To reduce the levelized cost of energy for concentrating solar power (CSP), the outlet temperature of the solar receiver needs to be higher than 700 °C in the next-generation CSP. Because of extensive engineering application experience, the liquid-based receiver is an attractive receiver technology for the next-generation CSP. This review is focused on four of the most promising liquid-based receivers, including chloride salts, sodium, lead-bismuth, and tin receivers. The challenges of these receivers and corresponding solutions are comprehensively reviewed and classified. It is concluded that combining salt purification and anti-corrosion receiver materials is promising to tackle the corrosion problems of chloride salts at high temperatures. In addition, reducing energy losses of the receiver from sources and during propagation is the most effective way to improve the receiver efficiency. Moreover, resolving the sodium fire risk and material compatibility issues could promote the potential application of liquid-metal receivers. Furthermore, using multiple heat transfer fluids in one system is also a promising way for the next-generation CSP. For example, the liquid sodium is used as the heat transfer fluid while the molten chloride salt is used as the storage medium. In the end, suggestions for future studies are proposed to bridge the research gaps for > 700 °C liquid-based receivers.

The aerospace industry relies heavily on lithium-ion batteries in instrumentation such as satellites and land rovers. This equipment is exposed to extremely low temperatures in space or on the Martian surface. The extremely low temperatures affect the discharge characteristics of the battery and decrease its available working capacity. Various solvents, cosolvents, additives, and salts have been researched to fine tune the conductivity, solvation, and solid-electrolyte interface forming properties of the electrolytes. Several different resistive phenomena have been investigated to precisely determine the most limiting steps during charge and discharge at low temperatures. Longer mission lifespans as well as self-reliance on the chemistry are now highly desirable to allow low temperature performance rather than rely on external heating components. As Martian rovers are equipped with greater instrumentation and demands for greater energy storage rise, new materials also need to be adopted involving next generation lithium-ion chemistry to increase available capacity. With these objectives in mind, tailoring of the electrolyte with higher-capacity materials such as lithium metal and silicon anodes at low temperatures is of high priority. This review paper highlights the progression of electrolyte research for low temperature performance of lithium-ion batteries over the previous several decades.

Solid chemisorption technologies for hydrogen storage, especially high-efficiency hydrogen storage of fuel cells in near ambient temperature zone defined from − 20 to 100°C, have a great application potential for realizing the global goal of carbon dioxide emission reduction and vision of carbon neutrality. However, there are several challenges to be solved at near ambient temperature, i.e., unclear hydrogen storage mechanism, low sorption capacity, poor sorption kinetics, and complicated synthetic procedures. In this review, the characteristics and modification methods of chemisorption hydrogen storage materials at near ambient temperature are discussed. The interaction between hydrogen and materials is analyzed, including the microscopic, thermodynamic, and mechanical properties. Based on the classification of hydrogen storage metals, the operation temperature zone and temperature shifting methods are discussed. A series of modification and reprocessing methods are summarized, including preparation, synthesis, simulation, and experimental analysis. Finally, perspectives on advanced solid chemisorption materials promising for efficient and scalable hydrogen storage systems are provided.

Targeting the net-zero emission (NZE) by 2050, the hydrogen industry is drastically developing in recent years. However, the technologies of hydrogen upstream production, midstream transportation and storage, and downstream utilization are facing obstacles. In this paper, the development of hydrogen industry from the production, transportation and storage, and sustainable economic development perspectives were reviewed. The current challenges and future outlooks were summarized consequently. In the upstream, blue hydrogen is dominating the current hydrogen supply, and an implementation of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) can raise its cost by 30%. To achieve an economic feasibility, green hydrogen needs to reduce its cost by 75% to approximately 2 $/kg at the large scale. The research progress in the midterm sector is still in a preliminary stage, where experimental and theoretical investigations need to be conducted in addressing the impact of embrittlement, contamination, and flammability so that they could provide a solid support for material selection and large-scale feasibility studies. In the downstream utilization, blue hydrogen will be used in producing value-added chemicals in the short-term. Over the long-term, green hydrogen will dominate the market owing to its high energy intensity and zero carbon intensity which provides a promising option for energy storage. Technologies in the hydrogen industry require a comprehensive understanding of their economic and environmental benefits over the whole life cycle in supporting operators and policymakers.

High cost has undoubtedly become the biggest obstacle to the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), in which Pt-based catalysts employed in the cathodic catalyst layer (CCL) account for the major portion of the cost. Although non-precious metal catalysts (NPMCs) show appreciable activity and stability in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), the performance of fuel cells based on NPMCs remains unsatisfactory compared to those using Pt-based CCL. Therefore, most studies on NPMC-based fuel cells focus on developing highly active catalysts rather than facilitating oxygen transport. In this work, the oxygen transport behavior in CCLs based on highly active Fe-N-C catalysts is comprehensively explored through the elaborate design of two types of membrane electrode structures, one containing low-Pt-based CCL and NPMC-based dummy catalyst layer (DCL) and the other containing only the NPMC-based CCL. Using Zn-N-C based DCLs of different thickness, the bulk oxygen transport resistance at the unit thickness in NPMC-based CCL was quantified via the limiting current method combined with linear fitting analysis. Then, the local and bulk resistances in NPMC-based CCLs were quantified via the limiting current method and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Results show that the ratios of local and bulk oxygen transport resistances in NPMC-based CCL are 80% and 20%, respectively, and that an enhancement of local oxygen transport is critical to greatly improve the performance of NPMC-based PEMFCs. Furthermore, the activity of active sites per unit in NPMC-based CCLs was determined to be lower than that in the Pt-based CCL, thus explaining worse cell performance of NPMC-based membrane electrode assemblys (MEAs). It is believed that the development of NPMC-based PEMFCs should proceed not only through the design of catalysts with higher activity but also through the improvement of oxygen transport in the CCL.

Electrothermal metasurfaces have garnered considerable attention owing to their ability to dynamically control thermal infrared radiation. Although previous studies were mainly focused on metasurfaces with infinite unit cells, in practice, the finite-size effect can be a critical design factor for developing thermal metasurfaces with fast response and broad temperature uniformity. Here, we study the thermal metasurfaces consisting of gold nanorods with a finite array size, which can achieve a resonance close to that of the infinite case with only several periods. More importantly, such a small footprint due to the finite array size yields response time down to a nanosecond level. Furthermore, the number of the unit cells in the direction perpendicular to the axis of nanorods is found to be insensitive to the resonance and response time; thus, providing a tunable aspect ratio that can boost the temperature uniformity in the sub-Kelvin level.

Many efforts have been focused on enhancing the vapor generation in bi-layer solar steam generation systems for obtaining as much pure water as possible. However, the methods to enhance the vapor temperature is seldom studied although the high-temperature vapor has a wide use in medical sterilization and electricity generation. In this work, to probe the high-temperature vapor system, an improved macroscopic heat and mass transfer model was proposed. Then, using the finite element method to solve the model, the influences of some main factors on the evaporation efficiency and vapor temperature were discussed, including effects of the vapor transport conditions and the heat dissipation conditions. The results show that the high-temperature vapor could not be obtained by enhancing the heat-insulating property of the bi-layer systems but by applying the optimal porosity and proper absorbers. This paper is expected to provide some information for designing a bi-layered system to produce high-temperature vapor.

To improve the fault redundancy capability for the high reliability requirement of a brushless doubly-fed generation system applied to large offshore wind farms, the control winding of a brushless doubly-fed reluctance generator is designed as an open-winding structure. Consequently, the two ends of the control winding are connected via dual three-phase converters for the emerging open-winding structure. Therefore, a novel fault-tolerant control strategy based on the direct power control scheme is brought to focus in this paper. Based on the direct power control (DPC) strategy, the post-fault voltage vector selection method is explained in detail according to the fault types of the dual converters. The fault-tolerant control strategy proposed enables the open-winding brushless doubly-fed reluctance generator (BDFRG) system to operate normally in one, two, or three switches fault of the converter, simultaneously achieving power tracking control. The presented results verify the feasibility and validity of the scheme proposed.

The active power loop flow (APLF) may be caused by impropriate network configuration, impropriate parameter settings, and/or stochastic bus powers. The power flow controllers, e.g., the unified power flow controller (UPFC), may be the reason and the solution to the loop flows. In this paper, the critical existence condition of the APLF is newly integrated into the simultaneous power flow model for the system and UPFC. Compared with the existing method of alternatively solving the simultaneous power flow and sensitivity-based approaching to the critical existing condition, the integrated power flow needs less iterations and calculation time. Besides, with wind power fluctuation, the interval power flow (IPF) is introduced into the integrated power flow, and solved with the affine Krawcyzk iteration to make sure that the range of active power setting of the UPFC not yielding the APLF. Compared with Monte Carlo simulation, the IPF has the similar accuracy but less time.

Waste biomass-supported magnetic solid acids have particular advantages in catalyst separation. First, a novel magnetic carbonaceous catalyst was synthesized from waste garlic peel (GP) via in situ impregnation before conducting carbonization at 450–600°C and sulfonation at 105°C. The physical and chemical properties of the synthesized catalysts were characterized. It was found that the magnetism of the catalyst increased with the carbonization temperature. The optimized catalyst, carbonized at 600°C (C600-S), possessed an excellent magnetization value of 12.5 emu/g, with a specific surface area of 175.1 m²/g, a pore volume of 0.16 cm³/g, and an acidic property of 0.74 mmol/g -SO₃H density. By optimizing the esterification conditions to produce biodiesel, an oleic acid conversion of 94.5% was achieved at w(catalyst dosage) = 10% (w is mass fraction), a molar ratio of n(methanol): n(oleic acid) = 10: 1 (n is the amount of substance), and a reaction for 4 h at 90°C. Further, for catalyst regeneration, it was found that sulfuric acid treatment was more effective for improving the esterification activity than solvent washing, with which a conversion of more than 76% was achieved after the third run.