Cleantech and Environmental News – Latest Headlines

A materials passport for greener batteries

The aim of a new research project is to manufacture recyclable and environmentally-friendly electrodes and subsequently regain materials from batteries via direct recycling.

October 15, 2021 Read more

Hydrogel tablet can purify a liter of river water in an hour

Scientists and engineers have created a hydrogel tablet that can rapidly purify contaminated water. One tablet can disinfect a liter of river water and make it suitable for drinking in an hour or less.

October 6, 2021 Read more

Flash Joule heating recovers precious metals from electronic waste in seconds (w/video)

In what should be a win-win-win for the environment, a process to extract valuable metals from electronic waste would also use up to 500 times less energy than current lab methods and produce a byproduct clean enough for agricultural land.

October 5, 2021 Read more

A jacket from a jacket from a jacket...

Manufacture, wear, wash, incinerate: This typical life cycle of garments, which pollutes the environment, is to be changed in the future - towards principles of circular economy with recycling at its core. Using an outdoor jacket made from PET bottles and recycled materials, researchers have investigated whether the product actually delivers what the idea promises.

September 30, 2021 Read more

Researchers identify and clear efficiency hurdle for organic solar cells

Researchers have identified a key mechanism responsible for the lower efficiencies of organic solar cells and have demonstrated a way this hurdle might be overcome. Their results suggest the possibility of developing organic solar cells with efficiencies comparable to silicon-based cells.

September 30, 2021 Read more

StoRIES: New push for energy storage research in Europe

StoRIES, a new European research consortium, has now been established to accelerate the development of energy storage systems.

September 29, 2021 Read more

Cheaper hydrogen production

Efficient water and urea electrolysis with bimetallic yolk-shell nanoparticles.

September 14, 2021 Read more

Degradation of biobased plastics in the soil

The idea of biodegradable plastics sounds good at first. However, very little is known about how they are degraded in the soil and how this is influenced by climate change. In two recent studies, soil ecologists have shown which microbial community is responsible for degradation, what role the climate plays in this process, and why biodegradable plastics could still be problematic.

September 14, 2021 Read more

Better raw material sourcing can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions

According to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report, focusing on raw material extraction and processing, raw material consumers can use their purchasing power to influence suppliers to become more climate friendly.

September 1, 2021 Read more

Green hydrogen: Focus on the catalyst surface

Scientists succeeded in fundamentally investigating the surface of the iridium oxide catalyst under dynamic operation conditions.

August 24, 2021 Read more

New clean energy tech extracts twice the power from ocean waves

Researchers have developed prototype technology that can double the power harvested from ocean waves, in an advance that could finally make wave energy a viable renewable alternative.

August 17, 2021 Read more

Engineers clean up water pollution with sunlight

Researchers have developed a singlet oxygen model to calculate how particular chemicals break down in surface water.

August 12, 2021 Read more

Expanding renewable energy planning with new web tool

A new web tool will enable anyone to quickly analyze a region's potential for renewable energy development.

August 11, 2021 Read more

Future battery cost: Crucial for the success of the mobility and energy transition

Researchers have published a comparative study of battery cost predictions from the past decade. In the study, assumptions from more than 50 scientific publications that analyze the costs of lithium-ion, solid-state, lithium-sulfur and lithium-air batteries, resulting costs are compared and the academic opinion is consolidated into a cost trend.

August 11, 2021 Read more

The Final 25%: How to tackle hard-to-reach emissions

Electricity, transport, and heating account for a massive 80% of greenhouse gas emissions and are at the forefront of the battle to achieve Net Zero. But reaching Net Zero means also dealing with the hard-to-reach 20% of emissions: agriculture, plastics, cement, and waste, and extracting at least 5% extra from the atmosphere to account for the emissions that we simply cannot get rid of.

August 5, 2021 Read more

Measuring photovoltaic performance indoors

Better methods for assessing solar cells under indoor ambient lighting can help improve their design.

August 4, 2021 Read more

World's first 'green' synthesis of plastics from CO2

Using a CeO2 catalyst, researchers develop an effective catalytic process for the direct synthesis of polycarbonate diols without the need for dehydrating agents.

July 29, 2021 Read more

A naturally inspired, reusable system that purifies water and builds itself

In nature, the interaction of molecules at the boundary of different liquids can give rise to new structures. They can also be engineered to perform specific functions - and now, a team of researchers has leveraged this opportunity to develop a material that could remove persistent pollutants from water.

July 27, 2021 Read more