Commercial, Design and MIT

MIT-Led Team Designs Two Airplanes That Would Use 70% Less Fuel Than Current Models

Green Car Congress

MAY 15, 2010

An MIT-led team has designed an airplane that is estimated to use 70% less fuel than current planes while also reducing noise and emission of NO x. The design was one of two that the team, led by faculty from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, presented to NASA last month as part of a $2.1 Click to enlarge.

MIT

MIT Design Fuel Concept

MIT, Scripps study examines behavior of midwater sediment plumes from deep-sea nodule mining

Green Car Congress

JULY 28, 2021

Now, oceanographers at MIT, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and elsewhere have carried out an experiment at sea for the first time to study the turbulent sediment plume that mining vessels would potentially release back into the ocean. —Thomas Peacock, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and co-corresponding author.

MIT

MIT South Korea Water Environment

MIT electrolyte enables ultra-high voltage Ni-rich cathodes in Li-metal batteries

Green Car Congress

MARCH 26, 2021

MIT researchers and colleagues at two national laboratories have developed a sulfonamide-based electrolyte that enables stable cycling of a commercial LiNi 0.8 In a paper in the journal Nature Energy , the MIT team reports that a lithium-metal battery with the electrolyte delivers a specific capacity of >230?mAh?g

Ni-Li

Ni-Li MIT Li-ion Batteries

MIT/RAND Study Concludes Three Types of Alternative Jet Fuel May Be Available in Commercial Quantities Over the Next Decade

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 25, 2009

The focus of the work was on alternative jet fuels that could be available commercially in the next decade using primarily North American resources. The prospects for FT jet fuels depend crucially on construction of a few pioneer commercial plants in the next few years. From Hileman et al. Click to enlarge. million bpd. billion and $8.3

MIT

MIT Oil-Sands Commercial Available

MIT: hybrid cathodes could boost energy capacity of lithium-sulfur batteries

Green Car Congress

MARCH 26, 2019

Researchers at MIT and in China are proposing a new class of dense intercalation-conversion hybrid cathodes by combining intercalation-type Mo 6 S 8 with conversion-type sulfur (HMSC) to realize a Li–S full cell. Design strategy for jointly high gravimetric–volumetric energy density. 1 and a volumetric energy density of 581?Wh?l

Lithium Sulfur

Lithium Sulfur MIT Li-ion Energy

MIT researchers develop method to make smaller, safer, and faster lithium-rich ceramic electrolyte

Green Car Congress

JULY 15, 2019

Researchers at MIT have devised a new pulsed laser deposition technique to make thinner lithium electrolytes using less heat, promising faster charging and potentially higher-voltage solid-state lithium ion batteries. —MIT Associate Professor Jennifer Rupp, senior author.

MIT

MIT Li-ion Lithium Ion Lithium Titanate

XL Hybrids to display retrofitted hybrid Chevrolet 2500 Cargo Van at MIT Energy Conference

Green Car Congress

MARCH 14, 2012

a company that has developed a low-cost hybrid electric powertrain designed specifically for class 1-3 commercial fleet use ( earlier post ), will display a Chevrolet Express 2500 cargo van fitted with the company’s hybrid technology at the 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Conference Energy Showcase on 16 March.

MIT

MIT Chevrolet Hybrid Energy

MIT and National Research Foundation of Singapore Launch Project on New Models and Tools for Future Urban Transportation

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Research Foundation of Singapore launched a new project to develop new models and tools for the planning, design, and operation of future urban transportation. Subra Suresh, Dean of Engineering and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at MIT.

Singapore

Singapore MIT Transportation Future

MIT team reexamines rates of Li-ion cost decline

Green Car Congress

MARCH 24, 2021

Now, MIT researchers have carried out an exhaustive analysis of the studies that have looked at the decline in the prices these batteries. For both, we find that the real price of lithium-ion cells, scaled by their energy capacity, has declined by about 97% since their commercial introduction in 1991. —Ziegler and Trancik.

Li-ion

Li-ion MIT Lithium Ion Price

MIT researchers identify viable anode material for molten oxide electrolysis for lower CO2 steel production

Green Car Congress

MAY 12, 2013

Researchers at MIT have identified inexpensive metal alloy materials that can serve as anodes for molten oxide electrolysis (MOE)—an electrometallurgical technique that enables the direct production of metal in the liquid state from oxide feedstock. They expect it could take about three years to design, build and test such a reactor.

MIT

MIT Production CO2 Carbon

MIT team testing new SiC nuclear fuel-rod cladding that could lead to safer power plants

Green Car Congress

JULY 25, 2013

A team of researchers at MIT is developing and testing a new silicon carbide (SiC) cladding material for nuclear fuel rods that could reduce the risk of hydrogen production by roughly a thousandfold compared to the common zircaloy cladding. SiC is “ very promising, but not at the moment ready for adoption ” by the nuclear industry, he adds.

MIT

MIT Fuel Power Powered

MIT team calls initial performance results of magnesium-antimony liquid metal battery “promising”

Green Car Congress

JANUARY 23, 2012

The observed cause of failure was evaporation of the molten salt electrolyte into the surrounding containment vessel, a mechanism that could be mitigated by alternative cell designs with reduced head space. Further work is required for evaluation of the long-term performance of the proposed cells, which may require an alternative cell design.

MIT

MIT Molten Salt Batteries Battery

MIT engineers develop process that can treat produced water from gas wells at relatively low cost

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

A new desalination process developed by engineers at MIT could treat produced water—deep water, often heavily laden with salts and minerals—from natural gas wells at relatively low cost. The research is the work of a team including MIT postdoc Prakash Narayan, mechanical engineering professor John H. —John Lienhard.

MIT

MIT Low Cost Water Gas

MIT team synthesizes all carbon nanofiber electrodes for high-energy rechargeable Li-air batteries

Green Car Congress

JULY 25, 2011

A team at MIT, led by Carl V. Further work is still needed to translate these basic laboratory advances into a practical commercial product, she cautions. Gravimetric Ragone plot comparing energy and power characteristics of CNF electrodes based on the pristine and discharged electrode weight with that of LiCoO 2. Click to enlarge.

MIT

MIT Recharge Carbon Lithium Air

MIT/Stanford team optimizes shape of Busemann-type supersonic biplane to reduce drag, fuel consumption, and sonic booms

Green Car Congress

MARCH 20, 2012

For decades, the speed of commercial aircraft was constrained by the sound barrier. At the design condition, the Busemann biplane produces zero wave drag and no sonic boom will escape from the biplane system due to the wave cancellation between two airfoil components. Conceptual drawing of a supersonic biplane in flight.

MIT

MIT Fuel Universal 2011

MIT study cautions smaller nations on rushing to develop their natural gas resources; Cyprus as model

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 27, 2013

Based on the interim results of a new study, MIT researchers are warning smaller nations to proceed with caution in pursuing the development of their natural gas resources. —Sergey Paltsev, an author of the study and a principal research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative. Cyprus offshore hydrocarbon exploration blocks.

Cyprus

Cyprus MIT Gas Gas-Electric

MIT Energy Initiative announces 2014 seed grant awards

Green Car Congress

MARCH 30, 2014

The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) announced its latest round of seed grants to support early-stage innovative energy projects. Computational tools for catalyst design: The ability to convert methane gas directly to liquid methanol at often-remote recovery sites would significantly alter the storage, transport, and use of the gas.

MIT

MIT Grant 2014 Energy

MIT researchers develop surface coatings to inhibit buildup of methane hydrates that can block deep-sea oil and gas pipelines

Green Car Congress

APRIL 11, 2012

Researchers at MIT, led by associate professor of mechanical engineering Kripa Varanasi, say they have found a solution, described recently in the RSC journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The MIT team’s new method would instead use passive coatings on the insides of the pipes that are designed to prevent the hydrates from adhering.

MIT

MIT Oil Gas Chevron

A123 Venture Technologies to collaborate with SolidEnergy on safer, high-energy battery chemistry; potentially up to ~800 Wh/kg

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 22, 2013

A123 Venture Technologies, a Massachusetts-based technology incubator, will collaborate with MIT startup SolidEnergy. The partnership combines SolidEnergy’s Solid Polymer Ionic Liquid (SPIL) electrolyte—originally developed at MIT—with the mature cell design and prototyping capabilities of A123. Source: SolidEnergy.

Polymer

Polymer Energy MIT Massachusetts

XL Hybrids, Henley Transmission Services partner to certify AAMCO for hybrid conversion installation, servicing

Green Car Congress

MAY 21, 2012

developer of a low-cost hybrid electric powertrain designed specifically for class 1-3 commercial fleet use ( earlier post ), has signed an agreement with Henley Transmission Services, LLC, the largest franchise holder of AAMCO automotive service centers, to certify AAMCO technicians to install and service XL Hybrids’ hybrid-electric conversions.

Installation

Installation Conversion Hybrid Lithium Ion

UC Davis Researchers Suggest the Battery Problem Seen to Be Slowing Electric Drive Commercialization Is Perceptual as Well as Technological

Green Car Congress

MARCH 2, 2010

Distribution of battery requirements for consumer-selected PHEV designs (shaded circles) compared to USABC, MIT and EPRI performance requirements. The USABC specifies two PHEV designs to guide its battery requirements: an AE-10 crossover and AE-40 mid-sized car. Units USABC MIT EPRI. Source: Axsen et al. Click to enlarge.

Davis

Davis Commercial PHEV EPRI

Nissan says it will have first commercially-viable autonomous drive vehicles by 2020; across the range in 2 vehicle generations

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 28, 2013

announced that the company will be ready with multiple, commercially-viable autonomous drive (AD) vehicles by 2020. Nissan said that its engineers have been carrying out intensive research on the technology for years, alongside teams from universities including MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Tokyo.

Nissan

Nissan 2020 Commercial Vehicles

ExxonMobil, MIT and Synthetic Genomics team publishes results of LCA on algal biofuels; potential for large reductions in GHG

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

Because of the large design and technology space available for algal biofuel production, the team notes in the paper, life-cycle analysis (LCA) can serve both as a process design and technology evaluation tool. Their paper is published in the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology.

MIT

MIT Oil Water Fuel

MIT professor pursuing direct sulfide electrolysis for copper production

Green Car Congress

MAY 2, 2014

King Assistant Professor of Metallurgy at MIT, is proposing a direct sulfide electrolysis process to simplify copper extraction and eliminate noxious byproducts. The challenge right now is to probe how electrons are either flowing or not flowing in the system to be able to design a system that works for metal extraction, Allanore said.

MIT

MIT Production 2013 Chile

Innovative hybrid rotor compressor design can extend productive life of stripper wells; improved transport and efficiency, lowered operating costs

Green Car Congress

MAY 13, 2012

OsComp Systems, a startup formed by MIT alumni, has developed , with support from the US Department of Energy (DOE), a hybrid rotary compressor design that decreases the energy required to compress and transport natural gas, lowers operating costs, improves efficiencies and reduces the environmental footprint of well site operations.

Design

Design Hybrid Transportation Production

Heliogen launches, achieves > 1,000 ?C from concentrated sunlight for industrial processes

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

Heliogen, a company that is transforming sunlight to create and replace fuels, recently announced its launch and also said that it has—for the first time commercially—concentrated solar energy to exceed temperatures greater than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Industry

Industry Industrial Los Angeles Solar

MIT teams receiving $10M from TRI for next-gen battery materials

Green Car Congress

APRIL 4, 2017

Three MIT-affiliated research teams will receive about $10M in funding as part of a $35M materials science discovery program launched by the Toyota Research Institute (TRI). Provided over four years, the support to MIT researchers will be primarily directed at scientific discoveries and advancing energy storage. Earlier post.)

MIT

MIT Batteries Battery Li-ion

RecycLiCo and Nanoramic Laboratories partner for lithium-ion battery recycling

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 6, 2023

The collaboration aims to attain mutual recognition of the future integration of Nanoramic and RecycLiCo technologies in commercial operations. Nanoramic Laboratories was spun out of MIT in 2009; Nanoramic’s licensing business model is backed by 14 years of research with more than 200 patents granted and pending.

Lithium Ion

Lithium Ion Batteries Battery MIT

MIT team proposes ARC fusion reactor: affordable, robust, compact

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 10, 2015

Advances in magnet technology have enabled researchers at MIT to propose a new design for a practical compact tokamak fusion reactor that might be realized in as little as a decade: the ARC (affordable, robust, compact) reactor. The proposed tokamak (donut-shaped) reactor is designed to have 500 MW fusion power at 3.3

Fusion

Fusion MIT Affordable Molten Salt

MIT team devises approaches for practical carbon-nanotube-coated carbon fiber; stronger, more electrically conductive

Green Car Congress

MAY 20, 2013

MIT scientists demonstrated two approaches for growing CNTs on carbon fiber without degrading the fiber strength. Researchers at MIT have demonstrated two approaches for producing carbon fibers coated in carbon nanotubes without degrading the underlying fiber’s strength. Credit: ACS, Steiner et al. Click to enlarge.

Carbon Fiber

Carbon Fiber Carbon MIT Polymer

Megawatt Electrical Motor Designed By MIT Engineers Could Help Electrify Aviation

CleanTechnica EVs

JUNE 10, 2023

To electrify larger, heavier jets, such as commercial airliners, megawatt-scale motors are required. To date, however, only small all-electric planes have gotten off the ground. Their electric motors generate hundreds of kilowatts of power. These would be propelled by hybrid or turbo-electric propulsion systems where an […]

MIT

MIT Motoring Motor Motors

MIT Looks Ahead to Hydrogen’s Aviation Future

Cars That Think

SEPTEMBER 17, 2023

As investment in hydrogen-powered flight expands , airports and air carriers today are realizing that it’s not enough to retrofit or design new planes for hydrogen power. John Hansman , an aeronautics and astronautics professor at MIT and director of the university’s International Center for Air Transportation. asks Professor R.

MIT

MIT Future Hydrogen Chicago

Ceder group at MIT analyzes the limits and opportunities of phosphates as Li-ion cathode materials using a Materials Genome approach

Green Car Congress

JULY 18, 2011

Researchers at MIT, led by Prof. Ceder leads the CEDER (Computational and Experimental Design of Emerging materials Research group) at MIT, and has been pushing for the realization of the “Materials Genome” project to bring advanced automated computing environments coupled to databases to materials design.

Li-ion

Li-ion MIT Ni-Li Obama

Independent testing shows 21.2% reduction in fuel consumption with XL Hybrids retrofit system

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2012

XL Hybrids’ hybrid electric powertrain is a low-cost, low-risk, bolt-on, post-transmission parallel hybrid technology designed for Class 1–3 commercial vehicles that integrates seamlessly with the conventional internal combustion engine and transmission. XL Hybrids was founded by MIT alumni and is based in Boston. Both the 2.0

Hybrid

Hybrid Fuel Lithium Ion Downsizing

SES begins pilot production of solvent-in-salt electrolyte for hybrid Li-metal batteries

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 7, 2021

SES’ strategy is to dominate in the lithium metal battery market by first commercializing a hybrid method that combines a liquid electrolyte and a solid coating, which is easier to implement than an all-solid solution. SES is a next-generation battery technology company spun-off from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Hybrid

Hybrid Batteries Battery Production

Toyota Research Institute commits $36M over four years for accelerated materials design & discovery with university partners

Green Car Congress

MAY 19, 2021

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is committing another $36 million to its Accelerated Materials Design and Discovery (AMDD) collaborative university research program over the next four years. The total scope of the initial investment was $35 million over four years with multiple university partners.

Universal

Universal Design Toyota MIT

Toyota to begin wireless vehicle charging system verification testing

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

In December 2013, Toyota licensed ( earlier post ) the intellectual property (IP) of WiTricity, an MIT spin-off commercializing an approach to “mid-range” wireless charging (distances from a centimeter to several meters, earlier post ). Toyota believes that commercialization will help promote the use of electrified vehicles.

Toyota

Toyota Charging Vehicles Plug-in

Study finds rapid charging and draining doesn’t damage lithium-ion electrode as much as thought

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 14, 2014

The results, Chueh said, can be directly applied to many oxide and graphite electrodes used in today’s commercial lithium ion batteries and in about half of those under development. We have found a new way to think about battery degradation. —William Chueh of SIMES, senior author. —Yiyang Li, lead author. Resources. Chueh et al.

Lithium Ion

Lithium Ion Li-ion Charging MIT

Vale joins Boston Metal Series B; developing MOE for emissions-free steel

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

Boston Metal, an MIT spin-off working to commercialize molten oxide electrolysis (MOE) for emissions-free metals and alloys production, announced that Vale and Energy Impact Partners have joined its Series B fundraising, closely following a $50M close announced in January.

Boston

Boston Emissions MIT 2013

EnStorage and Princeton Power Systems awarded $950K BIRD grant for hydrogen bromide flow battery system

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

The grant will support the commercialization and deployment of an energy storage system based on EnStorage’s proprietary hydrogen bromide (HBr) flow battery and Princeton Power Systems’ inverters and site controller.

Grant

Grant Hydrogen Israel Power

MIT team develops first supercapacitor made entirely from neat MOFs, without conductive additives or binders

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Researchers at MIT have shown that a MOF (metal-organic framework) with high electrical conductivity—Ni 3 (2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene) 2 (Ni 3 (HITP) 2 )—can serve as the sole electrode material in a supercapacitor. Comparison of areal capacitances among various EDLC materials. —Alexandru Vlad.

MIT

MIT Carbon Belgium Universal

Rechargeable membrane-less hydrogen bromine flow battery shows high power density

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 16, 2013

MIT researchers have engineered a new rechargeable, membrane-less hydrogen bromine laminar flow battery with high power density. The membrane-less design enables power densities of 0.795?W?cm Both reactions have fast, reversible kinetics, with no phase change at the liquid electrode, eliminating bubble formation as a design limitation.

Recharge

Recharge Hydrogen Power Powered

Stanford, CMU, MIT team reviews challenges to practical implementation of solid-state Li-ion batteries

Green Car Congress

JULY 26, 2017

Toyota, which has been working on solid-state batteries for EVs for a number of years ( earlier post ), is in the news with a report by the Wall Street Journal that it will be ready to commercialize a solid-state battery by 2022. However, there remain a number of unresolved issues precluding commercialization at this point.

Li-ion

Li-ion MIT Batteries Battery

Max Planck, MIT researchers develop new strategy for high-entropy alloys; overcoming the strength/ductility tradeoff

Green Car Congress

MAY 19, 2016

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Dusseldorf, Germany, and MIT have developed a novel strategy to design nanostructured, bulk high-entropy alloys (HEAs) ( earlier post ) with multiple compositionally equivalent high-entropy phases. Source: MIT. The new approach is described in a paper this week in the journal Nature.

MIT

MIT Concept Germany Design

MIT-Led Team Designs Two Airplanes That Would Use 70% Less Fuel Than Current Models

MIT, Scripps study examines behavior of midwater sediment plumes from deep-sea nodule mining

MIT electrolyte enables ultra-high voltage Ni-rich cathodes in Li-metal batteries

MIT/RAND Study Concludes Three Types of Alternative Jet Fuel May Be Available in Commercial Quantities Over the Next Decade

MIT: hybrid cathodes could boost energy capacity of lithium-sulfur batteries

MIT researchers develop method to make smaller, safer, and faster lithium-rich ceramic electrolyte

XL Hybrids to display retrofitted hybrid Chevrolet 2500 Cargo Van at MIT Energy Conference

MIT and National Research Foundation of Singapore Launch Project on New Models and Tools for Future Urban Transportation

MIT team reexamines rates of Li-ion cost decline

MIT researchers identify viable anode material for molten oxide electrolysis for lower CO2 steel production

MIT team testing new SiC nuclear fuel-rod cladding that could lead to safer power plants

MIT team calls initial performance results of magnesium-antimony liquid metal battery “promising”

MIT engineers develop process that can treat produced water from gas wells at relatively low cost

MIT team synthesizes all carbon nanofiber electrodes for high-energy rechargeable Li-air batteries

MIT/Stanford team optimizes shape of Busemann-type supersonic biplane to reduce drag, fuel consumption, and sonic booms

MIT study cautions smaller nations on rushing to develop their natural gas resources; Cyprus as model

MIT Energy Initiative announces 2014 seed grant awards

MIT researchers develop surface coatings to inhibit buildup of methane hydrates that can block deep-sea oil and gas pipelines

A123 Venture Technologies to collaborate with SolidEnergy on safer, high-energy battery chemistry; potentially up to ~800 Wh/kg

XL Hybrids, Henley Transmission Services partner to certify AAMCO for hybrid conversion installation, servicing

UC Davis Researchers Suggest the Battery Problem Seen to Be Slowing Electric Drive Commercialization Is Perceptual as Well as Technological

Nissan says it will have first commercially-viable autonomous drive vehicles by 2020; across the range in 2 vehicle generations

ExxonMobil, MIT and Synthetic Genomics team publishes results of LCA on algal biofuels; potential for large reductions in GHG

MIT professor pursuing direct sulfide electrolysis for copper production

Innovative hybrid rotor compressor design can extend productive life of stripper wells; improved transport and efficiency, lowered operating costs

Heliogen launches, achieves > 1,000 ?C from concentrated sunlight for industrial processes

MIT teams receiving $10M from TRI for next-gen battery materials

RecycLiCo and Nanoramic Laboratories partner for lithium-ion battery recycling

MIT team proposes ARC fusion reactor: affordable, robust, compact

MIT team devises approaches for practical carbon-nanotube-coated carbon fiber; stronger, more electrically conductive

Megawatt Electrical Motor Designed By MIT Engineers Could Help Electrify Aviation

MIT Looks Ahead to Hydrogen’s Aviation Future

Ceder group at MIT analyzes the limits and opportunities of phosphates as Li-ion cathode materials using a Materials Genome approach

Independent testing shows 21.2% reduction in fuel consumption with XL Hybrids retrofit system

SES begins pilot production of solvent-in-salt electrolyte for hybrid Li-metal batteries

Toyota Research Institute commits $36M over four years for accelerated materials design & discovery with university partners

Toyota to begin wireless vehicle charging system verification testing

Study finds rapid charging and draining doesn’t damage lithium-ion electrode as much as thought

Vale joins Boston Metal Series B; developing MOE for emissions-free steel

EnStorage and Princeton Power Systems awarded $950K BIRD grant for hydrogen bromide flow battery system

MIT team develops first supercapacitor made entirely from neat MOFs, without conductive additives or binders

Rechargeable membrane-less hydrogen bromine flow battery shows high power density

Stanford, CMU, MIT team reviews challenges to practical implementation of solid-state Li-ion batteries

Max Planck, MIT researchers develop new strategy for high-entropy alloys; overcoming the strength/ductility tradeoff

Stay Connected