Exciting sustainable developments

Now - this is very very cool - and something the research labs at Newcastle Uni are looking into for the production of green steel but has much wider applications

Methane pyrolysis is a fundamentally new process technology that splits natural gas or biomethane directly into the components hydrogen and solid carbon. This process requires relatively little energy. And if it uses electricity from renewable sources, there are actually no greenhouse gas emissions.

Interview Methane Pyrolysis.

 

... I'm loving all this new tech - and wondering when it's going to peak and plateau for a while (which is why I've put off my a new EV)

To create the panels, Maigue used luminescent particles from fruit and vegetable waste. These are the same particles that absorb the Sun’s ultraviolet rays and turn them into visible light. By using particles like this, Maigue created a solar film capable of capturing ultraviolet rays. The film then converts the rays into visible light which is used to generate energy.

Revolutionary new solar panels don’t need sunlight to generate energy

 

Discovered in 2012 ... so why, in the intervening 10 years, have we still been throwing plastic in landfill? (looking at the supposedly recycled plastics that get shipped straight to the big pit) ... why aren't we farming these edible mushrooms?

the 2012 discovery by students at Yale University, who found that a rare species of mushroom from the Amazon rainforest is capable of subsisting on plastic alone. More precisely, Pestalotiopsis microspora consumes polyurethane, the key ingredient in plastic products, and converts it to organic matter.

Scientists Have Discovered A Mushroom That Eats Plastic, And It Could Clean Our Landfills

 

Still early days but and interesting design nevertheless. Article also highlights the problems with previous heavy duty concepts in wave technology.

A Window Into the Future of Wave Energy

 

Mike Cannon-brookes in bid to buy out AGL, with goal of making green transition sooner.

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Brookfield in bid to take over AGL and shut down coal plants earlier

 

Yet another Aussie invention heading overseas ... pity our government doesn't see worth in these projects

UK backs Australian invented hydrogen storage tech to cut use of fossil fuels

 

Okay - not really a development as such - this is an advertisement for an urban electric bike that folds down to basically a small tyre size, plus a bit. I thought it was nifty

A5 Smart Electric Bike

 

Who would have thought it?

"As far as the claim that Snowy 2.0 will add 2000 megawatts of renewable energy to the National Electricity Market, Snowy 2.0 is not a conventional hydro station generating renewable energy. It is no different to any other battery, and as such it will be a net load on the NEM. For every 100 units of electricity purchased from the NEM to pump water uphill, only 75 units are returned when the water flows back down through the turbine generators. Not only is the electricity generated not renewable, Snowy 2.0 will be the most inefficient battery on the NEM, losing 25 per cent of energy cycled."

Five years on, Snowy 2.0 emerges as a $10 billion white elephant

 

Zinc-bromide batteries have been mentioned previously. This is the link to the company which was spun out of the research by the University of Sydney.

Zinc-bromide batteries don't experience thermal runaway which can occur with lithium batteries.

Gelion - Inspired Energy | Leading the charge to our clean energy future

 

Tangential to "exciting sustainable developments" but it's a development nevertheless and fascinating research. Released in early March at the Australian & New Zealand Disaster Management Centre conference.

Home - Spark

 

Huge leap forward - naturally, achieved by Australian researchers. Hopefully the IP of this one won't get away from our shores

Australian researchers claim ‘giant leap’ in technology to produce affordable renewable hydrogen

 

A link sent to me on thermal energy storage.

ANU team reaches new highs in thermal energy storage

"A team of ANU researchers led by Associate Professor Joseph Coventry has reached a ground-breaking temperature of 800 degrees Celsius in tests of a new thermal energy storage technology.

Developed in partnership with Graphite Energy, this new approach heats and pumps liquid sodium through metal tubes that snake their way through solid graphite. The graphite absorbs the heat, and the energy is stored for days, even weeks. Because renewable energy sources are weather-dependent, extending the duration of energy storage is an essential step in the transition away from fossil fuels.

“The real achievement here is the operation of a sodium lab in a test campaign at such high temperatures,” said Coventry. “This is the first sodium lab that's been set up in Australia, to my knowledge, and is I think, one of the highest temperature, if not the highest temperature, sodium labs in the world.”"

The site has lots of other fascinating items as well.

 

Diamond batteries with super long lifespan made from nuclear waste

Nano diamond batteries could last thousands of years

 

Love innovation ... especially that which had been foreshadowed for decades on Star Trek ... perhaps not this lifetime for me but I'LL BE BACK ....

Scientists Have Created A Star Trek-Like Plane That Flies Using "Ion Thrusters" And No Fuel - I Love The Universe

 

Engineered bacteria convert waste CO2 into valuable chemicals

 

So much me technology hitting the testing stages ... zero loss electricity grid possibility

Scientists finally built a room-temperature superconductor

 

This might be the "next step" plateau breakthrough

An accidental discovery could change the world

 

... anything that frees up the girls, from spending their days carrying water, so they can study instead

Cheap gel film pulls buckets of drinking water per day from thin air

 

Storage and conversion is the next nut to crack ... and it's starting to show some progress

‘Thermal batteries’ could efficiently store wind and solar power in a renewable grid