About five years ago the Dutch book Kennismaken met materialen saw the light of day. A book that has found its way into large and small companies, educational and research institutes, universities, bookstores and libraries, as a reference work but also as a (business) gift for many interested parties. The described examples in the world … Continue reading Book Meet materials has been published – in English!
In the Netherlands anno 2021, energy is mainly used to heat buildings such as houses (with central heating on natural gas, especially in autumn and winter), for lighting and to run appliances (in the form of electricity), to power cars and other vehicles (mainly liquid motor fuels made from oil), and in industry to convert … Continue reading Energy transition – how to depart from fossil fuels
Just like coal, oil, natural gas and electricity, hydrogen is also an energy carrier – it contains energy that can be released, for example through combustion. Hydrogen has a high energy density of around 33 kWh per kilogram, almost three times the value of petrol. In practice, however, this high value is rather disappointing because … Continue reading Hydrogen
The comfortable temperature on earth is due to the unique combination of the distance to the sun and the presence of our atmosphere. As a result, the earth absorbs just the right amount of solar energy we need for life as we know it. And the atmosphere acts as an insulating blanket, keeping the temperature … Continue reading Carbon dioxide and global warming
Just outside the earth’s atmosphere, the sun shines with a power of 1367 watts on a square meter of surface facing the sun. This sunlight radiates continuously from the sun to the earth. On a cloudless day in summer, 1000 watts per square meter arrive at the earth’s surface in the Netherlands – the earth’s … Continue reading Solar energy: from sunlight to electricity
Nuclear power plants for energy generation use the solid ceramic material uranium oxide UO2 as “fuel”. If the uranium isotope 235U in the nuclear reactor is bombarded with slow neutrons, this produces an unstable uranium isotope 236U that very quickly decomposes into large nuclei with a mass number around 142 and around 92, such as … Continue reading Nuclear energy
Betase performs Dutch language checks (proofreading) and text corrections for technical companies and organisations. This is a final check of texts that are almost ready, and for which it is desirable to critically review the Dutch language use of such a document. Also for foreign companies that produced a Dutch text, e.g. via machine translation. … Continue reading Dutch proofreading
In an internal combustion engine in your car, the fuel – petrol, diesel, LPG – reacts directly with oxygen. The larger volume of combustion gases pushes a piston back and forth, and a crankshaft converts this back-and-forth movement into a rotating movement for the car wheels. Chemical energy from the fuel is converted into useful … Continue reading Electrochemistry of the fuel cell
The end of the teenage years of the 21st century is in sight. A good moment to look back at the past decades, which were characterised by a multitude and variety of technological developments. Without having the illusion of being complete, here are some highlights from this period. Consider microtechnology for ICT, but also new … Continue reading Technological developments over the last 50 years
If you want to measure the corrosion progress or the performance of a fuel cell, impedance spectroscopy is a suitable technique. This allows you, for example, to monitor processes within electrochemistry such as corrosion over time by taking measurements at regular intervals. Materials science meets electrical engineering. Suppose you are an electrician and you want … Continue reading Impedance spectroscopy: monitoring of electrochemical processes
