Nikola has been the biggest example of hydrogen’s promises — and pitfalls. The startup claimed its H2-powered truck will have an operational range of as much as 1,200 miles when it was released in 2020. That never happened, though the company did spend most of last year watching its valuation soar to new heights thanks to the meteoric rise in Tesla’s stock price. As the hype grew, GM announced it would acquire an 11 percent stake in the buzzy company, while also lending a hand with Nikola’s battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, including the Badger pickup truck. … [Read more...] about General Motors, after flubbing its deal with Nikola, eyes a new hydrogen truck project
Hydrogen fuel cell membrane
US opens first commercial plant that converts corn waste to fuel
The leading candidate is cellulose, a robust polymer of sugars that give plants the strength to grow several hundred feet tall. Breaking down cellulose into sugars (which can then be converted into ethanol) is not easy to do economically, although a lot of research has gone into finding processes that work. A leading candidate for this is to use the enzymes from bacteria and fungi that normally decompose wood. The US Energy Information Agency has announced that the nation's first commercial-scale plant based on this approach has just opened in Iowa. … [Read more...] about US opens first commercial plant that converts corn waste to fuel
Doomsday Clock stands at 100 seconds to midnight
Alongside COVID-19, the impacts of escalating climate change led NASA scientists to declare 2020 the hottest year on record, tying with 2016. Earth's average global temperatures have risen 2 F (1.2 C) since the 1880s, and annual global surface temperatures for the past 44 years have been higher than the 20th-century average. In 2020, Arctic sea ice cover plummeted to record lows; Australia lost more than 20% of its forests during a record-breaking wildfire season; and the Atlantic hurricane season was one of the most intense and busiest on record, with a record 30 named storms. … [Read more...] about Doomsday Clock stands at 100 seconds to midnight
Mystery of Greenland’s expanding ‘dark zone’ finally solved
Greenland's ice sheet is the second largest in the world. It covers around 656,000 square miles (1.71 million square kilometers), an area three times the size of Texas, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). However, the ice sheet is now in a state of permanent retreat and is losing 500 gigatons (500 billion tons) of ice every year, Live Science previously reported. … [Read more...] about Mystery of Greenland’s expanding ‘dark zone’ finally solved
Crop-based biofuels will take years to truly help the environment
An expansion of agricultural land can only occur if whatever is presently on the land is sacrificed—this can mean abandoned lands, pastures, or natural systems. Natural systems such as grasslands and forests store large amounts of carbon; if turned into agricultural lands, this carbon could be released into the atmosphere. Though crops also store carbon as biomass during their growth, regular harvests do not allow for long-term carbon storage. From a climate perspective, this could be problematic. … [Read more...] about Crop-based biofuels will take years to truly help the environment
