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Converting Coal Power Plants to Nuclear Gains Steam

Cars That Think

On a planet aspiring to become carbon neutral, the once-stalwart coal power plant is an emerging anachronism. Some analysts have proposed a solution that, on the surface, seems almost too elegant: turning old coal plants into nuclear power plants. Are all of these sites going to get nuclear power plants? In Kemmerer, Wyo.,

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GE testing sodium halide battery/Li-ion battery/fuel cell hybrid system for transit bus

Green Car Congress

GE’s ecomagination.com publication reports that GE engineers have begun testing a transit bus equipped with a new hybrid energy system integrating GE’s Durathon sodium-halide battery ( earlier post ), a lithium-ion battery and a hydrogen fuel cell. Current fuel-cell-powered buses must include batteries to provide power for acceleration.

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U Waterloo team identifies key reaction in sodium-air batteries; implications for improving Li-air

Green Car Congress

Chemists at the University of Waterloo have identified the key reaction that takes place in sodium-air batteries. Understanding how sodium-oxygen batteries work has implications for developing the more powerful lithium-oxygen battery, which has been proposed by some as the “holy grail” of electrochemical energy storage.

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Researchers convert atmospheric CO2 to carbon nanofibers and nanotubes for use as anodes in Li-ion and Na-ion batteries

Green Car Congress

Researchers from George Washington University and Vanderbilt University have demonstrated the conversion of atmospheric CO 2 into carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for use as high-performance anodes in both lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. times above that of sodium-ion batteries with graphite electrodes.

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EPA opens door to consider Carbon Capture and Utilization as part of new Clean Power Plan; algae industry locks on

Green Car Congress

EPA’s newly released voluminous final Clean Power Plan rule ( earlier post ) has established the first national standards to limit CO 2 emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power plants (Electric Generating Units, EGUs), with a target of a 32% reduction against a 2005 baseline by 2030.

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Researchers devise method to suppress thermal conductivity to improve thermoelectric materials for waste heat recovery

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A new study published in the journal Nature Materials has found a way to suppress the thermal conductivity in sodium cobaltate so that it can be used to harvest waste energy, with potential applications such as automotive waste heat recovery. Goff (2013) Suppression of thermal conductivity by rattling modes in thermoelectric sodium cobaltate.

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New 3-step process for conversion of kraft lignin from black liquor into green diesel

Green Car Congress

The kraft process converts wood into wood pulp for paper production. The process produces a toxic byproduct referred to as black liquor—a primarily liquid mixture of pulping residues (such as lignin and hemicellulose) and inorganic chemicals from the Kraft process (sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, for example).