Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a practical way to make hydrocarbons powered solely by the sun; an air traffic control system for drones that can effectively and accurately track anything in an identified low-altitude airspace; and a robotic system whose primary structural platform, or “orb,” can be injected into a pipe network and perform reconnaissance of piping infrastructure and other interior volumes.

New Glass is More Damage Resistant, Greener

Worldwide, glass manufacturing produces at least 86 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. A new type of glass aims to cut this carbon footprint in half. Read on to learn more about the invention: LionGlass, engineered at Penn State.

Process Purifies Hydrogen Fuel Over a Broad Temperature Range

New fuel cells could increase hydrogen’s application in vehicles, especially in extreme temperatures like cold winters. Read on to learn more about it.

A Hydrogen-Powered Airship Sets Course for Greener Aerial Inspections

A French startup, HyLight, has developed a hydrogen-powered airship that can precisely detect issues on energy infrastructure at an industrial scale without emitting greenhouse gases.

Detection Technology Can Help Minimize Wind Turbine Interactions with Birds and Bats

The data collected from cameras and vibration sensors continue to inform next steps in research. The goal is to make this technology commercially available for land-based and offshore wind turbines to ensure a harmonic relationship between wind energy and surrounding wildlife. Read on to learn more.

AI Model Harnesses Physics to Autocorrect Remote Sensing Data

The researchers are currently refining their approach with an eye toward applications where data is limited but high fidelity is required, such as target detection. Read on to learn more.

HYPERFIRE: A Sub-Scale Non-Reacting Flow Test System

Engineers at NASAs Stennis Space Center have developed the HYdrocarbon Propellants Enabling Reproduction of Flows in Rocket Engines (HYPERFIRE), a sub-scale, non-reacting flow test system. HYPERFIRE uses heated ethane to enable physical simulation of rocket engines powered by a broad range of propellants in an inexpensive, accurate, and simple fashion. Read on to learn more.

Robotics Virtual Twins Offer a Simulation-Based Approach to Real-time Operations

RVT is set to become a pivotal innovation in the quest for net-zero emissions within the automotive industry. By fully leveraging RVT capabilities, manufacturers can significantly reduce material waste, energy consumption, and emissions while enhancing resource efficiency and integrating renewable energy sources. Read on to learn more.

Carbon-Capture Batteries Developed to Store Renewable Energy, Help Climate

A new battery formulation captures carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and converts it into a solid form that has the potential to be used in other products. Read on to learn more.

Pulling Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air

The team plans to integrate such CO2-capturing materials with its earlier porous sponge platform, which has been developed to remove environmental toxins including oil, phosphates, and microplastics.

Mimicking 'Plant Power' Through Artificial Photosynthesis

According to the researchers, this proof-of-concept system could be adapted to help produce precursors for plastics or other chemical feedstocks, as well as scaled up to produce larger amounts of sustainable biofuels.

Converting Carbon Dioxide to Solid Carbon Nanofibers

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas, into carbon nanofibers, materials with a wide range of unique properties and many potential long-term uses.

AI Identifies New Materials for Carbon Capture

The atom-by-atom approach to MOF design enabled by AI will allow scientists to have what Argonne Senior Scientist and Data Science and Learning Division Director Ian Foster called a “wider lens” on these kinds of porous structures.

New Frequency Comb Can Identify Molecules in 20-Nanosecond Snapshots

With this new capability, researchers can potentially use frequency combs to better understand the split-second intermediate steps in fast-moving processes ranging from the workings of hypersonic jet engines to the chemical reactions between enzymes that regulate cell growth.

New System Uses Only Solar Energy to Generate Hydrogen

The system harnesses the sun's heat to directly split water and generate hydrogen — a clean fuel that can power long-distance trucks, ships, and planes, while in the process emitting no greenhouse gas emissions.

Add-On Device Makes Home Furnaces Cleaner and Safer

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an affordable add-on technology that removes more than 99.9 percent of acidic gases and other emissions to produce an ultraclean natural gas furnace.

Baking Soda Could Turn Concrete into an Effective Carbon Sink

Recent discoveries by MIT engineers have revealed that introducing new materials into existing concrete manufacturing processes could significantly reduce their carbon footprint without altering concrete's bulk mechanical properties.

Sustainability Strategies Drive the Future of Industry

As companies invest in the development of eco-friendly products and strategies, they will reap the rewards from increased consumer confidence, financial incentives, greater resiliency, and the ability to drive profound social change.

Cell Labelling Method from Microscopy Adapted for Use in Whole-Body Imaging

Processes and structures within the body that are normally hidden from the eye can be made visible through medical imaging. Scientists use imaging to investigate...

Power Converters with Edge Intelligence: Toward Greener, Resilient, and Sustainable Energy Systems

Recent advances in integrated circuits, machine learning, and computing have opened up several possibilities to make informed assessments and decisions regarding the health and operational performance of modern power conversion systems.

Turning Carbon Emissions into Rocks

In Penn’s Clean Energy Conversions Lab, researchers are repurposing waste from industrial mines, storing carbon pulled from the atmosphere into newly formed rock. The team sees great environmental potential in mine tailings.

Corkscrew Filter Extracts Liquid from Air Charge

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center in collaboration with IRPI, LLC, have developed a compact inline filter that uses a multi-phase flow method to separate liquid from an incoming air charge. The filter also traps particulate matter and does so without significantly impinging upon flow velocity.

Thin Flexible Sensor Characterizes High-Speed Airflows on Curved Surfaces

To improve efficiency, it is necessary to characterize and reduce flow separation on curved surfaces.

3D Printing Creates High-Performance Metal Alloy

Scientists used a 3D printer to create a high-performance metal alloy with an unusual composition that makes it stronger and lighter than state-of-the-art materials currently used in gas turbine machinery.

Copper Catalyst Converts Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuels

A research team has gained new insight by capturing real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they convert CO2 and water into renewable fuels and chemicals: ethylene, ethanol, and propanol, among others.

AV Computers Contribute to Global Carbon Emissions

MIT researchers recently explored the potential energy consumption and related carbon emissions if autonomous vehicles (AV) are widely adopted.

Low-Cost Device Can Measure Air Pollution Anywhere

Air pollution is a major public health problem. Now, an MIT research team is rolling out an open-source version of a low-cost, mobile pollution detector that could enable people to track air quality more widely.

Tapping into Wave Energy

A technology developed by Ocean-Based Climate Solutions is converting carbon dioxide to fish food using wave energy.