Astronauts’ waste will not be wasted.
Solar fuels just years away, propelled by breakthrough in catalyst research
Research doesn’t have to be glamorous or flashy to be significant.
Functional hydrogen-boron fusion could be here “within the next decade”, powered by huge lasers
Stable fusion is the holy grail of energy production.
Researchers spot the biggest brown dwarf ever, trailing at the edge of the Milky Way
Surprisingly pure.
Largest ‘artificial sun’ switched on in Germany to research hydrogen production
German engineers turn on a huge light bulb to better understand solar energy.
Hydrogen turned into a metal for the first time. Technology and spaceflight might never be the same
If confirmed, this could be one of the most revolutionary material of the century
Hydrogen-powered train to start making trips in Germany by the end of 2017
Ja, das ist Sehr gut!
Hydrogen peroxide made from seawater might one day power fuel cell cars
Using energy from the sun, researchers converted seawater into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) — a fuel that can be used in fuel cells, instead of elemental hydrogen.
Self assembling nano material brings us tangibly close to water-powered cars
Indiana University scientists have built a highly efficient bio-material that can serve as a catalyst for hydrogen production. This material takes us halfway towards the long sought-after “holy grail” of splitting water to make hydrogen and oxygen for fueling cheap and efficient cars that run on water.
Brain scans help researchers develop better condoms
It’s no secret that when it comes to condoms, the pleasure factor plays a big role – some people simply don’t want to use condoms because it diminishes their pleasure. With that in mind, researchers from Australia are now working to create condoms that feel just like bare skin… or even better! This year, over 27 billion condoms have been
This cheap catalyst might finally make the hydrogen economy work
Hydrogen is a great medium for storing energy. It can be used as an alternative to batteries to store the excess energy from renewable energy systems like solar panels or wind turbines, and can be released from a tank to power a vehicle equipped with fuel cells. More than a decade ago, these prospects hyped the so called “hydrogen economy”. Governments and funding agencies drew up ambitious plans to develop cheaper fuel cells and to enable cars to store practicable quantities of hydrogen. In 2003, President George Bush committed $720 million to the research effort. But eventually… it all turned out to be a pipeline dream mostly because of two shortcomings: hydrogen is very expensive to store and make; from renewable sources at least.
Astronomers discover huge hydrogen cloud around exoplanet
Astronomers using the Hubble telescope have identified a warm Neptune-sized planet that is “bleeding” a huge hydrogen cloud – thus increasing the odds of finding liquid oceans on gas giants.
Chinese scientists build first hydrogen-powered tram
China is the largest polluter in the world at the moment, and they’re also reaping what they sew. But you can’t accuse the Chinese for not trying to right their ways – at least some of them; in an effort to mitigate the ridiculous amounts of smog that clouds some of China’s cities, scientists have developed the first hydrogen-powered tram.
Artificial leaf breakthrough makes solar fuels one step closer
A team at Caltech has devised a new film coating that facilitates catalysis and electron transfer in a solar powered system that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used as fuels. Such a system is also called an artificial leaf or solar-fuel generator because in many ways it mimics the process which plants use to convert sunlight and CO2 into oxygen and fuel (sugars, carbohydrates). The researchers make note, however, that they’re still a long way from making it commercial viable, but these sort of updates are inspiring.
Toyota releases all its 5,680 hydrogen car patents for free
Major automaker Toyota announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that it would release all of its nearly 6,000 patents pertaining to hydrogen car technology royalty-free for the next five years. Officials most likely hope that this sort of move will encourage other auto manufacturers and capital to invest in the hydrogen economy. Of the nearly 6,000 patents,
Graphene membrane allows mobile Fuel Cells to harvest Hydrogen straight from Air
A team of UK researchers led by none other but Nobel Laureate Andre Geim – one of persons involved in graphene‘s discovery in 2004 – has shown that the wondrous two dimensional material graphene can used as a proton exchange membrane in fuel cells. The find took everybody by surprise since no one expected graphene could allow protons to pass through
New electrolysis system produces hydrogen 30 times faster
A new method of producing hydrogen has been reported by researchers at University of Glasgow that’s 30 times faster than current state-of-the-art methods, providing yet another advance that might one day lead to a sustainable hydrogen based economy. There’s only so much that renewable energy can grow with today’s infrastructure due to base load considerations. If the intermittency can be
Stanford scientists split water with device that runs on an ordinary AAA battery
Researchers from Stanford have found a way to split water into oxygen and hydrogen using very little energy; the hydrogen they obtain could be used to power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles. I’m quite excited for cars that run on hydrogen, which are set to hit the market in 2015; but while they are always presented as “zero emission cars”, many of
US navy synthesizes jet fuel solely out of seawater; costs $3-6 gallon
Part of an extraordinary venture, researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) report they’ve synthesized hydrocarbon fuel solely from seawater by transforming the CO2 and H2 found in the water. To demonstrate they viability of the fuel, a replica of the legendary WWII P-51 was fitted by an off-the-shelf (OTS) and unmodified two-stroke internal combustion engine and fueled by the synthetic
New Device Harnesses Sun and Sewage to Produce Hydrogen Fuel
It almost seems too good to be true – a novel device that uses only sunlight and wastewater to produce hydrogen gas could provide a sustainable energy source, while also improving the efficiency of the waste water system. A sustainable, self-driven system In a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, a team led by Yat Li,