Concretene Cements Its Future With £8m Funding
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is a precis. which explains what Concretene have done.
Concretene combines graphene with concrete to form a “stronger, more sustainable and more cost-effective alternative” to the world’s most-used building material.
The eight million funding is mainly to be used for more tests.
Is Concrete The New Wonder Material?
I once lived in a concrete apartment and although it is now fifty years old, it still looks the same, as it did the day it was built.
Cromwell Tower
Cromwell Tower in The Barbican may have been built to a high specification, but we don’t hear cancer, cladding, damp, fire or mould problems about the City of London’s flagship housing estate.
In the last few years, concrete has been able to be 3D-printed, so it can now be produced in different shapes.
All these wall and roof panels on the Elizabeth Line were made by 3D-printing of concrete.
The technique also seems to be being used on High Speed Two.
These innovative uses of concrete have led to research into the manufacture and use of concrete.
These posts are must-reads.
- Carbon-Neutral Concrete Prototype Wins €100k Architecture Prize For UK Scientists
- UK Cleantech Consortium Awarded Funding For Energy Storage Technology Integrated With Floating Wind
- New HS2 Pilot Project Swaps Steel For Retired Wind Turbine Blades To Reinforce Concrete
- Earth Friendly Concrete
- HS2 Utilising UK-First Pioneering 3D Concrete Printing On Project
- Carbon Capture From Cement Manufacturing Nears Market Readiness
- Mineral Carbonation International Win COP26 Clean Energy Pitch Battle
The number of these posts show how much research is going into cutting the massive amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the concrete industry.
I also feel that some could work together.
Earth Friendly Concrete is a replacement for normal concrete, so perhaps it could be enhanced with graphene, to create an Earth Friendly Concretene.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells Could Get A Lot Cheaper With Newly Developed Iron Catalyst
The title of this post, is the same ass that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Scientists have been looking for an alternative to precious metals such as platinum for decades, in the hopes of bringing down the cost of hydrogen fuel cells.
An alternative to a platinum catalyst that costs considerably less will help to bring down the cost of hydrogen fuel cells and of using H2 as a carbon emission-free fuel. This would make it cheaper to both produce and use H2.
Researchers at the University of Buffalo, appear to be on the road to using iron as an affordable catalyst.
This paragraph describes he structure of the catalyst.
The researchers looked to iron because of its low cost and abundance. On its own, iron does not perform as well as platinum as a catalyst, particularly because it isn’t as durable in the face of highly corrosive and oxidative environments such as those within hydrogen fuel cells. The researchers bonded four nitrogen atoms to the iron in order to overcome that barrier, followed by embedding the material within a few graphene layers “with accurate atomic control of local geometric and chemical structures,” said Wu.
Gang Wu is leading the research.
In the early 1970s, I worked with one of ICI’s catalyst experts and he said, that improvements in this area will be large in the future.
Increasingly, I see his prediction being proved right, in the varied fields, where catalysts are used.
Viritech Issues A Call To Action For Hydrogen In The United Kingdom
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Daily Research Reporting.
This is the first paragraph.
According to Viritech, adopting clean hydrogen innovation to power road, air, and marine transportation offers the UK a major potential to retake a global engineering pioneering role, create an economic premium, and secure a key environmental dividend. The firm makes the case in its Call to Action for accelerated public and private sector commitment to groundbreaking technology with the potential to restore the UK’s leadership role in the automotive industry while also making a strong dedication to decarbonizing the difficult-to-reduce heavy freight segments of the transportation mix.
I’ll go along with what Viritech says.
Three things caught my eye in the article.
The first is the picture of a car, which I assume is hydrogen-powered.
I also liked this paragraph, which gives a prediction about how batteries and hydrogen will play out their competition.
“Hydrogen is a critical component of the zero-emissions puzzle,” said Jay Nagley, a seasoned automotive pundit from Viritech. “Batteries cannot do everything, and there are many use cases, particularly in heavy freight applications like heavy cargo vehicles, where batteries solely are not the answer to replacing fossil fuels. A dual-track method combining hydrogen and batteries, on the other hand, offers a full range of possibilities for achieving this goal. While batteries will be the primary source of growth in the early 2020s, the hydrogen powertrains will become the primary source of growth in the late 2020s.”
I agree with Jay Nagley.
The last point is only a few words.
Structural graphene pressure vessels.
That sounds to be just the ticket to reduce the size of hydrogen tanks.
Conclusion
Viritech could be one to watch.
Hydrogen Gas From Biogas
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Finance News Network.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Managing Director and CEO Geoff Ward talks about the Hazer process for low emissions hydrogen gas and high purity graphite production from biogas, CAPEX approval to proceed with the company’s commercial demonstration plant and offtake discussions.
The process doesn’t create any CO2, as it extracts the carbon as a crystalline graphite. So are there two worthwhile products from the biogas?
According to this page on Graphene Info, the graphite can be made to create graphene.
The Anonymous Widower 