Show Notes 4 August 2023
Story 1: Sustainable, airless tires adopt NASA technology
Source: Reuters News Service
Link: https://news.yahoo.com/sustainable-airless-tires-adopt-nasa-090626985.html
- Scrap tires are a major environmental problem worldwide due to their bulk and the chemicals they can release.
- My addition: According to a Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology report, approximately 280+ million used tires are discarded each year. Only about 30 million of these tires are retreaded or reused, leaving the remaining 250 million scrap tires to be managed. Source: https://www.tirereview.com/importance-tire-recycling/
- And when tires contact the road, tiny particles are abraded and emitted.
- Unfortunately, that problem is set to become bigger with electric vehicles – given the extra weight of EV’s due to their batteries.
- With regulators turning their scrutiny to tire pollution, tire-makers are under pressure to practically reinvent the wheel.
- The solution? How about permanent tires based on the airless tires NASA developed for its Moon rovers.
- Now a Los Angeles-based company is bringing the technology back down to Earth, in the hopes of making punctures [my comment, and excessive tire waste] a thing of the past.
- According to the SMART Tire Company the tires they are creating [based on NASA’s moon rover tires] are airless, durable and will never go flat – making them more sustainable and more robust than traditional all-rubber tires.
- The tires have a springy mesh design made of a shape memory alloy – or SMA.
- Time out, what is a shape-memory alloy? In metallurgy, a shape-memory alloy is an alloy that can be deformed when cold but returns to its pre-deformed shape when heated. It is also known by other names such as memory metal, memory alloy, smart metal, smart alloy, and muscle wire. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-memory_alloy
- Earl Cole, co-founder, and CEO of The SMART Tire Company notes:
- “What makes shape-memory alloy so special is it’s like a super elastic material. It’s a very flexible, lightweight metal that’s elastic like rubber, but strong like titanium.
- So, you can actually deflect [bend] a tire way down to the rim and it will just always bounce back to its original shape. So, you’re able to use this as a structural element in a tire now, so you don’t need any pressurized air. So that means an airless tire; punctures don’t matter. It would never, ever get a flat so your tire can last the life of your vehicle.”
- On SMART tires the only rubber part is the tread – the thin sheath-like outer part that gives grip on the road – which can be replaced without throwing away the whole tire.
- The company says tens of thousands of people worldwide have already joined the waiting list for their first commercial product – an airless SMART bicycle tire – set to launch in Spring 2024.
Story 2: GE has a wild plan to ‘vacuum’ air pollution right out of our skies — here’s how the mind-blowing idea would work
Source: The Cool Down Story by Nick Paschal
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8IRLH1nuCg
- It’s been decades since General Electric made vacuums, but now, it’s getting back in the game — only this time, the company will be vacuuming carbon pollution out of the air.
- Recently GE announced the successful test of its direct air capture (DAC) prototype and is planning larger-scale demonstrations in 2024. If the company can successfully scale its direct air capture system, it could be a massive weapon in the fight against our overheating planet.
- What is direct air capture?
- Direct air capture uses chemical reactions to remove carbon dioxide from the air. When air moves over the chemicals, it selectively traps the carbon, leaving the other parts of the air to pass through.
- Once the carbon is successfully sucked out of the air and removed from the chemicals — typically by applying heat — it can be injected deep into the ground in geologic formations, never to be seen again, or used in products like concrete or plastic that will hold on tight to that carbon for a very long time.
- How can direct air capture help?
- The concentration of atmospheric carbon pollution has increased by 47% since the beginning of the Industrial Age. And if that stat isn’t crazy enough, half of the increase in the last 300 years has happened since 1980.
- Transitioning to clean energy like solar, wind, and electric vehicles is vital to reducing air-polluting gases, but just slowing down how much carbon we pump into the air isn’t enough — and that’s where direct air capture comes in.
- Direct air capture is one of many solutions needed to pull enough carbon out of the atmosphere to slow the devastating impacts of planet-warming gases. Unlike other forms of carbon removal — like reforestation — direct air capture uses relatively little space and has few restrictions on where it can be located.
- Today the direct air capture space is mostly full of startups and incumbent energy companies. But a behemoth like GE has the ability to produce direct air capture systems on a large enough scale to make a real difference.
- Optional Geek-Out Footnote – More details from GE [based on the company’s video]:
- Here’s how it works:
- First a portion of the CO2 leaving the heat recovery steam generator is gathered and concentrated.
- Next the gas is cooled so the CO2 can be absorbed by the capture solvent.
- Then cooled gas rises in the absorber and the solvent captures up to 95 percent of the CO2
- Next the captured CO2 and solvent are heated using steam from the steam turbine this – results in pure CO2 which is collected and the solvent is recirculated.
- Then the pure CO2 is dried and compressed allowing for safe transportation and sequestration.
Story 3: Tel Aviv University team produces ‘green’ hydrogen with over 90% efficiency
Source: Jerusalem Post Story by Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman
Link: https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-750489
- A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University recently announced the development of an innovative way to produce “green” hydrogen – hydrogen that is produced without polluting carbon dioxide emissions but is still highly efficient.
- Today, hydrogen is used in various industrial processes to generate electricity, power vehicles, produce fertilizers, and more. However, 95% of hydrogen is produced from coal or natural gas, emitting nine to 12 tons of CO2 for every ton of hydrogen produced!
- A doctoral student on the Tel Aviv University team noted, “Today, ‘green’ hydrogen is produced primarily through electrolysis, which requires precious and rare metals such as platinum along with water distillation, which makes the green hydrogen up to 15 times more expensive than the polluting ‘grey’ one,” [my note, meaning produced using coal or natural gas].
- The Tel Aviv University team wanted a radical alternative, so they used an enzyme found in microscopic organisms to create their green hydrogen:
- Another doctoral student on the team noted, “Hydrogen…is produced by enzymes in microscopic organisms, which receive the energy from a photosynthesis processes. In the lab, we ‘electrify’ those enzymes. That is, an electrode provides the energy instead of the Sun.” [my add…to prompt photosynthesis]
- The Tel Aviv University team produced hydrogen using a water-based gel to attach an enzyme to the electrode and a biocatalyst. Over 90% of the electrons introduced into the system were deposited in the hydrogen without any secondary processes.
- A biocatalyst is a substance, such as an enzyme or hormone, that initiates or increases the rate of a chemical reaction.
- However, the challenge is that the enzyme generally “runs away” from the electric charge when making hydrogen in a lab. The hydrogel, however, holds the enzyme in place.
- According to the professor who oversaw the project, “The material of the gel itself is known [my add – meaning not new, or fabricated by the team], but our innovation is to use it to produce hydrogen.”
- He also noted, “We soaked the electrode in the gel, which contained an enzyme for producing hydrogen called hydrogenase.
- Hydrogenase is an enzyme that catalyzes the reduction of a particular substance by hydrogen.
- The gel holds the enzyme for a long time, even under the electric voltage, and makes it possible to produce hydrogen with great efficiency and at environmental conditions favorable to the enzyme — for example, in salt water, in contrast to electrolysis, which requires distilled water.”
Story 4: Breakthrough wearable ultrasound scanner could detect breast cancer earlier
Source: MedicalXpress.com Based on MIT posting
Link: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-wearable-ultrasound-scanner-breast-cancer.html
- When breast cancer is diagnosed in the earliest stages, the survival rate is nearly 100%. However, for tumors detected in later stages, that rate drops to around 25%.
- Breast tumors that develop in between regularly scheduled mammograms—known as interval cancers—account for 20 to 30% of all breast cancer cases, and these tumors tend to be more aggressive than those found during routine scans.
- In hopes of improving the overall survival rate for breast cancer patients, MIT researchers have designed a wearable ultrasound device that could allow people to detect tumors when they are still in early stages. It could be valuable for patients at high risk of developing breast cancer in between routine mammograms.
- The device is a flexible patch that can be attached to a bra, allowing the wearer to move an ultrasound tracker along the patch and image the breast tissue from different angles. In the new study, the researchers showed that they could obtain ultrasound images with resolution comparable to that of the ultrasound probes used in medical imaging centers.
- Canan Dagdeviren, an associate professor in MIT’s Media Lab and the senior author of the study noted, “We changed the form factor of the ultrasound technology so that it can be used in your home. It’s portable and easy to use, and provides real-time, user-friendly monitoring of breast tissue.”
Canan Dagdeviren
- To make her vision of a diagnostic bra a reality, Dagdeviren designed a miniaturized ultrasound scanner that could allow the user to perform imaging at any time.
- This scanner is based on the same kind of ultrasound technology used in medical imaging centers but incorporates a novel piezoelectric material that allowed the researchers to miniaturize the ultrasound scanner.
- Time out, what is a piezoelectric material? Piezoelectric materials are the materials that can produce electric energy upon application of mechanical stress. A commonly known piezoelectric material is quartz. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/piezoelectric-material
- To make the device wearable, the researchers designed a flexible, 3D-printed patch, which has honeycomb-like openings.
- Using magnets, this patch can be attached to a bra that has openings that allow the ultrasound scanner to contact the skin.
- The ultrasound scanner fits inside a small tracker that can be moved to six different positions, allowing the entire breast to be imaged.
- The scanner can also be rotated to take images from different angles and does not require any special expertise to operate.
Honorable Mention: An electric cruise ship with gigantic solar sails is set to launch in 2030. Link: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hurtigruten-norway-zero-emission-cruise-ship-climate-c2e-spc-intl/index.html
Honorable Mention: Scientists at a London-based company are perfecting a synthetic alcohol called Alcarelle. The researchers claim it will deliver the pleasurable side effects of the drug without the negative ones. Link: https://fortune.com/well/2023/07/29/synthetic-alcohol-alcarelle-buzz-without-side-effects-hangover-gaba/
Honorable Mention: New Solar Panels Can Heal Themselves from Damage in Space
Source: ScienceAlert.com Story by David Nield
Link: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-solar-panels-can-heal-themselves-from-damage-in-space
- Last week we talked about self-healing metal. Now it’s solar panels for space applications!
- Researchers at the University of Sydney and the Centre for Accelerator Science in Australia have developed solar panels can self-heal and repair themselves when damaged by space radiation. This finding promises to make power sources for satellites and spacecraft more resilient and reliable in the future.
- A type of solar panel known as a perovskite solar cell (PSC) has previously shown a lot of potential for use in space: It’s lightweight and relatively affordable to make, and it converts solar radiation into electricity at a high level of efficiency.
- However, it must also withstand the high-energy barrage of proton particles in space. The researchers think they’re found a solution.
- “Space hardware will be exposed to proton radiation on these orbits,” write the researchers in their published paper. “Therefore, it is of great interest to evaluate radiation stability for perovskite solar cells.”
- In lab conditions designed to simulate the effects of proton radiation across tens or even hundreds of years, the researchers tested ultrathin solar cell substrates suitable for use in satellites, the first time that materials with these properties had been tested like this.
- The experiments found that the hole transport material (HTM) in the PSC was crucial to how much damage it could take and how well it could heal. The hole transport material facilitates the movement of holes (the absence of electrons) in solar cells, enabling them to stay separated and for electricity to be produced.
- Time out, what is a hole transport material? Hole transport materials (HTMs) are one of the key compounds in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Hole transport materials can also be used to replace the liquid electrolyte of conventional dye-sensitized solar cells to make solid-state devices. Source: https://dyenamo.se/dyenamo_hole_transport_materials.php
- Two particular types of hole transport material and one type of dopant (a modifying substance applied to hole transport materials) were shown to be best at resisting proton radiation damage. Carefully configured, the hole transport material can also enable self-healing of the panels and all the way back up to 100 percent of their efficiency.
- This healing is done through a process of annealing, or the application of heat in a vacuum, which could be powered by the Sun. In theory, solar radiation could repair these solar cells as well as power them.
- Getting that working will take a lot more research, but this study shows that it’s possible – that we could one day have spacecraft powered by solar panels that can repair themselves. Considering the high costs of going to space, that could make a huge difference.