article thumbnail

NASA’s New Shortcut to Fusion Power

Cars That Think

And scientists and engineers have continued to study the sun’s fusion process in hopes of one day using nuclear fusion to generate heat or electricity. Consequently, governments, universities, and companies have long looked to fusion to remedy these ills. But these generators convert heat to electricity at roughly 7.5

Fusion 129
article thumbnail

Scientists at DOE Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory propose solution to a barrier to fusion

Green Car Congress

Scientists from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have proposed a possible solution to a barrier to harnessing fusion. Fusion occurs when plasmas become hot and dense enough for the atomic nuclei contained within the hot gas to combine and release energy. —David A.

Fusion 225
article thumbnail

2023’s Top Stories About Energy

Cars That Think

Energy storage and nuclear fusion—two reliable crowd pleasers when the crowd you’re talking about is readers of IEEE Spectrum —are well represented among our most widely read energy stories of 2023. A real corker, and the answer to the question, what generates electricity but isn’t a dynamo or a fuel cell? Number one? Heat pumps.

Fusion 80
article thumbnail

Toyota and DIFFER partner on direct solar production of hydrogen from humid air, rather than water

Green Car Congress

When hydrogen is combined with oxygen in a fuel cell, the energy is released in the form of electricity, with clean water as the only emission. Working with gas instead of liquid has several advantages. Furthermore, by using water in the gas phase instead of the liquid phase, we do not need expensive installations to purify the water.

Water 333
article thumbnail

Daimler showcases semi-automated Mercedes-Benz Future Bus with CityPilot; driving 20 km BRT route

Green Car Congress

The almost 20 km route is challenging for the semi-autonomous bus, as it has numerous bends and passes through tunnels and across junctions with traffic lights. Using vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, the CityPilot is able to recognize traffic lights, communicate with them and safely negotiate junctions controlled by them.

Mercedes 150
article thumbnail

GM to introduce strong hybrid version of Malibu; combined fuel economy above 45 mpg; leverages Volt

Green Car Congress

l/100 km), higher than the combined cycle mileage ratings of the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata hybrid variants and a significant boost over the 29 mpg combined of the MY 2015 Malibu with 2.5L Additional fuel economy benefits come from Exhaust Gas Recirculation, or EGR. engine with start/stop. An 80-cell, 1.5

article thumbnail

ARPA-E awarding $60M to 23 projects; dry cooling and fusion power

Green Car Congress

The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will award $60 million in funding to 23 new projects aimed at creating highly efficient and scalable dry-cooling technologies for thermoelectric power plants and developing prototype technologies to explore new pathways for fusion power. SRI International.

Fusion 150