Are you intrigued by the possibility of using nuclear reactors to curb emissions, but worried about their water use and long-term safety? There might be an impending solution. LiveSciencereports that China has outlined plans to build the first 'clean' commercial nuclear reactor using liquid thorium and molten salt.

The first prototype reactor should be ready in August, with the first tests due in September. A full-scale commercial reactor should be ready by 2030.

The technology should not only be kinder to the environment, but mitigate some political controversy. Conventional uranium reactors produce waste that stays extremely radioactive for up to 10,000 years, requiring lead containers and extensive security. The waste also includes plutonium-239, an isotope crucial to nuclear weapons. They also risk spilling dramatic levels of radiation in the event of a leak, as seen in Chernobyl. They also need large volumes of water, ruling out use in arid climates.

Thorium reactors, however, dissolve their key element into fluoride salt that mostly outputs uranium-233 you can recycle through other reactions. Other leftovers in the reaction have a half-life of 'just' 500 years — still not spectacular, but much safer. If there is a leak, the molten salt cools enough that it effectively seals in the thorium and prevents significant leaks. The technology doesn't require water, and can't easily be used to produce nuclear weapons. You can build reactors in the desert, far away from most cities, and without raising concerns that it will add to nuclear weapon stockpiles.

China is accordingly building the first commercial reactor in Wuwei, a desert city in the country's Gansu province. Officials also see this as a way to foster China's international expansion — it plans up to 30 in countries participating in the company's "Belt and Road" investment initiative. In theory, China can extend its political influence without contributing to nuclear arms proliferation.

That might worry the US and other political rivals that are behind on thorium reactors. The US-based Natrium reactor, for instance, is still in development. Even so, it might go a long way toward fighting climate change and meeting China's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. The country is still heavily dependent on coal energy, and there's no guarantee renewable sources will keep up with demand by themselves. Thorium reactors could help China wean itself off coal relatively quickly, especially small-scale reactors that could be built over shorter periods and fill gaps where larger plants would be excessive.

The lifetime emissions of an electric car versus a gasoline vehicle has become an intensely debated topic for governments. A new study that compares the climate impact of passenger cars could play a pivotal role in the argument. The report claims that electric cars produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions "from the cradle to the grave" than their gas-guzzling counterparts. According to the study, the core result is the same globally, even when applied to countries like China and India, where the majority of the electricity to recharge an EV comes from coal.

The findings are a rebuke for voices in the automotive and oil lobbying industries that still claim that electric cars are no cleaner than gas-powered vehicles. It arrives as governments are trying to cement their environmental policies in line with the Paris Agreement. Finalized in 2015, the climate change accord saw 143 countries, including the US, agree to limit global temperature increases to less than 2 degrees Celsius. To help meet that target, Washington state and California have proposed banning the sale of new gasoline cars from 2030 and 2035, respectively.

The study conducted by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) examined the entire life-cycles of EVs and gasoline cars, from extracting raw materials to production to their eventual disposal. Researchers examined the greenhouse gas emissions from the vehicle and fuel types in four territories that together account for 70 percent of new car sales worldwide: the US, the EU, China and India.

For cars registered in 2021, the report found that lifetime emissions for a medium-sized EV in Europe are between 66 and 69 percent lower compared to that of a gasoline vehicle in the same category. In the US, an EV produces between 60 to 68 percent fewer emissions. In China, an EV results in between 37 to 45 percent fewer emissions. In India, it’s between 19 to 34 percent lower.

By 2030, the gap between EVs and gas-guzzlers is tipped to increase to 74 percent to 77 percent in Europe, 62 percent to 76 percent in the US, 48 percent to 64 percent in China, and 30 percent to 56 percent in India. 

Notably, the researchers assume that a vehicle will be on the road for around 18 years. They also state that the gap between the figures reflects the uncertainty around how the energy mix in each region develops, which itself is tied to future policies.

“One important result of the analysis is to show that life-cycle emissions trends are similar in all four regions, despite the differences among them in vehicle mix, grid mix, and so on. Already for cars registered today, [battery electric vehicles] have better relative [greenhouse gas] emissions performance everywhere than conventional vehicles,” said ICCT deputy director Rachel Muncrief.

There are still caveats, however. Though EVs cut back on carbon emissions over time, they inevitably take a toll on the environment. By one recent estimate, you'll need to drive a new EV thirteen and a half thousand miles before you're doing less harm than a gas-guzzling saloon.

With the US back in the Paris climate accord, President Joe Biden has the lofty goal of decarbonizing the US power grid by 2035. As part of that plan, the Department of Energy (DoE) has announced that it's rolling out a new tool that will make it much easier and faster to get a permit for a rooftop solar installation. 

The cost of solar has plunged 90 percent over past decade, but permit-related costs can take up to a third of the price of a rooftop installation. On top of that, with solar permitting varying widely around the US, some customers must wait months to get approval, the DoE wrote. 

The Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP+) platform will supposedly solve those issues, becoming the standard portal for local governments to process permit applications. It automatically checks codes to ensure safety while generating a standardized inspection checklist that installers and inspectors can use to verify compliance in the field. 

We have 3 million households today that have solar on their roofs, but the potential is so much greater.

The government piloted the SolarAPP+ program in four communities around Arizona and California: Tucson and Pima County in Arizona, and Menifee and Pleasant Valley in the California. "In Tucson, for example, SolarAPP+ reduced permitting reviews from approximately 20 business days to zero," according to the DoE. 

"We have 3 million households today that have solar on their roofs, but the potential is so much greater," DoE's solar energy director told Reuters. "Having streamlined processes and an automated permitting platform that can make it faster, easier and cheaper for homeowners to go solar promises to really help expand the residential solar sector."

Local governments and installers can now sign up to get started with the app, or attend webinars listed on the DoE's blog. All of that is part of the DoE's Summer of Solar campaign which includes research by the agency aimed at lowering soft costs (design, siting, permitting, installation, etc.) associated with rooftop solar power. 

After announcing a shift to hybrid and fully electric cars by 2026, Bentley has begun showcasing the existing vehicles getting an eco-friendly makeover. Following the Bentayga Hybrid SUV, the spotlight is now on the more powerful Flying Spur sedan. 

Bentley's second plug-in hybrid features a 410 break horsepower (bhp) 2.9-liter V-6 with twin turbochargers, paired with a 134 bhp electric motor, for a combined 536 bhp. That's 95 bhp more than its SUV counterpart. While the luxury vehicle's 0-60mph acceleration time of 4.1 seconds and top speed of 177mph is just shy of the standard Flying Spur V8. 

Bentley

To improve emissions, the new engine uses fuel injectors and spark plugs centralized within each combustion chamber for "optimal spray patterns." While the twin-scroll turbos and catalytic converts are positioned within the V of the engine.

Bentley says the Flying Spur packs a 14.1kWh battery to offer an expected all-electric range of around 25 miles, pending certification. With many city centres requiring hybrids to switch to full EV mode, those figures will be critical. Some car makers like Fiat and BMW have even developed tech that can fully switch hybrids to all-electric drive in low emissions zones. 

Similar to that feature, Bentley says the hybrid manages battery usage by automatically shifting between three drive modes, including EV, allowing it to store up energy for when you reach the city. The sedan's combined petrol-electric range is more than 435 miles.

Visually, little separates the new plug-in hybrid from the rest of Flying Spur range, apart from a charging port on the left rear wing and an understated hybrid badge on the front. As you'd expect, this is a car for the uber-rich. Prices for the Flying Spur Hybrid are expected to start from an eye-watering £160,000 in its native UK, according to Auto Express, with sales beginning this summer and deliveries to kickstart before the end of the year.

The pandemic recovery might not be all positive, at least not for the environment. Reutersreports that the International Energy Agency has warned that a post-pandemic resurgence in gas demand could threaten a goal of reaching net zero emissions worldwide by 2050. A projected 3.6 percent increase in gas use for 2021 could not only negate the 2020 decline but "even grow further," according to the IEA.

Demand is expected to taper off to 1.7 percent between 2022 and 2024, but that would still be too steep to stay on track, the IEA said.

This doesn't mean the Paris agreement and other goals are lost causes, however. The IEA believed that projects approved or underway before the pandemic could rein in those emissions. The agency also suggested that the gas industry could help by cutting down on methane leaks that contribute to climate change.

There are positive signs. Renewable energy is outpacing fossil fuels in some countries, and car manufacturers are increasingly committing to all-electric lineups in the next several years. Still, the IEA report lends a sense of urgency to those actions. Humanity might need to temper its eagerness to reestablish normalcy and refocus on green tech, at least if it wants to avoid replacing one global problem with another.

Korean scientists claim a new desalination technique makes sea water fit to drink in minutes. The researchers used a membrane distillation process that resulted in 99.9 percent salt rejection for one month. If commercialized, they say the solution could help alleviate the drinking water crisis exacerbated by climate change. More than 3 billion people worldwide are affected by water shortages, with the amount of fresh water available for each person plunging by a fifth over two decades, according to the UN.

The new study details a way to purify sea water using a a nanofiber membrane as a salt filter. While scientists have used membrane distillation in the past, they kept encountering a massive obstacle that slowed down the process. If the membrane became too wet, or flooded, it could no longer reject the salt. Needless to say, this was a time-draining process that forced scientists to either wait for the membrane to dry or come up with additional solutions, like using pressurized air to release trapped water from its pores.

To overcome this challenge, the Korean team turned to a nano technology known as electrospinning to create their three-dimensional membrane. In scientific terms, they used poly vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene as the core and silica aerogel mixed with a low concentration of the polymer as the sheath to produce a composite membrane with a superhydrophobic surface. In essence, this created a filter that had a higher surface roughness and lower thermal conductivity, allowing it to desalinate water for up to 30 days. The full report was published in the Journal of Membrane Science.

“The co-axial electrospun nanofibre membrane has strong potential for the treatment of seawater solutions without suffering from wetting issues and may be appropriate for real-scale membrane distillation applications,” Dr Yunchul Woo, a materials scientist at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, said. He added that the membrane may be appropriate for "pilot-scale and real-scale membrane distillation applications.” 

Currently, the main method of purifying sea water is through reverse osmosis at the roughly 20,000 desalination plants around the world. But these facilities require vast amounts of electricity to operate and also create concentrated brine as a waste product, which is typically dumped back in the sea. Therefore, it's no wonder scientists are exploring new solutions that aren't as counter-productive.

Honda is revealing more about its first EVs for the US — and not surprisingly, they'll be decidedly larger than the Honda E. US sales chief Dave Gardner told the AP and others that Honda would sell two electric SUVS in the US for the 2024 model year. While further details were unsurprisingly scarce, one model would sell through the upscale Acura badge. Both would have previously hinted-at GM electric technology underneath, although Honda would supply the rest.

You'll hear more about the SUVs later this year, Gardner said. He added that there would be hybrid versions of popular models, although he didn't name them. The company currently sells two dedicated hybrids, the Clarity and Insight, as well as partly electrified versions of the Accord and CR-V.

We wouldn't expect these models to look too much like the SUV E:concept from September 2020. The production version of that vehicle was headed to China, and its two-door coupe design likely wouldn't get much traction in North America.

Honda doesn't have much choice. With President Biden expected to bring back tougher emissions standards and otherwise make a push for electric cars, Honda could be in trouble if it doesn't lower its emissions averages with more EVs and hybrids. There's also the matter of competition. With Ford, GM and other rivals planning to electrify large parts of their lineups in the years ahead, Honda risks being left behind in the US (and abroad) if it sticks with combustion engines.