Doppelganger plastics: a more desirable alternative?
The problem with plastics – aside from all the environmental issues they entail – is that they are excellent. It wouldn’t be a problem to wean ourselves off them if … Read more
CO2 utilisation as an alternative to permanent sequestration
If we move away from fossil fuels as a source of carbon, the question arises what should then become our source. Lux Research presents an answer: CO2 utilization. This could … Read more
The Blade, a versatile small wind turbine
Experts and scientists judged it impossible. The new Dutch wind turbine The Blade seems to mock natural laws. And yet, the new home-sized turbine is claimed to produce 2,500 to … Read more
Energy hubs: less grid congestion, less CO2 emissions
The site change.inc contained an interesting article (in Dutch) on energy hubs – a central place where regional companies and households share their energy production and consumption. In the Netherlands, … Read more
Food-as-software by precision fermentation
According to RethinkX, precision fermentation and cellular agriculture will create an entirely new business model in the food sector: food-as-software. This will disrupt and transform our food and agricultural industries. … Read more
Bidirectional charging, solution for grid congestion
Bidirectional charging, or possible charging from both sides, is a smart solution for grid overcharging. Bidirectional charging means that the current can go both ways. It is useful in particular … Read more
The overcrowded electricity grid
Pressure on the electricity grid gets heavier all the time. Many corporations and organisations aim to get more sustainable. But there are bottlenecks. Because at times, there is a glut … Read more
Carbon capture, an uncertain technology
Do we need carbon capture in order to meet climate goals? The jury is still undecided. If we would like to keep on using fossil fuels, we need carbon capture … Read more
Thermal energy storage
Change.inc devoted an article to thermal industrial heating and cooling (in Dutch). Long neglected in views on the energy transition. Even though there is a lot of energy involved. But … Read more
Curbing plastics production
The Conversation informed us about the negotiations on a global pact on plastic. A penultimate round of negotiations recently ended in Ottawa – the last stage will take place later … Read more
Water scarcity
Water scarcity is becoming an urgent problem in more regions of the world. This presses on industrial facilities, for instance. Many of them need to reduce their water consumption – … Read more
The many uses of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a powerful greenhouse gas. But we can put it to good use as well. Putting CO2 to good use may even reduce the burden of preventing its … Read more
Ecoboard: use of agricultural wastes
Boards made from agricultural wastes, are they achievable? Often, mdf and chipboard are made from wood. But Ecoboard has a different approach: it uses agricultural wastes. Boards are a wonderful … Read more
The surprise of flash hydrogen
Hydrogen is at our disposal, so it seems, in many colours: black, grey, green, blue, turquoise, purple, aquamarine, pink, red, blue, yellow, orange, white, … [1, 2, 7]. Some colours … Read more
Victims of the green energy boom, the Rempang case
We know that fossil and nuclear energy, and mining of resources, can have most unwanted social effects on local communities. Now this appears to be true for solar projects as … Read more
Ammonia emissions, the problem
Animal husbandry has a major ammonia problem; in the Netherlands, anyway. Cows are held in barns in which urine and faeces are collected together. This is a perfect mix for … Read more
Energy forecasts
Already in our 2016 energy forecasts, we foresaw a much more favourable development of renewable energy than authoritative organizations: energy companies, the oil industry and international bodies like the IEA. … Read more
Direct air capture of CO2: dangerous nonsense
The release of CO2 to the atmosphere has become a problem. So much so, that a nonsensical idea like direct air capture (DAC) has attained followers. And is even experimented … Read more
Cultured meat, maybe coming soon
The Dutch site sciencelink.net recently devoted its attention to cultured meat. Not 100% vegetarian; for the instruction for meat production must be derived from a code derived from animals. But … Read more
UBQ: biobased thermoplastic material from household waste
UBQ Materials is an Israeli company that produces a thermoplastic compound from household waste. Their first factory outside Israel is under construction in Bergen op Zoom (the Netherlands). It will … Read more
Artificial intelligence (AI): a temporary moratorium?
Thousands of developers of artificial intelligence recently asked for a moratorium on its development for half a year. ‘Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that … Read more
Area requirements by solar panels
The first assessment of solar and wind power performance over 2022 has been published, by independent climate think tank Ember. Both forms of energy production did very well. Together, they … Read more
ChatGPT: artificial intelligence penetrates deeper into written texts
The newest development in artificial intelligence (AI) is called ChatGPT. GPT is the acronym of generative pre-trained transformer. Meaning: a self-learning program fed with large amounts of texts that generates … Read more
Energy storage will accelerate the transition
Energy storage doesn’t dominate the news. Sustainable energy gets all the credits: solar, wind, hydropower. But these can only make a difference when combined with energy storage. And the good … Read more
Towards dirt-cheap renewable energy
Renewable energy continues to grow spectacularly. Investments grow faster than in almost any other economic sector. Prices comes down all the time. It has such a success that a new … Read more
Towards a zero-emission construction trade
Al last, the need to work towards zero-emission construction seems to dawn on the construction trade. Not an easy task, as the volume of building projects around the world is … Read more
Solid state battery: new breakthrough
Solid state batteries are going to provide a new boost to electric driving. They are in full development; but solid state battery-equipped cars will probably not hit the market before … Read more
Lignin processing – challenges and limits
Lignin is the least abundant of the three main wood components. In the past two decades, much research has been done on lignin processing. It hasn’t resulted in major industrial … Read more
Plastic eating organisms
How do we get rid of the growing amount of plastic waste in the world? On a macro scale, The Ocean Cleanup tries to accomplish that: by removing plastic from … Read more
The continuing struggle to control weeds
An article in Chemical and Engineering News calls our attention to the struggle to control weeds. Will we be able to control weeds in the future? Will the EU, that … Read more
Local optimization, against congestion on the grid
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam suffers from congestion on the grid. As do other locations. Sustainable energy projects are stalled because of it. New business projects suffer the same fate. The … Read more
Vegetable-based fur
Fur is one of the most difficult textiles to imitate. It also meets with a lot of resistance because its production requires killing animals. But Bio Market Insights now reports … Read more
Wood conservation
Wood conservation is a necessary and noble art. In itself, wood is an excellent construction material: in ample supply, often locally sourced, easy to process; its production requires little energy. … Read more
Chemistry vs. bacteria, # 67. Technological development, major changes
The most important factor continuously propelling and changing society is technological development. Karl Marx would have been delighted to see that present-day society is still characterized by the relationship between … Read more
Towards methane mitigation
Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas. It has 82.5 times more warming potential than CO2 over a 20-year timespan. But fortunately, it lives shortly in the atmosphere: it degrades … Read more
Low-tech and its benefits for sustainability
Many proponents of sustainability adhere to the idea that the main path to sustainability lies in high-tech solutions. Like electric cars instead of the old ones, that guzzle fossil fuels. … Read more
RethinkX, an evaluation
The recent RethinkX project expects the ‘20s of this century to show revolutionary developments. Driven by stepwise changes in five key sectors of the economy: energy, transport, information, food and … Read more
RethinkX: the essentials
The RethinkX report doesn’t fool around. It starts with a clarion call: ‘We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history, a … Read more
Chemistry vs. bacteria, # 24. Chemical formulae
Formulae are of the essence to chemistry. We make an attempt to tell the story of chemistry versus bacteria in words only; with the occasional illustration. This episode is packed … Read more
Chemistry vs. bacteria, # 23. Credit where credit’s due?
On August 27, 1942, the Times publishes an editorial on penicillin’s wonderful achievements. The paper urges government to take at hand industrial production as soon as possible. And now happens … Read more
The power of subtlety
Mankind has become cleverer all the time. Cleverness that manifests itself in subtlety: in order to arrive at a desired goal, we need less and less energy and resources. Fortunately … Read more
Pitfalls in nuclear energy risk analysis
Ten years ago, last month, a tsunami struck the West coast of Japan. It flooded the Fukushima nuclear reactor. This resulted in a partial meltdown and a hydrogen explosion, that … Read more
A transition that makes use of existing energy infrastructure
We need to move through the energy transition fast. Because continuous carbon dioxide emissions will result in unacceptable climate changes. That’s why we need transition paths that meet with little … Read more
Wooden windows
Wooden windows? Wood, not for the frame but for the transparent part, instead of glass? Yes, modern research has shown that we can make transparent wood with a relatively benign … Read more
Cheap energy storage speeds up
Costs of producing renewable energy keep coming down; and technologies for cheap energy storage keep evolving. Therefore, the eternal problems with solar and wind energy appear to be more and … Read more
100 years of chemistry vs. bacteria, episode 4. The rise of chemistry
For those living in the 19th century, it was by no means evident that we could use chemistry as a weapon against bacteria. Chemistry was a young science. It found … Read more
Plastic recycling: urgent, but a major problem
Suddenly, articles on plastic recycling pop up everywhere. Spurred on the one hand by continued growth in plastics production; and on the other hand by the ever growing problem of … Read more
A solution to the Sargassum problem
Since 2011, the Caribbean is bothered by seaweed. Large quantities of Sargassum are washed up on the shores. There it rots, depleting the coastal waters from oxygen, releasing hydrogen sulphide … Read more
Fast and slow revolutions
In Europe, most people seem to have lost their belief in improvement. A concept of dreamers. But improvement takes place all the time; and the odd thing about this is … Read more
The solutions are here!
The solutions are here!, talking about major global problems. Solutions that exist already but are not generally applied. Or that are under severe and undeserved attack and therefore receive insufficient … Read more