Hydrophobic Silica Gels and Aerogels for Direct Air Capture: Hybrid Grafting To Suppress Water Uptake and Capillary Condensation.

Direct air capture of CO (DAC) is critical to achieving climate goals, requiring the removal of approximately 220 000 Mt of CO by 2100. Amine-functionalized sorbents are promising for CO capture but face challenges under high humidity, where water sorption reduces the CO selectivity and capillary condensation may degrade the sorbent, especially the delicate silica aerogel backbone, compromising structural integrity. To address this issue, we introduce superhydrophobic silica gels functionalized by hybrid grafting of amine, long-aliphatic, and trimethylsilyl groups.

A Golden Jackal based optimal operation and optimization of a virtual power plant involving renewable resources.

This paper reports the optimum operation of a virtual power plant (VPP) to reduce the reliance on coal and gas-based energy generation. This practice not only promotes the incorporation of renewable-based energy sources but also reduces the reliance on fossil-based resources which are limited in the reserves. The selected VPP system comprises small hydropower, wind turbine, solar photovoltaics and fuel cells accompanied by a co-generation unit.