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Life cycle assessment (LCA) can measure the environmental impact of products and technologies, but it faces challenges in data quality and system interoperability. This Review examines the need for standardized methodologies, improved transparency, open-source tools, and the integration of artificial intelligence and blockchain to develop global LCA data systems.
Floating offshore wind farms can harvest the steady winds found at sea in locations where the seabed is too deep for fixed-bottom wind turbines. This Perspective explores the technical, industrial and social implications of deploying floating offshore wind on a commercial scale.
Environmental conditions fundamentally shape the reliability and sustainability of additive manufacturing. As additive manufacturing moves into real-world environments, these factors need to be considered in modelling and design.
Multi-junction solar cells can provide a way to increase the efficiency of solar cells beyond the theoretical efficiency limits of single-junction devices. This Review explores the design and performance of multi-junction devices that use perovskite materials for the two wide bandgap middle and top layers.
Wind turbine retirement will result in large end-of-life material flows that must be managed. This Review discusses material reuse and recycling options for composites, steel, rare-earth elements and concrete.
Ammonia can store and transport renewable energy for large-scale and long-term use. This Review discusses its synthesis under mild conditions through metal-mediated electrochemical, direct plasma-catalytic and tandem plasma-electrocatalytic processes, along with economic considerations and utilization in hydrogen production and fuel cells.
Metal–CO2 batteries offer the dual benefits of energy storage and carbon utilization, but their commercial viability is limited by drawbacks in performance, cost and safety. This Review discusses barriers to the development and commercialization of aqueous and non-aqueous metal–CO2 batteries and how to overcome them.
Daniel Dailey discusses how inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry can be used in elemental analysis, such as when developing ways to recover critical minerals from unconventional resources.
Concentrating solar technologies can be used to generate electricity and process heat from sunlight, with the capability to store energy for use at night or when insolation is low. This Review discusses the status and perspectives in different fields of applications, as well as options for technical improvements.
Marta Kowalkińska explains how X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy can be used to characterize the surface of photoactive semiconductors for photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications.
Adequate sanitation is crucial for public health, particularly in off-grid areas. Electrostatic charges generated through human motion via contact electrification could potentially offer sanitation without requiring stable electrical or chemical supplies.
The cold chain is essential to the safe transport of perishable goods but has a high environmental impact. This Review discusses technologies and strategies that could reduce this impact, through refrigerant selection, thermal energy storage and renewable energy integration.
Abu Danish Aiman Bin Abu Sofian describes how in situ infrared spectroscopy techniques can be used to design better photocatalysts for green ammonia synthesis.
As the use of lithium-ion batteries continues to grow, cost-effective battery recycling becomes essential, yet recycling cost models often overlook key factors such as transport and capital investments. This Review examines geographical and scale-dependent cost drivers in pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical and direct recycling cost assessments.
Solar-driven electrolysis can produce value-added chemicals through less energy-intensive processes. This Review examines the fundamentals and economics of different electrochemical approaches powered directly or indirectly by sunlight and alternative reactions that replace O2 evolution and integrate downstream utilization of H2.
