Media Watch
Big Tech Looks To Hydrogen For Backup Generation At Data Centers
Forbes -
While Google has announced its plans to test batteries for backup, the key draw of hydrogen is its cost-effectiveness at longer durations. When comparing levelized costs for a completely resilient, 100% renewable data center with zero emissions, hydrogen is $119/MWh, while batteries could be over $4,000/MWh to ensure 48 hours of backup power. This finding comes from Jack Brouwer, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Read More
California’s aging dams face new perils, 50 years after Sylmar quake crisis
Los Angeles Times -
“Emerging data of massive simulations of flooding suggest that existing flood control systems are a ticking time bomb,” said Brett Sanders, a professor of civil engineering at UC Irvine. “Southern California, in particular, is completely unprepared to deal with the consequences.” “Once the water goes outside of the structures intended to rein it in, it will go everywhere,” he said, “and there will be little time to get out of its way. … We ought to start spending more time studying the potential catastrophic risks to working-class communities in the floodplains.” [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
The Western United States Is a Hotspot for Snow Droughts
The Revelator -
“The common ways to measure droughts are through precipitation, soil moisture and runoff,” says Laurie S. Huning, an environmental engineer at the University of California, Irvine. Her most recent work adds another dimension to that by looking at water stored in snowpack. Huning is the co-author of a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with UC Irvine colleague [Professor] Amir AghaKouchak, which developed a new framework for characterizing “snow droughts.” These can occur when there’s an abnormally low snowpack, which may be triggered by low precipitation, warm temperatures or both. Their research is timely. Read More
How Living in Space Will Change the Way We Age
Allure -
Indeed, cosmic radiation is perhaps the biggest worry for the body in space. To give context to how bad it will be on the Red Planet: Ronke Mojoyinola Olabisi, an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, who is working on the interdisciplinary human interstellar initiative, 100 Year Starship points out that on the ISS, [International Space Station], astronauts receive about 1,000 times the average yearly sea level dose of cosmic radiation. But once you head out farther, it's estimated to shoot up to 500,000 times. That in itself may end up speeding aging overall. Read More
Green Hydrogen Backers See Big Chance for Sector Development
Bloomberg Law -
A third lever Biden could pull would be to create infrastructure that can move hydrogen, perhaps by repurposing the existing natural gas system, said Jack Brouwer, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine.
“This is what the federal government should be responsible for doing,” Brouwer said. “This is a shared infrastructure. It enables long-duration storage, it lets you transmit it across mountains—it’s got a lot of features that we like.” Read More
Find Out Who Received a 2021 IEEE Major Award
IEEE News -
Chin C. Lee, [Professor Emeritus, engineering], University of California, Irvine, “For contributions to new silver alloys, new bonding methods, flip-chip interconnect, and education for electronics packaging.” Read More
'Snow Droughts' Increasing in the Western U.S.
EcoWatch -
"The common ways to measure droughts are through precipitation, soil moisture and runoff," says Laurie S. Huning, an environmental engineer at the University of California, Irvine. Her most recent work adds another dimension to that by looking at water stored in snowpack. Huning is the co-author of a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with UC Irvine colleague [Engineering Professor] Amir AghaKouchak, which developed a new framework for characterizing "snow droughts." These can occur when there's an abnormally low snowpack, which may be triggered by low precipitation, warm temperatures or both. Read More
With Natural Gas in Peril, Pipeline Owners Look to Hydrogen
Yahoo Finance (Bloomberg) -
“We must investigate this for every single pipe we put hydrogen into,” said Jack Brouwer, director of the advanced power and energy program at the University of California, Irvine, “but it’s a phenomenon we can manage because it’s slow.” Problem pipes and compressors could be replaced over the course of years, he said. Or pipes could be protected with coatings applied from the inside by robotic devices called pigs that are currently used for pipeline inspection and maintenance. Read More
Hydrogen advocates look to capitalize on California's goal to replace diesel for back-up generation
Utility Dive -
The key draw of hydrogen is its cost-effectiveness at longer durations. For a completely resilient, 100% renewable data center with zero emissions, using hydrogen would translate to a levelized cost of electricity amounting to $119 per MWh, said Jack Brouwer, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine. … "Lithium-ion batteries are cheaper for short-duration storage, and they're more efficient. But eventually, when you have longer amounts of storage duration required, there will be a crossover point," where hydrogen becomes cheaper, Brouwer said. Read More
Local vibrational modes measured at individual crystalline faults
Spectroscopy -
Employing newly developed electron microscopy techniques, researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and other institutions have, for the first time, measured the spectra of phonons at individual crystalline faults, and they discovered the propagation of phonons near the flaws. “Point defects, dislocations, stacking faults and grain boundaries are often found in crystalline materials, and these defects can have a significant impact on a substance’s thermal conductivity and thermoelectric performance”, said senior co-author Xiaoqing Pan from UCI. Read More