Whether it is to provide pressure as driving force for membrane separation, to pump out a flooded cellar or to circulate hot water in a central heating system: pumps are needed in many places. In fact, pumps account for as much as 10% of the world’s electricity consumption. How do pumps function, and why are … Continue reading How does a pump work?
Subtle or robust? Wine is an interplay of the type of grapes, the soil, the climate, the time of picking and the craftmanship of winemaking. During the winemaking process, the many components of the grapes are transferred into the wine, and yeasts take care of the conversion of sugars from the grapes into ethanol. As … Continue reading Materials for red wine
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
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
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
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
Batteries exist by the grace of people who want to be mobile at all times. Lithium ion batteries are especially popular because of their high energy density – up to 200 Watts of energy per kilogram of battery. But also because they can be recharged over and over again without deteriorating significantly. And that’s why … Continue reading Electrochemistry behind rechargeable lithium ion batteries
Materials are the building bricks of everything that we see around us. Where would smartphones, cars, buildings or solar cells be without the right materials? Materials are so self-evident that we almost forget how special they are. Materials science provides an answer to the questions ‘Why is that peculiar material suitable for that application?’ and … Continue reading Materials science in a nutshell
