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MIT researchers propose subsea version of pumped hydro for renewable energy storage

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Researchers at MIT are proposing using a variation on pumped hydroelectric systems for storage of electricity produced by offshore wind farms. The team hopes to extend its testing to a 3-meter sphere, and then scale up to a 10-meter version to be tested in an undersea environment, if funding becomes available. Earlier post.).

MIT 296
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DOE to award more than $27M to 12 plastics recycling R&D projects

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The BOTTLE: Bio-Optimized Technologies to Keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment funding opportunity is jointly funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Bioenergy Technologies Office and Advanced Manufacturing Office. Partners include InEnTec, Lululemon, and Waste Management.

San Diego 321
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MIT team finds chemical functionalization can lead to efficient graphene-based thermoelectric materials

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Researchers at MIT are predicting that predict that suitable chemical functionalization of graphene can result in a large enhancement in the Seebeck coefficient for thermoelectric materials, leading to an increase in the room-temperature power factor of a factor of 2 compared to pristine graphene, despite degraded electrical conductivity.

MIT 150
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MIT/CalTrans study finds pavement-vehicle interaction accounts for 1% of overall fuel consumption on California highways

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dissipating energy due to deformation of the pavement structure)—results in wasted fuel because the dissipated energy does not contribute to the vehicle’s forward movement. Deflection-induced PVI—which results from a vehicle overcoming a resisting force (i.e.

MIT 150
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Autonomous Boats Seem More Solvable Than Autonomous Cars

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Where autonomous vehicles have had the most success is in environments with a lot of predictability and structure, which is why I really like the idea of autonomous urban boats designed for cities with canals. MIT has been working on these for years , and they're about to introduce them to the canals of Amsterdam as cargo shuttles and taxis.

MIT 145
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MIT researchers advancing development of supercritical water upgrading of heavy crude; lower cost, energy use and CO2

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Findings by MIT researchers could help advance the commercialization of supercritical water technology for the desulfurization and upgrading of high-sulfur crude oil into high-value, cleaner fuels such as gasoline without using hydrogen—a major change in refining technology that would reduce costs, energy use, and CO 2 emissions.

MIT 150
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Researchers enhance yeast thermotolerance and ethanol tolerance; potential for significant impact on industrial biofuel production

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Gregory Stephanopoulos, the Willard Henry Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and colleagues at MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have identified a new way to boost yeast tolerance to ethanol by simply altering the composition of the medium in which the yeast are grown. —Gregory Stephanopoulos.

Industry 210