Industry News

December 2017
The Wave Power Farm off Mutriku Could Improve its Efficiency

Gabriel Ibarra in his office at the university. On the computer a picture of Mutriku.

The offshore power plant or wave farm at Mutriku is the only commercial facility (it is not a prototype) in the world that operates by regularly feeding the grid with electrical power produced by waves. It has been operating since 2011 and the study by the UPV/EHU's EOLO group analysed its behaviour during the 2014
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Date:
12/29/2017
Viewing Atomic Structures of Dopant Atoms in 3-D Relating to Electrical Activity in a Semiconductor

Soft X-rays excite the core level electrons, leading to the emission of photoelectrons from various atoms, whose waves are then scattered by the surrounding atoms. The interference pattern between the scattered and direct photoelectron waves creates the photoelectron hologram, which may then be captured with an electron analyzer.

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and their research team involving researchers of JASRI, Osaka University, Nagoya Institute of Technology, and Nara Institute of Science and Technology have just developed a novel approach to determine and visualize the three-dimensional (3D) structure of
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Date:
12/28/2017
Alaskan Microgrids Offer Energy Resilience and Independence

Wind turbines supply renewable energy to microgrids across Alaska.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 26, 2017 -- The electrical grid in the contiguous United States is a behemoth of interconnected systems. If one section fails or is sabotaged, millions of citizens could be without power. Remote villages in Alaska provide an example of how safeguards could build resilience into a larger el
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Date:
12/26/2017
A New Strategy for Efficient Hydrogen Production

From left are Junyoung Kim, Professor Guntae Kim, and Ohhun Gwona in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST.

A joint research team, affiliated with UNIST has introduced the Hybrid-Solid Electrolysis Cell (Hybrid-SOEC) system with highest reported electrochemical performance in hydrogen production. The proposed system has attracted much attention as a new promising option for the cost-effective and highly-efficient hy
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Date:
12/26/2017
Thermoelectric Power Generation at Room Temperature: Coming Soon?

(a) Three-dimensional crystal structure of YbSi2, (b) view along the a-axis, and (c) along the c-axis.

Osaka - Thermoelectric (TE) materials could play a key role in future technologies. Although the applications of these remarkable compounds have long been explored, they are mostly limited to high-temperature devices. Recently, researchers at Osaka University, in collaboration with Hitachi, Ltd., developed a ne
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Date:
12/26/2017
Accelerated Analysis of the Stability of Complex Alloys
Material scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum are able to determine if a new material remains stable under temperature load within the space of a few days. They have developed a novel process for analysing, for example, the temperature and oxidation resistance of complex alloys that are made up of a number of
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Date:
12/22/2017
A Catalytic Balancing Act

Argonne scientists and their collaborators have used a new and counterintuitive approach to balance three important factors -- activity, stability and conductivity -- in a new catalyst designed for splitting water.

Balance forms the foundation for a happy life or a healthy diet. For scientists working to design new catalysts to create renewable energy, balancing different materials and their properties is equally important. (Catalysts help accelerate chemical reactions.) In a new study, researchers from the U.S. Depa
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Date:
12/22/2017
Halogens can Increase Solar Cell Performance by 25%

UBC professor Curtis Berlinguette.

New research from the University of British Columbia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that using halogens--a class of elements that include fluoride, bromine, chlorine and iodine--in a dye-sensitized solar cell can increase conversion efficiency by 25 per cent. The discovery could set th
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Date:
12/20/2017
Expanding Solar Energy Without Encroaching on Potential Farmland and Conservation Areas
As the world tries to combat climate change, sustainable forms of energy are on the rise. Solar energy is of particular interest, but arrays of photovoltaic panels take up a lot of space and can compete for prime food-producing land. Now researchers, reporting in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology, have found
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Date:
12/19/2017
UC Researchers Identify Nontraditional Sites for Future Solar Farms

A floatovoltaic installation at Far Niente Winery in Oakville, Calif., comprises nearly 1,000 solar panels floating on pontoons on the vineyard irrigation pond.

RIVERSIDE, Calif . -- There's a tradeoff when sprawling solar farms pop up on agricultural land: farmland disappears, perhaps forever, in return for growth in the promising renewable energy sector. But what if large solar installations could be built away from agricultural land, eliminating the competition bet
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Date:
12/19/2017
Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings: A Difficult Challenge for Southern Europe

This is a thermal image of a Basque Country building in the 70s, where heat loss is evidenced due to lack of insulation.

Over the coming years there is a legal commitment for all the countries of Europe to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, which boils down to constructing nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEBs), in other words, buildings that consume the minimum of energy. The EU Directive 31/2010 establishes two key deadlines: tha
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Date:
12/19/2017
Farmers in Kenya Willing, Able to Ramp up Croton nut Output for Biofuel

Croton nuts are the source of an oil that can power generators, water pumps and other internal combustion engines and, with processing, can be used in place of diesel fuel in cars and trucks.

Small-holder farmers in Kenya have the capacity and desire to play a major role in the scale-up of biofuel production from agroforestry, according to a Penn State forest economist, who led a study in the East African country. Croton trees -- which seem to grow everywhere in Kenya -- and the oilseeds they prod
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Date:
12/19/2017
Russian Physicists Found the Temperature at Which Carbon Nanotubes Become Superconductors

This is the geometric structure 'a carbon chain in a tube' before and after optimization.

Scientists from Ural Federal University (UrFU) together with their colleagues from Lomonosov Moscow State University found out the mathematical method to calculate the temperature at which single walled carbon nanotubes became superconductors and developed a way to increase it thus opening new prospects for su
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Date:
12/18/2017
Qualcomm Extends Cash Tender Offer for All Outstanding Shares of NXP
Qualcomm Incorporated announced that Qualcomm River Holdings B.V., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, has extended the offering period of its previously announced cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding common shares of NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI). The tender offer is being
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Date:
12/15/2017
Columbia Engineers Develop Floating Solar Fuels Rig For Seawater Electrolysis
New York, NY -- Dec.15, 2017 -- In a single hour, more energy from the sun hits the Earth than all the energy used by humankind in an entire year. Imagine if the sun's energy could be harnessed to power energy needs on Earth, and done in a way that is economical, scalable, and environmentally responsible. Researchers hav
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Date:
12/15/2017
Russian Scientists Developed a New Technology of Energy Generation From Bituminous Coal

Mini coal-fired CHP plant on the basis of synthesis gas generator (CO + H2) and electrochemical current generator (experiment/factory).

Bituminous coal comprises over 90% of organic fuels in the lithosphere of the Earth. By burning coal and other fossil fuels one can get electrical power (which is mainly happening at HPPs). However, the existing generation methods are not efficient, bad for the environment, and extremely resource-demanding (i.e. pr
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Date:
12/15/2017
Hydrogen Production: Protein Environment Makes Catalyst Efficient
The interaction of protein shell and active centre in hydrogen-producing enzymes is crucial for the efficiency of biocatalysts. A team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim an der Ruhr specifically analysed the role of hydrogen bonds in certain en
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Date:
12/14/2017
New Insight Into Battery Charging Supports Development of Improved Electric Vehicles
Oxford, December 14, 2017 - A new technique developed by researchers at Technische Universität München, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and RWTH Aachen University, published in Elsevier's Materials Today, provides a unique insight into how the charging rate of lithium ion batteries can be a factor limiting their life
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Date:
12/14/2017
Harwin Bestows Digi-Key with Global Distribution Accolade
Based on a variety of different key performance metrics, Harwin has awarded Digi-Key with its Global Distributor 2017 Award. The supply chain specialist has achieved an impressive 40% sales growth for Harwin product lines over the course of the last 12 months and established itself as the connector and board level
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Date:
12/14/2017
Trainees in Thyrnau Organize Donations for Earthquake Victims in Mexico
Trainees and students from Würth Elektronik iBE initiated a donation campaign for the earthquake victims in Mexico. The young generation of the automotive supplier reacted to the active help from their colleagues at the Mexican plant in Irapuato for their countrymen affected by the severe earthquake. Within a
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Date:
12/14/2017
Climate Conditions Affect Solar Cell Performance More Than Expected

This shows how the difference in performance between the two solar cells vary over time.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers can now predict how much energy solar cells will produce at any location worldwide. Surprisingly, they identified that two types of solar cells (silicon and cadmium telluride) can vary in energy output by 5% or more in tropical regions, where most of the emerging so
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Date:
12/13/2017
Laser-Boron Fusion now 'Leading Contender' for Energy
A laser-driven technique for creating fusion that dispenses with the need for radioactive fuel elements and leaves no toxic radioactive waste is now within reach, say researchers. Dramatic advances in powerful, high-intensity lasers are making it viable for scientists to pursue what was once thought impossibl
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Date:
12/13/2017
TOKYO — SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing supply chain, released its Year-end Forecast at the annual SEMICON Japan exposition. SEMI projects that worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment will  increase 35.6 percent to US$55.9 billion in 20
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Date:
12/12/2017
Scientists Discover Path to Improving Game-Changing Battery Electrode
Menlo Park, Calif. -- If you add more lithium to the positive electrode of a lithium-ion battery - overstuff it, in a sense - it can store much more charge in the same amount of space, theoretically powering an electric car 30 to 50 percent farther between charges. But these lithium-rich cathodes quickly lose vo
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Date:
12/12/2017
A Diamond as The Steppingstone to New Materials, Using Plasma Physics Technology

This is Yogesh Vohra.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - University of Alabama at Birmingham physicists have taken the first step in a five-year effort to create novel compounds that surpass diamonds in heat resistance and nearly rival them in hardness. They are supported by a five-year, $20 million National Science Foundation award to create ne
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Date:
12/11/2017
CIRES and RASEI researchers suggest that wind resources in the next century may decrease in many regions in the Northern Hemisphere--and could sharply increase in several hotspot regions down south. The first-of-its-kind study predicting how global wind power may shift with climate change appears today in Nature Geosci
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Date:
12/11/2017
Surrey Scientists Create Cheap And Safe Electro-Catalysts For Fuel Cells
Scientists from the University of Surrey have produced non-metal electro-catalysts for fuel cells that could pave the way for production of low-cost, environmentally friendly energy generation. In a study published in the Journal of Power Sources, the team from Surrey worked with colleagues from Queen Mary
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Date:
12/08/2017
Algae Could Feed And Fuel Planet With Aid of New High-Tech Tool
Vast quantities of medicines and renewable fuels could be produced by algae using a new gene-editing technique, a study suggests. Scientists have devised a method that could lead to cheap, environmentally friendly ways of making products for use in the cosmetics, plastics and food industries. Algae are highly prize
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Date:
12/07/2017
Scientists Create Stretchable Battery Made Entirely Out of Fabric
BINGHAMTON, NY - A research team led by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York has developed an entirely textile-based, bacteria-powered bio-battery that could one day be integrated into wearable electronics. The team, led by Binghamton University Electrical and Computer Science Assistant
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Date:
12/07/2017
Hearing Hybrid and Electric Vehicles While Quieting Noise Pollution
WASHINGTON, D.C. Dec. 5, 2017 -- Europe, as well as most of the world, faces a future with hybrid or pure electronic road vehicles that rely on alternative drive chains. But these low-emission vehicles are considered too quiet for hearing-impaired pedestrians, so the European Union is mandating that they be equipped wi
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Date:
12/05/2017
Superior Hydrogen Catalyst Just Grows That Way

These inorganic 'flowers,' color added, were created by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Stanley Chou and University of California, Merced colleague Vincent Tung in a spray-printing process that uses molybdenum disulfide to create a 'flowering' hydrogen catalyst far cheaper than platinum and reasonably close in efficiency.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Replacing your everyday gas guzzler with a hydrogen fueled car could drastically reduce your carbon footprint. So why don't we all make the switch? One of reasons we don't is the expensive platinum catalyst required to operate hydrogen fuel cells efficiently. Research led by Sandia Nati
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Date:
12/05/2017
Next-Generation Solvent Contributes to Next-Generation Biofuel Production From Biomass

After dissolving plant biomass by the novel solvent, carboxylate-type liquid zwitterion, hydrolysis and fermentation were consecutively carried out in one reaction pot for conversion into ethanol.

The first-generation biofuel, industrialized, ethanol, is produced from foodstuffs like maize, and thus poses great concern about a possible future shortage of food. It is therefore necessary to produce ethanol from non-food biomass like weeds, waste paper, paper cup, etc. (second-generation biofuel ethanol). So
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Date:
12/04/2017
Sustainable Solvent Platform for Photon Upconversion Increases Solar Utilization Efficiency

Deep eutectic solvents used as the medium of sensitizer and emitter chromophores (left) and the photon upconverter developed (right). The sample converts low-intensity (a few mW) green light into clear blue emission and demonstrates high thermal stability during exposure to a burner flame for 1 min.

The conversion of solar energy into electricity is currently restricted by a concept known as the Shockley-Quesser limit. This limitation allows only photons that have higher energies than those of the bandgap to be used, while those with lower energies are wasted. In an effort to obtain a solution to this problem an
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Date:
12/04/2017
MSU Scholar Lands $2.7 Million to Improve Undergraduate STEM Education

Michigan State is leading an NSF-funded effort to improve undergraduate learning in science, math, technology and engineering.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- As more universities attempt to transform how they teach science and math, a Michigan State University researcher is focusing on broader changes across networks of campuses in order to improve student learning. Ann Austin has received three grants totaling $2.7 million from the Natio
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Date:
12/04/2017
Boulder, CO, USA: GSA's governing Council approved a new position statement, Geoscience and Energy Policy, at its October 2017 meeting in Seattle, Washington. "This has been a long time coming," said GSA President Isabel Montañez. "I would like to thank the committee for their thoughtful work and G
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Date:
12/01/2017
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