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Category: sustainability – Page 342

A Headline Yesterday Stated the Green Energy Transition Has Stalled — Why?

Alex Pourbaix, the CEO of Cenovus, Canada’s second-largest oil and gas company, spoke up in a call with industry analysts where he criticized the plan and the money being offered to the industry. He called for a much large commitment from governments if the industry were to build large-scale CCUS. Pourbaix suggested that there were examples from other countries where the industry was being given up to 70% of the capital costs on new CCUS projects and was receiving additional money to offset operating costs.

While Pourbaix was complaining about the lack of money to build CCUS projects, he also announced to analysts that Cenovus had earned a seven-fold jump in its quarterly profits, and was tripling dividend payments to shareholders. This wasn’t mentioned in Jones’ article but did appear in the same edition of the paper, two pages later, tucked away well below the fold. It reported Cenovus had announced per-share dividends rising from $0.14 US to $0.42, with earnings exceeding analyst estimates at $0.79 per share. In the same report, Cenovus announced production output of synthetic crude from oil sands operations growing from over 769 to almost 800,000 barrels a day. There was no mention of GHG emissions contributions. And when I went to look at the company’s annual and quarterly reports, there was no reporting on GHG emissions or even intensity per barrel or per cubic metre related to production although there was a pledge to sustainability and best ESG practices. A 2020 Bloomsberg report states that GHG emissions at Cenovus continue to rise.

Cenovus is one of the founding members of the Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN). Its mission is to keep Canadian oil and natural gas companies competitive in world markets. Other members are fossil fuel companies, think tanks, academics, and government departments. CRIN acknowledges a low-carbon future but seems to lack a roadmap to get there. As I perused the website there was little information on strategies for carbon emission reductions. There was content related to intensity per unit of production as well as discussion about cleaner fuel standards. But I found nothing about CCUS.

From seawater to drinking water, with the push of a button

MIT researchers have developed a portable desalination unit, weighing less than 10 kilograms, that can remove particles and salts to generate drinking water.

The suitcase-sized device, which requires less power to operate than a cell phone charger, can also be driven by a small, portable solar panel, which can be purchased online for around $50. It automatically generates drinking that exceeds World Health Organization quality standards. The technology is packaged into a user-friendly device that runs with the push of one button.

Unlike other portable desalination units that require water to pass through filters, this device utilizes to remove particles from drinking water. Eliminating the need for replacement filters greatly reduces the long-term maintenance requirements.

Invesco is launching an ETF tied to metals used in electric vehicles as prices for key materials soars

Money manager Invesco on Wednesday launched an exchange-traded fund aimed at providing exposure to industrial metals needed to make electric vehicles, as commodity prices have surged and the market for EVs continues to expand.

The Invesco Electric Vehicle Metals Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF began trading Wednesday under the EVMT ticker and is the first of its kind, with the non-equity fund offering investors access to key metals needed by all EV manufacturers, the company said in a press statement.

EVMT will invest in derivatives and other instruments financially linked to exposure to aluminum, cobalt, copper, iron ore, nickel, and zinc. EVMT is the “only ETF that considers metals necessary for whole car production, rather than a focus on battery production,” said Jason Bloom, head of fixed income and alternatives ETF strategy at Invesco, in the statement.

Solar 3.0: This New Technology Could Change Everything

Perovskite solar cells might revolutionize how humans generate energy from sunlight.
https://brilliant.org/ElectricFuture.
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In this video we’ll explore the world’s fastest improving new solar technology, and provide an exclusive peek inside the lab of a team working on this breakthrough material.

Imagine an inexpensive solution of perovskite crystals that can make a photovoltaic cell so thin, that just half a cup of liquid would be enough to power a house. A solar panel so lightweight, that it can be balanced atop a soap bubble. That is known as the holy grail of solar energy. So when will we see perovskite solar panels used for a solar power system for your home? Maybe sooner than you expect.

Currently, only 2% of global electricity comes from solar power. And 90% of that, comes from crystalline silicon-based solar panels, the dominant material technology.

While abundant, silicon has downsides related to efficiency, manufacturing complexity, and pollution that prevent it from being an absolute no brainer. Emerging thin films like perovskites present a bright future. Imagine solar cars like a solar tesla, solar yachts, or a solar plane.

Solar cell technologies can be classified into two categories, wafer-based or thin-film cells. Perovskites are the leading contender in emerging thin films. Topics covered in this video include applications, perovskite crystal structure, working principle of perovskite solar cells, efficiency limits, multi-junction solar cells, shockley-queisser limit, how solar works, solar simulator, band gap, manufacturing, vapor deposition, how solar panels are made, and the future of solar power.

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High school students design a bottle that turns seawater into drinking water

Mangrove trees inspire thermal and membrane-based desalination system.

Four US students, taking part in a program aimed at high school girls interested in engineering, have designed a desalinating water bottle. The currently hypothetical device would be compact and portable so could offer increased accessibility over existing desalinating designs that mimic transpiration.

Laurel Hudson, Gracie Cornish, Kathleen Troy and Maia Vollen met at Virginia Tech’s C-Tech2 program where they were given an assignment to ‘reinvent the wheel’. Choosing to focus on the global water crisis and inspired by drinking straws used by hikers to purify water, they considered if it was possible to make a bottle that produced drinking water from seawater. They reached out to Jonathan Boreyko, an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering, who was researching synthetic trees at the time. He agreed to help, and, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the group met virtually at night to discuss their research. Along with Ndidi Eyegheleme, a graduate student in Boreyko’s lab, they planned and produced a model to evaluate the inner workings of their design.

Recycled glass waste used as sand replacement in 3D printing

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed the capability to use recycled glass in 3D printing, opening doors to a more environmentally sustainable way of building and construction.

Glass is one material that can be 100% recycled with no reduction in quality, yet it is one of the least recycled waste types. Glass is made up of silicon dioxide, or silica, which is a major component of sand, and therefore it offers significant untapped potential to be recycled into other products.

At the same time, due to growing populations, urbanization and , the world is facing a shortage of sand, with calling it one of the greatest sustainability challenges of the 21st century.

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