Nearly 400 exhibitors representing the boldest energy innovations in the United States came together last week at the annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. The conference, hosted in Dallas by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), showcased the agency’s bets on early-stage energy technologies that can disrupt the status quo. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm spoke at the summit. “The people in this room are America’s best hope” in the race to unleash the power of clean energy, she said. “The technologies you create will decide whether we win that race. But no pressure,” she quipped. IEEE Spectrum spent three days meandering the aisles of the showcase. Here are five of our favorite demonstrations.

Gas Li-ion batteries thwart extreme cold

South 8 Technologies demonstrates the cold tolerance of its Li-ion battery by burying it in ice at the 2024 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. Emily Waltz

Made with a liquified gas electrolyte instead of the standard liquid solvent, a new kind of lithium-ion battery that stands up to extreme cold, made by South 8 Technologies in San Diego, won’t freeze until temps drop below –80 °C. That’s a big improvement on conventional Li-ion batteries, which start to degrade when temps reach 0 °C and shut down at about –20 °C. “You lose about half of your range in an electric vehicle if you drive it in the middle of winter in Michigan,” says Cyrus Rustomji, cofounder of South 8. To prove the company’s point, Rustomji and his team set out a bucket of dry ice at nearly –80 °C at their booth at the ARPA-E summit and put flashlights in it—one powered by a South 8 battery and one powered by a conventional Li-ion cell. The latter flashlight went out after about 10 minutes, and South 8’s kept going for the next 15 hours. Rustomji says he expects EV batteries made with South 8’s technology to maintain nearly full range at –40 °C, and gradually degrade in temperatures lower than that.

South 8 Technologies

Conventional Li-ion batteries use liquid solvents, such as ethylene and dimethyl carbonate, as the electrolyte. The electrolyte serves as a medium through which lithium salt moves from one electrode to the other in the battery, shuttling electricity. When it’s cold, the carbonates thicken, which lowers the power of the battery. They can also freeze, which shuts down all conductivity. South 8 swapped out the carbonate for some industrial liquified gases with low freezing points (a recipe the company won’t disclose).

Using liquified gases also reduces fire risk because the gas very quickly evaporates from a damaged battery cell, removing fuel that could burn and cause the battery to catch fire. If a conventional Li-ion battery gets damaged, it can short-circuit and quickly become hot—like over 800 °C hot. This causes the liquid electrolyte to heat adjacent cells and potentially start a fire.

There’s another benefit to this battery, and this one will make EV drivers very happy: It will take only 10 minutes to reach an 80 percent charge in EVs powered by these batteries, Rustomji estimates. That’s because liquified gas has a lower viscosity than carbonate-based electrolytes, which allows the lithium salt to move from one electrode to the other at a faster rate, shortening the time it takes to recharge the battery.

South 8’s latest improvement is a high-voltage cathode that reduces material costs and could enable fast charging down to 5 minutes for a full charge. “We have the world record for a high-voltage, low-temperature cathode,” says Rustomji.

Liquid cooling won’t leak on servers

Chilldyne guarantees that its liquid-cooling system won’t leak even if tubes get hacked in half, as IEEE Spectrum editor Emily Waltz demonstrates at the 2024 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. Emily Waltz

Data centers need serious cooling technologies to keep servers from overheating, and sometimes air-conditioning just isn’t enough. In fact, the latest Blackwell chips from Nvidia require liquid cooling, which is more energy efficient than air. But liquid cooling tends to make data-center operators nervous. “A bomb won’t do as much damage as a leaky liquid-cooling system,” says Steve Harrington, CEO of Chilldyne. His company, based in Carlsbad, Calif., offers liquid cooling that’s guaranteed not to leak, even if the coolant lines get chopped in half. (They aren’t kidding: Chilldyne brought an axe to its demonstration at ARPA-E and let Spectrum try it out. Watch the blue cooling liquid immediately disappear from the tube after it’s chopped.)

Chilldyne

The system is leakproof because Chilldyne’s negative-pressure system pulls rather than pushes liquid coolant through tubes, like a vacuum. The tubes wind through servers, absorbing heat through cold plates, and return the warmed liquid to tanks in a cooling distribution unit. This unit transfers the heat outside and supplies cooled liquid back to the servers. If a component anywhere in the cooling loop breaks, the liquid is immediately sucked back into the tanks before it can leak. Key to the technology: low-thermal-resistance cold plates attached to each server’s processors, such as the CPUs or GPUs. The cold plates absorb heat by convection, transferring the heat to the coolant tube that runs through it. Chilldyne optimized the cold plate using corkscrew-shaped metal channels, called turbulators, that force water around them “like little tornadoes,” maximizing the heat absorbed, says Harrington. The company developed the cold plate under an ARPA-E grant and is now measuring the energy savings of liquid cooling through an ARPA-E program.

Salvaged mining waste also sequesters CO₂

Phoenix Tailings’ senior research scientist Rita Silbernagel explains how mining waste contains useful metals and rare earth elements and can also be used as a place to store carbon dioxide.Emily Waltz

Mining leaves behind piles of waste after the commercially viable material is extracted. This waste, known as tailings, can contain rare earth elements and valuable metals that are too difficult to extract with conventional mining techniques. Phoenix Tailings—a startup based in Woburn, Mass.—extracts metals and rare earth elements from tailings in a process that leaves behind no waste and creates no direct carbon dioxide emissions. The company’s process starts with a hydrometallurgical treatment that separates rare earth elements from the tailings, which contain iron, aluminum, and other common elements. Next the company uses a novel solvent extraction method to separate the rare earth elements from one another and purify the desired element in the form of an oxide. The rare earth oxide then undergoes a molten-salt electrolysis process that converts it into a solid metal form. Phoenix Tailings focuses on extracting neodymium, neodymium-praseodymium alloy, dysprosium, and ferro dysprosium alloy, which are rare earth metals used in permanent magnets for EVs, wind turbines, jet engines, and other applications. The company is evaluating several tailings sites in the United States, including in upstate New York.

The company has also developed a process to extract metals such as nickel, copper, and cobalt from mining tailings while simultaneously sequestering carbon dioxide. The approach involves injecting CO₂ into the tailings, where it reacts with minerals, transforming them into carbonates—compounds that contain the carbonate ion, which contains three oxygen atoms and one carbon atom. After the mineral carbonation process, the nickel or other metals are selectively leached from the mixture, yielding high-quality nickel that can be used by EV-battery and stainless-steel industries.

Better still, this whole process, says Rita Silbernagel, senior research scientist at Phoenix Tailings, absorbs more CO₂ than it emits.

Hydrokinetic turbines: a new business model

Emrgy adjusts the height of its hydrokinetic turbines at the 2024 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. The company plans to install them in old irrigation channels to generate renewable energy and new revenue streams for rural communities. Emily Waltz

These hydrokinetic turbines run in irrigation channels, generating electricity and revenue for rural communities. Developed by Emrgy in Atlanta, the turbines can change in height and blade pitch based on the flow of the water. The company plans to put them in irrigation channels that were built to bring water from snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains to agricultural areas in the western United States. Emrgy estimates that there are more than 160,000 kilometers of these waterways in the country. The system is aging and losing water, but it’s hard for water districts to justify the cost of repairing them, says Tom Cuthbert, chief technology officer at Emrgy. The company’s solution is to place its hydrokinetic turbines throughout these waterways as a way to generate renewable electricity and pay for upgrades to the irrigation channels.

The concept of placing hydrokinetic turbines in waterways isn’t new, but until recent years, connecting them to the grid wasn’t practical. Emrgy’s timing takes advantage of the groundwork laid by the solar power industry. The company has five pilot projects in the works in the United States and New Zealand. “We found that existing water infrastructure is a massive overlooked real estate segment that is ripe for renewable energy development,” says Emily Morris, CEO and founder of Emrgy.

Pressurized water stores energy deep underground

Quidnet Energy brought a wellhead to the 2024 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit to demonstrate its geoengineered energy-storage system.Emily Waltz

Quidnet Energy brought a whole wellhead to the ARPA-E summit to demonstrate its underground pumped hydro storage technique. The Houston-based company’s geoengineered system stores energy as pressurized water deep underground. It consists of a surface-level pond, a deep well, an underground reservoir at the end of the well, and a pump system that moves pressurized water from the pond to the underground reservoir and back. The design doesn’t require an elevation change like traditional pumped storage hydropower.

Quidnet’s system consists of a surface-level pond, a deep well, an underground reservoir at the end of the well, and a pump system that moves pressurized water from the pond to the underground reservoir and back.Quidnet Energy

It works like this: Electricity from renewable sources powers a pump that sends water from the surface pond into a wellhead and down a well that’s about 300 meters deep. At the end of the well, the pressure from the pumped water flows into a previously engineered fracture in the rock, creating a reservoir that’s hundreds of meters wide and sits beneath the weight of the whole column of rock above it, says Bunker Hill, vice president of engineering at Quidnet. The wellhead then closes and the water remains under high pressure, keeping energy stored in the reservoir for days if necessary. When electricity is needed, the well is opened, letting the pressurized water run up the same well. Above ground, the water passes through a hydroelectric turbine, generating 2 to 8 megawatts of electricity. The spent water then returns to the surface pond, ready for the next cycle. “The hard part is making sure the underground reservoir doesn’t lose water,” says Hill. To that end, the company developed customized sealing solutions that get injected into the fracture, sealing in the water.

It looks like Doogee finally made something really close to the phone SemiAccurate always wanted.
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It looks like Doogee finally made something really close to the phone SemiAccurate always wanted.
Read more ▶

The post Doogee (Almost) makes the phone we always wanted appeared first on SemiAccurate.

Smartphones have become ubiquitous, seamlessly integrating into our daily lives. For many users, these pocket-sized powerhouses have replaced the need for bulky computers, allowing for ...

The post Maximizing iPhone Battery Health: Essential Tips and Tricks appeared first on Gizchina.com.

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Should you buy the CUKTECH 20 Power Bank?

The CUCKTECH 20 Power Bank has a great design. It looks pretty cool and feels very solid. And its multi-port design makes it very convenient as an all-in-one portable battery to juice up all your devices at once.

The 25,000mAh battery capacity is great. In my case, I am currently using a Motorola Razr 2023 as my daily driver, which has a 4,200mAh battery. I was able to charge my device about three times per full power bank charge, but that’s because I was using the battery pack for more than charging my phone. I would also use it for my headphones, smartwatch, and sometimes even my laptop.

The 1,000-cycle lifetime CUKTECH claims seems like a fair estimate; I was able to keep it alive for about 2-3 days per charge. At this rate, the battery should last me at least five years. Of course, the key words being “at this rate.” I’ve been using the battery non-stop as my sole charger for my phone and other accessories, for testing purposes. This is not something most would normally do. Ideally, you would use it only when you are out and about.

The charging speeds are quite impressive, and I’ve been nothing but satisfied. My smartphone “only” charges at 30W. This means any of the ports should be good enough to charge it at full speed. And I’ve had no trouble doing so. My Motorola Razr 2023 charges as quickly as it can, every single time. I was able to reach power peaks of over 100W on my HONOR MagicBook 14. Charging the Google Pixel 7 Pro at near full power was no issue, either. It always got very near the 23W max speeds, utilizing the support for PD PPS technology.

I also loved that I could see how fast the devices were charging using the integrated screen. It provides useful data like how long the battery will last at current charging rates, the percentage, live wattage, and more.

You shouldn’t just take my word for everything — or CUKTECH’s, for that matter. It’s always nice to have some verification of what a charger can do, which is why we have run our own charging and speed tests using a few third-party charging and Power Delivery measuring accessories. These are the ChargerLAB Power-Z KM003C, ChargerLAB Power-Z AK001, and a Toocki 100W testing cable. Here are some of our results with multiple devices.

As for charging the battery, itself, we were able to clock the input wattage at a max of 60.8W. While CUKTECH advertises a 110W self-charging capacity, we tried multiple chargers and cables, all capable of such speeds. We even tried to charge the battery using two chargers at a time. We’re not sure how that advertised 110W charging speed is possible.

Thankfully those inaccurate numbers don’t extend to charging other devices with the CUKTECH 20 Power Bank. As you can see in the graph above, it proves to be great at charging different types of devices. It was able to max out the wattage on a 100W laptop. Additionally, it could top off the Google Pixel 7 Pro at max speeds, which means this battery can be a great solution for those with Power Delivery PPS charging needs. This makes it a great option for all Pixel 8 series and Samsung Galaxy S24 series users, for example. And it can even handle Motorola’s TurboPower standard, which is a nice addition.

The only standard we had an issue with was Xiaomi’s HyperCharge standard. We only tested the battery with the Xiaomi because of the promise of 120W charging, but we found some discrepancies with the testing on the Xiaomi 11T Pro. We did see the smartphone labeling the charging at 120W max, but using our testing accessories and the CUKTECH 20 Power Bank’s screen, we never got to see it reach 100W. Charging it was still very fast at 95.3W, but nothing close to 120W. And it’s not like the battery couldn’t handle these speeds, because we were able to reach above 100W with the laptop.

The CUKTECH 20 Power Bank is great for charging different devices on the go.

Additionally, we found that the battery had issues when using it with the Xiaomi phone. The charging would cut off and restart for no apparent reason. After plugging it in, it would charge, boost up to the speeds shown in the results above, and then cut off. The charging would then begin again after a couple or few seconds, only to cut off again as it sped up. Not sure what the issue could be, but it happened while using any of the testing accessories. Just something to keep in mind if you have a Xiaomi phone, though that won’t be a factor if you live in the States.

You might also care about multi-device charging. We also ran some tests on this. Of course, speeds get divided the more devices you plug into the battery. Even when plugging in three high-speed charging devices at once, we were able to reach a max of 157W in total output. When plugged in at the same time, the main USB-C port was able to charge the laptop at 101.7W, the Xiaomi 11T Pro at 43.1W, and the Pixel 7 Pro at 12.2W.

Another thing that surprised me was the fact that not once did I feel this thing getting hot at all. The unit kept cool no matter what, which suggests that the management here is quite impressive.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Especially when you’re paying $130 or less for a power bank that competes with units that get closer to the $200 mark. Personally, I think it’s a bit heavy and bulky. It measures 2.17 x 2.17 x 6.3in and weighs in at 1.39lbs. Other 25,000mAh batteries usually weigh between a pound and 1.15 pounds. That said, none of those are as well-built and featureful as this one. I would say its main competitor is the 27,650mAh Anker Prime Power Bank, and that one weighs more at 1.47lbs.

Weight aside, the size is also a bit of an issue. I must admit it was hard to get it into my small satchel comfortably, and I could definitely feel it when carrying it around. This shouldn’t be a problem if you have a larger bag or backpack, though. In fact, it fits into my backpack’s bottle holder perfectly, thanks to its narrower, longer shape.

There’s an issue I didn’t really face often, but I feel is important to mention. If you’re going to be using passthrough charging and powering a laptop, or multiple devices, you might run into problems. This is because the battery can only charge at a max of 110W, and this is using the fastest port available. In this scenario, you would only be able to use the second USB-C port to charge a laptop or faster device, which can only reach 60W speeds. And if you charge the battery using the 60W port, that’s not enough to charge the battery while it charges a laptop at higher speeds.

Also, call me picky, but I feel like if you’re getting such a powerful, large, and heavy portable battery, it should come with an AC outlet. Other competitors include them, and it can be such a convenient port to have.

We’ve tried and tested many portable batteries at Android Authority, but the CUKTECH 20 Power Bank is certainly among the best ones we’ve seen. That said, the fact that it is a higher-end power bank certainly helps it better reach our expectations. That’s why we can’t really compare it against $50-dollar power banks.

The CUKTECH 20 Power Bank costs $130, and we’ve recently seen it discounted for under $70, using Amazon coupons you can clip before adding the item to your cart. At those price points, we think the CUKTECH 20 Power Bank offers a great balance and value proposition to those who finally want to step into the world of high-end portable batteries, without overspending too much.

This battery has speeds to charge laptops, tablets, and the fastest of smartphones. You just have to remember to use the proper port when charging more demanding devices. And you’ll still have a couple of leftover ports to charge other less resource-intensive gadgets. Additionally, the 25,000mAh battery is plenty for most short camping trips lasting 1-3 days. And you can extend it longer if you’re not using your gadgets too much, and avoid more high-power devices like laptops. If you need to constantly power a laptop for longer, or take longer trips, you may want to consider looking for something bigger, though it’ll likely be much more expensive and far less portable.

What are the best CUKTECH 20 Power Bank alternatives?

• Anker Prime 27,650mAh Power Bank ( ): The Anker Prime 27,650mAh Power Bank is technically a bit better on paper, but it’s also much more expensive at $180, and you might not even take advantage of the extra speed and capacity, depending on your needs. The build quality is also great, and it comes with a built-in screen too. Honestly, this is pretty much the CUKTECH 20 Power Bank’s most direct competitor.
• Omni Mobile 25,600mAh ( ): The Omni Mobile 25,600mAh is a great option, with a much thinner profile and even a wireless charging pad, but it also costs more at $149, and it only has one USB-C port. It does have a DC port, though, aside from the two USB-A ports. That said, speeds are much slower here, topping off at 60W for the USB-C port, 72W for the DC port, 18W per USB-A port, and 10W wireless charging.
• Omni 40 Plus ( ): The Omni 40 Plus is on a whole other level. but it is relatively similar in design, at least considering its longer, more gripable form factor. Just keep in mind it is $399, so it is a good upgrade if you feel none of these options are good enough. It comes with three USB-C ports that can charge at 100W max, and the two USB-A ports can handle 18W. On the other end, you can find both an AC and a DC outlet, both of which can also handle 100W speeds. The max output is 150W. and the battery is much larger at 38,400mAh.

Of course, you can also look at our list of the best portable batteries if you want to check out other alternatives.

CUKTECH 20 Power Bank specs

CUKTECH 20 Power Bank review: FAQs

It looks like Doogee finally made something really close to the phone SemiAccurate always wanted.
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The days of groundbreaking changes to slab smartphones are largely behind us, with modern flagships only seeing iterative upgrades each year. And while we've seen some important efficiency gains recently, systems-on-a-chip and other critical hardware don't jump in performance year-on-year.

The iPhone 15 series has been one of the bigger changes to the iPhone in recent years, even though the phones may appear to have improved only incrementally. Plenty of small changes have added to a better year-on-year upgrade experience, and surprisingly, more are being found. Apple has just updated its guidance on the battery health of the iPhone 15, and it claims the battery on these phones can last twice as long before deteriorating.

Apple’s support document on battery health was recently updated to state that the batteries of the iPhone 15 models are designed to retain 80% of their original capacity at 1000 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions. In comparison, the batteries of iPhone 14 and previous models are designed to retain 80% of their original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions.

The company mentions to 9to5Mac that its testing involved “charging and discharging the battery 1000 times under specific circumstances representing common use cases.” The improvement is said to be due to Apple’s continued updates to battery components and power management systems over the years.

Apple also makes it very easy to check an iPhone’s battery health. Simply go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging to know how much of its original capacity your battery can currently hold. If it is below 80%, you would benefit from a battery replacement.

Android does not make it easy to check battery health, but we hope to see some improvements with Android 15 on newer hardware. However, Apple’s claims on battery health are just about catching up with some of the improvements we have seen on Android devices.

For instance, OPPO’s Battery Health Engine tech that we see on OPPO, OnePlus, and Realme phones claims that these newer battery tech smartphones can maintain 80% of their original battery capacity after as many as 1,600 cycles. To our knowledge, Samsung and Google do not make any such claims officially, so Apple’s claims were widely considered the industry standard. Note that no company has detailed its exact testing procedure to reach its claimed number.

The iPhone 15 series has been one of the bigger changes to the iPhone in recent years, even though the phones may appear to have improved only incrementally. Plenty of small changes have added to a better year-on-year upgrade experience, and surprisingly, more are being found. Apple has just updated its guidance on the battery health of the iPhone 15, and it claims the battery on these phones can last twice as long before deteriorating.

Apple’s support document on battery health was recently updated to state that the batteries of the iPhone 15 models are designed to retain 80% of their original capacity at 1000 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions. In comparison, the batteries of iPhone 14 and previous models are designed to retain 80% of their original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions.

Apple recently announced a significant increase in the expected lifespan of the iPhone 15 series batteries. According to the company, all four models – iPhone ...

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