Sugar

PNNL researchers have discovered that dissolving a simple sugar into the electrolyte in a flow battery boosts peak power output by a remarkable 60%. What's more, after being constantly cycled for a year, the battery lost almost none of its capacity.

​Those little containers of coffee cream may not look significant on their own, but when you consider how many of them are discarded every day … it adds up to a lot of waste. That's why a PhD student created milk-and-sugar capsules that dissolve completely when placed in hot liquid.