Researchers at MIT have developed electron-conducting carbon concrete, a new kind of cement “that can store and release electricity like batteries,” reports Matthew Burgos for Design Boom. “MIT’s concrete battery shows a future where the material can be embedded into roads or parking areas to charge electric vehicles directly, or for off-grid homes that do not need external power,” Burgos explains.
Leah Ellis, a former MIT postdoc and co-founder of MIT startup Sublime Systems, speaks with Nature reporter Jacqui Thornton about the creation of the company. “I felt that the word Sublime encapsulated the spirit of excellence, transcendence and purity that we intend to exemplify as we build a technology and a company that we hope will change the world — and the inherent properties of cement itself.”
Boston Globe reporter Jon Chesto spotlights the kickoff event for the new MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance, which will “fund research initiatives, fellowships, and other programs with an eye toward improving energy technologies and decarbonization.” GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik emphasized that he has been impressed with the passion and talent for clean-tech among the students at MIT and other universities. “I started these discussions with the objective that we should inspire future leaders to come into our industry and ideally come to our company,” Strazik said. “They’ve probably inspired us more than we’ve inspired them.”
Researchers at MIT have developed a new self-assembling battery material that could help combat growing concerns about EV battery waste, reports Grace Snelling for Fast Company. The new method “makes it much easier to separate [battery] component parts, leaving them ready for recycling,” writes Snelling.
Inspired by a scene in Harry Potter, researchers at MIT have developed a new self-assembling battery material that could one day serve as an “easy-to-recycle alternative for manufacturing EV batteries,” reports Gayoung Lee for Gizmodo. Notably, the process doesn’t require the harsh chemical and thermal conditions that make EV battery recycling so difficult, offering promising opportunities for recycling the batteries at scale.”
Leah Ellis, a former MIT postdoc and co-founder of MIT startup Sublime Systems, speaks with Nature reporter Emma Ulker about the company’s mission to reduce carbon emissions from cement production, how her work with co-founder Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang helped inspire her entrepreneurial journey, and her philosophy as a science entrepreneur. “At Sublime, we are tackling a hard problem — pun intended — because the cement industry is one of the most difficult to approach, owing to its sheer scale,” explains Ellis. “The motivation for our work is that change in cement-making technology has a significant impact — it’s really only once in a millennium that you get to rethink such a foundational and monumental building material.”
Researchers at MIT have developed an “AI-powered tool that scans scientific literature and over 1 million rock samples to identify materials that can partially replace cement in concrete,” reports Samanatha Hindman for Yahoo! News. The new system could “change how we build cities forever,” says Hindman. “The system sorts materials based on their physical and chemical properties, narrowing them down by how well they hold concrete together when mixed with water (hydraulic reactivity) and how they strengthen it over time (pozzolanicity).”
Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang and his colleagues have developed a sodium-air fuel cell that “packs three to four times more energy per pound than common lithium-ion batteries,” reports Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe, which could serve as “a potentially groundbreaking clean power source for airplanes.” Pressman adds that: “Ultimately, a sodium-air fuel cell could power a regional jet carrying 50 to 100 passengers on flights as long as 300 miles.”
MIT researchers have developed a new membrane that can separate different kinds of fuel by molecular size, which could replace the current energy-intensive crude oil distillation process. “Roughly 1 percent of global energy use goes into separating crude oil into gasoline, diesel, and heating oil,” writes Aamir Khollam for Interesting Engineering. This new membrane “excelled in lab tests…[and] effectively separated real industrial oil samples containing naphtha, kerosene, and diesel.”
Boston Business Journal reporter Eli Chavez spotlights Sublime Systems, an MIT startup “focused on low-carbon cement production.” “Sublime’s mission is to have a swift and massive impact measured in the amount of cement we produce and sell,” says CEO Leah Ellis, a former MIT postdoc. “We are super-focused on increasing our cement production.”
A study by MIT researchers finds “using scrubbers to treat exhaust from heavy fuel oil may offer environmental performance on par with, and in some areas superior to, burning low-sulfur fuels in maritime shipping,” reports Hassan Ahmed for Engineeringness. “The research provides data that could help policymakers and industry leaders better assess the comparative costs and benefits of available fuel options,” explains Ahmed.
Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer and dean of MIT’s School of Engineering, speaks with Boston Globe reporter Jon Chesto about the new MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance. “A great amount of innovation happens in academia. We have a longer view into the future,” says Chandrakasan. He adds that while companies like GE Vernova have “the ability to get products out quickly to scale up, to manufacture, we have the ability to think past the short-term. ... It’s super smart of them to surround themselves with this incredible talent in academia. That will allow us to make the kind of breakthroughs that will keep U.S. competitiveness at its peak.”
E&E News reporter Christa Marshall writes that the new MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance will “scale sustainable energy systems across the globe” and advance breakthrough low-carbon technologies.
MIT engineers have developed a new system that helps pesticides adhere more effectively to plant leaves, allowing farmers to use fewer chemicals without sacrificing crop protection, reports Michigan Farm News. The new technology “adds a thin coating around droplets as they are being sprayed onto a field, increasing the stickiness of pesticides by as much as a hundredfold.”
“A breakthrough from MIT researchers and AgZen, a spinoff company, is making agricultural spraying more efficient—cutting pesticide waste, lowering costs, and reducing environmental impact,” reports Rural Radio Network. “The technology works with existing sprayers, eliminating the need for costly equipment changes. In field tests, it doubled product retention on crops like soybeans and kale. AgZen’s spray-monitoring system, RealCoverage, has already helped farmers reduce pesticide use by 30 to 50 percent, and the new coating could improve efficiency even further.”