Day: March 13, 2016

Two big problems have been vexing environmental scientists for decades: How to store solar energy for later use, and what to do with CO2 that’s been captured and sequestered from coal plants? Scientists from General Electric (GE) could solve both those problems at once by using CO2 as a giant "battery" to hold excess energy. The idea is to use solar power from mirrors to heat salt with a concentrated mirror array like the one at the Ivanpah solar plant in California. Meanwhile, CO2 stored underground from, say, a coal plant is cooled to a solid dry ice state using excess grid power.

When extra electricity is needed at peak times, especially after the sun goes down, the heated salt can be tapped to warm up the solid CO2 to a "supercritical" state between a gas and solid. It’s then funneled into purpose built turbines (from GE, naturally) which can rapidly generate power. The final "sunrotor" design (a prototype is shown below) would be able to generate enough energy to power 100,000 homes, according to GE.

The design could also tap wasted heat from gas-fired power plants, making them more efficient. GE senior engineer Stephen Sanborn thinks such a scheme would more than double the output of those systems, reducing the cost from $250 per megawatt-hour to $100. "It is so cheap because you are not making the energy, you are taking the energy from the sun or the turbine exhaust, storing it and transferring it," he says. In addition, the system would return up to 68 percent of the stored energy back to the grid, much more than the 61 percent of current gas-fired systems.

While the system is complex and requires expertise in refrigeration, heat-transfer, energy storage and chemical engineering, GE has in-house researchers in all those fields. In the short term, the technology could make gas plants 25 to 50 percent more efficient by tapping exhaust waste, significantly reducing CO2 output. Looking ahead, Sanborn thinks that the energy storage system could be put into commercial use in as little as five to 10 years. "We’re not talking about three car batteries here," he says. "The result is a high-efficiency, high-performance renewable energy system that will reduce the use of fossil fuels for power generation."

Via: Discover.com

Source: General Electric

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Plastic is a problem. We use too much of it — over 300 million tons are produced every year — and we can’t easily get rid of it (there’s that whole lack of biodegradability thing). But scientists in Japan may have come upon a solution to our environmental woes with a new bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, that can fully break down PET, which is used to make plenty of plastic material. As Fast Company notes, this is the first time we’ve found bacteria that can completely degrade PET.

I. sakaiensis works by turning PET into another substance called MHET, and then it uses an additional enzyme to turn that into the basic components of PET. Additionally, the bacteria also gives us the option of turning the MHET into new PET material.

While that makes I. sakaiensis sound like some sort of miracle solution, there’s still one big issue to work through: It takes forever. Scientists found that it took six weeks to eat through a thin layer of PET. But, naturally, they’re also working on ways to speed up the process. They’ve already sequenced the bacteria’s genome, which could lead to building stronger and faster strains.

In the end, it could end up being our most useful tool in our war against plastic. Scientists have already found worms and microbes that can also break down plastic, but they’re not nearly as effective. There’s also the vast amount of plastics out there that don’t use PET, and which will require another method for destroying.

Via: Fast Company

Source: Science

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No matter how efficient our devices get in terms of power usage, there’s really only so much manufacturers can do given the limitations of the energy source: lithium-ion batteries. But researchers from Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea have designed what they’re calling a miniaturized solid oxide fuel cell that could replace current battery tech in everything from mobile devices to drones. What’s more, the tech could even be scaled up for larger applications including electric vehicles.

The school writes that this new fuel cell is the first in the world to combine porous stainless steel with thin-film electrolyte and electrodes that are "of minimal heat capacity." The result? Both performance and durability (lithium-ion’s biggest weak spots as time goes on) leaped pretty dramatically. And in terms of real-world changes, Pohang’s scientists say this leads to a drone that can fly for over an hour and smartphones that only require a charge once a week. Good bye battery anxiety, hello devices with much better longevity.

Via: Pohang University of Science and Technology

Source: Nature

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Sure, SteamVR is making it easy to play virtual reality games. However, you probably have a whole bunch of conventional games in your Steam library — what about those? Don’t worry, you’re set. Valve has unveiled SteamVR Desktop Theater Mode, which lets you play any Steam game in VR. Ultimately, it boils down to putting your games on a big, simulated screen. What it looks like isn’t clear yet, but it should work with the HTC Vive and any other SteamVR-friendly headset. The Desktop Theater is in early beta testing now, and will get a proper debut at the Game Developers Conference next week.

It might be a necessary move. The odds of many game developers retrofitting existing titles for VR is pretty slim, and there will be certain games that just don’t make sense in an immersive form. This gives you a way to switch Steam games without having to repeatedly remove your VR gear — you can keep it on for as long as you’re playing games (and if other developers have their way, beyond that). Moreover, this gives you a reason to buy that pricey headset beyond the handful of VR games available at launch. It might just help you concentrate on your game by shutting out more distractions.

Source: Road To VR

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NPR Ed’s first web comic is about a great art teacher who believes art can teach his students how to build their dreams, and change the world.

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