Splitting Water

Many engineers will tell you that hydrogen isn't a fuel so much as an energy carrier. That is, hydrogen is usually produced with a process that requires an energy input of some sort. Reducing the energy needed to make hydrogen would cut its costs and improve its net energy balance. 

Most of the world's hydrogen gas is produced from fossil fuels, like methane. Scientists recently developed a catalyst that can better produce hydrogen from water. The new material requires less energy, making water a more viable option for producing hydrogen.

Bug Engineering

Bacteria are powerful and resilient little machines. Scientists are working on tweaking these microorganisms to do things that are useful to people. In a recent paper, researchers outlined a way to make bacteria take in carbon dioxide and emit methane. This effectively reverses the combustion process and could become an important biofuel pathway. 

Separation Anxiety

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