Lifeboat Foundation

Hydrogen generation using abundant solar energy together with semiconductor photocatalysts holds significant potential to produce clean and sustainable energy carriers.

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a new photocatalyst made from an aerogel that could enable more efficient hydrogen production. The aerogel increases the efficiency of converting light into hydrogen energy, producing up to 70 times more hydrogen than rival methods.

Aerogels are extraordinary materials that have set Guinness World Records more than a dozen times, including the honorary position of becoming one of the world’s lightest solids. Professor Markus Niederberger from the Laboratory for Multifunctional Materials at ETH Zurich has been working with these special materials for some time.

The keratin-based substrate is biodegradable, eco-friendly, sustainable, and could revolutionize urban farming.

Scientists at NTU grew crops from discarded clumps of hair. Hair served as the growth medium instead of soil.

The research is crucial to a more sustainable form of urban farming.

Continue reading “Researchers have produced vegetables from human hair” »

The vessel is claimed to fly above the water thanks to its electric propulsion technology.

Targeting the worldwide high-speed ferry industry, a maritime design and technologies company has presented the plan for its new 100 percent electric EF-24 passenger vehicle.

“Our high-speed passenger ferry provides a cost-effective public transport solution that helps address air pollution, congestion, and noise,” said Dr. Iain Percy OBE, Artemis Technologies founder, and CEO.

Continue reading “World’s ‘most advanced’ zero-emissions electric passenger ferry plan unveiled” »

Tesla is expected to start production of its highly anticipated futuristic truck in 2023.

Tata Motors, an India-based automaker, has launched a new small hatchback all-electric vehicle starting at just over $10,000.

The Indian auto market has been lagging behind its peers when it comes to electrification.

This is due to many factors, but not the least of which is the fact that the country has strong protectionist laws when it comes to its auto industry and it makes it hard for foreign automakers to launch new vehicles in the country without producing them there.

He made the announcement as usual over Twitter.

Over the years, we have watched with excitement as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed more and more details about the Cybertruck. On Thursday, he took to Twitter to share one more feature of the truck: it will be waterproof enough to briefly serve as a boat.

Tesla.

Continue reading “The Cybertruck will also be a boat, says Elon Musk” »

A team of researchers from HSE MIEM joined colleagues from the Institute of Non-Classical Chemistry in Leipzig to develop a theoretical model of a polymeric ionic liquid on a charged conductive electrode. They used approaches from polymer physics and theoretical electrochemistry to demonstrate the difference in the behavior of electrical differential capacitance of polymeric and ordinary ionic liquids for the first time. The results of the study were published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

Polymerized ionic liquids (PIL) are a relatively new class of materials with increasing applications in various fields, from the development of new electrolytes to the creation of solar cells. Unlike ordinary room temperature ionic liquids (liquid organic salts in which cations and anions move freely), in PILs, cations are usually linked in long polymeric chains, while anions move freely. In recent years, PILs have been used (along with ordinary ionic liquids) as a filling in the production of supercapacitors.

Supercapacitors are devices that store energy in an electric double layer on the surface of an electrode (as in electrodes of platinum, gold and carbon, for example). Compared, for example, to an accumulator, supercapacitors accumulate more energy and do so faster. The amount of energy a supercapacitor is able to accumulate is known as its ‘capacitance’.

Regent has released video of its remarkable Seaglider prototype in flight testing. The first machine to combine the efficiency advantages of ground effect and hydrofoiling in a single design, it promises revolutionary speed and range in coastal areas.

Wing-in-ground effect (WIG) aircraft such as the Soviet-era Ekranoplan have shown promise in the past, but they’re yet to take off, so to speak, as a mainstream form of transport. These low-flying birds ride on a cushion of air between their wings and the surface, which gives them a significant lift and efficiency boost over regular planes flying higher in the air – as long as they stay within their own wingspan of the surface beneath. This extreme altitude restriction means that while ground-effect aircraft could fly over land, it’s too dangerous for regular operations, and they typically stay over water.

Continue reading “Watch the world’s first hydrofoiling ground effect vehicle take off” »

Four terminal perovskite-silicon photovoltaic designs helped them in their cause.

A collaboration of researchers from various institutes in the Netherlands broke the 30 percent barrier associated with solar cells. The achievement will help uptakeworldwide solar energy and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, an organizational press release said.

Even as governments across the world are promoting solar energy in their bid to reduce carbon emissions, the adoption of the technology has been limited by its energy conversion efficiency. Most commercially available solar panels top out at 22 percent energy conversion efficiency.

Continue reading “Netherlands researchers break the 30 percent barrier in solar cells” »