Renewables

  Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have combined advanced in-situ microscopy and theoretical calculations to uncover important clues to the properties of a promising next-gen energy storage material for supercapacitors and batteries.

A declaration committing the leaders of the global transportation industry to take concrete steps to tackle wildlife trafficking was signed at Buckingham Palace in London. Leaders of 40 airlines, shipping firms, port operators, customs agencies, intergovernmental organisations and conservation charities from around the world signed the historic Declaration of the United for Wildlife International Taskforce on the Transportation of Illegal Wildlif...

When we talk about climate change today, we have to look at what the climate was previously like in order to recognise the natural variations and to be able to distinguish them from the human-induced changes. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have analysed the natural climate variations over the last 12,000 years, during which we have had a warm interglacial period and they have looked back 5m years to see the major features of the Earth&...

A team of scientists is exploring an unusual source of electricity—damaged tomatoes that are unsuitable for sale at the grocery store. Their pilot project involves a biological-based fuel cell that uses tomato waste left over from harvests in Florida. The researchers present their work today at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Drayson Technologies has used CST EM (ElectroMagnetic) simulation software to help develop Freevolt, a revolutionary energy harvesting technology that turns unused RF signals into electricity. Freevolt, which was launched by Drayson Technologies in September 2015, is the first viable power source of its kind.

People have thrived deep within the Amazon rainforest for hundreds of years without contact with the outside world. The constant encroachment of modern civilisation, however, is putting the long-term sustainability of these people, and the ecosystems they inhabit, at risk. Now a team of Stanford researchers has developed a computer model that can help understand the ways that activities such as clear-cutting and welfare programs might impact the ...

Sand, coral and even waste building materials can become extremely efficient sorbents for removing toxic substances such as arsenic from water if they are treated for that purpose. Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) have revealed a new technology that purified 3.6 m3 of water using 200 grams of sorbent from available raw materials, the cost of which will be a little more $1 to end consumers.

Farm-grown fish are an important source of food with significant and worldwide societal and economic benefits, but the fish that come from these recirculating systems can have unpleasant tastes and odors. To clean contaminated water for farmed fish, drinking and other uses, scientists are now turning to an unlikely source—the mucilage or inner "guts" of cacti. The researchers present their work at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition...

NASA has selected two proposals for new Earth science investigations that will put new instruments in low-Earth orbit to track harmful particulate air pollutants and study the development of tropical cyclones. Observations of small atmospheric aerosols from the MAIA will be combined with health information to determine the toxicity of different particulate matter types in airborne pollutants over the world's major cities. David Diner of NASA's JP...

Researchers at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics at Linköping University, Sweden, have created a supercondenser that can be charged by the sun. It contains no expensive or hazardous materials, has patents pending, and it should be fully possible to manufacture it on an industrial scale. In the future we could have a completely new type of energy storage, charged by heat energy – for example during the day when the sun shines, or b...