In a recent study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, plant biology has helped design a method to transform water into hydrogen and oxygen. During this chemical process, two membrane-bound protein complexes were made to react using energy from the sun. The method is based on prior research (2011) which was conducted on the protein complex Photosystem I. This protein complex forms a membrane that uses...
Artificial photosynthesis is a technique that shows promising results in the search for viable alternatives to fossil fuels, as it is a way to harvest solar energy to create hydrogen from water. For this process, so-called water splitting devices are used, which have yet to live up to their potential because their design still does not have the right properties to function efficiently. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of...
Silicon solar cells, with silicon as the only absorbent material, are widely used in installations around the world today, but this technology is slowly reaching its limits in terms of maximum efficiency levels. Tandem solar cells, on the other hand, exhibit higher efficiency as they combine several different absorbent materials, which allows them to make better use of the solar irradiance spectrum. Now, for the first time researchers...
The World Energy Outlook (WEO) released annually by the International Energy Agency, looks at the entire global energy sector making 2018 its focus on electricity, whose consumption is growing two times faster than the total energy consumption in the world. The researches point out that 2018 will see the highest CO2 emissions in history, indicating a huge disconnect between the climate change aims and real developments in...
Starting from its first launch in 2008, the China Wind Power International Exhibition has invariably attracted increased attention from both the professional market and the public. In October 2018, this event was held for the eleventh time running in Beijing. The organizers were the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA), the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA), the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the China...
Producing renewable fuels and other useful materials from carbon dioxide that has been pulled from the atmosphere has become one of the most important tasks for modern fuel research. The catalysts in use, which can perform this conversion, are usually made from expensive metals. Now, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered an inexpensive and environmentally safe method to create a clean chemical system...
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has released its annual report the World Oil Outlook 2018 (WOO) that makes forecasts for the oil industry up to 2040, analysing various indicators which are expected to impact the future energy market. These include, for example, population growth, size of working-age population and immigration, GDP growth, energy policies of the countries, etc. The world’s population...
In November Global Dossier Task Force (GDTF) published a consecutive statistical report concerning the patenting activity in five major patent offices of the world (IP5) for 2017, with additional data for the preceding year. The data provided by the authors of the report is impressive. In 2016 the patent offices of the USA (USPTO), Japan (JPO), South Korea (KIPO), EPC states (EPO) and China (CNIPA), who combined their efforts in the...
In September this year, the World Bank published “Waste Global Database” on their website. In their earlier paper “What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050”, the authors reported that 3.40 billion tonnes of waste would be generated worldwide by 2050, against today’s 2.01 billion tonnes. This colossal renewable resource requires close attention since it is both a source of significant greenhouse gas...
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings were established in 2004 and include the world's overall, subject, and reputation rankings, as well as three regional tables, including Asia, Latin America, and BRICS & Emerging Economies. The rankings table for engineering and technology features the universities that are leading across subjects, such as general engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, and civil...
