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New long-duration, extended capacity Na-Al battery design for grid storage

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The new battery design could help ease integration of renewable energy into the electrical grid at lower cost, using Earth-abundant metals, according to a study just published in Energy Storage Materials. The new sodium-based molten salt battery uses two distinct reactions. mAh cm −2 , a discharge duration of 28.2 Weller et al.

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DOE awards $22.1M to 10 nuclear technology projects including clean hydrogen production

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In collaboration with NE, DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office will provide funding and project oversight for the two hydrogen production–related projects that were selected: General Electric Global Research, Scaled Solid Oxide Co-Electrolysis for Low-Cost Syngas Synthesis from Nuclear Energy.

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ARPA-E announces $12M for five projects in nuclear materials science; first OPEN+ cohort

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The OPEN+ advanced nuclear projects are: Additive Manufacturing of Spacer Grids for Nuclear Reactors, Carnegie Mellon University, $1,000,000. Spacer grids are used to provide mechanical support to nuclear fuel rods within a reactor and reduce vibration, and they are a particularly difficult component to manufacture.

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Li-Metal and Blue Solutions sign joint development and commercialization agreement to advance development of next-generation batteries

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The JD/CA will help advance the development of Li-Metal’s high-performance low-cost lithium metal anode technologies and Blue Solutions’ solid-state batteries to be used in passenger electric vehicles (EVs). The molten salt electrolysis of the chloride mixture is both capital- and energy-intensive, and can be environmentally damaging.

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PNNL: single-crystal nickel-rich cathode holds promise for next-generation Li-ion batteries

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Nickel offers relatively low cost, wide availability and low toxicity compared to other key battery materials, such as cobalt. The PNNL researchers have developed a process to grow high-performance crystals in molten salts—sodium chloride, common table salt—at high temperature.

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ARPA-E awarding $30M to 12 hybrid solar projects; conversion and storage

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Under the FOCUS program, projects will develop advanced solar converters that turn sunlight into electricity for immediate use, while also producing heat that can be stored at low cost for later use as well as innovative storage systems that accept both heat and electricity from variable solar sources. Earlier post.).

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Stanford team devises new bio-inspired strategy for using CO2 to produce multi-carbon compounds such as plastics and fuels

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In the paper in Nature they showed that intermediate-temperature (200 to 350 ˚C) molten salts containing caesium or potassium cations enable carbonate ions (CO 3 2– ) to deprotonate very weakly acidic C–H bonds, generating carbon-centered nucleophiles that react with CO 2 to form carboxylates. —Banerjee et al.