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. Seawater holds enormous potential for green hydrogen production, but realizing that potential remains far from straightforward. Direct seawater electrolysis can damage electrodes, whereas conventional freshwater electrolysis loses much of its energy as low-grade waste heat. Researchers have now found a way to harness this otherwise wasted heat, using it to desalinate seawater and produce fresh water alongside hydrogen. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-couples-seawater-desalination-hydrogen-production.html Engineering Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:00:12 EDT news708954361 Although invaluable to modern society, refrigeration faces challenges from traditional vapor-compression systems, which are energy-intensive and use refrigerants that exacerbate the greenhouse effect and damage the ozone layer. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-cooling-device-built-sustainable-refrigeration.html Engineering Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:00:04 EDT news708943258 For most of Australian history, "going off-grid" meant living somewhere the main electricity network did not reach. Isolated communities and remote farming properties have long relied on stand-alone power systems. These typically consist of solar panels, batteries and a diesel generator, with no physical connection to the national grid. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-easier-offgrid.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:00:01 EDT news708930782 A study led by Penn State researchers suggests that recycled concrete aggregate and an iron-rich byproduct of steel production could help treat acid mine drainage, the toxic runoff that pollutes thousands of miles of streams in Pennsylvania and other coal-mining regions. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-recycled-concrete-aggregate-acid-drainage.html Engineering Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:20:20 EDT news708868658 Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has developed a new method to determine when sodium-ion (Na-ion) and lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technologies can provide comparable electrical performance for defined applications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-method-interchangeability-chemically-battery.html Engineering Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:20:13 EDT news708871307 Italy's government says the country's largest steelworks must be converted to electric furnaces after a court-ordered shutdown of polluting furnaces but, as Rome seeks a buyer, critics say its plan is woefully unsubstantiated. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-italy-eyes-electric-future-steel.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:30:01 EDT news708869192 Organic semiconductors are carbon-based materials that can conduct electricity and can be used for flexible, lightweight and potentially low-cost electronic devices. While the technology is promising, performance challenges remain. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-degrading-dopants-boost-semiconductor.html Electronics & Semiconductors Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:20:01 EDT news708865982 Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, have designed a device that harvests sunlight to generate clean hydrogen from seawater and simultaneously degrades hydrazine, a highly toxic contaminant from industrial wastewater. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-artificial-leaf-generates-hydrogen-contaminated.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:40:01 EDT news708859683 Physics predicts that no more than 33% of the solar energy that falls on a solar panel can be converted into electricity. However, experiments and simulations by scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands revealed a way to harvest extra energy from "hot electrons," which could break this barrier. Their research is published in the journal ACS Energy Letters. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-harvesting-hot-electrons-solar-panel.html Electronics & Semiconductors Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:00:10 EDT news708857641 The increasingly complex network of electricity generators and consumers poses major challenges for Austria's energy transmission infrastructure. For example, the use of increasingly powerful inverters and rectifiers in the transmission grid results in unwanted currents with very low frequencies. These are known as quasi-direct currents and cause problems in the power grid. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-track-critical-currents-power-grid.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:20:04 EDT news708848042 Queensland researchers have reached a milestone in powering Australia's critical minerals refining industry, successfully delivering the nation's first grid-connected sodium-sulfur (NaS) battery energy storage system enabled by Queensland-made DC-DC converters. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-grid-sodium-sulfur-battery-australia.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 22:40:01 EDT news708771466 Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a computational method that could help electric grid operators and data center developers manage power more efficiently as artificial intelligence drives unprecedented growth in electricity demand. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-method-grids-center-power-demand.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:00:10 EDT news708791770 Biomass-derived oils are important sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based liquid fuels. However, biomass oil mixtures contain much higher concentrations of cyclic nitrogen compounds that contribute to NOx emissions and deactivate refining catalysts. This necessitates their removal by a hydrogen-intensive hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) process that consumes high energy. Therefore, efficient pre-HDN removal of nitrogen compounds is required to lower hydrogen and energy consumption when upgrading nitrogen-rich liquid fuels. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-ionic-liquid-membrane-based-recovery.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:40:06 EDT news708791941 Storing energy as heat is a proven pathway to address the challenge solar power faces when it's dark or cloudy outside by enabling the capture, storage and on-demand release of thermal energy. The process, called high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES), however, can be prohibitively expensive. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-steelmaking-solar-energy-electric-arc.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:20:03 EDT news708784081 A Maine lobster can end up in a roll, a bisque or a butter bath. At the University of Maine, what's left of it can now end up under a golf ball. Researchers at UMaine are making golf tees from discarded lobster shells. The project builds on more than a decade of UMaine research into new uses for an underutilized byproduct of Maine's lobster industry. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-lobster-tee-discarded-shells-golf.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:41:25 EDT news708784826 The Smart Materials research unit, coordinated by Athanassia Athanassiou, deputy scientific director of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) in Genoa, Italy, has developed a new method to make wood flexible in a controlled way and therefore easier to shape. Unlike current approaches, which are more energy-intensive or less sustainable, IIT's treatment could offer a green alternative. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-sustainable-treatment-wood.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:40:07 EDT news708783781 Pumped hydro and battery storage can enable Australia to meet its energy needs without increasing the use of gas to fuel electricity plants, according to a new paper published in Cell Reports Physical Science by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU). The research finds the National Electricity Market could become a low-cost, zero-emissions grid without depending on fossil gas. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-australia-doesnt-gas-energy-hydro.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:00:11 EDT news708771402 Western University engineers have taken a major step toward solving a long-standing challenge in nuclear power. Their study, published in Nature Communications, describes for the first time how hydrogen can combine with zirconium to form tiny, brittle structures that create intense stresses in CANDU reactor pressure tubes. These stresses may cause the surrounding metal to deform and even crack. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-tiny-hydrides-reveal-hidden-stresses.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:40:01 EDT news708769862 Scientists from Diamond Light Source and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source have contributed to the development of the world's first open-access battery imaging library. The library was created through an international collaboration led by Dr. Antony Vamvakeros, Royal Society Industry Fellow at Imperial College London and research and development lead at Finden Ltd., which is co-located with both facilities on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-world-access-battery-imaging-library.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:20:05 EDT news708768782 Engineer Rinzin Galley stands on a platform overlooking a former military shooting range on the edge of Bhutan's capital, Thimphu, now home to a gleaming field of solar panels. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-hydropowered-bhutan-solar.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 16 Sep 2026 04:40:02 EDT news708750913 Can computers use less energy without compromising performance? That's what computer scientists Ben van Werkhoven and Rob van Nieuwpoort from the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) are studying. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-methods-aim-energy-sacrificing.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:10:02 EDT news708698344 Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developed a new type of monitor that can check every minute or even every second for the buildup of nuclear material in the air ducts of nuclear fuel cycle facilities, promoting high standards of safety and security. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-device-nuclear-material-air-ducts.html Engineering Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:20:10 EDT news708685262 Australia's pipeline of huge data center projects has raised questions about how much energy and water these giant server farms will use. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-unsustainable-dont-centers-impact-australia.html Business Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:00:03 EDT news708676862 A passenger car contains far more materials than its weight alone would suggest. Beyond the steel and aluminum are small amounts of gold, palladium and molybdenum—elements that can become highly significant when resource scarcity is assessed. In his doctoral thesis, Felipe B. Oliveira mapped the material composition of cars and examined why the level of detail in material data matters for what a life cycle assessment can tell us. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-material-composition-cars-resource-impact.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 14 Sep 2026 20:20:01 EDT news708611798 Monitoring the lifespan of a lithium-ion battery without disassembling it may be possible. This prospect emerged from a study published in May in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science by researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and their collaborators. The scientists created an advanced computational model to investigate these energy sources and discovered that natural voltage fluctuations act as an "X-ray" of the system. This reveals the microscopic structure of battery materials and the speed of the chemical reactions occurring within them. The finding paves the way for rapid, low-cost diagnostics in energy storage. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-periodic-voltage-fluctuations-lithium-batteries.html Engineering Mon, 14 Sep 2026 16:40:04 EDT news708622381 Lithium-metal batteries are attractive for next-generation energy storage because lithium metal offers a very high theoretical capacity. When paired with high-nickel cathodes such as NCM90, they have the potential to achieve high energy density. However, operating such batteries at high charge and discharge rates presents challenges on both sides of the cell. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-ion-lithium-metal-battery.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 14 Sep 2026 16:00:08 EDT news708619982 Remember the solar calculator from middle school math class that had a small solar cell at the top? The idea behind that technology is not a relic of the past but the subject of continuous innovation. Today's indoor solar cells, known as photovoltaics, use new semiconductor materials, such as metal halide perovskite, to convert ambient light into electricity to power small electronic devices without needing batteries or a power outlet. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-thin-harnesses-indoor-power-devices.html Electronics & Semiconductors Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:20:04 EDT news708605822 The world needs more homes. The world also has too much plastic. Perhaps the only thing those two problems have in common is that they're hard to solve. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-waterless-recycling-discarded-plastic-trusses.html Engineering Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:40:01 EDT news708597181 Joshua Kijape eases his motorcycle through the tall grass, listening for movement in the bush. There is no engine rumble, no exhaust and little warning for anything ahead. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-electric-mobility-africa-energy-transition.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 14 Sep 2026 03:52:37 EDT news708576733 A new study helps show how builders and city planners can minimize the materials needed to accommodate the planet's future population. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-million-efficient-future.html Engineering Fri, 11 Sep 2026 14:00:08 EDT news708353942