article thumbnail

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

Green Car Congress

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. Images: MIT/Aurora Flight Sciences. MIT was the only university to lead one of the six US teams that won contracts from NASA in October 2008. Click to enlarge.

MIT 382
article thumbnail

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

Green Car Congress

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 397
article thumbnail

MIT team develops approach to control dendrite propagation in solid-state batteries

Green Car Congress

MIT researchers led by MIT Professor and colleagues at Brown University have developed an approach to controlling dendrite propagation in solid-state batteries. MIT graduate student Cole Fincher developed a way of making thin cells using a transparent electrolyte, allowing the whole process to be directly seen and recorded.

MIT 343
article thumbnail

MIT, Brookhaven team develops simple method for stabilizing interfaces in solid-state lithium-ion batteries

Green Car Congress

Now, a team of researchers at MIT and Brookhaven National Laboratory has developed a way of achieving results that equal or surpass the durability of the coated surfaces, but with no need for any coatings. The research was supported by the US Army Research Office through MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

article thumbnail

MIT and Harvard team develop material that stores sun’s heat

Green Car Congress

Researchers from MIT and Harvard University have developed a material that can absorb the sun’s heat and store that energy in chemical form, ready to be released again on demand. The work was supported by BP though the MIT Energy Initiative and the US. A paper describing the new process is published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

MIT 306
article thumbnail

MIT study says combustion emissions cause ~200,000 premature deaths/year in US; vehicles and power generation top sources

Green Car Congress

Annual average concentrations of fine particulates from US sources of combustion emissions from (a) electric power generation; (b) industry; (c) commercial and residential sources; (d) road transportation; (e) marine transportation; (f) rail transportation; (g) sum of all combustion sources; (h) all sources. Source: MIT.

MIT 378
article thumbnail

MIT study attributes > 50% of Li-ion rapid cost decline to investment in materials & chemistry R&D

Green Car Congress

A team at MIT has analyzed what has accounted for the extraordinary savings and found that by far the biggest single factor was work on research and development, particularly in chemistry and materials science. The R&D contribution didn’t end when commercialization began. Ziegler et al.

Li-ion 345