All-solid-state lithium batteries require solid materials that allow lithium ions to move efficiently. Lithium borohydride (LiBH₄) is a promising material for this purpose because its high-temperature hexagonal phase supports rapid lithium-ion transport.

Chinese electric vehicles' ultrafast charging is only getting faster.

While lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) remain the most widely used rechargeable batteries worldwide, energy engineers have been testing various alternatives with different underlying chemistries. These include lithium-sulfur batteries, which store and release energy by moving lithium ions between two electrodes on opposite sides of a cell, while sulfur undergoes reactions in the cathode (i.e., positive electrode).

As Eastern Europe's power sector has taken a hit from a record drought, Bulgaria has benefited from building battery storage capacity alongside its rapid solar expansion.

When people hear the term "green building," they often imagine expensive technologies, costly developments or environmentally friendly features that only wealthy buyers can afford.

For decades, nonproliferation scientists and engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have helped convert the fuel in dozens of research reactors around the world so they can operate safely and more securely. They find ways to change systems that rely on highly enriched uranium fuel, which can be used to make weapons, to systems that use low-enriched uranium fuel. With every fuel conversion, Argonne has gained experience, insight and a reputation for expertise in solving some of the toughest reactor conversion problems.

Millions of pounds of nutrient-rich ice cream are discarded after production each year, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. Nearly 5% of the raw materials used in ice cream production end up as waste—representing millions of dollars in lost product per year. This waste primarily comes from batches discarded because of quality issues and waste generated during equipment cleaning. Regulations aimed at preventing cross-contamination with allergens have also greatly increased the amount of discarded ice cream over the past two decades.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sandwiched between the electrolyte and electrodes in a lithium-ion battery is a remarkably thin layer of material that strongly dictates battery performance and durability: the interphase. Although typically only a few to tens of nanometers thick, interphases are among the least understood components of an operating battery cell. Their complex and constantly evolving structures make it challenging to determine how their atomic features and microscopic variations translate into macroscopic battery performance.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers developed a framework to help the United States secure the power infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, all while reducing vulnerabilities in the global supply chains that make that infrastructure possible.

Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising clean-energy technology with the potential to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions if widely adopted. As they generate electricity, the only byproduct of their reactions is water. However, improving their performance depends on developing better materials that can more efficiently transport ions.

A company that helped design how astronauts grow and recycle food in space is now applying that thinking to the critical problem of dairy waste here on Earth.

Circular-economy thinking is becoming increasingly important in the construction sector. It helps reduce raw material consumption and emissions and can provide a well-thought-out reuse and recycling scheme to cut costs.

Data centers have become a contentious issue across the country.

Together with partners from research and industry, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has modified the structure of battery electrodes so that the battery cells can store 10%–15% more energy at the same weight. They achieved this by more than tripling the coating thickness of the battery electrodes—for example, in lithium-ion batteries—which simultaneously reduces the number of current collectors in the battery cell. The research team implemented the new electrode architecture in lithium-ion pouch cells manufactured using industry-standard processes. Furthermore, they successfully applied the concept to zinc-ion and sodium-ion battery cells.

Plastic packaging is designed around appearance, convenience and function, but what happens after disposal is often considered separately—yet managing this waste is key to building a circular economy, since good recycling requires sorting plastics correctly by type. Transparent polyethylene terephthalate and polystyrene, for example, can be difficult to distinguish visually, making accurate separation challenging.