Engineering

If you want to improve the output of solar energy systems, why not also run them at night? That’s the question researchers in Qatar and Jordan addressed as they successfully devised a system that promises to more than double energy output of current solar power stations.

To reduce marine debris, which causes serious environmental pollution in the sea, researchers at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) have developed a technology for reducing floating debris in rivers.

Cornell engineers have refined a model that not only cultivates green energy, but also desalinates ocean water for large, drought-stricken coastal populations.

Millions of homes were built before Australia introduced housing energy efficiency standards in 2003. They’re leaky. Gaps around windows, doors and between building materials allow air to move in and out. So people tend to compensate, with more heating and cooling. It’s costly and damaging for the environment.

International collaboration to create standards and policies for the construction industry is vital to bring down the industry’s carbon footprint, argues Professor Matti Kuittinen of Aalto University in a paper published in Buildings & Cities.

Simulations from West Virginia University researchers demonstrate their use of two kinds of industrial wastewater to decontaminate each other has the potential to slash a power plant’s total water use.

Amid the rubble of large-sale earthquake, war or other disaster—and as aging buildings and infrastructure are replaced—mountains of concrete are often taken to landfill or pounded into rubble for roads.

In a move to embrace sustainable steelmaking, British Steel has unveiled a £1.25 billion plan to replace two blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant with electric arc furnaces. This follows the UK government’s commitment in September to invest up to £500 million towards an electric arc furnace at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in south Wales.

Often referred to as the “dream batteries,” all-solid-state batteries are the next generation of batteries that many battery manufacturers are competing to bring to market. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which use a liquid electrolyte, all components, including the electrolyte, anode, and cathode are solid, reducing the risk of explosion, and are in high demand in markets ranging from automobiles to energy storage systems (ESS).

Steel production causes significant emissions of carbon dioxide. To decarbonize steel production and its high carbon dioxide emissions, Fraunhofer researchers, TS ELINO GmbH and Salzgitter AG are working on converting an existing steel mill to climate-neutral production methods.