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A foam-stabilized gas injection system for enhancing extraction and recycling of subsurface geologic gases
This technology uses specially stabilized foams to inject carrier gases into underground formations, accelerating and improving the extraction and separation of valuable geologic gases like hydrogen, helium, and methane for efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly energy production.
Background
The extraction of geologic gases such as hydrogen,...
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Technology for converting methane to methanol using tailored vibrational excitations and plasma-assisted processes
Background
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, constitutes most natural gas and is emitted from various sources such as agriculture, wetlands, and fossil fuel industries. Despite its potential as an energy source, methane’s low boiling point and flammability pose significant challenges for its compression and transport, leading to its frequent...
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Machine learning model for real-time prediction of bottom-hole circulating temperature in geothermal wells
Background
Drilling high-temperature geothermal wells presents significant technical and economic challenges due to the extreme conditions encountered deep underground. Effective thermal management is crucial to ensure that the bottom-hole circulating temperature (BHCT) remains within the operational limits of downhole tools, which is essential for...
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Rare earth metal extraction from ash
Background
Rare earth elements (REEs), such as lanthanides, yttrium, and scandium, are critical components in numerous advanced technologies, including electronics, energy storage systems, and medicine. Currently, the majority of REEs are sourced from a limited number of mining operations, which poses substantial risks to geopolitical tensions, supply...
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Plastic-degrading enzymes
Able to break down PET plastics in as little as 24 hours
Overview
Plastic waste poses an ecological challenge. There have been 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics produced—6 billion tons are waste. What do we do with this waste?
The long-term, sustainable solution is to find effective ways to break down the plastic into smaller parts and then...
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Closed loop well designs and control for extraction of subsurface geothermal power
Background
Dr. Eric van Oort and his team have developed a deep, closed-loop geothermal well design to improve upon traditional enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Dr. van Oort is the Joe J. King Chair of Engineering No. 2 and B. J. Lancaster Professorship in Petroleum Engineering and a professor at UT Austin, with primary interests in drilling/completion...
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Atmospheric water irrigation enabled by super moisture absorbent gels
Overview
The global population is projected to reach 9.6 billion people by 2025, requiring food production to increase by 70% to meet the demand of the huge population. Water is most limiting natural resource for agricultural production due to the freshwater shortage and enormous need for irrigation. Dry cropland accounts for 84% of the cultivated...
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Fabrication of metal-insulator-semiconductor photoelectrodes
Background Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a promising technology for converting solar energy into clean and storable chemical energy. In PEC cells, semiconductors play a key role in absorbing photons from the light source to create mobile charge carriers. Various semiconductor materials have been studied for the high-performance PEC cells,...
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Lithium selective organogels
Background
Lithium (Li) is a highly reactive alkali metal with excellent heat and electrical conductivity properties, making it useful for a variety of industrial applications. Because of Li’s high reactivity, pure elemental Li is not found in nature but is present as a constituent of salts or other compounds found in brines, mineral ores, clays,...
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Electrochemical production of solar-grade silicon films from SiO2
Background Silicon thin films are an important limitation for solar photovoltaic cells. Currently, manufacturing of these films are from single crystal silicon and a large amount of raw material is wasted. Single crystal silicon is not a cheap commodity. Thus, the sawing process used on single crystal silicon is costly not only from a manufacturing...
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