• Singapore targets two million tonnes of CO2 capture by 2030

    Singapore is aiming to establish a testbed for carbon capture technology on Jurong Island, which is dominated by a large oil refinery hub. There are more than 100 companies based on the island, including Shell, ExxonMobile, BP, DuPont, Chevron, Singapore Petroleum Company, and Singapore Refining Company. Jurong allows Singapore to rank among the top oil-refining powers despite having no crude oil deposits of its own. Both Shell and ExxonMobile have expressed interest in building carbon capture facilities in the region; Shell revealed this week that it is exploring the possibility of a carbon capture and storage hub in Singapore. Carbon capture has not yet been deployed on a large scale and remains economically unfeasible. However, the International Energy Agency acknowledges that carbon…

  • 7 in 10 Brits positive about wider use of drones in future

    The research – conducted by Strive Insight and involving 2,000 nationally representative UK respondents – looked into public acceptance around the use of drones and found that nearly half (49 per cent) of the British public want to see drones used for risky jobs instead of people, specifically in firefighting (76 per cent) and inspecting infrastructure (70 per cent). The findings indicate the wider public's interest in seeing ground-breaking use cases such as those that BT and Project XCelerate are working on, including search and rescue missions, infrastructure inspection, rapid response for road-traffic-accidents, and the delivery of medical supplies in remote communities. The research from BT and the Altitude Angel-led 'Project XCelerate' consortium found that over two-thirds (68 per…

  • US Defence Department creates new body to keep track of UFOs

    Under the snappy title of Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronisation Group (AOIMSG), the body will investigate reports of airborne objects that enter US ‘special use airspace’ (SUA) in a way that could be deemed a threat to national security. Areas designated SUA are typically used for military operations and come with strict limitations of when and what aircraft can fly through them. “Incursions by any airborne object into our SUA pose safety of flight and operations security concerns, and may pose national security challenges,” AOIMSG said in a post announcing its creation. “DoD takes reports of incursions – by any airborne object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one.” The DoD said it wanted a better understanding of "unidentified…

  • European scientists bounce first-ever LoRa message off the Moon

    A European team of scientists have, for the first time ever, bounced a LoRa (LOng RAnge) message off the Moon. The feat set a new record of 730,360km for the furthest distance a LoRa message has ever travelled. It was also the first time a data message was bounced using an off-the-shelf small RF (radio-frequency) chip. For a brief moment in time, the entire message 'PI9CAM' (the call sign of the telescope; actual message pictured below) was in space on its way from Earth to the Moon and back. The experiment also proved that LoRa technology, used for many IoT (Internet of Things) applications, can cover such great distances and that it is possible to send and receive low-powered messages from the Moon. This could become relevant for future lunar communications. Image…

  • View from India: CFO’s responsibility increases with the pandemic

    With the pandemic, almost all operations have come together on a digitised platform. In that sense, everything is more or less visible and digitisation makes it possible to track and monitor any section of a company. This has brought a paradigm shift in the world of the chief financial officer (CFO). The role has broadened and is holistic across the entire organisation and, in order to extract value, the CFO may have to chalk out measures to enhance business outcomes. In its new avatar, the CFO may be at the forefront of decision making as transactions across the board are customised. “The CFO’s role goes beyond making the payroll more effective. It’s like a 30,000-feet view of all functions that are interlinked. What could happen in the future, is that they can engage in the services offered…

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  • Japan backs domestic chipmaking with stimulus package

    The world’s largest chip foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), was reported to be making plans to start manufacturing chips in Japan. Construction is set to begin in 2022 in western Japan, with production expected to begin by the end of 2024. The chip plant could create 1,500 jobs with a monthly capacity of 45,000 wafers, initially using mature 22nm and 28nm technologies and later moving on to high-end chips. This would be part of a joint venture with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation, after the two companies signed a deal for a $7bn (£5.3bn) chipmaking plant. Local media has suggested that Denso Corp, a major Japanese autoparts company, may be among the partners in the TSMC-Sony deal. The announcement was warmly welcomed by the Japanese government. Now, it has…

  • Free public transport paid with carbon taxes could substantially reduce emissions

    University of Leeds researchers said that providing these services for free could significantly reduce home energy emissions and motor fuel emissions. Carbon taxes on home energy and motor fuel often place a greater burden on low-income households because the same tax rate applies to every taxpayer, regardless of income. However, they contribute much less to climate change than high-income households. The researchers compared two ways of using revenue from carbon taxes to reduce emissions and fuel and transport poverty. They found that providing free green services would be more effective than redistributing the tax revenue among the population to address the regressive impacts of the taxes on lower earners. “Stringent climate policies, including carbon taxes on home energy and motor…

  • Hands-on review: WAU X Plus electric bike

    WAU has a single electric bike model on the market at one time and has recently discontinued the WAU X and replaced it with the WAU X Plus, the model under review here. First thing that strikes you as you haul it out of its box is that it is heavy – a really solid bit of kit. This makes it feel well-made, but weight is not the friend of the cyclist. More on this later. The box didn’t contain the instruction book, presumably because it was a review sample that had passed through other reviewers' hands before me. However, anyone who is acquainted with tinkering around a bike with an allen key would have had no problem putting on the front wheel, pedals and aligning the front fork. In other words, setup is not difficult. So, as you stand back and admire your fully assembled purchase, here…

  • Here's what your future home of 2050 could look like

    Tomorrow’s Home imagines a home thirty years into the future that’s inhabited by three very different occupants of different generations, outlooks and interests. Imagined healthcare technologies are embedded in everyday household objects and routines, from artificial intelligence that recreates memories for dementia patients, to a toilet that can monitor health and wellbeing, doormats that recognise the homeowner’s walking styles to detect intruders and toothbrushes implanted with tiny sensors that analyse saliva for any changes in bacteria levels. Other features include wallpaper that analyses the household’s mood using microbes, perfectly optimised ‘smart’ food to snack on and smart sensors installed throughout the home. Living wallpaper will analyse the household…

  • Nasa to crash spacecraft into asteroid to observe changes in trajectory

    The 'Double Asteroid Redirection Test' (DART) is the first mission to test technologies for preventing a hazardous asteroid impacting Earth. DART will reach its target asteroid in late September 2022; the asteroid in question, known as Didymos, is not considered a threat to Earth. Nasa wants to find out whether intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future. The spacecraft is expected to collide at roughly six kilometres per second and the collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of 1 per cent. The craft will also house a cubesat that will separate from it a few days prior to impact, so that it can take photos of Didymos…

  • Sponsored: Regaining focus, recentring the office around the modern employee

    Work from home models bring significant financial savings for businesses, but at what cost to employee productivity? Maintaining the pre-Covid routine of mandatory office attendance boosts senior management’s visibility of their workforce, but this is likely to have repercussions on employee satisfaction, well-being and health. In this most modern of dilemmas, HR teams will be pondering the question – do we need a physical office? Simply put, yes, most businesses will continue to need office spaces, possibly even more than they did before the pandemic, but they may serve a different purpose. The move away from the physical in the past year, by choice or not, has shone a light on the opportunities for improvement in the workplace, especially in terms of work-life-balance, employee well-being…

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  • UK fossil fuel industry to spend £16bn decommissioning ageing projects

    A new report from Industry body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) estimates that the total overall cost of the industry’s decommissioning bill for all future projects had fallen by 23 per cent from £59.7bn in 2017 compared with £46bn this year. This has been largely achieved through improved efficiency and cost reduction, although the report said the overall target was to reduce the cost by 35 per cent by 2022. It also found the UK was increasingly exporting its decommissioning expertise, with regulation and guidance exported to other countries such as Australia, which has based much of its own decommissioning strategy on the UK’s experience. “We’re focusing on greener ways to decommission and identify circular economy opportunities,” it reads. “That means re-purposing offshore infrastructure for…

  • Sweet-toothed microbes could power future cars

    The E. coli turned glucose into olefins: a type of hydrocarbon and a constituent molecule of petrol. At it is currently produced, olefins make up a small fraction of the molecules in petrol. However, the researchers suggest that in future, an adapted version of the technique could be used to generate other types of hydrocarbon, including other constituents of petrol. The researchers also note that olefins have non-fuel applications, as they are also used in industrial lubricants and as precursors for making plastics. The researchers began by feeding glucose to strains of harmless strains of E. coli. Professor Zhen Wang, a Buffalo biochemist, joked: “These microbes are sugar junkies, even worse than our kids.” The E. coli were genetically engineered to produce a suite of four enzymes that…

  • Rolls-Royce stakes claim to EV speed record with electric plane

    According to the company, the awkwardly named aircraft reached a top speed of 623km/h (387.4 mph) during trial runs at an experimental aircraft testing site at the Ministry of Defence’s Boscombe Down experimental aircraft testing site in Wiltshire. The speed was reached with director of flight operations Phill O’Dell in the cockpit. “Flying the Spirit of Innovation at these incredible speeds and believing we have broken the world-record for all-electric flight is a momentous occasion,” said O’Dell. “This is the highlight of my career and is an incredible achievement for the whole team. The opportunity to be at the forefront of another pioneering chapter of Rolls-Royce’s story as we look to deliver the future of aviation is what dreams are made of.” Rolls-Royce believes it has set new…

  • Stereotypes in STEM start by age six, study suggests

    Researchers at University of Houston College of Education (UH) and the University of Washington surveyed nearly 2,500 students from first through 12th grade, from both diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The results of those studies were combined with laboratory experiments to provide important insights into how stereotypes impact children’s motivation. More children believed girls had less interest than boys in key STEM fields. Specifically, 63 per cent of the students believed girls were less interested in engineering than boys were, while 9 per cent believed girls were more interested in the subject. Regarding computer science, 51 per cent thought girls had less interest, while 14 per cent thought girls had more interest than boys. These interest patterns play out in the job…

  • The chip design conundrum: super-sophisticated or swift and simple?

    Advances in semiconductor technology have given us the sophisticated chips that are the heart of the vast array of high-tech devices we now use to run our lives, from smartphones and flat-panel televisions to games consoles and increasingly intelligent cars. Perhaps more crucially, they have also played a central role in recent advances in healthcare, including sophisticated surgical robots and artificial intelligence (AI) devices that assist medical professionals in the diagnosis of cancer and other conditions. The silicon chips used in these applications often cost $100 million or more to develop and take years from concept to production. To understand why, we need to consider the technology that underpins them: the production process starts with an expensive, highly refined wafer of crystalline…

  • Healthier diets linked to lower CO2 emissions

    The analysis assigned emissions to individual food items rather than broad food groups for greater accuracy. Analyses of this sort tend to evaluate sustainability at the scale of broad food-group categories. Food production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately one third of emissions. The more sustainable diets are generally considered to be – based on previous research – those based around nutritious, unprocessed, less energy-dense food. However, much of that work has been conducted using measurements of sustainability for broad categories of food. This leaves room to improve methodology. This study, which assigns emissions to individual food items instead of broad food groups, provides greater accuracy than before. Dr Holly Rippin, of the University…

  • Government backs two domestic flight routes despite carbon-cutting efforts

    The Department for Transport (DfT) will give Cornwall Council up to £1.8m over 2 years for the Newquay route and up to £2.5m to fund direct flights for a further two years between Dundee and London until 2023. This funding will keep the route running in order to support regional links across the country, the DfT said, and will bolster economic growth in the regions by encouraging tourism and business travel. The announcement comes just weeks after the Government acknowledged the significant carbon impact of the aviation sector at COP26 in Glasgow. A recent study has found that while aviation’s present contribution to anthropogenic global warming is 4 per cent, this is expected to increase up to 2050, potentially consuming up to one-sixth of the remaining temperature budget to limit warming…

  • EV charging points to be mandatory for new homes by law

    The legislation was announced formally by prime minister Boris Johnson at an otherwise gaffe-ridden speech – almost universally described by media as “bizarre” – at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference. Excerpts from Johnson's speech, published by Downing Street ahead of his appearance, said: “This is a pivotal moment; we cannot go on as we are. We have to adapt our economy to the green industrial revolution. We have to use our massive investment in science and technology and we have to raise our productivity and then we have to get out your way. We must regulate less or better and take advantage of new freedoms. “We will require new homes and buildings to have EV charging points – with another 145,000 charging points to be installed thanks to these regulations…

  • Crossrail creeps towards completion with ‘dress rehearsal’ phase

    The project, which was approved in 2007, will deliver a new London Underground-like railway, crossing East-West through central London, called the Elizabeth Line. The line runs from Reading through central London, from Paddington to Liverpool Street, before branching off to terminate at Abbey Wood in southeast London and Shenfield in Essex. Construction began in 2007. The Elizabeth Line was originally scheduled to open in 2018. More than three years behind schedule, the central section of the railway – between Paddington and Abbey Wood – is finally approaching a mooted opening date in the first half of 2022. The project was handed over to TfL in October 2020. The final stage of the project involves 'dress rehearsal'-style trial operations to ensure safety and reliability of the railway…

  • ‘State-of-the-art’ hydrogen facility to open near Scottish windfarm

    The Whitelee green hydrogen project will become the UK’s largest electrolyser, a system which converts water into hydrogen gas as a way to store energy. Hydrogen is seen as a key replacement for fossil fuels in certain applications as the world moves towards decarbonisation. It produces just heat and water as by-products when burned or used in fuel cells, making it a highly attractive alternative to fossil fuels in industry, power, shipping and transport. Hydrogen is categorised differently depending on how it is produced: either green hydrogen, which is produced by splitting water by electrolysis, or blue hydrogen, which is produced by splitting natural gas. Currently, the vast majority of the world’s hydrogen fuel is created with natural gas, not water. While green hydrogen can be a…

  • Sponsored: From 2D to 3D, your guide to 3D electrical designs

    Building Information Modelling (BIM) is rapidly changing how we work. 3D models allow stakeholders and clients to see a more realistic interpretation of a designed environment. In addition to growing client demand for 3D models, schematic (2D) design is prone to error. By its very nature, it involves unknowns because the space is flat. But what's the alternative and, ultimately, will it help you to win bigger and more lucrative contracts? Key Learning Points: Why are 3D models important in the construction workflow The benefits of working in 3D How you can build on the long-term benefits Download free whitepaper

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  • Net zero roadmap clears path for UK manufacturers to decarbonise

    A recent study found that while the UK plans to rapidly scale up its renewable energy infrastructure in the coming years, manufacturers may struggle to move away from production processes that are traditionally led by fossil fuels. Nevertheless, Make UK said its members “overwhelmingly” believe they can achieve net zero by 2050 as long as they have enough support. Many have already committed to reduce the direct emissions generated by manufacturing processes (scope 1) and indirect emissions from purchased energy (scope 2) by 67 per cent by the end of this decade. Some have also committed to support their suppliers and customers to achieve net zero, an area that is likely to constitute the bulk of the emissions for the sector overall. For example, in automotive manufacturing, this would…

  • Sugar beet could help secure Scotland’s net zero goals

    Sugar extracted from sugar beet can be used in the production of ethanol as a natural and sustainable substitute for petroleum-based chemicals used in a range of household goods, as well as antibiotics, therapeutic proteins, and for transportation. Growing sugar beet in Scotland and processing the crop at a purpose-built biorefinery facility initially producing bioethanol could support thousands of jobs and make a significant contribution to the country’s net zero ambitions, according to the study. Such a project would also safeguard many of the 11,000 jobs in Scotland’s chemicals industry, which is increasingly moving towards alternatives to fossil fuels, and create new roles in the burgeoning biotechnology sector, many of which would likely be in rural and deprived areas. The study…

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