• Cleaning toxins from the oilsands

    Oilsands development uses a vast amount of water and even though it’s recycled multiple times, the recycling concentrates the toxins and metals leftover from extracting and upgrading the bitumen, resulting in controversial tailings ponds that are a significant risk to the environment; scientists offer a way to make oilsands exploitation cleaner

  • Scrub carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere too expensive

    While it is possible chemically to scrub carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere in order to lessen the severity of global warming, the process is prohibitively expensive for now; best to focus on controls for coal-burning power plants, say researchers

  • Small, modular reactors to figure in U.S. energy future

    A newly released study concludes that small modular reactors (SMR) may hold the key to the future of U.S. nuclear power generation; an SMR would have a generating capacity of 600 megawatts or less, would be factory-built as modular components, and then shipped to their desired location for assembly

  • Shale gas development and healthy water sources

    Geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale contains gas reservoir holding nearly 500 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas; at current use rates, that volume could meet the U.S. demand for natural gas for more than twenty years; trouble is, extracting shale gas involves considerable pollution risks for water; Pennsylvania has more miles of stream per unit land area than any other state in the United States – and it is concerned about the quality of its water if more shale gas is extracted

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  • Large-scale power storage for the energy grid

    The sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow; Stanford University researchers have used nanoparticles of a copper compound to develop a high-power battery electrode that is inexpensive to make, efficient and durable that it could be used to build batteries big enough for economical large-scale energy storage on the electrical grid

  • Serving and protecting – and saving money in the process

    As municipalities battle tight budgets and rising gasoline prices, law enforcement fleets across in the United States have found a way to save taxpayer dollars by shifting to clean-burning, American-made propane autogas

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  • New source of energy: urine

    Urine is the most abundant waste on Earth; American chemists have combined refueling one’s car and relieving one’s bladder by creating a new catalyst that can extract hydrogen from urine

  • Hybrid power plants: cost effective way to go green

    Hybrid cars, powered by a mixture of gas and electricity, have become a practical way to “go green” on the roads; now researchers at Tel Aviv University are using the hybrid approach to power plants as well

  • Hydrogen use as fuel source may be near

    Researchers say that our cars may soon be running on an abundant, environmentally friendly fuel generated from the surrounding atmosphere; the researchers demonstrated how such a fuel — in this case, hydrogen — can be stored in metals

  • Safe, efficient cookstoves for earthquake survivors

    316,000 people were killed and more than one million made homeless by the 12 January 2010 magnitude 7.0 quake that left the capital city of Port-au-Prince in ruins; many of the displaced Haitians still live in tent cities, where even simple tasks such as cooking are a challenge; scientists hope to find the safest and most energy-efficient way for earthquake survivors to cook

  • Carbon abatement technologies compete for prizes

    The U.K. Technology Strategy Board is investing up to £4.5 million in carbon abatement technologies (CATs), centered mainly on innovative projects with strong elements of technology demonstration; to select the technologies, the TSB is holding a competition

  • Swiss nuclear energy phase-out possible

    In the wake of Germany’s decision to abandon nuclear power generation, other countries have also been examining that option; a respected Swiss research center looked into the mater, finding that restructuring the Swiss energy system without nuclear power by 2050 is in principle technologically possible and economically manageable

  • The Geophysicist's Guide to Striking It Rich

    Prospecting — the search for valuable reserves such as gold, diamonds, and natural gas — is not just a matter of luck; it is about knowing where to look; now researchers at Tel Aviv University have modernized the hit-or-miss search with advanced technology that scans the earth for signs of lucrative resources that could lurk beneath the surface

  • Report finds poor management cause of San Bruno natural gas explosion

    An investigation into the cause of a natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes in San Bruno, California, placed the blame squarely on fifty-four years of bad management by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) and the failure of state and federal regulators to notice the problem

  • Breakthrough in hydrogen fuel cells

    Hydrogen makes a great fuel because it can be converted easily to electricity in a fuel cell and because it is carbon free; the downside of hydrogen is that, because it is a gas, it can only be stored in high pressure or cryogenic tanks; a team of USC scientists has developed a robust, efficient method of using hydrogen as a fuel source