Technology

In 1973, Steve Sasson, 23 and fresh out of college at RPI, landed a job at Eastman Kodak in the apparatus division of the company’s Applied Research Department. Sasson will deliver the 76th Steinmetz Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial on the campus of Union College.

Hydrogen can play a key role in the transition to clean energy because when it is used as a fuel, it only produces water as a byproduct. Hydrogen is already produced in industrial quantities, but it is primarily made with methods that use fossil fuels like natural gas. But instead of extracting hydrogen from hydrocarbons, it can be obtained by splitting water into its constituent elements.

The global growth of electric cars has continued to rise over the past year, increasing by 20% over 2024. Worldwide, 20.7 million EVs were sold, constituting nearly 23% of all light vehicle sales.

The use of energy by artificial intelligence technology is rapidly increasing. Massive data centers performing the intense computation needed for training large models are consuming huge amounts of energy. Last year, AI consumed over 4% of U.S. electricity, putting a real strain on electric grids. Projections are that AI energy demand will more than double by 2040.

Washing clothes may seem harmless, but each load can release hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic fibers from synthetic fabrics into the water. Some of these microplastics are captured in sewage sludge that is often used as fertilizer, allowing the particles to spread onto agricultural fields. Others pass through wastewater systems and eventually into the ocean, where they accumulate in marine life. Laundry is an overlooked but major source of plastic pollution.

All around the world, Chinese companies are building factories, mines, and refineries that make EVs, batteries, solar panels, and other green energy technologies. Since 2022, Chinese companies have committed to spending $200 billion in clean energy manufacturing investments overseas. These facilities are located in every continent other than Antarctica.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is the primary way to mitigate the effects of climate change. Converting to renewable energy sources to generate electricity and the electrification of vehicles are key requirements for reducing emissions. But industrial plants produce about 20% of global emissions. Major contributors include the production of petrochemicals, cement, and fertilizers. The emissions come from both the heat required for the industrial processes and from the processes themselves.

New York State has some of the nation’s most aggressive policies addressing climate change, including a law that is aimed at all but eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Gas-powered cars, oil-burning heaters and furnaces, and fossil-fueled electric plants are supposed to be on the way out. But the state has recently started putting the brakes on progress towards that green future.

Ammonia is produced on a massive scale around the world. Over 250 million tons of it were manufactured in 2023. Eighty percent of it is used as fertilizer, but ammonia is also used for the production of plastics, fibers, explosives, nitric acid, and for the manufacture of dyes and pharmaceuticals.

The air contains water. We call it humidity. Even in the desert, there is water in the air. Scientists have been working on ways to squeeze water out of the air to produce clean drinking water. They have developed a number of sorbent materials that harvest water from the air. The process is called atmospheric water harvesting, or AWH.