Separating chemicals is an important industrial process, but it can sap a huge amount of energy, especially when the things you're separating are closely related. For fuel-makers, cutting the energy required to separate hydrocarbons could lower the price of fuel and shrink its carbon footprint. To this end, researchers developed a new, durable membrane that can separate compounds that differ by less than a nanometer.
Moonshot
One of the big discussions in clean energy right now is whether we should run with the technologies we have now or focus on developing better ones. For an urgent problem like climate change, several prominent investors say they would like to fund research that could one day yield a breakthrough instead of deploying the wind turbines and solar panels already on the market.
Impulse Control
Aviators Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg recently completed a flight around the world powered solely by solar energy. The journey was a stunt, but organizers hope that it will inspire the world to think more conscientiously about the environment. As for aviation, many engineers are concerned that air travel is already very close to its peak efficiency, so there is very little room for improvement. With global demand for air travel on the rise, commercial air travel is poised to have a growing impact on the environment.
Fire down below
Iceland leads the world in terms of meeting its energy needs with geothermal energy, but the United States actually comes in first in overall capacity. Drawing heat from underground provides dispatchable renewable energy, but finding viable pockets of heat is a challenge and in some instance, geothermal energy can emit greenhouse gases.
Researchers in Iceland have recently confirmed that they can sequester carbon dioxide from geothermal power plants underground by turning it into rock.
Hellisheiði Power Station outside of Reykjavik, Iceland
You'll have to wear shades
Oil major BP released its annual energy assessment, finding that fossil fuel prices remained flat due to a surge in supply. However the report also projected a bright future for renewable energy, an interesting result given that BP closed its own solar power division several years ago because it didn't generate enough returns.
A sign greeting travelers at Keflavik International Airport in Iceland
The path forward
Climate scientists who ostensibly agree on the scale and scope of climate change are at odds over the best solution to the problem. In particular, several scientists have adamantly debated the role of nuclear energy and renewable energy.
I put together a three-part series on this issue, looking at the case for nuclear energy, profiling a scientist who says we can save the world with just renewables, and examining why the debate has become so heated.
A cooling tower at the Callaway Nuclear Power Plant in Missouri
Energiewende-wende
Germany is rolling back its vaunted feed-in tariff for renewable energy as the country sets records for solar and wind power generation. Legislators say that the policy has grown too expensive and now are developing other models to encourage renewable energy deployment.
A wind turbine in Saerbeck, Germany