electricity

Global Energy Leaders Discuss Transition Toward Renewable Power

By |

Throughout November and December 2021, the SC Johnson College of Business Center and the Cornell Energy Club hosted the 2021 Cornell Energy Connection –– a gathering of world energy industry leaders, which discussed the impending transition of power sources away from fossil fuels and toward renewables. The three-part series featured panelists who discussed energy transition, decarbonization and electrification to mitigate climate change. The speakers approached energy transformations through the lenses of technology, social and economic impact and political intervention. 

The first event of the series,“How Natural Gas Could Fit a Clean Energy Future,” took place on Nov. 12. Business executives in the energy sector Areli Covarrubias, Lance Crist ’87 and Ricardo Hernandez explored the implications of an increasing global demand for electricity.

Science

Cornell Researchers Use CO2 to Make Electricity

By |

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have been long characterized as one of the leading causes of global warming. And with the seemingly limitless sources of emission — from general breathing of countless living species to vehicular and industrial emissions — the amount of carbon dioxide seems to be ever increasing. It is then, a huge waste of a resource when you consider how comparatively limited the human use of this abundant gas is. The paper “The O2-assisted Al/CO2 electrochemical cell: A system for CO2 capture/conversion and electric power generation”, published in Science Advances, aims to change that. Prof. Lynden Archer, chemical and biomolecular engineering, the James A. Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and Wajdi Al Sadat, grad — who are the authors of this paper — have created a cell which can use carbon dioxide to produce electricity via electrochemical reactions.