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Chalmers team identifies two main challenges for bio-hydrocarbon fuel production from cheap sources

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Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have identified two main challenges for renewable biofuel production from cheap sources: lowering the cost of developing microbial cell factories; and establishing more efficient methods for hydrolysis of biomass to sugars for fermentation. That is in line with our research too.

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Univ of Washington team working to make poplar coppice viable cheap, high-volume biofuel feedstock

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A University of Washington team is trying to make poplar an economically viable biofuel feedstock by testing the production of younger poplar trees that could be harvested more frequently—after only two or three years—instead of the usual 10- to 20-year cycle. Chang Dou/University of Washington. Click to enlarge.

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Power-to-gas trial to inject hydrogen into Australia’s gas grid; A$5M award to AquaHydrex

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On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA has provided A$5 million (US$4 million) in funding to Wollongong-based AquaHydrex to develop commercially its new class of electrolyzer to produce cheap hydrogen from splitting water. In the future, there will be increasing amounts of surplus renewable energy when it is sunny or windy.

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Waterloo power management strategy greatly enhances durability of on-board fuel cells in FC-PHEV

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Researchers at the University of Waterloo (Canada), with a colleague in Sweden, have used a power management strategy greatly to extend the durability of onboard fuel cells in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle: an increase of 1.8, The future is very bright. A paper on their work is published in the journal Applied Energy.

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Russian researchers find simple, efficient way to strengthen aluminum-based composite materials

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Scientists from the Russian National University of Science and Technology MISIS have doped aluminum melt with nickel and lanthanum to create a material combining benefits of both composite materials and standard alloys: flexibility, strength, lightness. A paper on their research is published in Materials Letters.

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Satellite Signal Jamming Reaches New Lows

Cars That Think

Security and communications researchers are working on defenses and countermeasures, mostly behind closed doors, but it is possible to infer from a few publications and open-source research how unprepared many LEO satellites are for direct attacks and some of the defenses that future LEO satellites may need. Satellites are becoming smaller.

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Pneumatic Actuators Give Robot Cheetah-Like Acceleration

Cars That Think

Inspired by the high-speed maneuvering of cheetahs, roboticists at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa , have started experimenting with the old-school sibling of hydraulic actuators—pneumatics. University of Cape Town, South Africa With a boom for support, the 7-kilogram Kemba is able to repeatedly jump to 0.5