a clean energy future. And now, Duke University researchers have captured extreme close-ups of that process in action. “By studying how and why renewable energy devices break down over time, we might be able to extend their lifetime,” said chemistry professor and senior author Ivan Moreno-Hernandez. In his lab at Duke sits a miniature version of one such device. Called an electrolyzer, ...

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Energy9 Apr 2024

This device gathers, stores electricity in remote settings

Today wirelessly connected devices are performing an expanding array of applications, such as monitoring the condition of engines and machinery and remote sensing in agricultural settings. Systems known as the “Internet of Things” (IoT), hold much potential for improving the efficiency and safety of the equipment. Yet stumbling blocks remain for IoT, thwarting many potential applications. How do you power these devices in situations where and when reliable electrical sources are not practically available? Research from the University of Utah’s College of Engineering points to a possible solution in the form of a novel type of battery called ...

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Energy9 Apr 2024

HKUST and Tsinghua researchers develop mechanism of electrical 180° switching of Néel vector

A collaborated research team led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Tsinghua University has theoretically proposed a new mechanism of electrical 180° switching of Néel vector and experimentally realized it in antiferromagnetic materials with spin-splitting band structure featuring the C-paired spin-valley locking, also named as altermagnet. The team also demonstrated the material's capability to manipulate Néel vector, paving the way for the manufacturing ...

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Energy8 Apr 2024

Houston-area energy startup incubator wins phase 1 of DOE competition

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) selected Texas Innovates, a non-profit organization focused on hydrogen and carbon innovation and expansion in the greater Houston and Gulf Coast region, as one of 23 phase 1 winners of the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Round 3 competition. Notably, Texas Innovates is the only Texas entity to advance to phase 2 of the competition. “We have been working towards this day since we identified the need for energy hardware incubation in 2017 and were a finalist in 2019 for C40 Cities global competition to make Houston’s Velasco Incinerator ...

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Energy4 Apr 2024

New partnership will allow University of South Florida to advance US Army innovation, bolster talent pipeline

TAMPA, Fla. (April 4, 2024) – The University of South Florida is broadening its collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense through a formalized agreement with the U.S. Army. The five-year educational partnership agreement brings together faculty from throughout the university to conduct critical defense research and provide student internships – helping broaden the talent pipeline for future military needs. Adam Rawlett, senior research scientist for the Army Research Laboratory, and Sylvia Thomas, USF vice president for research and innovation, formally signed the agreement on March 26. “This new partnership with ...

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Energy3 Apr 2024

A simple way to harvest more ‘blue energy’ from waves

As any surfer will tell you, waves pack a powerful punch. Now, we are one step closer to capturing the energy behind the ocean’s constant ebb and flow with an improved “blue energy” harvesting device. Researchers report in ACS Energy Letters that simply repositioning the electrode — from the center of a see-sawing liquid-filled tube to the end where the water crashes with the most force — dramatically increased the amount of wave energy that could be harvested. The tube-shaped wave-energy harvesting device improved upon ...

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Energy2 Apr 2024

Dr. Arati Dasgupta honored by the Nuclear and Plasma Science Society

WASHINGTON – U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) plasma physicist, Arati Dasgupta, Ph.D., head, Radiation Hydrodynamics Branch, Plasma Physics Division, receives the 2024 IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Committee (PSAC) Award for her fundamental contributions to, and leadership of, high energy density plasma, atomic, and radiation physics, fusion applications, and service to the plasma science community. Presented by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, the PSAC Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of plasma science and engineering. Dasgupta is the 37th winner of the PSAC Award — one of three women ever to receive ...

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Energy2 Apr 2024

New materials discovered for safe, high-performance solid-state lithium-ion batteries

All-solid-state lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries with solid electrolytes are non-flammable and have higher energy density and transference numbers than those with liquid electrolytes. They are expected to take a share of the market for conventional liquid electrolyte Li-ion batteries, such as electric vehicles. However, despite these advantages, solid electrolytes have lower Li-ion conductivity and pose challenges in achieving adequate electrode-solid electrolyte contact. While sulfide-based solid electrolytes are conductive, they react with moisture to form toxic hydrogen disulfide. Therefore, there's ...

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Energy1 Apr 2024

Physics-based predictive tool will speed up battery and superconductor research

Tokyo, Japan – From lithium-ion batteries to next-generation superconductors, the functionality of many modern, advanced technologies depends on the physical property known as intercalation. Unfortunately, it's difficult to identify in advance which of the many possible intercalated materials are stable, which necessitates a lot of trial-and-error lab work in product development. Now, in a study recently published in ACS Physical Chemistry Au, researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, ...

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Energy29 Mar 2024

Synergically improved energy storage performance and stability in sol–gel processed BaTiO3/(Pb,La,Ca)TiO3/BaTiO3 tri-layer films with a crystalline engineered sandwich structure

As a green, sustainable, and competitive technology relative to batteries and electrochemical capacitors and featuring a high charge storage capability, the dielectric capacitors excel in low cost, long cycle-life, and a broad operating temperature range, as well as environmental friendliness, high security, and good reliability. Most importantly, they top other technologies in terms of ultra-high-power density due to their unrivaled charge-discharge speed. These features have created a number of applications for them in power electronic devices and pulsed power equipment. Among the dielectric capacitors, the ferroelectric ones can provide a high energy density due to ...

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Energy28 Mar 2024

Biofuels could help island nations survive a global catastrophe, study suggests

A major global catastrophe could disrupt trade in liquid fuels used to sustain industrial agriculture, impacting the food supply of island nations like New Zealand that depend on oil imports. A new study in the journal Risk Analysis suggests that New Zealand and other island nations dependent on imported fuel can plan for future emergencies by stepping up their production of biofuel from locally grown crops (like canola) and farming more fuel-efficient crops (like wheat and potatoes rather than dairy). In the event of a major disruption in liquid fuel imports, results showed that New ...

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Energy28 Mar 2024

Storing electrons from hydrogen for clean chemical reactions

Fukuoka, Japan—Researchers from Kyushu University have developed a hydrogen energy carrier to address some of the biggest hurdles in the path towards a sustainable hydrogen economy. As explained in a paper published in JACS Au, this novel compound can efficiently “store electrons” from hydrogen in a solid state to use in chemical reactions later. Hydrogen is a promising source of clean energy with a lot of untapped potential applications in industry and everyday life. Unlike conventional fuels, hydrogen can be used to generate electricity without producing greenhouse ...

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Energy26 Mar 2024

Researchers find energy development and tree encroachment impact Wyoming pronghorn

While Wyoming is home to some of North America’s most abundant populations of pronghorn that have largely been stable in recent years, a new analysis shows that many herds are experiencing long-term declines in fawn production. Those declines are primarily a result of oil and gas development and encroachment of trees, according to researchers from the University of Wyoming, the University of Florida, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Arkansas and the Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory. Their findings have been published in the journal Global Ecology and ...

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Energy26 Mar 2024

A new São Paulo School of Advanced Science at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials is receiving applications

Registrations are open for the São Paulo School of Advanced Science on 4th Generation Synchrotron Techniques (SyncLight 2024), to be held on October 14-25, 2024, at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) in Campinas, São Paulo state, Brazil Reporters are invited reach the organizing committee through the email eventos@cnpem.br, for opportunities to visit the school and sessions. Organized through the São Paulo School of Advanced Science (SPSAS https://espca.fapesp.br/home/) program, with support from FAPESP (https://bv.fapesp.br/en/auxilios/113004/), ...

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Energy26 Mar 2024

Taming the beast: FAMU-FSU researcher controls voltage response for safer electric grid

When FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Professor Fang Peng was a boy, he saw the power and peril of electricity firsthand. He was in middle school when his remote Chinese hometown first received electric service. His family shared a single portable, 15-watt light bulb attached to a cable. It was his job to replace the bulb. “One night, the bulb went out and I tried to change it in total darkness,” Peng said. “I accidentally stuck my left thumb in the socket and was immediately shocked. I got knocked off balance and down to the dirt floor, trembling as the electricity seared through my body. Luckily, my right ...

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Energy26 Mar 2024

Addressing global energy needs with ideal electrocatalysts

Researchers from the University of Tartu and the University of Copenhagen have proposed the theoretical description of an ideal electrocatalysis process, which, if implemented, could double the efficiency of energy conversion and storage devices. As the world seeks sustainable solutions to meet escalating energy demands, a collaborative team of researchers from the Universities of Tartu and Copenhagen has proposed an innovative approach to overcome long-standing limitations in oxygen electrocatalysis. Oxygen electrocatalysis ...

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Energy25 Mar 2024

An effective method for improving energy storage performance in (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-based lead-free relaxor ferroelectrics

Next-generation advanced high/pulsed power capacitors urgently require dielectric materials with outstanding energy storage performance. (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-based material, a typical lead-free ferroelectrics, has the characteristics of high polarization strength and excellent component compatibility, making it emerge as a potential candidate for energy storage applications. Researchers have made an interesting breakthrough in the modification of the BNT-based ferroelectrics, an effective method for various properties such ...

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Energy25 Mar 2024

New all-liquid iron flow battery for grid energy storage

RICHLAND, Wash.— A commonplace chemical used in water treatment facilities has been repurposed for large-scale energy storage in a new battery design by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The design provides a pathway to a safe, economical, water-based, flow battery made with Earth-abundant materials. It provides another pathway in the quest to incorporate intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar energy into the nation’s electric grid. The researchers report ...

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Energy22 Mar 2024

Revolutionizing hydrogen production: Economical and efficient solutions unveiled

Water eletrolysis process is a system that produces hydrogen by electrolyzing water. It is an eco-friendly technology that can produce hydrogen fuel, a future energy source, without emitting environmental pollutants, but its limitations have been pointed out as low hydrogen production efficiency and high production costs. Recently, a team of researchers from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) published research that solved both problems at once, attracting attention. A collaborative research team comprising Professor Jong Kyu Kim, Jaerim Kim, a Ph. D. candidate, Professor ...

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