renewable energy tagged posts

Renewable device could help mitigate climate change, power medical devices. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air, a new technology they say could have significant implications for the future of renewable energy, climate change and in the future of medicine.

As reported today in Nature, the laboratories of electrical engineer Jun Yao and microbiologist Derek Lovley at UMass Amherst have created a device they call an “Air-gen.” or air-powered generator, with electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by the microbe Geobacter...

When exposed to sunlight, star-shaped gold nanoparticles coated with a semiconductor allow efficient production of hydrogen from water. Credit: Ashley Pennington/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Rutgers study opens door to broader use of sunlight and advanced materials to combat climate change. Star-shaped gold nanoparticles, coated with a semiconductor, can produce hydrogen from water over 4X more efficiently than other methods – opening the door to improved storage of solar energy and other advances that could boost renewable energy use and combat climate change, according to Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers.

“Instead of using ultraviolet light, which is the standard practice, we leveraged the energy of visible and infrared light to excite electrons in gold nanoparticles,” sa...

Dr. Cao-Thang Dinh, left, and Dr. Md Golam Kibria (both ECE) demonstrate their new catalyst. In a paper published today in Science, their team demonstrated most efficient and stable process for converting climate-warming carbon dioxide into the building blocks for plastics, all powered using renewable electricity. Credit: Laura Pedersen

Engineering team designs most efficient and stable process for converting climate-warming CO2 into a key chemical building block. A new technology from U of T Engineering is taking a substantial step towards enabling manufacturers to create plastics out of two key ingredients: sunshine and pollution...

A molybdenum 3-atoms-thick selective membrane. Credit: © Steven Duensing / National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Proponents of clean energy will soon have a new source to add to their existing array of solar, wind, and hydropower: osmotic power. Or more specifically, energy generated by a natural phenomenon occurring when fresh water comes into contact with seawater through a membrane. Researchers at EPFL’s Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology have developed an osmotic power generation system that delivers never-before-seen yields. Their innovation lies in a 3 atoms thick membrane used to separate the 2 fluids.

The concept is fairly simple. A semipermeable membrane separates 2 fluids with different salt concentrations...