For the series the good news we like to read:

Serbian Scientists Experiment With Mealworms To Degrade Polystyrene

Serbian scientists have been experimenting with mealworms as a way to break down polystyrene. Larisa Ilijin, a principal research fellow at Belgrade’s Institute for Biology, said the scientists had discovered that mealworms can digest various plastics, including polystyrene, which is used in packaging, insulation and food containers

“When breaking down 1 kg of Styrofoam, larvae emit one to two grams of carbon dioxide … If we incinerate it … (Styrofoam) emits over 4,000 times more,”

“Styrofoam takes over 500 years to decompose in nature … this would be one of the good ways for solving the problem of plastic waste in nature,” Ilijin said.

Those are the good new we want to read

Electrolyte Highway Breakthrough Unlocks Affordable Low-Temperature Hydrogen Fuel

Researchers at Kyushu University have developed a solid-oxide fuel cell that operates at just 300C, less than half the usual operating temperature. The team was able to do this by engineering a “ScO6 highway” in the electrolyte, allowing protons to move quickly without losing performance. “The team expects that their new findings will lead to the development of low-cost, low-temperature SOFCs and greatly accelerate the practical application of these devices,” said the researchers in a press release. Interesting Engineering reports:

Researchers Develop New Material That Converts CO2 into Methanol Using Sunlight

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday March 30, 2024 @01:34PM from the fun-with-photocatalysis dept.

“Researchers have successfully transformed CO2 into methanol,” reports SciTechDaily, “by shining sunlight on single atoms of copper deposited on a light-activated material, a discovery that paves the way for creating new green fuels.” Tara LeMercier, a PhD student who carried out the experimental work at the University of Nottingham, School of Chemistry, said: “We measured the current generated by light and used it as a criterion to judge the quality of the catalyst. Even without copper, the new form of carbon nitride is 44 times more active than traditional carbon nitride. However, to our surprise, the addition of only 1 mg of copper per 1 g of carbon nitride quadrupled this efficiency. Most importantly the selectivity changed from methane, another greenhouse gas, to methanol, a valuable green fuel.”


Professor Andrei Khlobystov, School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, said: “Carbon dioxide valorization holds the key for achieving the net-zero ambition of the UK. It is vitally important to ensure the sustainability of our catalyst materials for this important reaction. A big advantage of the new catalyst is that it consists of sustainable elements — carbon, nitrogen, and copper — all highly abundant on our planet.” This invention represents a significant step towards a deep understanding of photocatalytic materials in CO2 conversion. It opens a pathway for creating highly selective and tuneable catalysts where the desired product could be dialed up by controlling the catalyst at the nanoscale.

“The research has been published in the Sustainable Energy & Fuels journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.”

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Baron_Yam for sharing the article.

From science.slashdot.org

Those are the good news we want to read!

Nuova cella solare al silicio raggiunge un’efficienza record del 36,1%

https://www.futuroprossimo.it/2023/10/nuova-cella-solare-al-silicio-raggiunge-unefficienza-record-del-361/

Ossia le belle notizie che che ci piace leggere. Ora manca solo una batteria che abbia una densità energetica pari o superiore a quella di benzina, gasolio e GPL, ossia 45-49KJ/kg (per la cronaca le batterie al litio siamo nell’ordine di 0,5-0,7 KJ/Kg ossia quasi cento volte meno)

Incidenti auto, risarcimento anche se le riparazioni superano il valore residuo

Ogni tanto qualche timida, buona notizia….

Secondo la Corte di Cassazione gli automobilisti hanno diritto a un risarcimento completo per gli incidenti stradali, indipendentemente dal valore commerciale del veicolo

La Corte di Cassazione ha recentemente emesso una sentenza che estende ulteriormente i diritti degli automobilisti coinvolti in incidenti stradali. In particolare, ha stabilito che un’auto può essere riparata anche sei costisuperano il valore commerciale del veicolo, eliminando la precedente pratica delle compagnie assicurative di richiedere la rottamazione dell’auto in determinate circostanze.

Da Gazzetta.it – Incidenti auto, risarcimento anche se le riparazioni superano il valore residuo

Che sia la volta buona?

https://www.fanpage.it/innovazione/scienze/batteria-sperimentale-puo-aumentare-di-10-volte-lautonomia-delle-auto-elettriche-possibile-svolta/ l’articolo è pubblicato su fanpage quindi è necessariamente da prendere con le pinze e del sano scetticismo ma…

Se la promessa verrà mantenuta beh, allora saremo davvero ad un punto di svolta: un aumento della densità di energia di ordine di grandezza è veramente un’innovazione necessaria per il successo dell’auto elettrica.

Certo stando a Densità energetica – https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densit%C3%A0_energetica?wprov=sfla1 si passerebbe da 0,5-0,7 MJ/kg a 5-7 che è ancora piuttosto distante dai 47 circa della benzina … ma è sicuramente un’innovazione graditissima. Anche per tutte gli altri apparati che usano batterie al litio.

Scientists Discover Enzyme That Turns Air Into Electricity – Slashdot

It seems too good to be true. Let’s hope they will be able to tackle it somehow.

Scientists Discover Enzyme That Turns Air Into Electricity – Slashdot

Australian scientists have discovered an enzyme that converts air into energy. The finding, published in the journal Nature …..

the researchers extracted the enzyme responsible for using atmospheric hydrogen from a bacterium called Mycobacterium smegmatis. They showed that this enzyme, called Huc, turns hydrogen gas into an electrical current. Dr. Grinter notes, “Huc is extraordinarily efficient. Unlike all other known enzymes and chemical catalysts, it even consumes hydrogen below atmospheric levels — as little as 0.00005% of the air we breathe.”