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Category: sustainability – Page 392

Electric Aircraft Has Unlimited Range… With A Fleet Of Recharging Planes

Circa 2012

It’s okay, you’ve not clicked on “Green Plane Reports”, but every so often something from beyond the world of cars catches our attention.

This time, it’s electric flight. The concept is nothing new, and it’s even been alluded to by people like Elon Musk of Tesla, but for the time being it remains a true flight of fancy, rather than a working concept for passenger transportation.

The video above suggests one such way of making the concept workable. We’ll leave you to form your own thoughts, but we can forsee a few disadvantages.

In dry California, some buy units that make water from air

In drought-parched California, some residents are turning to pricey machines that developers say can produce hundreds of gallons of water a day, literally out of thin air.

BENICIA, Calif. (AP) — The machine Ted Bowman helped design can make water out of the air, and in parched California, some homeowners are already buying the pricey devices.

The air-to-water systems work like air conditioners by using coils to chill air, then collect water drops in a basin.

“Our motto is, water from air isn’t magic, it’s science, and that’s really what we’re doing with these machines,” said Ted Bowman, design engineer at Washington state-based Tsunami Products.

Elon Musk’s airport-to-downtown S.A. tunnel transit plan takes a step forward; transportation agency seeks proposals

When it surfaced two months ago, the notion of Teslas whizzing through underground tunnels between San Antonio International Airport and downtown seemed fanciful.

Now, there’s a sign the idea may have gained some traction.

The Boring Co., a tunneling firm backed by billionaire Elon Musk, has been talking to local leaders about building an underground transportation loop in San Antonio. Musk is the CEO of electric-vehicle maker Tesla, as well as the founder and CEO of SpaceX.

Catalysts found to convert carbon dioxide to fuel

The goal of tackling global warming by turning carbon dioxide into fuel could be one step closer with researchers using a supercomputer to identify a group of “single-atom” catalysts that could play a key role.

Researchers from QUT’s Centre for Materials Science, led by Associate Professor Liangzhi Kou, were part of an international study that used theoretical modelling to identify six metals (nickel, niobium, palladium, rhenium, rhodium, zirconium) that were found to be effective in a reaction that can convert into sustainable and clean energy sources.

The study published in Nature Communications involved QUT researchers Professor Aijun Du, Professor Yuantong Gu and Dr. Lin Ju.

A UK Company Revealed a New Electric Hybrid Car. But It’s Also a Bike?

Get ready for the future of mobility.

The world is moving to electric vehicles (EVs), but we are still rolling on vehicle concepts meant for heavy internal combustion engines. Challenging the very concept of what a mobility solution should look like is the Ryzr, from new players in the EV market, R.

As the pandemic pushed people to opt for more independent mobility solutions, bicycle sales rocketed in many parts of the world, the BBC reported last year. With its open concept, R’s Ryzr is designed to offer the same thrill as cycling does on open streets but with a more relaxed car-like seating comfort.

‘How did Tesla find chips?’ Morgan Stanley breaks down impressive Q3 delivery performance

Tesla’s impressive third-quarter delivery performance overshadowed the automotive industry’s ongoing struggle with the semiconductor chip shortage. Among all of the world’s automakers, Tesla has been basically the only car company to avert the crisis as it has not had any overwhelmingly public stoppages in vehicle production. Morgan Stanley’s new investor note, drafted by lead analyst Adam Jonas, examines Tesla’s ability to avoid detrimental production stoppages, which effectively helped the company capture its best quarter in company history.

Jonas titles Morgan Stanley’s most recent investor note, “How Did Tesla Find Chips?” In all honesty, this riddle was solved during the Q2 2021 Earnings Call, where Tesla stated in its Shareholder Deck that it used a combination of in-house microcontrollers to avoid any major catastrophes in the manufacturing of its vehicles. The company wrote:

“Our team has demonstrated an unparalleled ability to react quickly and mitigate disruptions to manufacturing caused by semiconductor shortages. Our electrical and firmware engineering teams remain hard at work designing, developing and validating 19 new variants of controllers in response to ongoing semiconductor shortages.”

Quenching the world’s thirst with off-grid water desalination

Desalination is the answer to long-term water security, but it’s also expensive and energy-intensive. The good news is that scientists are developing some viable solutions.

The first plant in Europe was built in Spain nearly a half century ago. Since then, facilities have sprung up in water-stressed regions throughout Europe. Just a few years ago, the residents of the small Greek island of Ikaria finally got access to an abundant source of clean drinking water—all thanks to a new desalination plant.

The growing importance of desalinising water is undeniable. Once only an issue in Southern Europe, countries in the north like the Netherlands and Belgium are now also investing in desalination technology.

Amid global biodiversity crisis, China can lead with alternative meat

Many international companies such as Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, OmniFoods and Whole Perfect Food are targeting China as the next growth market for alternative meat. Local players such as Zhenmeat and Z-Rou have already successfully made it into supermarkets and restaurants across the country.

Shifting our diet towards alternative meat tackles the main source of biodiversity loss and is the most direct solution. China, as a massive meat consumer, can play a vital role in making plant-based alternatives mainstream.

A Company Is Producing Thousands of Cheap, Floating Nuclear Reactors

While wind turbine and solar power platforms are beginning to take to the sea, another, more established form of power might also avoid hiking real estate costs.

A Copenhagen-based startup just raised funding to the sum of eight figures in Euros to begin construction of a new kind of cheap, flexible, portable, and unyieldingly safe nuclear reactor, according to a press release shared by the company, Seaborg Technologies.

And, crucially, the timeline for global deployment will shatter conventional paradigms in the energy industry.