FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

ENERGY STORING BRICKS

 In a world in despairing need to go carbon-free, solar, wind, and renewables are the future. But our present capacity to store their excess energy falls short. In fact, most of the time, that power goes missing. Of the many solutions swirling around, air—or rather, compressed air— seems to be sweeping some in the energy sector off their feet. Compressed air energy storage, or CAES, takes advantage of air’s capacity to be stored in the form of elastic potential energy until we’re ready to use it. Lauded as a sustainable way to make renewables the world’s go-to energy source, this storage system could be the one we’ve all been waiting for. But we’re currently grappling with modernizing the world’s power grid. A vital challenge is to make renewables reliable in every situation, not just on sunny, cloud-free days. These energy sources need to be “firmed,” meaning that they give energy on-demand. As of present, large-scale lithium-ion batteries are the most developed technology used to store and distribute this energy, and are already being readily adopted by renewable power sites across the globe. But as we probably all know by now, work remains to be done to prolong the lifespan of these batteries and make them less expensive. So as the search for long-duration storage solutions continues, what have we got so far? Well, one contender is compressed air storage. The technology is kind of like a giant version of the canned air that blows crumbs loose from your keyboard, except that instead of storing gases in liquid form, CAES require converting electrical energy into high-pressure air, which is later released to drive a turbine. Theoretically, CAES could be a cheaper, more sustainable alternative to batteries. And since its based off technology that has long been used by the oil and gas industry, the foundational knowledge is there, ready to be worked on and improved. But there are a little things holding it back. Conventional CAES systems require having a place, like an existing or solution-mined rock cavern, that’s big and stable enough to store compressed air at a high pressure. This geographical limitation has meant that the technology can’t always live where grid needs are greatest. Then there’s the issue of conventional CAES systems not storing the thermal energy that’s generated during charging. As air is compressed, it heats up, and as air expands, it cools down. If the thermal energy generated during compression isn’t stored, a large chunk of energy during charging is lost to the atmosphere. 

To circumvent this problem, conventional CAES systems heat the air prior to expansion by burning natural gas, which not only deteriorates the system’s efficiency but seems utterly pointless if we want a greener system. For these reasons, CAES hasn’t taken off—there’s actually only been two plants built to date. But the Canadian company Hydrostor still thinks that renewables and CAES— or rather, what they call “Advanced” CAES—make a perfect pair. While their fundamental idea is nothing new, their approach is different. Rather than relying on salt caverns to store air like conventional CAES systems, Hydrostor can also use hard-rock caverns, which can be built at practically any site. Using subsurface caverns that are connected to a ground-level water reservoir, compressed air is sent down to the cavern to be stored, displacing water up a shaft to the reservoir. When there’s a power need, water is allowed to flow back into the cavern, forcing the compressed air back to the facility. This technique improves the system’s efficiency and reduces the amount of space needed to store the compressed air. It also means that the system can be deployed near places where energy is most needed, like cities. And to avoid those pesky thermal energy losses? Hydrostor’s technology stores the heat generated through charging and reintroduces it to the air prior to discharge, eliminating the need to burn gas altogether. A Hydrostor plant can presently recover about 6 units of electricity for every 10 that it stores. That’s about a 60% efficiency—significantly better than the 40% of traditional CAES systems. While work remains to be done, Hydrostor already has a 1MW demonstration facility up and running in Toronto, Ontario, and their 2MW commercial contracted facility in Goderich, Ontario was just completed. They’re now bidding to expand out with much larger projects— ranging in capacity from 20-500MW—in the U.S., Canada, Chile, and Australia. So will Hydrostor’s take on CAES be the storage technology that renewables need to boot fossil fuels for good? Time and investment in the tech will soon tell whether the idea behind compressed air storage is just a bunch of hot air, or a system that will let us draw from 100% renewables, 100% of the time.  

SELF-HEALING 'LIVING CONCRETE'

  Imagine a bridge that requires no maintenance,a road that never needs costly repairs. No traffic jams or excessive emissions from reconstruction activities. Such infrastructure is a step closer to reality if concrete has the ability to heal itself. Concrete is used throughout the construction industry, from building foundations to bridges and underground parking lots. However, traditional concrete has a major flaw--it tends to crack when subjected to tension. Tiny surface cracks in a concrete structure can lead to overall deterioration if water or other chemicals seep in and corrode the steel reinforcement. In recent years, researchers around the world have been trying to create self-healing concrete. A self-healing concrete mix would significantly reduce the amount of time and money needed for repair and potentially extend a structure’s life. Several proposals for creating self-healing concrete exist.

 

 Most proposals feature tiny micro capsules in the concrete. The micro capsules rupture when a small crack appears and a healing agent or sealant is released, solidifying and sealing up the crack. Frequently, the micro capsule is filled with a polymer or plastic,but some researchers have proposed bacterial spores. When exposed to water, the bacteria form limestone to seal up the crack. Oxygen is also reduced when bacteria reproduce, making it harder for rust to form on the steel reinforcement. Another proposal features a self-healing coating,applied to existing concrete structures. The coating would have the small micro capsules that would react when exposed to sunlight, repairing the concrete coating and preventing water from penetrating the sealed concrete. All of these proposals illustrate that the-potential of self-healing concrete is enormous. As anyone in construction can tell you, those tiny little cracks can create major problems. Potholes, however, may be with us for the long haul.

SELF-DRIVING TRUCK TECHNOLOGY

 It's been this way for as long as trucking has existed. A driver, their rig and the road. What happens to that equation when the transformative power of artificial intelligence reshapes the landscape of trucking through self-driving vehicle technology. First the upside: autonomous vehicle technology will get goods from the warehouse to the storehouse to your house, faster and cheaper than ever before. All while easing concerns about accidents caused by distracted or drowsy drivers. The technology could remove 1.9 million American workers from the driver's seat. How many of them wind up in the unemployment line is up for debate. You look at on our daily average the impact of truck drivers coming here and then being taken away from self-driving vehicles... a loss of about a third of our business. My truck has a collision avoidance on it.now which I find a pain in the Self-drivings trucks is something obviously that's going to be coming down the road.I think everybody sees the writing on the wall. The drivers still I think gonna be viable for a long time and even with a fully automated truck I think they're still gonna have to have somebody in that cab who override it something goes wrong as you know computers do.Self-driving vehicles have already claimed the lives of pedestrians and passengers alike in deadly glitches. How can manufacturers ensure those problems don't persist and one of the anarchists looking to cause harm by commandeering autonomous trucks through cyber hacking. Leaders from all sectors of the economy need a list of road rules to navigate the autonomous trucking revolution ahead and not just freight companies, the retailers and manufacturers that rely on the industry or those that regulate it, must equip themselves for the road ahead. They'll need guardrails for the intrepid technologists racing to commercialize autonomous vehicles and high octane fuel for those business laggards that need to rev their engines of innovation.Signposts for the legislators and policymakers shaping regulations for advancement of all stakeholders and the workers that drive this whole industry need a map to find their link in the supply chain. We need to plan for new revenue that new revenue is in our parking lots and also in truck service shops. Self-driving trucks would need that as well. So we would turn our parking lots into reserved parking spaces that would have to be per-planned out and then the installation of a truck shop at our site to be able to service those vehicles which would involve computer programming people that would be able to repair those items along with regular diesel mechanics and semi-truck mechanics as well. All the key players can learn to take the will of their own journey if they abide by the following road rules: be on time but no one's ago; stay in your lane; play nice with the robots; prepare for the fast lane; keep your eyes on the road.

 

 The autonomous future of trucking is technologically and economically thrilling but the disruption it brings has a downside for those upended and left behind by the changes to come.Anything that's negative can be changed to a positive by planning and making sure that you're prepared for it when it comes. Seemingly by the month, the rules of the road for autonomous vehicles grows more and more difficult to navigate. Brace yourself; the hands-off trucking revolution is decidedly a hands-on endeavor. You know it comes to backing into a dock some of them would be kind of nice looking back itself in. The Cognizant Center for the Future of Work has been writing about the future of trucking to the rise of AI-powered autonomous vehicles. 

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