Pub Date : 2024-07-25DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01592-w
Giulia Tregnago
{"title":"Simulations for building integration","authors":"Giulia Tregnago","doi":"10.1038/s41560-024-01592-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-024-01592-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":49.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141764393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-25DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01598-4
Large datasets are increasingly widespread and valuable to researchers in the energy sector. Nature Energy has a dedicated article format — the Resource article — for their dissemination.
{"title":"Data as a resource","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41560-024-01598-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-024-01598-4","url":null,"abstract":"Large datasets are increasingly widespread and valuable to researchers in the energy sector. Nature Energy has a dedicated article format — the Resource article — for their dissemination.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":49.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01598-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141764394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-24DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01574-y
Kostadin V. Petrov, Christel I. Koopman, Siddhartha Subramanian, Marc T. M. Koper, Thomas Burdyny, David A. Vermaas
CO2 electrolysis allows the sustainable production of carbon-based fuels and chemicals. However, state-of-the-art CO2 electrolysers employing anion exchange membranes (AEMs) suffer from (bi)carbonate crossover, causing low CO2 utilization and limiting anode choices to those based on precious metals. Here we argue that bipolar membranes (BPMs) could become the primary option for intrinsically stable and efficient CO2 electrolysis without the use of scarce metals. Although both reverse- and forward-bias BPMs can inhibit CO2 crossover, forward-bias BPMs fail to solve the rare-earth metals requirement at the anode. Unfortunately, reverse-bias BPM systems presently exhibit comparatively lower Faradaic efficiencies and higher cell voltages than AEM-based systems. We argue that these performance challenges can be overcome by focusing research on optimizing the catalyst, reaction microenvironment and alkali cation availability. Furthermore, BPMs can be improved by using thinner layers and a suitable water dissociation catalyst, thus alleviating core remaining challenges in CO2 electrolysis to bring this technology to the industrial scale. The membrane separating anode from cathode in CO2 electrolysers plays a key role in determining the performance, stability and material selection of the device. Here the authors argue that bipolar membranes could become the primary choice for scarce-metal-free, stable and efficient CO2 electrolysers.
{"title":"Bipolar membranes for intrinsically stable and scalable CO2 electrolysis","authors":"Kostadin V. Petrov, Christel I. Koopman, Siddhartha Subramanian, Marc T. M. Koper, Thomas Burdyny, David A. Vermaas","doi":"10.1038/s41560-024-01574-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-024-01574-y","url":null,"abstract":"CO2 electrolysis allows the sustainable production of carbon-based fuels and chemicals. However, state-of-the-art CO2 electrolysers employing anion exchange membranes (AEMs) suffer from (bi)carbonate crossover, causing low CO2 utilization and limiting anode choices to those based on precious metals. Here we argue that bipolar membranes (BPMs) could become the primary option for intrinsically stable and efficient CO2 electrolysis without the use of scarce metals. Although both reverse- and forward-bias BPMs can inhibit CO2 crossover, forward-bias BPMs fail to solve the rare-earth metals requirement at the anode. Unfortunately, reverse-bias BPM systems presently exhibit comparatively lower Faradaic efficiencies and higher cell voltages than AEM-based systems. We argue that these performance challenges can be overcome by focusing research on optimizing the catalyst, reaction microenvironment and alkali cation availability. Furthermore, BPMs can be improved by using thinner layers and a suitable water dissociation catalyst, thus alleviating core remaining challenges in CO2 electrolysis to bring this technology to the industrial scale. The membrane separating anode from cathode in CO2 electrolysers plays a key role in determining the performance, stability and material selection of the device. Here the authors argue that bipolar membranes could become the primary choice for scarce-metal-free, stable and efficient CO2 electrolysers.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":49.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141764185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-24DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01590-y
A strategy for the design of Cu2Se thermoelectric legs for power generation is demonstrated, involving finite element modelling and three-dimensional printing to optimize their macroscopic geometries and microscopic defects. A device with an hourglass-shaped leg exhibits enhanced power generation performance compared with one with a traditional cuboid leg.
{"title":"Impact of three-dimensional leg geometry on thermoelectric power generation","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41560-024-01590-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-024-01590-y","url":null,"abstract":"A strategy for the design of Cu2Se thermoelectric legs for power generation is demonstrated, involving finite element modelling and three-dimensional printing to optimize their macroscopic geometries and microscopic defects. A device with an hourglass-shaped leg exhibits enhanced power generation performance compared with one with a traditional cuboid leg.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":49.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141764182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-19DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01588-6
Ian S. Metcalfe, Greg A. Mutch, Evangelos I. Papaioannou, Sotiria Tsochataridou, Dragos Neagu, Dan J. L. Brett, Francesco Iacoviello, Thomas S. Miller, Paul R. Shearing, Patricia A. Hunt
Separation processes are substantially more difficult when the species to be separated is highly dilute. To perform any dilute separation, thermodynamic and kinetic limitations must be overcome. Here we report a molten-carbonate membrane that can ‘pump’ CO2 from a 400 ppm input stream (representative of air) to an output stream with a higher concentration of CO2, by exploiting ambient energy in the form of a humidity difference. The substantial H2O concentration difference across the membrane drives CO2 permeation ‘uphill’ against its own concentration difference, analogous to active transport in biological membranes. The introduction of this H2O concentration difference also results in a kinetic enhancement that boosts the CO2 flux by an order of magnitude even as the CO2 input stream concentration is decreased by three orders of magnitude from 50% to 400 ppm. Computational modelling shows that this enhancement is due to the H2O-mediated formation of carriers within the molten salt that facilitate rapid CO2 transport. Capture of CO2 from the air requires substantial amounts of energy. Here the authors report molten-carbonate membranes to concentrate CO2 from 400 ppm input streams that exploit ambient energy in the form of humidity differences.
{"title":"Separation and concentration of CO2 from air using a humidity-driven molten-carbonate membrane","authors":"Ian S. Metcalfe, Greg A. Mutch, Evangelos I. Papaioannou, Sotiria Tsochataridou, Dragos Neagu, Dan J. L. Brett, Francesco Iacoviello, Thomas S. Miller, Paul R. Shearing, Patricia A. Hunt","doi":"10.1038/s41560-024-01588-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-024-01588-6","url":null,"abstract":"Separation processes are substantially more difficult when the species to be separated is highly dilute. To perform any dilute separation, thermodynamic and kinetic limitations must be overcome. Here we report a molten-carbonate membrane that can ‘pump’ CO2 from a 400 ppm input stream (representative of air) to an output stream with a higher concentration of CO2, by exploiting ambient energy in the form of a humidity difference. The substantial H2O concentration difference across the membrane drives CO2 permeation ‘uphill’ against its own concentration difference, analogous to active transport in biological membranes. The introduction of this H2O concentration difference also results in a kinetic enhancement that boosts the CO2 flux by an order of magnitude even as the CO2 input stream concentration is decreased by three orders of magnitude from 50% to 400 ppm. Computational modelling shows that this enhancement is due to the H2O-mediated formation of carriers within the molten salt that facilitate rapid CO2 transport. Capture of CO2 from the air requires substantial amounts of energy. Here the authors report molten-carbonate membranes to concentrate CO2 from 400 ppm input streams that exploit ambient energy in the form of humidity differences.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":49.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01588-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141725933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-19DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01589-5
Seungjun Choo, Jungsoo Lee, Bengisu Şişik, Sung-Jin Jung, Keonkuk Kim, Seong Eun Yang, Seungki Jo, Changhyeon Nam, Sangjoon Ahn, Ho Seong Lee, Han Gi Chae, Seong Keun Kim, Saniya LeBlanc, Jae Sung Son
Waste heat, an abundant energy source generated by both industries and nature, has the potential to be harnessed into electricity via thermoelectric power generation. The performance of thermoelectric modules, typically composed of cuboid-shaped materials, depends on both the materials’ intrinsic properties and the temperature difference created. Despite significant advancements in the development of efficient materials, macroscopic thermal designs capable of accommodating larger temperature differences have been largely underexplored because of the challenges associated with processing bulk thermoelectric materials. Here we present the design strategy for Cu2Se thermoelectric materials for high-temperature power generation using a combination of finite element modelling and 3D printing. The macroscopic geometries and microscopic defects in Cu2Se materials are precisely engineered by optimizing the 3D printing and post-treatment processes, leading to notable enhancements in the material efficiency and temperature difference across legs, where the hourglass geometry exhibits maximized output powers and efficiencies. The proposed approach paves the way for designing efficient thermoelectric power generators. Choo, Lee et al. computationally and experimentally investigate how the thermal resistance and surface cooling of thermoelectric legs with different geometries impact the power output of Cu2Se thermoelectric materials.
{"title":"Geometric design of Cu2Se-based thermoelectric materials for enhancing power generation","authors":"Seungjun Choo, Jungsoo Lee, Bengisu Şişik, Sung-Jin Jung, Keonkuk Kim, Seong Eun Yang, Seungki Jo, Changhyeon Nam, Sangjoon Ahn, Ho Seong Lee, Han Gi Chae, Seong Keun Kim, Saniya LeBlanc, Jae Sung Son","doi":"10.1038/s41560-024-01589-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-024-01589-5","url":null,"abstract":"Waste heat, an abundant energy source generated by both industries and nature, has the potential to be harnessed into electricity via thermoelectric power generation. The performance of thermoelectric modules, typically composed of cuboid-shaped materials, depends on both the materials’ intrinsic properties and the temperature difference created. Despite significant advancements in the development of efficient materials, macroscopic thermal designs capable of accommodating larger temperature differences have been largely underexplored because of the challenges associated with processing bulk thermoelectric materials. Here we present the design strategy for Cu2Se thermoelectric materials for high-temperature power generation using a combination of finite element modelling and 3D printing. The macroscopic geometries and microscopic defects in Cu2Se materials are precisely engineered by optimizing the 3D printing and post-treatment processes, leading to notable enhancements in the material efficiency and temperature difference across legs, where the hourglass geometry exhibits maximized output powers and efficiencies. The proposed approach paves the way for designing efficient thermoelectric power generators. Choo, Lee et al. computationally and experimentally investigate how the thermal resistance and surface cooling of thermoelectric legs with different geometries impact the power output of Cu2Se thermoelectric materials.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":49.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141725932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-18DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01568-w
James B. Bushnell, Jonathan E. Hughes
Energy efficiency improvements can create rebound effects that increase energy use. We have studied rebound in US freight transportation and found that substitution across transportation modes can be an important rebound mechanism. The sign of the rebound effect depends on whether the improved efficiency induces substitution with more or less fuel-efficient modes. We used detailed US microdata to model shippers’ freight mode choices and simulate how these choices change under energy efficiency standards. Under a policy approximating US heavy-duty truck fuel economy standards, we found that rebound can be positive or negative in individual market segments. However, the overall effect substantially reduces the gains from improved truck fuel efficiency. Energy savings are reduced by around 20% because shipments switch from rail service to the improved, but still less fuel-efficient, truck service. Similar substitution rebound effects could occur in other settings where producers choose between technologies with different energy efficiencies. Energy efficiency improvements can create rebound effects that increase energy use. Here the authors find that energy savings in US freight transport may depend on whether increased efficiency encourages substitution with more or less fuel-efficient modes.
{"title":"The role of modal substitution in rebound effects within US freight transportation","authors":"James B. Bushnell, Jonathan E. Hughes","doi":"10.1038/s41560-024-01568-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41560-024-01568-w","url":null,"abstract":"Energy efficiency improvements can create rebound effects that increase energy use. We have studied rebound in US freight transportation and found that substitution across transportation modes can be an important rebound mechanism. The sign of the rebound effect depends on whether the improved efficiency induces substitution with more or less fuel-efficient modes. We used detailed US microdata to model shippers’ freight mode choices and simulate how these choices change under energy efficiency standards. Under a policy approximating US heavy-duty truck fuel economy standards, we found that rebound can be positive or negative in individual market segments. However, the overall effect substantially reduces the gains from improved truck fuel efficiency. Energy savings are reduced by around 20% because shipments switch from rail service to the improved, but still less fuel-efficient, truck service. Similar substitution rebound effects could occur in other settings where producers choose between technologies with different energy efficiencies. Energy efficiency improvements can create rebound effects that increase energy use. Here the authors find that energy savings in US freight transport may depend on whether increased efficiency encourages substitution with more or less fuel-efficient modes.","PeriodicalId":19073,"journal":{"name":"Nature Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":49.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141726021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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