Lifeboat Foundation

A research team led by Prof. Chen Wei from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) designed a rechargeable hydrogen-chlorine (H₂-Cl₂) battery that can operate in temperatures ranging from −70°C to 40°C. The study was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society as the cover article.

Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising technology valuable for their sustainability and the abundance of hydrogen, among which H₂-Cl₂ fuel cells stand out due to fast electrochemical kinetics, high redox potential and high specific capacity of Cl₂/Cl^- redox couple. However, the volatile chlorine gas cannot be retained during the charging process, resulting in poor Coulombic efficiency (CE) and reversibility. There is an urgent need to develop aqueous chlorine batteries with high performance and applicability at different temperatures.

The research team first discovered that due to the lack of binding sites with strong affinity to Cl₂, traditional adsorptive cathodes have difficulty immobilizing Cl₂, causing low reversibility. To tackle this problem, the team designed a hierarchically porous carbon cathode composed of highly micro-/mesoporous carbon (HPC) and macroporous carbon felt (CF), effectively confining the Cl₂ on the cathode and improving the reversibility.

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In the grand theater of the cosmos, amidst a myriad of distant suns and ancient galaxies, the Fermi Paradox presents a haunting silence, where a cacophony of alien conversations should exist. Where is Everyone? Or are we alone?

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Continue reading “The Fermi Paradox Compendium of Solutions & Terms” »

Remember back before smartphones existed, when you had to buy a separate cell phone, camera, music player, calculator and calendar? Well, the Utility Personal Transporter may one day do for electric vehicles what smartphones did for gadgets.

Currently in functional prototype form, the Utility Personal Transporter (UPT) is being developed by Canadian electric mobility company Envo Drive Systems. In a nutshell, it’s a four-wheel-drive electric platform that can be adapted to serve multiple purposes.

Continue reading “Utility Personal Transporter is set to be the smartphone of EVs” »

In recent years, engineers and material scientists have been trying to create increasingly advanced battery technologies that are charged faster, last longer, and can store more energy. These batteries will ultimately play a crucial role in the advancement of the electronics and energy sector, powering the wide range of portable devices on the market, as well as electric vehicles.

Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are currently the most widespread batteries worldwide, powering most electronics we use every day. Identifying scalable methods to increase the speed at which these batteries charge is thus one of the primary goals in the energy field, as it would not require switching to entirely new battery compositions.

Researchers at Huazhong University of Technology in China recently introduced a new strategy to develop fast-charging LiBs containing a graphite-based material. Their proposed battery design, outlined in a paper published in Nature Energy, was found to successfully speed up the charging time of LiBs, while also allowing them to retain much of their capacity even after they are charged thousands of times.

Heating and cooling needs account for 50 percent of energy demand and using the Sun’s heat directly is an effective to curb fossil fuel requirements.

Naked Energy, a UK-based solar energy startup, has a different way of tapping into the renewable source. Its approach can be classified as a solar thermal energy system which utilizes the heat from the Sun and uses it directly for heating applications instead of trying to store it in a battery.

The rapid rise of solar as a source of energy has been fueled by the declining pricing of photovoltaic (PV) cells. This approach is easy to scale and has helped set up massive solar energy farms in different parts of the world. However, the solution needs large investments in energy storage.

Faster installations could reduce construction costs as well as bring farms online faster, both big wins for the wind industry.

Goldwind.

Wind turbines are critical tools in our drive to generate electricity using renewable energy sources. The advent of offshore installations has ushered in the possibility of building larger turbines that can harness greater energy in a single sweep.

Continue reading “Chinese firm installs world’s biggest wind turbine in ‘record’ 24 hours” »

Last year, Tesla submitted plans to the city of Los Angeles for a charging station equipped with a 24-hour diner and drive-in theater. The electric-car maker plans to build the luxury supercharger station at 7,001 West Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, according to Bloomberg.

Tesla began construction on the project in September, Forbes reported. Musk also provided more details on the project in August after the company’s plans were reportedly approved by the city.

“Our Tesla futuristic diner (Grease meets The Jetsons with Supercharging) in LA should be ready later this year,” Musk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

That’s high praise in a country where EVs rule the market. With this being said, the Model 3 is still not perfect.

The fourth quarter is past its midway point, and Tesla’s Megafactory in Lathrop, California, seems like it’s still going full speed ahead. During a recent drone flyover of the site, a fleet of 332 Megapack batteries was spotted in the facility’s staging areas.

The Tesla Megapack may not be as visually compelling as the Cybertruck or the Model 3 Highland, but it is a key product in Tesla’s portfolio. Designed for grid use, the Megapack has the potential to disrupt the energy sector. The battery has been performing well so far, as it has been deployed successfully in high-profile projects like the 182 MW/730 MWh battery farm in Moss Landing, California, and the 150 MW/300 MWh system in New South Wales, Australia.

The Megapack is available in two variants: a 2-hour version that offers 1.9 MW of power and 3.9 MWh of energy and a 4-hour variant that features 1 MW of power and 3.9 MWh of energy. The grid-scale battery is priced at $1,908,590 for the four-hour variant with installation and $2,123,590 for the two-hour variant with installation. Without installation charges, the Megapack is priced at $1,321,390 for the two-hour variant and $1,270,310 for the four-hour version.