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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

UNDERGROUND BATTERY

COULD CLEAN UP ENERGY

A team of researchers from Law-

rence Livermore National Laboratory

(LLNL), Ohio State University, Univer-

sity of Minnesota, and TerraCOH Inc.

developed a subsurface system that

stores energy from renewable sources

and dispatches it to the grid throughout

the year like a massive underground

battery, all while storing CO

from fossil

fuel power plants.

The intermittency of wind and

sunshine is one of the biggest challeng-

es to widespread integration of renew-

able energy into electric grids, while the

cost of capturing CO

and storing it per-

manently underground is a major chal-

lenge for decarbonizing fossil energy.

This large-scale system could overcome

both obstacles.

The process involves inject-

ing liquid-like CO

into underground

reservoirs in sedimentary rock, creating

a pressurized plume that pushes brine

up production wells to the surface.

The brine would then be heated and

reinjected into the reservoir, storing

thermal energy. The resulting pressur-

ized CO

would enable the system to

be charged or discharged depending

on supply and demand. When there

is insufficient renewable energy, the

pressurized CO

and brine could be re-

leased and converted to power. Accord-

ing to computer models, the amount of

that could be stored underground

by the system would be at least four

million tons per year over 30 years,

the equivalent of the CO

impact of a

600 MW coal plant

. energy.gov.

INDIVIDUAL NANOPARTICLES

TRACKED AT ATOMIC LEVEL

Researchers at McMaster Univer-

sity, Canada, in conjunction with sci-

entists at National Research Council

This integrated systemwould store CO

in an underground reservoir.

ENER Y TRE DS

Canada and Shanghai Jiao Tong Univer-

sity, have taken atomic-level images of

individual nanoparticles during heating.

Using advanced electron microscopic

techniques, the team was able to track

the atomic rearrangement of an individ-

ual platinum-iron nanoparticle as it was

annealed inside the microscope.

The work could have significant

impact in the automotive industry,

where there has been a surge of inter-

est in developing alternative energy

sources, particularly fuel cell technol-

ogy. Fuel cell devices are far more ef-

ficient and environmentally friendly

than conventional combustion tech-

nologies. However, they have typically

relied on pricey platinum nanoparti-

cles as catalysts, making them too ex-

pensive for widespread commercial-

ization. The new process could enable

development of less expensive cata-

lysts, such as platinum-iron nanoparti-

cles.

www.eng.mcmaster.ca

A Titan 80-300 Cubedmicroscope was

used for the catalyst research. Courtesy of

Stephen MacIntyre.

BRIEF

Florida State University,

Tallahassee, researchers are working to make solar cells more effective. Through a soaking

procedure, researchers assembled two molecules, an acceptor and sensitizer, on a surface. The molecules work to-

gether to perform photon upconversion, combining two low energy, green photons to generate a higher energy, blue

photon, which is used generate electricity. Using this process in optimized solar cells can increase maximum efficien-

cy from 33% to more than 45%.

fsu.edu