https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/energy-green-tech-news/ en-us The latest news on energy sciences and green technology, energy technology, energy renovation, alternative energy, and green energy. Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a jacket that harvests drinking water directly from the air. The technology could benefit anyone who spends a lot of time in areas without easy access to drinking water, from hobbyist hikers, campers and runners to agricultural workers, emergency responders and soldiers. The advance in fabric technology comes alongside a new benchmark for atmospheric water harvesting. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-specially-jacket-thin-air.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:40:01 EDT news700413128 Northwestern University scientists have developed a new liquid material that charges like a battery, transforms like a living organism and then resets itself in open air. Traditionally, harvesting energy, storing it and using it require separate materials or devices. The new platform merges all three functions into a single material, opening the door for adaptive, clean, renewable systems that don't require plastics or metals. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-based-material-solar-energy-power.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news700412758 In order to stabilize global warming at less than 1.5°C in the long term, there is a need not only for a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions but also for technologies to remove and store hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. This is also the underlying basis of the scenarios set out in the latest Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-food-beads-boost-air-capture.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:00:15 EDT news700403101 Hydrogen could be the key to a clean energy future, but a tiny problem has been holding it back: bubbles. In a paper published in Energy & Environmental Science, a multidisciplinary team of UNSW researchers, in collaboration with researchers from TotalEnergies and EPFL, has found a new way to boost the efficiency of green hydrogen production. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-porous-electrode-green-hydrogen-output.html Engineering Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news700400941 Imagine a catalyst that can heal itself after being damaged. A POSTECH-led research team has developed an electrocatalyst that regenerates its own metallic surface after oxidation, much like how a wound heals naturally. This breakthrough addresses one of the most critical challenges in hydrogen energy technology: the irreversible degradation of catalysts during operation. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-regenerating-catalyst-key-durability-hydrogen.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:40:07 EDT news700399322 Anuja Tripathi grew up in Kanpur, India, where coal fly ash from a nearby power plant coated rooftops, windowsills and laundry hung outside to dry. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-ashes-hidden-critical-elements-emerges.html Engineering Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:40:06 EDT news700327441 Researchers at UNSW Sydney have harnessed the power of ultrasonic sound waves to make espresso-strength coffee with room-temperature water, cutting energy use by up to 75%. That morning coffee kick from a shot of espresso needs boiling water and high pressure—equaling plenty of energy consumption, right? https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-espresso-coffee-world.html Consumer & Gadgets Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:23:22 EDT news700309384 Can pure water store electrical energy? A research team led by Dr. Vasily Artemov within the Cluster of Excellence "BlueMat—Water-Driven Materials" at Hamburg University of Technology has now shown that it can. By confining water within nanometer-sized channels in clay minerals, the researchers created a supercapacitor capable of efficiently storing and transporting electrical charge. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-nanometer-channels-enable-safer-energy.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:40:01 EDT news700240141 The critical minerals that power lithium-ion batteries are in high demand and short supply, especially for the U.S., which must rely on importing resources such as nickel and cobalt to manufacture the technology. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-battery-spent-lithium-ion-cells.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:20:03 EDT news700231907 Artificial intelligence increasingly helps providers make their grids more robust, improve forecasts of electricity prices and make energy use more efficient. In critical infrastructure such as the energy system, AI should not be a black box—its decisions need to be understandable at any time. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a new method for a more transparent analysis of AI-based predictions for energy systems. The results of their study have been published in Nature Communications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-power-bill-ai-outlines-grid.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:20:02 EDT news700156801 Aviation is one of the sectors that contributes most to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change on Earth. One proposed strategy for mitigating or counterbalancing the effects of these emissions is to substitute existing jet fuel with a more sustainable alternative made from plastic waste, another source of pollution on Earth. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-plastic-yields-jet-fuel-kilogram.html Engineering Fri, 05 Jun 2026 11:20:05 EDT news699873834 A Yale-led research team has developed the first standalone device that produces the liquid fuel methanol using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide as the ingredients. The artificial "leaf," like its namesake in nature, is a chemistry marvel. It brings the scientific mimicry of photosynthesis—the process of converting sunlight and water into chemical energy—to a new level, converting sunlight to methanol 32 times more efficiently than the previous conversion record for artificial leaf technologies that generate alcohol products. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-standalone-leaf-liquid-fuel-sun.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news699797941 A pioneering technology capable of converting lignin, one of the world's most abundant organic compounds, into vanillin and biodegradable materials has been unveiled by the University of Alicante (UA), in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). The study, published in Nature Communications, offers a sustainable method for repurposing plant waste and identifies viable alternatives to the fossil fuels that currently drive the chemical industry. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-tough-everyday-products-powered-advance.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:20:04 EDT news699711482 Researchers at a Scottish university have demonstrated a 100kW fully superconducting aviation motor that could help pave the way for an electric aircraft. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-100kw-fully-superconducting-aviation-motor.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:20:08 EDT news699631322 Korean researchers have developed a new catalyst design technology that can improve the performance of batteries and hydrogen fuel cells while reducing energy loss. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-electric-fields-boost-battery-fuel.html Engineering Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:20:02 EDT news699545522 Most smartphones, portable computers and other devices on the market today are powered by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. While these rechargeable batteries perform remarkably well, they are based on lithium, which is not as abundant as other materials and is not evenly distributed across different countries worldwide. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-atomic-swap-phosphate-cathodes-high.html Energy & Green Tech Sun, 31 May 2026 12:40:01 EDT news699014395 Battery electrolytes aren't just one chemical, but a complex mixture of salts, solvents, and additives interacting and reacting with each other. Artificial intelligence has made great headway in helping select ideal materials to go into that chemical soup. But a team from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) is using AI to generate the entire formulation, balancing the complicated tradeoffs and interactions that go into the electrolytes that make batteries possible. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-generates-full-battery-electrolyte.html Energy & Green Tech Sat, 30 May 2026 12:00:01 EDT news699113065 As the global transition toward carbon neutrality accelerates, "water electrolysis"—a technology that splits water electrically to produce clean hydrogen—is drawing significant attention. However, a major limitation has been the decline in efficiency caused by bubbles formed during the electrolysis process that block the pathways. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-redesigned-catalyst-pathways-vent-fast.html Engineering Fri, 29 May 2026 13:20:01 EDT news699279482 Modern power systems are rapidly evolving into highly digitized smart grids, increasing their complexity at an unprecedented pace. Renewables, batteries, electric vehicles, power electronics, sensors and real-time control systems are all expanding rapidly, and this is making electricity grids significantly harder to simulate, optimize, secure and operate. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-quantum-energy-grid-optimization.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 29 May 2026 12:40:07 EDT news699276182 The U.S. may not have enough water to support its lithium ambitions, a new Northwestern University study has found. An essential ingredient for electric vehicle (EV) batteries and other clean energy technologies, lithium is largely mined in Australia and Chile and then processed and refined in China. In recent years, however, the U.S. has pushed to develop its own lithium industry to reduce reliance on foreign supply chains. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-climate-driven-stress-undercut-lithium.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 29 May 2026 09:20:11 EDT news699263399 Demand for lithium has surged in recent years as lithium-ion batteries increasingly power more of our world. And yet, even as places like the U.S., Europe, and Australia have abundant lithium resources within their borders, China dominates global lithium refining. The biggest hurdle to tapping into the U.S. and Australia's lithium is getting it out of hard rock minerals in a form that is useful. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-loop-cheaper-lithium.html Engineering Thu, 28 May 2026 14:00:07 EDT news699182942 Today, magnetic field sensors are one of the invisible mass-produced products in the electronics industry. They measure movement, positions or distances and can be found in window contacts, steering wheels, hard disks, packaging and cell phones. Billions of these components are manufactured every year. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-biobased-magnetic-sensors-iron-cellulose.html Electronics & Semiconductors Thu, 28 May 2026 13:40:04 EDT news699193691 Solar cells, devices that can convert sunlight into electricity, are now widely used in many countries and are contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on Earth. While most of the solar cells on the market today are based on silicon, energy engineers have been exploring the potential of other photovoltaic materials, including a class of materials known as perovskites. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-dielectric-mismatch-boosts-perovskitesilicon-tandem.html Engineering Thu, 28 May 2026 12:33:33 EDT news699190326 A popular sodium-ion battery designed by the company Hina and used in cars and large-scale energy storage systems in China matches performance parameters and production quality of Tesla's lithium-ion batteries, finds new research published in Cell Reports Physical Science. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-sodium-ion-batteries-rival-tesla.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 28 May 2026 11:00:04 EDT news699090481 As quantum computing moves closer to large-scale deployment, new research is examining its future energy, water, and material demands. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-quantum-power-future-centers-scale.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 27 May 2026 16:00:04 EDT news699115023 The United Nations estimates that 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, and communities from California to the Middle East rely on desalination plants to convert ocean water to fresh water. Common desalination techniques such as reverse osmosis and thermal distillation are energy-intensive, require pre- and post-water treatment, and leave behind a concentrated saltwater byproduct called brine that wreaks havoc on sea life when it's deposited back into the ocean by raising the salt level and lowering oxygen in the water. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-solar-powered-desalination-ocean.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 27 May 2026 11:20:05 EDT news699099057 Lithium-ion batteries dominate the market for large-scale energy storage today. However, the element's uneven global distribution and rising costs are driving the search for alternatives. Sodium is roughly a thousand times more abundant in Earth's crust and can be extracted from seawater, making sodium-ion batteries a compelling option for grid-scale storage where cost and supply security are paramount. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-safer-solid-state-sodium-battery.html Engineering Wed, 27 May 2026 09:20:01 EDT news699091441 X-rays allow professionals to diagnose injuries or ailments and peer inside suitcases at the airport, along with a variety of other applications. A team reporting in ACS Energy Letters has improved the glass screen that "translates" between X-rays and visible light, creating an X-ray system that produces high-resolution images with less radiation, and it even works underwater. The screen can be molded into curved shapes, a feature that could one day lead to more comfortable mammograms. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-moldable-glass-screen-sharpens-rays.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 27 May 2026 08:00:01 EDT news699025644 The modern world runs on invisible energy. Hidden inside smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles, are batteries that quietly power everyday life. As society becomes increasingly dependent on portable and sustainable energy, the development of compact and reliable battery technology has become one of the most important technological challenges of our time. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-magnesium-alloy-stability-ion-solid.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 25 May 2026 15:40:01 EDT news698941981 Reaching a perfect balance between the amount of greenhouse gases released in the atmosphere and those that are removed, is considered an important milestone for limiting global warming and its adverse effects on the environment on Earth. This goal is referred to as net-zero emissions, as it would entail that emissions and removed gases would balance each other out, resulting in zero total greenhouse gas emissions. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-renewable-energy-global.html Energy & Green Tech Sat, 23 May 2026 12:20:01 EDT news698663189