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Our Story #1 is a breakthrough in the super
low power bioenergy arena with this Oxford University
discovery: “We found that if we can use ions to directly
stimulate cells or tissue, that needs only a very low energy
input…like, nanoamperes to microamperes in terms of current
levels” says Dr. Zhang. Reporting in Nature magazine, the
researchers copied some aspects of the electric eel with soft
ionic hydrogel droplets that are deposited in lipid-supported
networks so it is biocompatible. Zhang thinks the microscale soft
ionic power source which modulates neuronal network activity can
eventually be used in living organisms. A related story in the
millivolt/nanoamp ranges harvests molecular thermal energy for
the first time
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/10/energy-harvesting-breakthrough.html#more-188516.
Story #2 is inspiring for those like us who are tuned into
the excess gigatons of CO2 we have put into the holding pattern
in our atmosphere since the early part of last century, when only
290 ppm was the average CO2 concentration of heat-trapping
greenhouse effect. (Check out NASA’s
animated record of worldwide July temperatures for the past
150 years.) Now thanks to MIT, ARPA-E, and a new
company called Captura,
using the oceans to remove megatons this fall and gigatons later
is possible, along with offsetting the cost by the production of
hydrogen. Even Boeing is involved by purchasing 1200 metric tons
(tonnes) of green hydrogen for sustainable aviation fuel too.
With the Ocean Foundation, World Resources Institute, and the
Equatic company all involved, this article is a nice
comprehensive look at this emerging Direct Ocean Capture (DOC)
with Captura’s proprietary electrodialysis electrified membranes
with renewable energy power, thanks to the incentive of the Biden Administration
$3.5 billion prize for the best carbon removal
technology.
Story #3 finally brings to practicality the recycling of
the world’s six billion tons of plastic waste. Rice University
proved in a study published in Advanced Materials
journal the use of renewable energy to convert even
unwashed and mixed waste plastics into hydrogen.
Amazingly, “This heats the mixture to around 5,000 degrees
Fahrenheit in just 4 seconds, causing the carbon atoms in the
plastic to fuse together into graphene and releasing a mix of
volatile gases.” Of these gases, there was a significant amount
of extremely pure hydrogen. Moreover, since all of the gases’
carbon is converted into graphene, the process does not release
any carbon dioxide. A related article from New Scientist
(9-2-23) finds that “Plastic bottles can be recycled
into energy-storing supercapacitors” at Louisiana Tech
University, with the help of nitric acid and ethanol..
Story #4 offers freedom from the lithium burden in its
design of large backup batteries for energy storage
solutions. Based on work done at NASA, nickel-hydrogen
batteries that last 30 years are a good bet for powering the
grid, says EnerVenue which is building a gigafactory in Kentucky.
A related story builds aluminum radical batteries from water and
organic molecules published in the Journal of American
Chemistry.
Story #5 is almost hard to believe. Constructed from
cement, carbon black, and water, a new low-cost device holds the
potential to offer affordable and scalable energy storage for
renewable energy sources. Develop at MIT, the professors claim
they have created a supercapacitor for storing electricity that
can be built into the concrete foundation of a house, published
in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
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1) Powering Tiny Machines with a Hydrogel Droplet
Power Source
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Physicsworld.com
October 2023
Biointegrated
devices that can interact with cells could help target drugs and
accelerate wound healing. One challenge facing researchers is
powering these tiny machines.
Conventional
electronic circuits require a lot of energy — on the order of
tens to hundreds of microamperes, or a few volts — to stimulate
cells or tissue. With the latest advancements in materials
science and engineering now at their fingertips, researchers are
turning instead to power sources grounded in physiology. A power
source driven by ions, for example, would be twistable and
compressible, tissue-like in its stiffness and mechanical
properties, allowing it to seamlessly interface with the external
components of a biointegrated device.
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2) Using the Oceans to capture gigatons of CO2
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Off a
dock in the Port of Los Angeles, a 100-foot blue barge carrying
large metal cages and tanks, electronic equipment, and a jumble
of pipes and wires has been floating since mid-April. The dock
belongs to the ocean research institute AltaSea and the barge to
Equatic, which is testing a daring new idea to remove carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere—by sucking it out of the seas.
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3) Plastic Waste Becomes Clean Hydrogen Goldmine
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A
technique called flash joule heating at Rice University can
convert plastic waste, even unsorted and unwashed, into clean
hydrogen and valuable graphene.
If sold
at just 5% of its market value, the graphene produced could make
the hydrogen essentially free, provided the process is powered by
renewable energies.
While
green hydrogen offers significant potential for decarbonization,
especially in high-heat industrial applications, its production
requires vast amounts of clean energy, necessitating a balanced
approach to its adoption.
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4) Meet ESV: A lithium-free energy storage solution
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Interesting
Engineering. October 2023
Nickel-hydrogen-based
batteries that have long been used by NASA for its space missions
are now making their way to power the grid. California-based
EnerVenue is building large Energy Storage Vessels (ESVs) that
could be used to power the grid using renewables, a press release
said.
With the
world making a major transition to renewables, energy storage
solutions are the need of the hour. Lithium-ion batteries have been
our best bet so far but making large-scale storage solutions is
turning out quite expensive and cumbersome.
Li-ion
batteries are prone to thermal runaway and large energy storage
solutions need additional facilities for cooling, ventilation, and
fire suppression to be built to prevent a major mishap. This is
where nickel-hydrogen-based batteries could help.
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5) Supercapacitors from MIT made from ancient
cement-carbon black
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ScitechDaily.com,
October 2023
“Depending
on the properties desired for a given application, the system could
be tuned by adjusting the mixture. For a vehicle-charging road, very
fast charging and discharging rates would be needed, while for
powering a home “you have the whole day to charge it up,” so
slower-charging material could be used, Ulm says.
So, it’s
really a multifunctional material,” he adds. Besides its ability to
store energy in the form of supercapacitors, the same kind of
concrete mixture can be used as a heating system, by simply applying
electricity to the carbon-laced concrete. Ulm sees this as “a new
way of looking toward the future of concrete as part of the energy
transition.”
Reference: “Carbon–cement supercapacitors as a scalable bulk
energy storage solution” by Nicolas Chanut, Damian Stefaniuk, James
C. Weaver, Yunguang Zhu, Yang Shao-Horn, Admir Masic and Franz-Josef
Ulm, 31 July 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.2304318120
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