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University of Illinois Chicago engineers have helped design a new method to make hydrogen gas from water using only solar power and agricultural waste, such as manure or husks. The method reduces the energy needed to extract hydrogen from water by 600%, creating new opportunities for sustainable, climate-friendly chemical production. Hydrogen-based fuels are one of …

Offshore wind could have prevented the Fukushima disaster, according to a review of wind energy led by the University of Surrey. The researchers found that offshore turbines could have averted the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan by keeping the cooling systems running and avoiding meltdown. The team also found that wind farms are not as …

Boilers are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. In a recent study, researchers from Japan and Poland developed a method to convert CO2 emissions from small boilers into methane, which makes use of an optimized reactor design that evenly distributes the CO2 feed. This, in turn, results in significantly lower temperature increments and a …

Closing in on the theoretical maximum efficiency, devices for turning heat into electricity are edging closer to being practical for use on the grid, according to University of Michigan research. Heat batteries could store intermittent renewable energy during peak production hours, relying on a thermal version of solar cells to convert it into electricity later. …

Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas, singlehandedly responsible for 78% of the change in energy balance in Earth’s atmosphere between 1990 and 2022. A byproduct of burning fossil fuels, carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere from car exhaust and coal-fired power plants. Even some renewable energy resources produce a small amount of carbon dioxide, although at …

A low-cost, tin-based catalyst can selectively convert carbon dioxide to three widely produced chemicals — ethanol, acetic acid and formic acid. Lurking within the emissions from many industrial operations is an untapped resource — carbon dioxide (CO2). A contributor of greenhouse gas and global warming, it could instead be captured and converted to value-added chemicals. …

As humanity grapples with the fight against climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is urgently necessary. One way to achieve this is through the carbon offset market, where organizations or individuals can buy credits from emissions-reducing projects. Now, researchers from Kyushu University, Japan, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, have conducted a …

As humanity grapples with the fight against climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is urgently necessary. One way to achieve this is through the carbon offset market, where organizations or individuals can buy credits from emissions-reducing projects. Now, researchers from Kyushu University, Japan, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, have conducted a …

Even the most optimistic projections for the rapid build-out of solar, wind, and other low-carbon resources acknowledge that coal, natural gas, and other fossil fuels will dominate the world’s energy mix for decades to come. If the vast greenhouse gas emissions from burning these fossil fuels continue to enter the planet’s atmosphere, global warming will …

Copper cannot be mined quickly enough to keep up with current U.S. policy guidelines to transition the country’s electricity and vehicle infrastructure to renewable energy, according to a University of Michigan study. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, calls for 100% of cars manufactured to be electric vehicles by 2035. But an …

After spinning for under two years, a wind farm can offset the carbon emissions generated across its entire 30-year lifespan, when compared to thermal power plants. That’s according to a new peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand — which also shows within six months a turbine can generate …

Instead of burning fossil fuels to smelt steel and cook cement, researchers in Switzerland want to use heat from the sun. The proof-of-concept study, published May 15 in the journal Device, uses synthetic quartz to trap solar energy at temperatures over 1,000°C (1,832°F), demonstrating the method’s potential role in providing clean energy for carbon-intensive industries. …

By studying how bubbles form in a drop of biodiesel, researchers at the University of Gothenburg can help future engines get the most energy out of the fuel. In an internal combustion engine, the fuel is distributed in small droplets in injection valves to maximise combustion. In the engine, the fuel droplets are pressurised to …