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Hydrogen or ammonia from residues: an exergy and environmental comparison
Residual biomass can be turned into hydrogen or into ammonia. The two routes look similar on a mass balance and quite different on an exergy balance.
Research2 min read
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Maize cobs in a concentric tube reactor: allothermal gasification assessed on exergy
Allothermal gasification supplies process heat from outside the bed. The exergy balance shows what that architecture buys, and what the external heat costs.
Research2 min read
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Graphene nanoplatelet nanofluid pushes a solar collector to 85.5% exergy efficiency
A small mass fraction of graphene nanoplatelets raises both thermal and exergy efficiency, and cuts entropy generation, in a working rooftop collector.
Research2 min read
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Graphene phase change composites: conductivity without losing the latent heat
Phase change materials store a great deal of heat and move it slowly. Graphene scaffolds attack the second problem, at some cost to the first.
Research2 min read
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Exergy accounting: four methods, four answers, one economy
National exergy studies disagree partly because economies differ and partly because analysts count differently. This paper separates the two.
Research2 min read
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Mexico 1971–2009: what a useful exergy series says about an energy transition
Primary energy statistics show consumption. A useful exergy series shows how much of it became work, and where the gains stopped.
Research2 min read
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A cookstove that also makes electricity: 15% exergy efficiency from an annular thermoelectric
Cooking is one of the most exergy-destructive activities on the planet. Bolting a thermoelectric ring onto the stove recovers a fraction of the loss.
Research2 min read
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Invasive weeds as feedstock: hydrogen-enriched producer gas, costed and exergy-audited
Invasive species are cleared at public expense. Gasifying the arisings turns a disposal cost into a gas stream — if the exergy balance holds up.
Research2 min read
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Waste heat recovery and efficiency targets push thermoelectric materials towards a USD 1.59 billion market
Emergen Research values the global thermoelectric materials market at USD 728.4 million in 2025, reaching USD 1.59 billion by 2035. Waste heat recovery leads applications, while tellurium supply and modest conversion efficiency remain constraints.
Industry3 min read
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IEA finds critical mineral security weakening as prices rebound and investment falls
The IEA's Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 reports a price rebound, refining concentration edging higher to 72%, a 9% fall in critical mineral investment and persistent copper and lithium supply deficits to 2035.
Industry3 min read
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UNCTAD maps a critical minerals trade order built on export measures and partnerships
UNCTAD's Global Trade Update for June 2026 finds lithium demand rising 353% between 2024 and 2040, supply concentrated in a few countries, nearly 100 new export measures since 2020 and 73 critical mineral partnership agreements analysed.
Industry2 min read
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IEA-PVPS rebuilds the benchmark PV life cycle inventory on 83 factory-level assessments
IEA-PVPS has published its first life cycle inventory update since 2020, drawing on 83 factory-level LCAs collected through France's ADEME tender process. It reports higher internally recycled silicon, lower kerf loss and markedly reduced supply chain impacts.
Industry3 min read
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Industry
Industry briefs
Waste heat recovery and efficiency targets push thermoelectric materials towards a USD 1.59 billion market
Emergen Research values the global thermoelectric materials market at USD 728.4 million in 2025, reaching USD 1.59 billion by 2035. Waste heat recovery leads applications, while tellurium supply and modest conversion efficiency remain constraints.
Industry3 min read
Read articleIEA finds critical mineral security weakening as prices rebound and investment falls
The IEA's Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 reports a price rebound, refining concentration edging higher to 72%, a 9% fall in critical mineral investment and persistent copper and lithium supply deficits to 2035.
Industry3 min read
Read articleUNCTAD maps a critical minerals trade order built on export measures and partnerships
UNCTAD's Global Trade Update for June 2026 finds lithium demand rising 353% between 2024 and 2040, supply concentrated in a few countries, nearly 100 new export measures since 2020 and 73 critical mineral partnership agreements analysed.
Industry2 min read
Read articleIEA-PVPS rebuilds the benchmark PV life cycle inventory on 83 factory-level assessments
IEA-PVPS has published its first life cycle inventory update since 2020, drawing on 83 factory-level LCAs collected through France's ADEME tender process. It reports higher internally recycled silicon, lower kerf loss and markedly reduced supply chain impacts.
Industry3 min read
Read articleResearch
Research briefs
Tilting a thermal store lifts its exergy efficiency by eight points
Geometry is a free variable in thermal storage. Inclining a paraffin shell-and-tube store changes the natural convection field enough to move exergy efficiency by several points.
Research2 min read
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Sensible against latent: a packed bed puts the two storage routes side by side
Most storage comparisons are made across papers, rigs and assumptions. This one holds the hardware fixed and swaps only the medium.
Research2 min read
Read articleHydrogen or ammonia from residues: an exergy and environmental comparison
Residual biomass can be turned into hydrogen or into ammonia. The two routes look similar on a mass balance and quite different on an exergy balance.
Research2 min read
Read articleMaize cobs in a concentric tube reactor: allothermal gasification assessed on exergy
Allothermal gasification supplies process heat from outside the bed. The exergy balance shows what that architecture buys, and what the external heat costs.
Research2 min read
Read articleWhite papers
White papers
The Exergy of Electrification: Heat Pumps, Hydrogen and the Rational Use of Electricity
This technical report examines electrification through the lens of exergy, defining electricity as a premium carrier produced at nearly 100 percent quality. By auditing transport, heating, and industry, it introduces an 'electricity merit order' to prioritise high-leverage uses like heat pumps and electric motors. The document critiques 'carrier-neutral' accounting and identifies that a merit-order approach to domestic heating could reduce peak infrastructure demand by five-sixths compared to resistive or hydrogen-based alternatives.
White papers17 min read
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Waste Heat Is Not Waste: The Global Exergy Opportunity in Industry
This seventh volume in the Exerginity series evaluates industrial rejected heat, estimated at thousands of terawatt-hours annually, as a critical energy resource. By categorising heat into high, medium, and low temperature bands, author Wim Adriaan Bakker demonstrates how exergy-based assessments identify commercial recovery opportunities. The paper outlines a technical toolkit for using, moving, upgrading, converting, and storing heat across nine industrial sectors, concluding that temperature-graded inventories and formal offtake agreements are essential for establishing a viable recovery economy.
White papers17 min read
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From Energy Transition to Exergy Transition: A Better Framework for Global Decarbonization
This white paper proposes the Exergy Transition framework to address limitations in carbon-only accounting. By applying energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, and exergoenvironmental analysis (the 4E method), the paper introduces three indicators: second-law efficiency, avoidable destruction cost, and avoidable impact. Wim Adriaan Bakker demonstrates how identifying thermodynamic irreversibilities can optimise decarbonisation routes, potentially reducing the required scale of new generation infrastructure by factors of three to five through more intelligent resource use and resource-quality management.
White papers16 min read
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The Global Exergy Report: Where Humanity Destroys Useful Energy and What We Can Do About It
This report establishes an annual audit of global second-law efficiency, mapping the flow of six hundred exajoules harvested annually. Utilising engineering coefficients and historical exergy accounting, the research identifies seven primary sectors of destruction, including thermal power and low-temperature heating. It introduces the Exerginity Global Exergy Index (EGEI) to rank nations and industries, concluding that adopting ten specific technological levers, such as heat pumps and electrification, can double global energy intelligence within a generation.
White papers20 min read
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