One challenge facing the widespread adoption of renewable energies is the fluctuating output of photovoltaic systems — for energy-intensive companies, this means that their distribution networks are rapidly becoming inadequate. Fraunhofer researchers have developed a solution that combines power from renewable sources with electricity from the public grid and uses batteries to compensate for fluctuations. This approach will particularly benefit companies that aim to invest in sustainability with photovoltaics — and reduce their energy costs in the process. A living…

Identifying defects in fiber composite materials during the production process will be possible in the future thanks to a novel radar method that automatically and non-destructively monitors the manufacturing process of fiber composite materials such as wind turbine rotor blades. Until now, monitoring has consisted of visual inspections. The Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR collaborated with consortium partners Ruhr University Bochum, FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences and Aeroconcept GmbH to develop an innovative method…

… makes further progress. Kraft lignin successfully degraded using a “green” oxidizer. The demand for vanillin vastly outstrips the natural resources of this flavoring agent. A chemical process is thus used to produce the required large quantities of vanillin from petroleum, which is far less expensive than obtaining the substance from fermented genuine vanilla pods. Another alternative is to make vanillin from lignin, a waste product of the wood pulping industry. A team led by Professor Siegfried Waldvogel of Johannes…

Large quantities of hydrogen will be needed to ensure a successful energy transition. As part of the HighHy project, an international team of researchers from Germany and New Zealand is working on improving the efficiency of the emerging AEM electrolysis technology to produce green hydrogen. To make this possible, scientists from the Fraunhofer IFAM in Dresden have turned to the readily available and resource-saving metals manganese and nickel in a bid to introduce this promising electrolysis process to large-scale industry….

Lines in natural gas grids have to be maintained and serviced regularly. This entails using flares to vent the natural gas. With FlareSimulator, research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF have developed an assistive tool that calculates the correct distance of flares to houses, trees and other nearby objects. This makes it easy to maintain minimum distances and prevent potential hazards and explosions. Natural gas is one of the safest energy carriers. Accidents rarely occur,…

Quantum materials for electroluminescent QD-LED displays, fast inline monitoring for thin film printing or stretchable printed electrodes. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in the Potsdam Science Park demonstrate what is already technologically possible in the field of printed electronics and present current projects at LOPEC 2023 in Munich from March 1 to 2 (ICM, booth FO.16). LOPEC is the leading trade fair and the most important congress for printed electronics. Inks for brilliant displays They…

Extracted human teeth have long been used in conducting dental research, such as evaluating dental ceramic materials as a crown restoration on tooth. It is an inexpensive and straightforward process that simulates clinical situations. However, the collection and use of extracted human teeth is becoming increasingly difficult given the concerns about COVID-19, size-standardisation issues, and also time constraints. All these factors have prompted a need for dentine analogue materials that could potentially substitute extracted human teeth in laboratory-based mechanical and…

Controlling one-dimensional wormhole corrosion could help advance power plant designs. It started with a mystery: How did molten salt breach its metal container? Understanding the behavior of molten salt, a proposed coolant for next-generation nuclear reactors and fusion power, is a question of critical safety for advanced energy production. The multi-institutional research team, co-led by Penn State, initially imaged a cross-section of the sealed container, finding no clear pathway for the salt appearing on the outside. The researchers then used…

Insights into supersonic phasons may improve accuracy of simulations. Warming a crystal of the mineral fresnoite, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists discovered that excitations called phasons carried heat three times farther and faster than phonons, the excitations that usually carry heat through a material. “Neutrons were ideal for exploring these sources of heat transport because they interact with both phasons and phonons,” said Michael Manley, who led the study with Raphael Hermann. In most crystals, atomic vibrations propagate excited waves through the…

Increasing demands on sheet metal forming processes require ever more extensive experimental characterizations of the original base materials. At the same time, the characterization tests used are constantly facing new challenges due to the use of thinner sheets of metal. The Virtual Lab of the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg provides a remedy for this: It determines the necessary characteristic values for the design of sheet metal forming processes via simulation. The Fraunhofer IWM is cooperating…

Dust is a common fact of life, and it’s more than just a daily nuisance – it can get into machinery and equipment, causing loss of efficiency or breakdowns. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin partnered with North Carolina-based company Smart Material Solutions Inc. to develop a new method to keep dust from sticking to surfaces. The result is the ability to make many types of materials dust resistant, from spacecraft to solar panels to household windows. The…

A novel membrane using a combination of a water filteration membrane and conductive polymer, Water quality improvement and continuous electricity generation using a simple operation method. The purification of various water resources, such as rain, seawater, groundwater, river water, sewage, and wastewater, into potable or usable water is a high-energy process. So, what if electricity could be generated during the water purification process? In the spotlight, a domestic research team has developed a multifunctional membrane that can simultaneously generate electricity…

Reactive fabrics respond to changes in temperature. New textiles developed at Aalto University change shape when they heat up, giving designers a wide range of new options. In addition to offering adjustable aesthetics, responsive smart fabrics could also help monitor people’s health, improve thermal insulation, and provide new tools for managing room acoustics and interior design. The new fabrics weave together old technology and a new approach. Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) were developed in the 1980s. LCEs are a smart…

An effective, stable solid-state electrochemical transistor has been developed, heralding a new era in thermal management technology. In modern electronics, a large amount of heat is produced as waste during usage—this is why devices such as laptops and mobile phones become warm during use, and require cooling solutions. In the last decade, the concept of managing this heat using electricity has been tested, leading to the development of electrochemical thermal transistors—devices that can be used to control heat flow with…

In a chemical reaction, molecules in different substances meet one another to form new molecules causing changes in the bonds of their atoms. The molecules collide at an extremely close distance—a nanometer or less—in an extremely short amount of time. This makes investigating the details of chemical reactions at the molecular scale difficult. Most experimental knowledge, used to explain single-molecule reaction dynamics, was obtained by studying reactions in gases. However, the overwhelming majority of chemical reactions take place in liquids,…

Rice U. scientists’ method could lower both emissions and building construction costs. Rice University scientists have figured out a way to engineer wood to trap carbon dioxide through a potentially scalable, energy-efficient process that also makes the material stronger for use in construction. Structural materials like steel or cement come at a high cost both in dollars and carbon dioxide emissions; building construction and use accounts for an estimated 40% of emissions. Developing sustainable alternatives to existing materials could help mitigate climate…