Engineering

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has added a new capability to the REopt web tool to help commercial building owners and energy managers more effectively evaluate the costs associated with geothermal heat pump (GHP) projects: the ability to integrate hybrid heat exchange with GHPs.

Recently, a team led by Prof. Sun Jinhua and Prof. Wang Qingsong from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. Guo Tuan from Jinan University, realized early warning of thermal runaway detection of lithium-ion batteries by optical fibers.

Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun.

As the planet gets hotter, the need for cool living environments is becoming more urgent. But air conditioning is a major contributor to global warming since units use potent greenhouse gases and lots of energy.

Asphalt is primarily known for use in roadways, but it’s also used to pave playgrounds, bicycle paths, running tracks and tennis and basketball courts—all platforms for activities where breathing toxic fumes can be dangerous. Outdoor use on driveways, rooftops and parking lots, especially in the Arizona sun, also can lead to toxic fume exposure.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have conducted a comprehensive life cycle, cost and carbon emissions analysis on 3D-printed molds for precast concrete and have determined that the method is economically beneficial compared to conventional wood molds.

Up to 100 million tons of waste foundry sand could be averted from landfill worldwide and used to make a new form of concrete, research shows.

Scientists have developed a new method that converts seawater into drinking water that could be useful in disaster zones where there is limited electrical power.

This year’s heightened drumbeat of extreme weather shows us how little time we actually have to slash emissions.

Upgrading, or retrofitting, the world’s iron and steel processing plants early could reduce carbon emissions by up to 70 gigatonnes by 2050, roughly equivalent to two years’ worth of net global carbon emissions, according to a new study published in Nature and led by UCL researchers in collaboration with Tsinghua University, Peking University and King’s College London.