There is currently no industrial recycling process tailored to fuel cells. As part of the "BReCycle" project, a research consortium led by Fraunhofer IWKS is now developing a recycling management concept specifically for PEM fuel cells.

There is one major challenge in converting our energy system to purely renewable energy sources: winter – or rather the supply gap at this time. The conversion of surplus summer electricity into synthetic gas offers a way of ensuring that renewable energy could be available in sufficient quantities during the winter months. It would also allow to operate long-distance trucks. The Canton of Zurich has great interest in replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies and is, therefore, providing financial support for the Empa's "Power-to-gas" project.

Heavy-load vehicle traffic is responsible for 6 percent of the CO2 emissions in the European Union. Solar electricity generated directly on the vehicle can improve this balance by 5 to 7 percent. In the “Lade-PV” project under the direction of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, four industrial companies and two Fraunhofer institutes want to demonstrate the market feasibility of PV applications in the heavy-load transport. The aim is to develop an overall concept that makes the widespread use of integrated PV modules on electrical and other commercial vehicles (over 3.5 tons commercial load) possible.

Electrolytes play a key role in many areas: They are crucial for the storage of energy in our body as well as in batteries. In order to release energy, ions - charged atoms - must move in a liquid such as water. Until now the precise mechanism by which they move through the atoms and molecules of the electrolyte has, however, remained largely unknown. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now shown that the electrical resistance of an electrolyte, which is determined by the motion of ions, can be traced back to microscopic vibrations of these dissolved ions.

Drops of water falling on or sliding over surfaces may leave behind traces of electrical charge, causing the drops to charge themselves. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz have now begun a detailed investigation into this phenomenon that accompanies us in every-day life. They developed a method to quantify the charge generation and additionally created a theoretical model to aid understanding. According to the scientists, the observed effect could be a source of generated power and an important building block for understanding frictional electricity.

The European large-scale research initiative BATTERY 2030+ presents the long-term research roadmap that outlines the actions needed to invent the sustainable batteries of the future.

Scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth must deal with sawtooth instabilities -- up-and-down swings in the central pressure and temperature of the plasma that fuels fusion reactions, similar to the serrated blades of a saw. If these swings are large enough, they can lead to the sudden collapse of the entire discharge of the plasma. Such swings were first observed in 1974 and have so far eluded a widely accepted theory that explains experimental observations.

Rice University calculations show they could be highly useful for solar panels

International research team develops simple production process for acetone sensors

Researchers at EPFL have developed a nanodevice that operates more than 10 times faster than today's fastest transistors