article thumbnail

Harvard hybrid “bionic leaf” converts solar energy to liquid fuel isopropanol

Green Car Congress

Scientists from a team spanning Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a scalable, integrated bioelectrochemical system that uses bacteria to convert solar energy into a liquid fuel. Credit: PNAS, Torella et al.

Solar 150
article thumbnail

MIT study concludes that absent climate policy, coal-to-liquids could account for around a third of global liquid fuels by 2050

Green Car Congress

A new assessment of the viability of coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology by researchers from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change (JPSPGC) found that without climate policy, CTL has the potential to account for around a third of global liquid fuels by 2050. Credit: Chen et al., 2011 Click to enlarge.

Coal 247
article thumbnail

MIT/Tsinghua high-rate aluminum yolk-shell nanoparticle anode for Li-ion battery with long cycle life and high capacity

Green Car Congress

A team of researchers at MIT and Tsinghua University has developed a high-rate, high-capacity and long-lived anode for Li-ion batteries comprising a yolk-shell nanocomposite of aluminum core (30 nm in diameter) and TiO 2 shell (~3 nm in thickness), with a tunable interspace (Al@TiO 2 , or ATO). Earlier post.).

Li-ion 150
article thumbnail

U Chicago, MIT study suggests ongoing use of fossil fuels absent new carbon taxes

Green Car Congress

A paper by a team from the University of Chicago and MIT suggests that technology-driven cost reductions in fossil fuels will lead to the continued use of fossil fuels—oil, gas, and coal—unless governments pass new taxes on carbon emissions. But in 2015, the average price of oil was about $49 per barrel.

Chicago 150
article thumbnail

MIT researchers advancing development of supercritical water upgrading of heavy crude; lower cost, energy use and CO2

Green Car Congress

Findings by MIT researchers could help advance the commercialization of supercritical water technology for the desulfurization and upgrading of high-sulfur crude oil into high-value, cleaner fuels such as gasoline without using hydrogen—a major change in refining technology that would reduce costs, energy use, and CO 2 emissions.

MIT 150
article thumbnail

This Fusion Reactor Is Held Together With Tape

Cars That Think

Gretchen Ertl/CFS/MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center CFS, a startup spun out of decades of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is among the leaders of a new wave of fusion-energy projects that have emerged in the past decade, taking advantage of technological advances as well as a surge in private-sector investment.

Fusion 98
article thumbnail

MIT and Moscow State collaborating on advanced batteries, metal-air batteries and reversible fuel/electrolysis cells

Green Car Congress

Researchers at the Skoltech Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage (CEES), a partnership between the MIT Materials Processing Center and Lomonosov Moscow State University, are focusing on the development of higher capacity batteries. Chiang, MIT colleague W. Advanced Li-ion and multivalent ion batteries.

MIT 150