Important Innovations Collection

Zero Emission, Electric Trucks Source:  Volta Trucks of Sweden Next Growth Industry for Electric Road Travel Swedish startup Volta Trucks has unveiled its 16 ton electric truck, the Volta Zero.  The company says it will start manufacturing it in the United Kingdom in 2022.  With the tremendous success of electric cars led by Tesla, automakers now are also turning their attention to electrifying big rigs, which are the worst polluters on the road.  A number of companies including Volvo, Daimler, Rivian and Nikola have electric, big trucks under development. Greener Highways Volta's goal is to have 500 of its zero-emissions, electric trucks on the road by 2022.  And it is about to enter the customer testing phase.  The British parcel delivery company DPDgroup and other companies in Europe will be testing the vehicles on their routes in 2021.  Meanwhile, Volta is in a capital raising phase to bulk up for mass production of its vehicles.  This time pe...

Targets 2 Wheelers to be Electric by 2026 Source:  New Delhi Street stock image India's Government Sees EV Future India is working on a plan to require that all 2-wheel vehicles, such as mopeds, motorbikes and scooters, be electric by 2026.  That is a very big deal.  2-wheel vehicles are the dominant form of transportation in India.  Of the 250 million registered vehicles, 190 million are 2-wheel. Global EV Capital The government of Prime Minister Narenda Modi is strongly committed to an EV future.  In fact, the government is accelerating incentives to produce and buy EVs.  A number of new startups are springing up creating e-scooters, e-mopeds and e-bikes.  India has a goal to become a global capital of EV manufacturing. Cleaner, Greener Driving For India much is at stake.  It is a huge consumer of crude oil to power the 250 million vehicles, which in turn spew toxic emissions into the air.  A recent study indicates that vehic...

Plans Ramping Up Source:  Airbus. E-Thrust Concept Electric Hybrid Aircraft Cleaner, Greener Flying Airbus is moving forward on plans to produce hybrid electric planes for commercial use by 2035.  This is part of Airbus' major focus to develop and manufacture low emissions aircraft.  Global air travel spews millions of tons of carbon dioxide from jet fuel into the atmosphere.  Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury confirmed that he's moving ahead with the industry's first program to potentially develop and produce fleets of hybrid electric aircraft.  He confirmed his electric hybrid plane goals during a conversation with reporters this weekend. E-Thrust Concept: Electric-Hybrid Flying Commitment with Greatly Reduced Emissions Airbus' commitment to developing greener energy sources to power jets is clear.  In May, Airbus and SAS Scandinavian Airlines signed an agreement to partner on research for electric and hybrid aircraft designs.  Their E-Thrust conc...

New System to Fight Climate Change Source:  MIT image of the system New Carbon Capture Technology from MIT Engineers This new technology is from MIT engineers to clean the air of CO2 and fight climate change.  Their invention removes CO2 from air streams at almost any concentration levels from the open air to emissions from power plants.  MIT says it works like a large battery and it requires low energy and low money to operate when compared to other approaches. Like a Battery Like a very large battery, the MIT system absorbs CO2 from a gas stream that passes over its electrodes as it charges up.  While going through the process, the device alternates between charging and discharging.  During the charging cycle, fresh air blows through the system.  During discharging, concentrated carbon dioxide blows through.  As the process is done, pure carbon dioxide is discharged.  The MIT engineers say their carbon capture tech shows the power of...

New Tech to Cut, Capture & Reuse CO2 Source:  Arizona State University A Start to Reducing Climate Change A team at Arizona State University have developed what they call mechanical trees.  Each tree is a column containing stacked disks of absorbent materials that pull in and capture carbon dioxide from the air. The CO2 goes into a container for reuse and the discs are then redeployed. Potentially Game-changing Tech 12 trees are capable of removing one metric ton of carbon dioxide every day for less than $100 per ton.  That is the lowest cost of CO2 removal in the industry.  It's a big advantage for this new developing technology. US Deployment A Dublin based start-up, Silicon Kingdom Holdings, founded by an ASU professor, plans to erect mechanical trees in the US. This may be the world's biggest direct air system to date to collect and reuse CO2.  Carbon dioxide is cited as the main cause for climate change in the earth's atmosphere.  Th...