Pioneering engineers have been awarded a landmark £39 million to develop high-impact technologies tackling the climate crisis.
The Royal Academy of Engineering has named the first 13 Green Future Fellows, each receiving up to £3 million to scale ambitious ideas over the next decade.
Funded through a £150 million long-term investment from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the programme supports solutions addressing climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
Awarded projects include new ways to store renewable energy, power data centres more efficiently and dramatically increase battery performance for electric transport.
One fellow, Professor Laura Torrente at the University of Cambridge, is developing a method to store renewable energy as carbon-free ammonia produced from air, water and clean electricity.
The ammonia can be safely stored, transported and used as a fuel or backup power source, producing only water and nitrogen when burned.
Dr Rostislav Mikhaylovskiy from Lancaster University is tackling the growing energy demand of data centres, which consume 1.5% of global electricity, with up to 40% used for cooling.
He is developing a new type of computer memory using ultra-fast terahertz light pulses that switch magnetic bits without generating heat.
Professor Robert House at the University of Oxford is working on nanoengineered batteries that are four times more energy dense than today’s lithium-ion cells.
Lighter and more powerful batteries could make electric or hybrid aircraft viable by reducing weight and increasing range.
Other projects focus on destroying forever chemicals with sound waves, converting CO2 into hydrogen using microbes and extracting critical metals from salty water.
Baroness Brown of Cambridge said: “The climate crisis is the challenge of our generation. We need era-defining solutions that address the enormity of the challenge.”
UK Science Minister Lord Vallance said the fellowships are “empowering researchers to tackle global warming”.
At least 50 Green Future Fellows will be appointed over five years, with each award running for 10 years to deliver lasting climate impact.
Engineers bag £39m funding for climate tech appeared first on Energy Live News.