Graphical abstract. Credit: Environmental Science & Technology (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c05781 Findings from the Virgin Atlantic-led Flight100 project, which involved a consortium of experts from Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, BP, and others, show that Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is safe to use with existing infrastructure and can deliver significant reductions in CO2 […]
Automotive
How Duluth, Minnesota, is preparing for the EV future
An electric vehicle charger stands ready in Duluth, Minnesota. Credit: Lora Wedge, Ecolibrium3 Nearly 33 million electric vehicles (EVs) nationwide—that is the number of vehicles the United States should be prepared to support through a national charging network by the year 2030, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimated in a recent study. […]
Q&A: Economist says EVs can help drive US to carbon-neutral power grid
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Vehicle standards recently announced by the Environmental Protection Agency establish stringent new goals for manufacturers to slash greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution, pushing the industry to accelerate a transition to electric vehicles. The ruling aims to help achieve the administration’s goal to reduce U.S. emissions 50%–52% below 2005 […]
Electric vehicles will start to cut emissions and improve air quality in our cities—but only once they’re common
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions—and air pollution—from transport. Is this view correct? Yes—but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the recent boom in EV purchases, they’re still a tiny minority of the cars on the road. We would get more immediate benefit by focusing on electrifying […]
Fueling the future: Researchers evaluate emissions in the aviation industry
This perspective paper provides an analytical review of the cutting-edge methodologies for CO2-to- aviation fuel conversion with an assessment of the current industrial models. Credit: Carbon Future, Tsinghua University Press A research group led Prof. Fei Wei and Chenxi Zhang in Tsinghua University has published a perspective paper that evaluates the progression from deep-rooted fossil-fuel-dependent […]
Electric vehicle drivers can estimate their personalized fuel savings with new Argonne tool
Vehicle plugged into a charging station. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory A new tool launched by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory enables drivers to estimate, at the ZIP code level, how much they save on fuel costs by driving a plug-in electric vehicle (either a plug-in hybrid [PHEV] or a battery electric […]
Analysis of future EV load using real-world data shows major upgrade needed for California in the coming decades
Spatial distribution of peak load intensity of the feeders in different years. The feeders are colored by the ratio of total peak load (baseload and EV charging load) over capacity. Feeders colored red are overloaded, and those colored blue are not overloaded (including the feeders with peak total load equals capacity). The darker the color, […]
Ultra-thin, flexible solar cells demonstrate their promise in a commercial quadcopter drone
Design and characterization of the hybrid-power Solar Hopper quadcopter. Credit: Nature Energy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01500-2 Whether on Earth or in space, autonomous energy is critical in order to keep power systems running independently for extended periods of time, particularly in remote or unpredictable environments. Conventional energy solutions—including fossil fuels, batteries and other alternative energy generation […]
New model elevates UAV efficiency in next-gen wireless networks
Graphical abstract. Credit: Green Energy and Intelligent Transportation (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.geits.2023.100130 Researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of Computing and Engineering, and independent researchers have developed a model, dubbed GREENSKY, that significantly enhances the energy efficiency and operational time of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in cellular networks. In the ever-evolving landscape of wireless […]
Q&A: Could automation, electrification of long-haul trucking reduce environmental impacts?
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new University of Michigan study finds that automation and electrification of long-haul trucking can reduce urban health impacts and environmental damages. For long-haul routes below 300 miles, electrification can reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas damages by 13%, or $587 million annually, according to the study. For long-haul routes above […]