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Categories: Computer Science: Quantum Computers, Energy: Fossil Fuels

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Researchers have developed a proof-of-concept system to autonomously detect compressed air leaks on trains and relay the location of the leaks to mechanical personnel for repair. The automated system could reduce the time, costs and labor needed to find and repair air leaks, and it could lower the locomotive industry's overall fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

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A simple material can separate carbon dioxide from other gases that fly out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. It lacks the shortcomings that other proposed carbon filtration materials have, rivaling designer compounds in its simplicity, overall stability and ease of preparation.

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Researchers have made a serendipitous scientific discovery that could potentially revolutionize the way water is broken down to release hydrogen gas -- an element crucial to many industrial processes. The team found that light can trigger a new mechanism in a catalytic material used extensively in water electrolysis, where water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. The result is a more energy-efficient method of obtaining hydrogen.

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Synthetic fuels produced from renewable sources, so-called refuels, are deemed potential game changers in fighting climate change. Refuels promise to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional fuels and they allow for the continued use of existing vehicle fleets with combustion engines and of the refueling infrastructure, from fuel production to transport to sales. Researchers carried out extensive fleet tests in a large-scale project with industry partners and proved that refuels can be used in all vehicles and produced in large quantities in the foreseeable future.

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Using a new power sector model, a team of researchers has proposed a method for Europe to eliminate natural gas imports from Russia.

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A new study identifies the political factors that allow some countries to lead in adopting cleaner sources of energy while others lag behind. By analyzing how different countries responded to the current energy crisis and to the oil crisis of the 1970s, the study reveals how the structure of political institutions can help or hinder the shift to clean energy. The findings offer important lessons as governments race to limit the impacts of climate change.

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Polyethylene plastics -- single-use bags and general-purpose bottles -- are indestructable forever plastics. That also makes them hard to recycle. Chemists have found a way to break down the polymer -- a chain of about a thousand ethylene molecules -- into three-carbon molecules, propylene, which are in high demand for making another plastic, polypropylene. The process could turn waste plastic into high-value feedstocks and reduce the need for fossil fuels to make propylene.

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Turning plastic waste into useful products through chemical recycling is one strategy for addressing Earth's growing plastic pollution problem. A new study may improve the ability of one method, called pyrolysis, to process hard-to-recycle mixed plastics -- like multilayer food packaging -- and generate fuel as a byproduct, the scientists said.

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An underutilized natural resource could be just what the airline industry needs to curb carbon emissions. Researchers report success in using lignin as a path toward a drop-in 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Lignin makes up the rigid parts of the cell walls of plants. Other parts of plants are used for biofuels, but lignin has been largely overlooked because of the difficulties in breaking it down chemically and converting it into useful products.

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Electricity-generating rooftop solar cells not only save on planet-warming carbon emissions, they also save a significant amount of water. Water consumption is tightly bound to energy use, because without water we cannot mine, drill, frack, or cool thermoelectric and nuclear plants. A given household may save on average 16,200 gallons of water per year by installing rooftop solar.

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Researchers have developed an analytical instrument that uses an ultrafast laser for precise temperature and concentration measurements of hydrogen. Researchers describe a new coherent Raman spectroscopy instrument, made possible due to a setup that converts broadband light from a laser with short (femtosecond) pulses into extremely short supercontinuum pulses, which contain a wide range of wavelengths. Their new approach could help advance the study of greener hydrogen-based fuels for use in spacecraft and airplanes.

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A new study highlights that global demand for sulfuric acid is set to rise significantly from '246 to 400 million tons' by 2040 -- a result of more intensive agriculture and the world moving away from fossil fuels. A projected shortage of sulfuric acid, a crucial chemical in our modern industrial society, could stifle green technology advancement and threaten global food security, according to a new study.

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Across the United States, local wind and solar jobs can fully replace the coal-plant jobs that will be lost as the nation's power-generation system moves away from fossil fuels in the coming decades, according to a new study.

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A new report has identified the 10 financial actors with the most influence on the fossil fuel economy and outlines the decisive role they can play in helping de-carbonize our future.

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Researchers have designed a fuel production system that uses water, carbon dioxide (CO2), and sunlight to produce aviation fuel. They have implemented the system in the field, and the design could help the aviation industry become carbon neutral.

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Fuel cells often fall short when it comes to operating at temperatures beyond 100 degrees Celsius owing to their dependence on water as a proton conduction medium. To overcome this issue, a team of researchers designed a new hydrogen-bonded starburst-shaped metal complex consisting of ruthenium (III) ion and six imidazole-imidazolate groups. The resulting single molecular crystal shows excellent proton conductivity even at temperatures as high as 180°C and as low as --70 °C.

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A new study, which demonstrates that even the most rural areas of Australia are feasible for electric vehicles, provides new hope for how the technology could be spread around the most secluded locations in other parts of the world. The study found the vast majority of residents, or 93 per cent, could travel to essential services with even the lower-range of electric vehicles currently available on the Australian market, without needing to recharge en route.

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With energy costs rising, and the rapidly emerging effects of burning fossil fuels on the global climate, the need has never been greater for researchers to find paths to products and fuels that are truly renewable.

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The expansion of natural gas infrastructure jeopardizes energy transition, as natural gas is not a bridge technology towards a 100 per cent renewable energy system as defined by the Paris Climate Agreement. The researchers have examined the natural gas issue from five perspectives and given gas a fairly poor climate balance, comparable to that of coal or oil. They recommend that politicians and scientists revise the current assumptions about natural gas.

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Biofuel scientists used an oddball molecule made by bacteria to develop a new class of sustainable biofuels powerful enough to launch rockets. The candidate molecules have greater projected energy density than any petroleum product, including the leading aviation and rocket fuels, JetA and RP-1.