Coal

Though the lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic led to some extreme dips in global carbon emissions, new analysis form the International Energy Agency (IEA) has shown how insignificant they may be in the grand scheme of things.

The burning of coal may be falling out of favor as a means of generating heat and electricity, but that doesn't mean the material no longer has any valuable uses. According to a new study, it could be utilized in the desalination of seawater.

A surprisingly simple new energy storage system is built on blocks that store thermal energy like melted chocolate chips in a muffin. The team says they’re efficient, scalable, safe, inexpensive, and can be used in existing coal-fired power plants.

Concrete is made of a combination of cement, an aggregate such as gravel, and water. If that mixture dries too fast, then cracks can form within it as it cures. Now, however, scientists have determined that the use of coal-ash spheres can help keep that from happening.

Capturing carbon from the air and sequestering it is emerging as a viable strategy, and now scientists have developed a new method to turn CO2 gas back into solid coal, that can then be buried, or even used for electronic components.

In the near future, fluorescent graphene quantum dots could crop up in clothes, cosmetics, consumer electronics and even cancer treatments. New Atlas spoke to Moti Gross, the CEO of Dotz Nano, a company that's developing new ways for these tiny, glowing, one-atom-thick dots to be made and used.​

Worldwide changes have prompted a big drop in the development of coal-fired power plants, a new study has found. Shifts in policy and economic conditions in China and India are central to the decline, says the report, which describes a 48 percent drop in overall pre-construction activity. ​

Renewables have now overtaken coal as the world's largest source of installed power capacity, and the agency's projections over the next five or so years paint a pretty promising picture for the industry indeed. ​

Scientists from MIT have created a thin-film nanomaterial version of coal that may challenge graphene and silicon. Easy to process, and cheap to make, it makes use of a material that is usually simply burned for its heating value.

A new system that combines two existing technologies — coal gasification and fuel cells — could up coal-burning efficiency to between 55 and 60 percent, in effect halving the amount of carbon dioxide produced for producing the same amount of energy using today's methods.

Researchers at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in South Africa have developed a new fuel, known as Coalgae. Made from a combination of algae and coal dust, the latter of which is a waste product, the fuel could have a significant positive impact on the environment.

Engineers at the University of Washington (UW) are working on a fusion reactor that, when scaled up, could produce energy on a practical scale, yet at a cost rivaling that of a conventional coal-powered plant.