Hydrogen fuel cell membrane

The big picture: Hydrogen fuel cell trucks could become a great alternative to battery-powered electric semis in the future. They feature a range and load capacity closer to diesel-powered trucks, with refueling being far quicker than charging an EV. However, hydrogen production and distribution don't always use renewable sources, meaning it's not necessarily a "green" solution. Volvo's truck manufacturing division has just announced that it's testing vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The company claims these trucks will have an operational range of up to 1,000 km (621 miles), a refueling time of under 15 minutes, and a total weight (including freight) of over 65 tons. If those figures are accurate, it sounds like an attractive alternative to battery-powered electric semis for long hauling. For comparison, the Tesla Semi has an advertised range of up to 800 km (497 miles) and will reportedly take over 30 minutes to charge at a megawatt charging station. Each truck … [Read more...] about Upcoming hydrogen fuel cell semis from Volvo will have a 621-mile range

Volvo’s commercial trucking division is testing hydrogen fuel cell semi trucks in the hopes of getting ahead of the maturing technology. With fuel cells built by CellCentric, a joint venture between Volvo and Daimler Truck Automotive Group, Volvo claims its trucks are capable of 1,000 kilometers of range (about 621 miles) and can be refueled in under 15 minutes. Volvo Trucks has been “developing this technology for some years now,” said company president Roger Alm in a statement this week . Hydrogen fuel cells will be suitable for long-distance hauling and could work in countries with limited battery charging infrastructure, Alm said. The company started building battery-electric trucks in 2018, but they still aren’t widely in service in the US. Now with hydrogen fuel cell trucks, Alm says he expects growth in the supply of clean hydrogen in the next couple of years. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and battery electric vehicles (BEV) are similar in that they are both propelled by … [Read more...] about Volvo’s commercial truck group is testing out hydrogen fuel cell semis

Scientists may have unearthed a missing link between simple and complex cells, which make up all animals, plants and fungi. Scientists consider single-celled organisms called Archaea to lie between primitive bacteria , that lack a nucleus, and more complex cells, or eukaryotes, on the evolutionary timeline. Like their bacterial cousins, Archaea lack a nucleus, but the microbes contain DNA and DNA-replicating enzymes that closely resemble those in eukaryotes. Some scientists theorize (opens in new tab) that eukaryotes evolved about 2 billion years ago from these intermediate organisms, when an ancient archaea grabbed a passing microorganism, sucked it into its cellular belly, and transformed it into a makeshift nucleus. Others suggest that an ancestral archaea sent out wandering "blebs," built from its own cell wall, that latched onto and then integrated helpful single-celled organisms that functioned like modern-day organelles , or the organ-like … [Read more...] about Missing Link Between Simple Cells and Complex Life-Forms Possibly Found

Ferrari makes some of the fastest cars on the road, but the luxury Italian automaker is taking the slow lane to an electric future as it tries to overcome the technology's disadvantages against today's powerful fossil fuel engines. At an investor day this month, executives promised a new era, with the first fully electric Ferrari in 2025. But for now, combustion engines remain the heart of what it does. Unlike some rivals, Ferrari has not provided a roadmap for going all electric. Volkswagen 's Bentley brand and Volvo are both targeting 2030. According to a source familiar with Ferrari's business plans, a new production line focused on electric vehicles (EVs) should help lift annual production at its plant in Maranello, Italy, by more than 35 percent to over 15,000 cars by 2025 versus 11,155 in 2021-or 65 cars per day versus 46 currently-delivering higher profit margins in the process. Ferrari declined to comment. The carmaker has told investors it is … [Read more...] about ferrari: Ferrari to continue gas-guzzler production while moving slowly toward electric vehicles

Buckyballs, among the most used and certainly the most celebrated of manmade nanoparticles, might represent a potent health threat. According to computer simulations the 60-carbon-atom, soccer-ball-shaped molecule can damage or even destroy DNA. Researchers have suggested that buckyballs, whose technical name is "fullerenes," might be used in chemical sensors and hydrogen fuel cells. And some researchers are testing biomedical applications in which buckyballs would encapsulate especially toxic drugs or radioactive materials. Scientists already realized buckyballs could be toxic. Studies at Duke University in 2004 showed that when buckyballs were introduced to laboratory aquariums they damaged the brains of largemouth bass and may also have prevented certain water-borne bacteria from reproducing. Until then scientists had theorized that the strong attraction that buckyballs have for each other would cause the molecules to clump together and safely sink to the … [Read more...] about Manufactured Nanoparticles Might Pose Health Threat

Engineering services company L&T Technology Services Limited ( LTTS ) has inaugurated its engineering design centre ( EDC ) in Toulouse, France, to initially cater to the new-age digital requirements of the global aerospace and defence sectors. The EDC will initially focus on developing cutting-edge solutions for aerospace and defence industries and LTTS will work with major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the region as an engineering partner, the company said in a statement. The centre will specialise in end-to-end solutions for aerospace design and manufacturing, with a workforce of LTTS engineers having proven expertise in digital engineering, systems engineering and avionics design, the company stated. "LTTS plans to hire over 100 engineers in the next two years for the centre," the statement added. LTTS said it plans to invest and expand the new EDC, giving it a focus on sustainable next-generation solutions such as avionics systems and … [Read more...] about French engineering design center opened by L&T Technology Services

Clinging to sunken debris in shallow, marine mangrove forests in the French Caribbean, tiny thread-like organisms—perfectly visible to the naked eye—have earned the title of the largest bacteria ever known. Measuring around a centimeter long, they are roughly the size and shape of a human eyelash, batting away the competition at 5,000 times the size of garden-variety bacteria and 50 times the size of bacteria previously considered giant. In human terms, this is akin to coming across a person as tall as Mount Everest. Olivier Gros, a biologist at the University of the Antilles, discovered the prokaryotes in 2009, noticing them gently swaying in the sulfur-rich waters among the mangroves in the Guadeloupe archipelago. The bacteria clung to the leaves, branches, oyster shells, and bottles that sunk into the tropical swamp, Gros said in a press briefing. He and colleagues first thought they might be complex eukaryotic organisms or perhaps a string of linked organisms. But years of … [Read more...] about New bacterium roughly the size, shape of an eyelash smashes size record

After three previous aborted attempts, NASA successfully fueled its new massive deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, for the first time on Monday — completing a critical milestone ahead of the vehicle’s first flight. However, there was a shadow over the achievement. The fueling was part of an elaborate dress rehearsal that ended 20 seconds earlier than NASA had planned, and it’s unclear if the agency got all the data and practice it needed to proceed with the rocket’s debut launch. The Space Launch System, or SLS, is a key piece of NASA’s flagship Artemis program — an elaborate effort to send the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the Moon. But first, SLS needs to actually fly, and before that can happen, NASA wanted to go through all of the intricate steps that lead up to an actual launch — except for the part where the rocket takes off. With the SLS standing upright on its launchpad in Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA engineers and flight … [Read more...] about Dress rehearsal for NASA’s deep-space rocket cut short by mere seconds

Welcome to Edition 4.47 of the Rocket Report! It has been a big week for NASA, with the near completion of its wet-dress rehearsal test for the Space Launch System rocket. Assuming final preparations go well, this sets up a huge launch in a couple of months that we will be following with great interest. As always, we welcome reader submissions , and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar. South Korea successfully launches its own rocket . The three-stage Nuri rocket, built by the government’s Korea Aerospace Research Institute with hundreds of local companies, ​blasted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung​ on Tuesday, The New York Times reports . Seventy minutes after the​ liftoff, South Korea announced that ​Nuri had … [Read more...] about Rocket Report: SpaceX steamroller rolls on; Russian rocket workers are idled

The US space agency has spent a long, long time designing, developing, building, and testing the Space Launch System rocket. When NASA created the rocket program in 2010, US legislators said the SLS booster should be ready to launch in 2016. Of course, that launch target and many others have come and gone. But now, after more than a decade and more than $20 billion in funding, NASA and its litany of contractors are very close to declaring the 111-meter tall rocket ready for its debut launch. On June 20, NASA successfully counted the rocket down to T-29 seconds during a pre-launch fueling test. Although they did not reach T-9 seconds, as was the original goal, the agency's engineers collected enough data to satisfy the requisite information to proceed toward a launch. During a pair of news conferences last week, NASA officials declined to set a launch target for the mission. However, in an interview Tuesday with Ars, NASA's senior exploration official, Jim Free, said the agency … [Read more...] about NASA aims to launch the SLS rocket in just 2 months