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Tomorrow’s super battery for electric cars is made of rock

In 10 years, solid-state batteries made from rock silicates may be an alternative to the lithium-ion batteries we use today. DTU-researcher has patented a new material that can be extracted from ordinary rocks.

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DENMARK

 

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DTU RESEARCHER MOHAMAD KHOSHKALAM HAS INVENTED A NEW MATERIAL BASED ON ROCK SILICATES FOR A SOLID-STATE ELECTROLYTE THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REPLACE LITHIUM IN FUTURE ELECTRIC CAR BATTERIES. PHOTO: FRIDA GREGERSEN.

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CREDIT: PHOTO: FRIDA GREGERSEN.

In 10 years, solid-state batteries made from rock silicates will be an environmentally friendly, more efficient and safer alternative to the lithium-ion batteries we use today. Researcher at DTU have patented a new superionic material based on potassium silicate - a mineral that can be extracted from ordinary rocks.

It is the battery in your electric car that determines how far you can drive on one charge and how quickly you can re-charge. However, the lithium-ion battery, the most widely used electric car battery today, has its limitations— in terms of capacity, safety and also availability. Because lithium is an expensive, environmentally harmful material and the scarcity of the relatively rare metal can hinder the green transition of car transport.

As more and more people switch to electric cars, we need to develop a new generation of lithium-free batteries, which are at least as efficient, but more eco-friendly and cheaper to produce. This requires new materials for the battery’s main components; anode, cathode, and electrolyte, as well as developing new battery designs.

It is a research field that is currently occupying researchers all over the world, because when we find new ‘recipes’ for batteries, it will enable a significant reduction of the transport sector’s carbon emissions.

At DTU, researcher Mohamad Khoshkalam has invented a material that has the potential to replace lithium in tomorrow’s super battery: solid-state batteries based on potassium and sodium silicates. These are rock silicates, which are some of the most common minerals in the Earth’s crust. It is found in the stones you pick up on the beach or in your garden. A great advantage of the new material is that it is not sensitive to air and humidity.  This makes it possible to mould it into a paper-thin layer inside the battery.

Patented superionic material

The potential of the milky-white, paper-thin material based on potassium silicate is huge. It is an inexpensive, eco-friendly material that can be extracted from silicates, which cover over 90 per cent of the Earth’s surface. The material can conduct ions at around 40 degrees and is not sensitive to moisture.

This will make scaling up and future battery production easier, safer and cheaper, as production can take place in an open atmosphere and at temperatures close to room temperature. The material also works without the addition of expensive and environmentally harmful metals such as cobalt, which is currently used in lithium-ion batteries to boost capacity and service life.

“The potential of potassium silicate as a solid-state electrolyte has been known for a long time, but in my opinion has been ignored due to challenges with the weight and size of the potassium ions. The ions are large and therefore move slower,” says Mohamad Khoshkalam.

To understand the perspectives of Mohamad Khoshkalam’s discovery, one must first understand the crucial role the electrolyte plays in a battery. The electrolyte in a battery can be a liquid or a solid material—a so-called solid-state electrolyte.  The electrolyte allows the ions to move between the battery’s anode and cathode, thereby maintaining the electrical current generated during discharging and charging. In other words, the electrolyte is crucial for the battery capacity, charging time, lifespan, and safety.

The electrolyte’s conductivity depends on how fast the ions can move in the electrolyte. The ions in rock silicates generally move slower than the ions in lithium-based liquid electrolytes or solid-state electrolytes, as they are larger and heavier. But Mohamad Khoshkalam has found a recipe for a superionic material of potassium silicate and a process that makes the ions move faster than in lithium-based electrolytes.

“The first measurement with a battery component revealed that the material has a very good conductivity as a solid-state electrolyte. I cannot reveal how I developed the material, as the recipe and the method are now patented,” Mohamad Khoshkalam continues.

The battery everyone is waiting for

Both researchers and electric car manufacturers consider solid-state batteries to be the super battery of the future. Most recently, Toyota has announced that they expect to launch an electric car with a lithium solid-state battery in 2027-28. However, several car manufacturers have previously announced electric cars with solid-state batteries, only to subsequently pull out.

In a solid-state battery, the ions travel through a solid material and not through a liquid, as in the regular AA+ lithium-ion batteries you can buy in the supermarket. There are several advantages to this; the ions can move faster through a solid material, making the battery more efficient and faster to charge.

A single battery cell can be made as thin as a piece of cardboard, where the anode, cathode, and solid-state electrolyte are ultra-thin layers of material. This means that we can make more powerful batteries that take up less space. This offers benefits on the road, as you will be able to drive up to 1,000 km on a single 10-minute charge. In addition, a solid-state battery is more fireproof, as it does not contain combustible liquid.

Before we see the solid-state battery on the market, however, there are several challenges that need to be solved. The technology works well in the laboratory, but is difficult and expensive to scale up. Firstly, materials and battery research is both complex and time-consuming because the materials are super sensitive and require advanced laboratories and equipment. The lithium-ion batteries we use today took over 20 years to develop, and we’re still developing them.

Secondly, we need to develop new ways of producing and sealing the batteries so the ultra-thin material layers in the battery cell do not break and have continuous contact in order to work. In the laboratory, you solve it by pressing the layers of the battery cell together at high pressure, but it is difficult to transfer to a commercial electric car battery, which consists of many battery cells. 

Solid-state rock battery is high-risk technology

Unlike lithium solid-state batteries, solid-state batteries based on potassium and sodium silicates have a low TRL (Technology Readiness Level). This means there is still a long way to go from discovery in the lab to getting the technology out into society and making a difference. The earliest we can expect to see them in new electric cars on the market is 10 years from now.

It is also a high-risk technology, where the chance of commercial success is small and the technical challenges are many. Nevertheless, Mohamad Khoshkalam is full of optimism:

“We have shown that we can find a material for a solid-state electrolyte that is cheap, efficient, eco-friendly, and scalable—and that even performs better than solid-state lithium-based electrolytes.”

A year after the discovery in the laboratory at DTU, Mohamad Khoshkalam has obtained a patent for the recipe and is in the process of establishing the start-up K-Ion, which will develop solid-state electrolyte components for battery companies. The K-ion is part of the DTU Earthbound initiative, where they receive support to get their research out of the laboratory faster and into society to make an impact.

The next step for Mohamad Khoshkalam and his team is to develop a demo battery that can show companies and potential investors that the material works. A prototype is expected to be ready within 1-2 years.

FACTS

The technology of a battery

A battery works by converting chemical energy into electrical energy. It consists of three components: a positive electrode (cathode), a negative electrode (anode), and an electrolyte. 

When the battery is connected to a device, a chemical reaction releases electrons at the anode. These electrons travel through an outer circuit and deliver power to the device, while the positive ions travel through the electrolyte to the cathode, where they react with the released electrons to form a new chemical compound. 

This process continues until the chemical energy in the battery is depleted. Once discharged, the battery can be recharged by supplying external electrical energy, which reverses the reaction and restores the original chemical compounds in the battery.

A lithium-ion battery works by moving lithium ions through an electrolyte liquid from the cathode (made of a mix of metals including lithium and cobalt) to the anode (made from graphite). Lithium-ion and potassium-ion batteries work in the same way. Here, lithium has simply been replaced with potassium. Research is also being conducted into sodium-ion, aluminium-ion, and magnesium-ion batteries.

In a solid-state battery, the ions do not travel through an electrolyte liquid, but rather an ultra-thin, solid material called a solid-state electrolyte. This material can be made of lithium, sodium, potassium, in the form of oxides and sulfides.

FACTS

The batteries of the future

Now: Lithium-ion batteries in improved versions

It is hard to beat lithium’s ability to conduct ions, but the material is expensive and difficult to obtain. We will see new, improved lithium-ion batteries with a lower concentration of cobalt and lithium.

Within 5 years: Sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries, as well as lithium solid-state batteries

Sodium and potassium-ion batteries have a high TRL (Technology Readiness Level). Several automakers expect to mass-produce it within 5 years. The development of lithium solid-state batteries is further ahead. We will therefore see them on the market before potassium and sodium solid-state batteries. 

Earliest from 10 years: Solid-state batteries of rock silicates 

Potassium and sodium solid-state batteries have a low TRL. This means that many steps must be taken before the battery can be commercialized. The technology works in the laboratory, but several technical challenges must be solved before the technology can be scaled up into a functional electric car battery that can be mass-produced.  

Enhanced information in national policies can accelerate Africa's efforts to track climate adaptation

THE ALLIANCE OF BIOVERSITY INTERNATIONAL AND THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE

 

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NEW ANALYSIS OF AFRICAN NATIONAL ADAPTATION POLICY DOCUMENTS FINDS THAT MOST FAIL TO PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE AND CONSISTENT INFORMATION. BUT THE AUTHORS ALSO UNCOVER COMPELLING EXAMPLES OF ROBUST PLANS WHICH HOLD LESSONS FOR UPCOMING CLIMATE TALKS.  

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CREDIT: AICCRA

New analysis of African national adaptation policy documents finds that most fail to provide comprehensive and consistent information. But the authors also uncover compelling examples of robust plans which hold lessons for upcoming climate talks.  

Adapting to impacts of climate change is an urgent policy priority for African nations, especially for key sectors like agriculture. According to the African Development Bank, the continent receives just $30 billion per year for climate adaptation. It needs $277 billion.  

Inadequate information in national adaptation policies limits the ability to channel adaptation investments where they are needed most and to track national adaptation progress in Africa. Enhancing the coverage, consistency and robustness of policies offers a clear path to establish effective, nationally led adaptation-tracking infrastructure. 

These are the findings of new research led by The Alliance of Bioversity and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Wageningen University and Research and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), published today by Nature Climate Change. 

The authors reviewed 53 African Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and 15 National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) to determine their adequacy for providing a basis for national level adaptation tracking. They evaluated them against three criteria: The coverage of key information on adaptation; the consistency between the information being tracked; and the robustness or quality of the indicators.  

They found that most African NAPs and NDCs provide only a fraction of the information fundamental for adaptation tracking. For instance, only eight NAPs and four NDCs covered information on all key aspects of adaptation, namely risk and impact assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation and learning. .  

But the authors noted some notable efforts to provide adequate information. For example, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Liberia, Madagascar, Togo, and South Africa all prepared relatively strong NAPs, while Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and Uganda had prepared strong NDCs. The adequacy of adaptation policies varies a lot between countries and different types of policies - either NDCs or NAPs. 

The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) agreed the United Arab Emirates (UAE)–Belém Work Program to develop indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), which is expected to guide national assessments and build adaptation-tracking capacities.  

In an accompanying policy brief, also published today by Nature Climate Change, the same authors argue that previous technical dialogues -- including the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on the global goal on adaptation -- have placed too much emphasis on developing globally relevant indicators, starkly overlooking the role of existing national policy processes for tracking adaptation progress, especially for African nations. The recent decision of the 60th UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (SB60) paves the way to build on national priorities by drawing on information highlighted in NDCs and NAPs.  

The authors provide policy recommendations for the ongoing UAE–Belém work programme which should champion robust indicators that reflect climate risks, adaptation needs, and the priorities outlined in national policies. The Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG) plays an important role in accelerating the development of effective tracking systems, through their mandate to review the NAP technical guidelines.  

Speaking on the launch of the Nature Climate Change article, Andreea Nowak, Research Team Lead on Climate Action at The Alliance of Bioversity and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, said:  

“Our study shows that existing adaptation policies can provide important groundwork for developing meaningful, context-fit national adaptation tracking systems. But to do so, they must deliver comprehensive, consistent and robust information on the why, what, how and so what of adaptation. The new NDCs – due in 2025 – and NAPs – due by 2030 – provide a strong momentum for ensuring that the content of these policies provide sufficient groundwork for effective adaptation tracking systems.” 

She added that:  

“Country-driven approaches to tracking are critical for meaningful assessment of progress towards the Global Goal on Adaptation. Our research shows that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to tracking climate adaptation in Africa. There are very compelling examples of effective NDCs for some African nations and others can build on those achievements with support from continental partners such as the African Group of Negotiators Expert Support and global partners through UNFCCC processes as scientists committed to create societal impact, it is our role to continue to support governments in their efforts to develop and implement robust, science-informed policy processes, which can pave the way towards effective adaptation.” 

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JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-024-02054-7 

ARTICLE TITLE

Opportunities to strengthen Africa’s efforts to track national-level climate adaptation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jul-2024

 

Chemists design novel method for generating sustainable fuel

Study reveals more efficient method to create methanol

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Chemists have been working to synthesize high-value materials from waste molecules for years. Now, an international collaboration of scientists is exploring ways to use electricity to streamline the process.

In their study, recently published in Nature Catalysis, researchers demonstrated that carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, can be converted into a type of liquid fuel called methanol in a highly efficient manner. 

This process happened by taking cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) molecules and spreading them evenly on carbon nanotubes, graphene-like tubes that have unique electrical properties. On their surface was an electrolyte solution, which, by running an electrical current through it, allowed CoPc molecules to take electrons and use them to turn carbon dioxide into methanol. 

Using a special method based on in-situ spectroscopy to visualize the chemical reaction, researchers for the first time saw those molecules convert themselves into either methanol or carbon monoxide, which is not the desired product. They found that which path the reaction takes is decided by the environment where the carbon dioxide molecule reacts.

Tuning this environment by controlling how the CoPc catalyst was distributed on the carbon nanotube surface allowed carbon dioxide to be as much as eight times more likely to produce methanol, a discovery that could increase the efficiency of other catalytic processes and have a widespread impact on other fields, said Robert Baker, co-author of the study and a professor in chemistry and biochemistry at The Ohio State University.  

“When you take carbon dioxide and convert it to another product, there are many different molecules you can make,” he said. “Methanol is definitely one of the most desirable because it has such a high energy density and can be used directly as an alternative fuel.” 

While transforming waste molecules into useful products isn’t a new phenomenon, until now, researchers have often been unable to watch how the reaction actually takes place, a crucial insight into being able to optimize and improve the process. 

“We might empirically optimize how something works, but we don’t really have an understanding of what makes it work, or what makes one catalyst work better than another catalyst,” said Baker, who specializes in surface chemistry, the study of how chemical reactions change when they occur on the face of different objects. “These are very difficult things to answer.”

But with the help of special techniques and computer modeling, the team has come significantly closer to grasping the complex process. In this study, researchers used a new type of vibrational spectroscopy, which allowed them to see how molecules behave on the surface, said Quansong Zhu, the lead author of the study and former Ohio State Presidential Scholar whose challenging measurements were vital to the discovery.

“We could tell by their vibrational signatures that it was the same molecule sitting in two different reaction environments,” said Zhu. “We were able to correlate that one of those reaction environments was responsible for producing methanol, which is valuable liquid fuel.” 

According to the study, deeper analysis also found these molecules were directly interacting with supercharged particles called cations that enhanced the process of methanol formation. 

More research is needed to learn more about what else these cations enable, but such a finding is key to achieving a more efficient way to create methanol, said Baker. 

“We’re seeing systems that are very important and learning things about them that have been wondered about for a long time,” said Baker. “Understanding the unique chemistry that happens at a molecular level is really important to enabling these applications.”

Besides being a low-cost fuel for vehicles like planes, cars and shipping boats, methanol produced from renewable electricity could also be utilized for heating and power generation, and to advance future chemical discoveries.

“There’s a lot of exciting things that can come next based on what we’ve learned here, and some of that we’re already starting to do together,” said Baker. “The work is ongoing.”

Co-authors include Conor L. Rooney and Hailiang Wang from Yale University, Hadar Shema and Elad Gross from Hebrew University, and Christina Zeng and Julien A. Panetier from Binghamton University. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) International Collaboration. 

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Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.edu

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JOURNAL

Nature Catalysis

DOI

10.1038/s41929-024-01190-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The solvation environment of molecularly dispersed cobalt phthalocyanine determines methanol selectivity during electrocatalytic CO2 reduction

Plastic waste can now be converted to electronic devices

New study conducted from UD researcher and Argonne National Laboratory shows how waste Styrofoam can be transformed into polymers for electronics.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

 

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A NEW STUDY BY RESEARCHERS AT UD (FROM TOP LEFT INSET TO FAR RIGHT) LAURE KAYSER, CHUN-YUAN LO AND KELSEY KOUTSOUKOS AND DAVID KAPHAN FROM ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY (INSET BOTTOM LEFT) CONDUCTED A STUDY THAT DEMONSTRATES HOW WASTE STYROFOAM CAN BE TRANSFORMED INTO POLYMERS FOR ELECTRONIC MATERIALS.

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CREDIT: EVAN KRAPE / UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

University of Delaware and Argonne National Laboratory have come up with a chemical reaction that can convert Styrofoam into a high-value conducting polymer known as PEDOT:PSS. In a new paper published in JACS Au, the study demonstrates how upgraded plastic waste can be successfully incorporated into functional electronic devices, including silicon-based hybrid solar cells and organic electrochemical transistors.

The research group of corresponding author Laure Kayser, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in UD’s College of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, regularly works with PEDOT:PSS, a polymer that has both electronic and ionic conductivity, and was interested in finding ways to synthesize this material from plastic waste.

After connecting with Argonne chemist David Kaphan during an event hosted by UD’s research office, the research teams at UD and Argonne began evaluating the hypothesis that PEDOT:PSS could be made by sulfonating polystyrene, a synthetic plastic found in many types of disposable containers and packing materials.

Sulfonation is a common chemical reaction where a hydrogen atom is replaced by sulfonic acid; the process is used to create a variety of products such as dyes, drugs and ion exchange resins. These reactions can either be “hard“ (with higher conversion efficiency but that require caustic reagents) or “soft” (a less efficient method but one that uses milder materials). 

In this paper, the researchers wanted to find something in the middle: "A reagent that is efficient enough to get really high degrees of functionalization but that doesn't mess up your polymer chain,” Kayser explained.

The researchers first turned to a method described in a previous study for sulfonating small molecules, one that showed promising results in terms of efficiency and yield, using 1,3-Disulfonic acid imidazolium chloride ([Dsim]Cl). But adding functional groups onto a polymer is more challenging than for a small molecule, the researchers explained, because not only are unwanted byproducts harder to separate, any small errors in the polymer chain can change its overall properties.

To address this challenge, the researchers embarked on many months of trial and error to find the optimal conditions that minimized side reactions, said Kelsey Koutsoukos, a materials science doctoral candidate and second author of this paper. 

“We screened different organic solvents, different molar ratios of the sulfonating agent, and evaluated different temperatures and times to see which conditions were the best for achieving high degrees of sulfonation,” he said.

The researchers were able to find reaction conditions that resulted in high polymer sulfonation, minimal defects and high efficiency, all while using a mild sulfonating agent. And because the researchers were able to use polystyrene, specifically waste Styrofoam, as a starting material, their method also represents an efficient way to convert plastic waste into PEDOT:PSS.

Once the researchers had PEDOT:PSS in hand, they were able to compare how their waste-derived polymer performed compared to commercially available PEDOT:PSS. 

“In this paper, we looked at two devices — an organic electronic transistor and a solar cell,” said Chun-Yuan Lo, a chemistry doctoral candidate and the paper’s first author. “The performance of both types of conductive polymers was comparable, and shows that our method is a very eco-friendly approach for converting polystyrene waste into high-value electronic materials.”

Specific analyses conducted at UD included X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) at the surface analysis facility, film thickness analysis at the UD Nanofabrication Facility, and solar cell evaluation at the Institute of Energy Conversion. Argonne’s advanced spectroscopy equipment, such as carbon NMR, was used for detailed polymer characterization. Additional support was provided by materials science and engineering professor Robert Opila for solar cell analysis and by David C. Martin, the Karl W. and Renate Böer Chaired Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, for the electronic device performance analyses.

One unexpected finding related to the chemistry, the researchers added, is the ability to use stoichiometric ratios during the reaction. 

“Typically, for sulfonation of polystyrene, you have to use an excess of really harsh reagents. Here, being able to use a stoichiometric ratio means that we can minimize the amount of waste being generated,” Koutsoukos said.

This finding is something the Kayser group will be looking into further as a way to “fine-tune” the degree of sulfonation. So far, they’ve found that by varying the ratio of starting materials, they can change the degree of sulfonation on the polymer. Along with studying how this degree of sulfonation impacts the electrical properties of PEDOT:PSS, the team is interested in seeing how this fine-tuning capability can be used for other applications, such as fuel cells or water filtration devices, where the degree of sulfonation greatly impacts a material’s properties.

“For the electronic devices community, the key takeaway is that you can make electronic materials from trash, and they perform just as well as what you would purchase commercially,” Kayser said. “For the more traditional polymer scientists, the fact that you can very efficiently and precisely control the degree of sulfonation is going to be of interest to a lot of different communities and applications.”

The researchers also see great potential for how this research can contribute to ongoing global sustainability efforts by providing a new way to convert waste products into value-added materials. 

“Many scientists and researchers are working hard on upcycling and recycling efforts, either by chemical or mechanical means, and our study provides another example of how we can address this challenge,” Lo said.

The complete list of co-authors includes Chun-Yuan Lo, Kelsey Koutsoukos, Dan My Nguyen, Yuhang Wu, David Angel Trujillo, Tulaja Shrestha, Ethan Mackey, Vidhika Damani, Robert Opila, David Martin, and Laure Kayser from the University of Delaware and Tabitha Miller, Uddhav Kanbur, and David Kaphan from Argonne National Laboratory.

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JOURNAL

JACS Au

DOI

10.1021/jacsau.4c00355 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Imidazolium-Based Sulfonating Agent to Control the Degree of Sulfonation of Aromatic Polymers and Enable Plastics-to-Electronics Upgrading

 

Trillions lost in worker productivity due to eco anxiety and ‘lie-back’ lifestyles

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

Could nature and climate anxieties predict future social behaviours, in the same way that consumer sentiment predicts purchasing and investment?   

The suggestion is made in the Cell Press journal One Earth, by Griffith University’s Professor Emeritus Ralf Buckley, in a preview of an article led by Professor Thomas Pienkowski in the UK.   

Professor Buckley said the international Global Burden of Disease Study had shown that anxiety and depression were widespread and worsening.  

“Economic costs are up to 16% of global GDP, with 19 days per year on average lost for every person worldwide,” Professor Buckley said.  

“There are many causes, and these including the current climate, biodiversity and livelihood crises.    

“Professor Pienkowski’s article points out that health-sector responses such as counselling and chemotherapies address only symptoms, not underlying social determinants.  

“Anxiety and its economic costs will therefore keep growing until we can achieve major changes in global economic and political systems.”   

Professor Buckley argued that we could use current types and intensities of ecoanxiety to measure people’s expectations of planetary futures.   

“Higher anxieties may mean that more people adopt ‘lie-flat’ lifestyles, with fewer children and lower financial ambitions,” he said. 

“Lie-flat social changes at large scale are just what is needed to reduce human impacts on the Earth, before it is incapable of supporting its still-growing human population.”   

Therefore, Professor Buckley suggested tracking changes in the various types of eco-anxiety and matching them to lifestyle choices to predict what changes were likely to occur across the billions of people on the planet.   

The opinion piece ‘Immediate economic significance of nature, climate and livelihood anxieties’ has been published in One Earth. 

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JOURNAL

One Earth

DOI

10.1016/j.oneear.2024.06.004 

 

ORNL economist honored at international hydropower conference

Researcher Rocio Uria-Martinez is the lead author of an influential study published by the Department of Energy's Water Power Technology Office detailing hydropower industry trends

DOE/OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

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ROCIO URIA-MARTINEZ WAS ONE OF FOUR WOMEN NAMED WINNERS OF THE WOMEN WITH HYDRO VISION AWARD. 

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CREDIT: CARLOS JONES/ORNL, U.S. DEPT. OF ENERGY

Researcher Rocio Uria-Martinez was named one of four “Women with Hydro Vision” at this year’s  HYDROVISION International 2024 conference taking place in Denver this week. Awarded by a committee of industry peers, the honor recognizes women who use their unique talents and vision to improve and advance the worldwide hydropower industry. 

Uria is an energy and environmental economist and senior R&D staff member at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is the lead author of the U.S. Hydropower Market Report, a definitive and influential study published by the DOE Water Power Technologies Office that details industry trends. 

Uria’s work at ORNL is wide-ranging and broadly centered on modeling energy systems and markets. She has conducted targeted research that analyzed the effects of climate change on federal hydropower, modeled pumped storage hydropower operations and revenue, and studied cost allocation in multipurpose hydropower projects. She also develops optimization models to provide insight into how alternative energy sources, such as biofuels, may impact the larger market as they are integrated into the existing transportation fuel pool.

Uria has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Oviedo in northern Spain. She received her doctorate in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis in 2007. She joined ORNL in 2010 after three years in the private sector, where she worked as an energy market analyst for a multinational electric utility company based in Bilbao, Spain.

The other three honorees include Isha Shrestha, a hydropower executive in Nepal; Rebecca Simpson, an engineering manager at the Grant Public Utility District in north-central Washington state; and Priscilla Dornas, senior engineering manager at a Brazilian hydropower company.

The four were recognized at a lunch during the HYDROVISION International conference on July 17. They are the tenth class of winners to be chosen since the Women with Hydro Vision awards program was created in 2014.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

 

EPA awards UMass Amherst nearly $6.4 million to help shrink the steel industry’s carbon footprint

The researchers aim to make greenhouse gas data more transparent, trustworthy and available

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

AMHERST, Mass. – The building and construction industry accounts for 37% of global greenhouse emissions—and the steel production process can be a significant contributor to these emissions. To steer the industry in a new direction, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been selected to lead a $6.37 million five-year grant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

 

 

“We’re trying to recalibrate the industry,” says Kara Peterman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst and lead researcher on the project. “What can we do in these 5 years of EPA funding to propel us 50 years in the future? We are trying to transform an industry, not make temporary or incremental change.”

 

Currently, the environmental impact of construction materials is described in a document called an environmental product declaration (EPD). EPDs describe the whole lifecycle of the product, including energy requirements, greenhouse gas emissions and the ultimate carbon footprint. 

 

However, there are several limitations to this process. “EPDs are costly to make—as a result, we only have a handful of steel makers with EPDs,” says Peterman. She also adds that EPDs vary widely in detail and quality, and there’s inherent distrust across the construction materials industry as to where the data supporting these EPDs come from. Altogether, this creates a transparency issue in the industry. 

 

“The ultimate goal is more and better EPDs,” she says. “There are thousands of steel makers in the United States and we want to expand access to data and software so that every single one of them can have an EPD.”

 

With this $6.37 million grant, Peterman’s team will create a free EPD generator tool. She also wants to establish industry trust in EPDs with a national database of these reports so that there can be an industry standard to measure against.

 

Another key aspect of this project is retraining industry professionals. “We need to train engineers to use EPDs, and to recognize what makes a product less energy-intensive than another,” she says. “We need to train steelmakers how to use our tool once we create it. We need to build trust in our industry and across all construction industries by being completely transparent with our data.” At the student level, she sees a reimagining of the current steel curriculum to focus on carbon emissions instead of pure cost or time savings.

 

“I’m thrilled to be working closely with the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Iron and Steel Institute, in addition to the 20 different steel and sustainable construction organizations who are supporting the work,” says Peterman. “We’re demonstrating that we have the access to reach every corner of the industry. We have a broad base of support and that will be the key to our success.”

 

This is part of nearly $160 million in grants from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at supporting the renewal of American manufacturing by helping businesses produce low-carbon materials.

Cracking the code of hydrogen embrittlement

Researchers zero in on the underlying mechanism that causes alloys to crack when exposed to hydrogen-rich environments, like water

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

When deciding what material to use for infrastructure projects, metals are often selected for their durability. However, if placed in a hydrogen-rich environment, like water, metals can become brittle and fail. Since the mid-19th century, this phenomenon, known as hydrogen embrittlement, has puzzled researchers with its unpredictable nature. Now, a study published in Science Advances brings us a step closer to predicting it with confidence.

The work is led by Dr. Mengying Liu from Washington and Lee University in collaboration with researchers at Texas A&M University. The team investigated formation of cracks in initially flawless, crack-free samples of a nickel-base alloy (Inconel 725), which is primarily known for its strength and corrosion resistance. There are currently several working hypotheses that attempt to explain hydrogen embrittlement. The results of this study show that one of the more well-known hypotheses — hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) — is not applicable in the case of this alloy. 

Plasticity, or irreversible deformation, is not uniform throughout a material, but is instead localized to certain points. HELP hypothesizes that cracks initiate at the points with the highest localized plasticity.

“As far as I know, ours is the first study that actually looks in real time to see where cracks initiate — and isn't at locations of highest localized plasticity,” said co-author Dr. Michael J. Demkowicz, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and Liu’s PhD advisor. “Our study tracks both the localized plasticity and the crack initiation locations in real time.”

Tracking crack initiation in real time is crucial. When examining a sample after a crack has appeared, the hydrogen has already escaped from the material, making it impossible to understand the mechanism that led to the damage. 

“Hydrogen easily escapes from metals, so you can’t figure out what it does to embrittle a metal by examining specimens after they’ve been tested. You have to look while you’re testing,” said Demkowicz. 

This study helps to lay the groundwork for better predictions of hydrogen embrittlement. In the future, hydrogen may replace fossil fuels as a clean energy source. If this change occurs, all of the infrastructure currently used to store and use fossil fuels would become susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. Predicting embrittlement is crucial for preventing unexpected failures, making a future hydrogen economy possible. 

The experiments for this study, as well as the preliminary data analysis, were conducted at Texas A&M, with Liu providing further data analysis and manuscript preparation at Washington and Lee. This paper is co-authored by Liu, Demkowicz and Texas A&M doctoral student Lai Jiang.

 By Alyssa Schaechinger, Texas A&M University Engineering

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.ado2118 

ARTICLE TITLE

Role of slip in hydrogen-assisted crack initiation in Ni-based alloy 725

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jul-2024