Energy & Green Tech

An important part of converting heavy crude oil into gasoline and other products is the fluid catalytic cracking process. First used commercially in 1915, the process has undergone several improvements since then, but researchers in China say it can be safer and more effective. Answer? A.I. Researchers published April 7 in the journal Big Data Mining and Analytics how artificial intelligence could improve the catalytic cracking process that chemically breaks down the long molecules that make up heavy crude oil and separates them into the desired products. "Safety, efficiency, and environmental protection are the main goals of oil refining," said

Improving the long-term durability of these photovoltaic devices has become an important topic as organic semiconductor (carbon-based) solar cells have recently improved their efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. For the practical application of this technology, the efficiency of photovoltaic devices must be maintained for many years. To address this important issue, the researchers studied the degradation mechanisms of two components used in the light-absorbing layer of organic solar cells: "electron-donor" and "electron-acceptor" materials. These two components are necessary to split the bound electron-hole pairs formed after photon absorption into free electrons and holes that form an electric current. In

Solar cells will be easier to recycle, and their manufacturing process will be enhanced by a microwave technology developed at Macquarie University. During solar panel manufacturing, silicon undergoes annealing, a series of high-temperature processes. The cells are currently cooking in an oven. However, a team led by senior lecturer Dr. Binesh Puthen Veettil from the School of Engineering demonstrated that heating with microwave radiation is nearly as effective in a paper that was published this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters. In addition, it offers additional benefits and conserves a lot of time and effort. Silicon is selectively heated

Energy specialists and material researchers are consistently attempting to make safe battery advancements that display higher energy densities and efficiencies, alongside longer life cycles. Since lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are one of the most widely used battery technologies, a lot of current research focuses on improving cathodes, which are the positive electrodes inside battery cells. The majority of LiB cathodes that have been proposed have morphologies that are polycrystalline, indicating that they are made up of multiple distinct crystalline particles. Although these cathodes are simple to manufacture on a large scale, they are prone to cracking during battery cycling. This can

Seawater is essential to life on Earth due to its composition of hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, and other elements. But because of the same intricate chemistry, it is challenging to extract hydrogen gas for use in clean energy applications. Researchers at Stanford University, the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and their partners at the University of Oregon and Manchester Metropolitan University have now discovered a method to draw hydrogen from the ocean by passing seawater through a double-membrane system and electricity. Their ground-breaking method has succeeded in producing hydrogen gas without creating a significant amount of harmful byproducts. Their

Because they are frequently more stable than cells based on liquid electrolytes and have a higher capacity, all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLiBs), which are lithium batteries with solid electrolytes, are very promising battery solutions. However, the buildup of lithium inside these batteries can occasionally result in the development of "lithium dendrites," or "dendritic lithium" (i.e., crystals that resemble trees), which can cause cell short circuits. Most battery developers currently measure their critical current density (CCD), which is a parameter that determines the maximum current density that the Li/Li symmetric cell can withstand before Li dendrites penetrate through the SSE and cause

Renewable energy sources like solar and wind will overtake conventional power grids in the ensuing decades. Since those sources only produce electricity when it's sunny or windy, a reliable grid—one that can supply power around the clock—requires a way to store electricity when supplies are plentiful and deliver it later when they aren't. For example, there may be periods of time when there is no wind, so some energy storage devices need to be able to store a significant amount of electricity for a long period of time. The flow battery, an electrochemical device that can store hundreds of megawatt-hours

Current optoelectronic devices have been overshadowed by non-renewable energy sources like coal, oil, and natural gas, which may be partially explained by ongoing difficulties in the production of solar cells. Now, using PEDOT:PSS/silicon heterojunction solar cells, researchers at Kyoto University may have discovered a more environmentally friendly solution with improved performance. As opposed to conventional silicon-only solar cells, this hybrid type is made of organic and inorganic materials, which may simplify the manufacturing process. Lead author Katsuaki Tanabe says, "We wanted to avoid manufacturing solar cells in vacuums and high-temperature processes, which require large and expensive equipment and a lot

Environmental monitoring, disaster relief and mitigation, agricultural and forestry monitoring, resource exploration, and communication are just a few of the many uses for near-space aircraft and fictitious high-altitude satellites in the stratosphere. For near-space vehicles and phony high-altitude satellites, solar energy is the best available source of power. Unlike solar panels used on Earth, solar panels used in space applications need to be highly reliable in the environment of the stratosphere. This is necessary to reduce the overall weight of the power system, which in turn increases the payload and endurance of the aircraft. In contrast to more established solar

For the purpose of creating the batteries that will power electronic devices, electric vehicles, and renewable energy grids, it is essential to comprehend why some materials work better than others at energy storage. A breakthrough made by Drexel University researchers could hasten the development of more effective energy storage technologies by making it possible to quickly pinpoint the precise electrochemical mechanisms operating in batteries and supercapacitors of various compositions. The Drexel team's approach, which was described in Nature Energy, combines two well-known scientific research techniques: one that analyzes chemical compounds' compositions based on their capacity to absorb visible light, and