Shells of tamarind, a tropical fruit consumed worldwide, are discarded during food production. As they are bulky, tamarind shells take up a considerable amount of space in landfills where they are disposed as agricultural waste.
However, a team of international scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found a way to deal with the problem. By processing the tamarind shells which are rich in carbon, the scientists converted the waste material into carbon nanosheets, which are a key component of supercapacitors — energy storage devices that are used in automobiles, buses, electric vehicles, trains, and elevators.
The study reflects NTU’s commitment to address humanity’s grand challenges on sustainability as part of its 2025 strategic plan, which seeks to accelerate the translation of research discoveries into innovations that mitigate our impact on the environment.
Skydweller Aero’s latest flight test of a modified solar-powered aircraft will provide the real-world data necessary for the U.S.-Spanish startup’s engineers to start developing and testing their proprietary autonomous flight software.
Established in 2019 following the acquisition of Swiss nonprofit Solar Impulse’s Solar Impulse 2 aircraft—which circumnavigated the globe in 2016 — Skydweller is headquartered in Oklahoma, with offices in the Washington D.C. region and a flight test facility in Albacete, Spain, roughly two hours south of their engineering operations in Madrid. During the two-and-a-half-hour optionally-piloted flight demonstration in Albacete, Skydweller’s engineering team completed initial validation of their new flight hardware and autopilot’s ability to initiate and manage the aircraft control, actuation, and sensor technology systems.
A pilot was in the cockpit of the Solar Impulse 2, working in tandem with another operator who controlled the movements of the aircraft remotely from the ground.
Electric tractor developer Solectrac has announced that its e70N tractor is now available for sale. Solectrac recently delivered the 70-horsepower, diesel-equivalent tractors to three farms in Northern California as part of a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Funding Agriculture Replacement Measures for Emission Reductions Demonstration Program (FARMER).
Solectrac is an electric tractor developer founded in Northern California with the goal of offering farmers independence from the pollution, infrastructure, and price volatility associated with fossil fuels.
Meat lovers will be upset about what I am going to write. I consider myself a meat lover too but I have to face the facts. Livestock industry is consuming a lot of crops like corn, barley, hay and soybeans which cover most of farmlands. And these crops can not be grown inside vertical farms or hydroponic farms. Regenerative agriculture can reduce CO2 and gives a solution to improve the quality of the soil from breaking. We need to let most farm lands to recover so we can avoid desertification. Plant-based food also uses soybeans and other crops but i think it will have less impact on farmlands since livestock will have less share. Humans were hunter gatherers then we start growing wheat to feed our growing population to adapt with the situation and now we are facing new challenges that could change our diet in the next 40 years.
Regenerative farming refers to practices focused on replenishing the soil’s nutrients and includes things like no-till cultivation, rotational cattle grazing, using less synthetic fertilizers and planting cover crops. In addition to making soil and crops healthier, the practices help to sequester CO2.
Lately, the movement has gained the support of major corporations like General Mills and PepsiCo, as well as the Biden administration. Now, a number of carbon markets such as Nori and Indigo Ag are springing up to encourage farmers to participate, but challenges remain.
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This next jump in battery-tech could solve a lot of EV problems.
The world of the internal combustion engine will sadly, but very necessarily, come to a close at some point in many of our lifetimes. Hybrids and electric vehicles are becoming more affordable and more advanced at a rapid pace, which means batteries are taking the place of fossil fuels. This has led to an equally rapid progression in battery technology, with the main goals of improving capacity, charging times, and safety. One major advancement in this field is the advent of solid-state batteries, which promise to push the boundaries of the limitations that current lithium-ion batteries carry.
Electric vehicles have been powered by lithium-ion batteries for years, which are similar to the ones used in laptops, cell phones, and other consumer electronics. They are constructed with a liquid electrolyte inside, which makes them heavy and susceptible to instability at high temperatures. Because each individual battery pack can’t generate all that much energy on its own, several have to be linked together in series, further adding to the weight. The cost of engineering, manufacturing, and installing battery packs makes up a considerable portion of the overall cost of an electric vehicle.
Just like a cell phone, the lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles need to be recharged. The speed at which an electric vehicle’s batteries can be charged depends on the vehicle itself, the type of batteries it uses, and on the charging infrastructure. In general, public charging stations fall into either the Level 2 or Level 3 categories, both of which can charge an EV far quicker than a standard household outlet. Level 1 and Level 2 chargers provide power to the on-board charger via AC power, which is converted to DC power to charge the battery. Level 3, which can also be called DC Fast Charging, bypasses that on-board generator and instead charges the battery directly and at a much quicker rate. Over time, however, both the battery capacity and the ability to reach peak charging rates degrade.
Private sector solutions to major social problems — stephanie smith — director, humanitarian & development, mastercard.
Stephanie Smith is a Director, in the Humanitarian & Development group, at Mastercard (https://www.mastercard.us), the American multinational financial services corporation.
Stephanie is responsible for operations of the Humanitarian & Development group at Mastercard, and ensuring the team’s efficient, consistent, and effective delivery against their vision to provide digital tools and access for education, health, commerce, and other critical services for marginalized individuals and communities. The Humanitarian & Development group is focused on driving commercially sustainable social impact in collaboration with governments, NGOs, and other private sector companies.
After graduating from Oxford University, Stephanie began her professional career at a rapidly growing technology company, Applied Predictive Technologies / APT (acquired by Mastercard) delivering analytics software and consulting engagements to Fortune 500s.
Stephanie is particularly passionate about diversity & inclusion and solving social problems, and has experience delivering projects and technologies that drive a lasting social impact.
Stephanie led a pro bono project in partnership with the city government of New Orleans and a non-profit, that pioneered how APT applied data assets and technology to facilitate and measure inclusive growth. Stephanie also proactively took on new projects in social-impact oriented industries (for example, applying Test & Learn analytics to education), and co-led APT’s global Women’s Leadership Network (a business resource group to connect female leaders and build a more inclusive workplace).
Stephanie is also on the Working Group of the Partnership for Central America (https://www.centampartnership.org/) working to support private sector efforts to address the root causes of irregular migration from Central America through coordinated, sustained, and transparent impact across the region.
Stephanie is a passionate mentor of junior staff, and outside of work, volunteers time as a mentor with the Girls Network in London, and fundraising with Girls on the Run in Washington D.C.
Jeep and Dodge are putting a much bigger focus on electrification now that they’re part of the Stellantis group. Jeep plans to release its first series-produced electric vehicle in 2023, and Dodge said its first plug-in hybrid will land in 2022.
Both models appeared on a product roadmap that Stellantis distributed to investors this month. It focuses on electrified vehicles, so it doesn’t list the upcoming non-electrified launches, and it sheds light on what the future has in store for all of the carmaker’s brands. Specific details like the type of car planned weren’t publicly released, so there’s no official word on what Jeep’s first EV will look like, but our crystal ball reveals two likely possibilities.
One is a production version of the Magneto concept (pictured) introduced earlier in 2021. It’s essentially a current-generation Wrangler powered by an electric motor that spins the four wheels via a six-speed manual transmission and a two-speed transfer case. It’s futuristic but not unrealistic, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see it reach showrooms in the coming years. However, another possibility is that Jeep could build a smaller, likely car-derived EV to sell on the European market, where emissions norms are extraordinary strict and the fines for exceeding them are immense. If that’s the case, the model would likely borrow parts from the Stellantis parts bin.
This could revolutionize the way solar panels are produced on Earth and in space. The solar panel manufacturing process also releases oxygen as a by-product, which could be used by future astronauts to create breathable environments in space.
The Luxembourg-based startup Maana Electric will soon be testing its TerraBox, a fully automated factory the size of several shipping containers that takes sand and produces solar panels. The company aims to send these small warehouse container-like boxes, capable of building solar panels using only electricity and sand as inputs, to the deserts of the Earth, in order to contribute to the fight against climate change.
If all goes according to the plans, the technology could reach the Moon, Mars, and beyond as well to help future space colonies meet their energy needs. The TerraBox fits within shipping containers, allowing the mini-factories to be transported to deserts across the globe and produce clean, renewable energy.
In addition to contributing to the fight against climate change, this potentially revolutionary product could also help reduce the dependence of renewable energy operators on China, which manufactures the majority of the world’s photovoltaic solar panels.
Tesla’s recent move to open its Supercharger network to other automakers will enable the automaker to get access to some of the $7.5 billion in EV charging infrastructure funding as part of the new US infrastructure bill.
For years now, Tesla has been talking about opening up the Supercharger network to electric vehicles from other manufacturers.
