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Biological Expression Platform for Producing and Engineering Electrically Conductive Protein Nanowires and Bioelectronic Materials
This technology uses engineered Shewanella oneidensis bacteria to rapidly produce highly conductive protein nanowires for sustainable energy, bioelectronics, and sensor applications, offering a scalable, cost-effective, and eco-friendly alternative to synthetic conductive materials.
Background
The field of bioelectronics and sustainable energy harvesting...
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Method for formation, compaction, sealing and disposal of CO2 hydrates on the seabed
Background:
The rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) present a critical global challenge, significantly contributing to climate change and ocean acidification. Current CO2 sequestration methods, such as geological storage, face numerous hurdles, including leakage risks, high costs, and the need for extensive monitoring. An emerging method...
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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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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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Generating water from air
Background Air water generation (AWG) is a technology that extracts water molecules from the relative humidity in the atmosphere, passes the condensed water vapor through a filter to produce a drinkable source of water. This type of technology is most beneficial in environments that do not produce large amounts of drinkable water such as arid climates...
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