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What’s the ETA on EVs?

In July 2022, Bloomberg analysts reported that the U.S. has now reached the “tipping point” for mass adoption of electric vehicles. According to the report, the nation has reached the magic number that signals a period when “technological preferences rapidly flip.” That magic number is just 5 percent — and 5 percent of new car sales in 2022 were electric vehicles.

IMAGE: Shutterstock
The Middle East brings its own challenges to EV adoption

Although consumer interest is high in the region — local company M Glory Holding Group in the UAE opened its electric vehicle manufacturing plant in 2022 with plans to produce 55,000 electric cars annually to meet a rising demand for green mobility — there are still numerous obstacles hindering the widespread adoption of EVs. The limited availability of EV charging stations is one concern, but more pressing is the new demand placed on power grids by at-home charging stations. Traditional power-distribution grids are not designed to handle a significant number of EVs charging in the evenings when their owners return home from work. Utilities providers will need to predict and account for this surge in demand. Read more›››

EV manufacturers also face the challenge of keeping up with demand, not just for EVs themselves but for their constituent parts. Replacement parts are expensive relative to components needed for internal combustion vehicles, especially when supply chains are not fully developed and hampered by the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic on logistics around the world. Localized procurement is the answer for the future, but companies and suppliers need time and investment to set up and serve the local market. In a relatively nascent industry, this is not a short-term solution.

Included in those replacement parts are batteries and tires. Saudi Arabia announced a U.S.$6 billion investment in a steel plate mill complex and electric vehicle battery plant in 2022 to take advantage of its geographical location at the crossroads of the producers of the necessary minerals: lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite. But this investment also foresees the need for more batteries in the Middle Eastern EV market than anywhere else. Put simply: The sun and car batteries don’t mix well. Hot weather means higher temperatures under the hood, which accelerates corrosion inside the battery. In an electric vehicle, full of batteries, this is naturally an exponentially larger concern.

Beyond damaging them, heat also drains batteries, meaning less range available for drivers. A 2019 study by the American Automobile Association found the driving range of an EV could reduce by up to 17 percent if the temperature is constantly above 35C — which it is for almost half the year in the Gulf.

Charging the EV only adds to the heat experienced by the battery. Charging in the evening makes it easier on the cooling systems but that puts a strain on the power grids.

It’s all connected!‹‹‹ Read less

Sales for electric vehicles, commonly called EVs, are on track to double every couple of years, says Loren McDonald of EVAdoption. The industry analysis group predicts 40 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2030. In 2020, some 276 million vehicles were registered.

The industry certainly seems to believe in the proliferation of electric vehicles: Vojay Chandler, investment strategist at Morgan Stanley, says EV’s share of global auto sales is likely to grow from about 7 percent today to nearly 90 percent by 2050.

There are plenty of reasons for this. Climate change and its consequences are forcing people to consider their environmental impact. Governments across the globe are developing policies to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency wherever possible. Fuel prices are at the mercy of political instability, particularly in Europe, and governments are hesitant to introduce e-fuels.

As Nasir Salari, marketing expert at Bath Spa University, points out, despite the sluggish growth rate of electric cars, the latest report by the International Energy Agency in 2020 illustrates promising figures in major markets. The global electric car stock hit the 10 million mark, a 43 percent increase over 2019. And while China has the largest fleet with 4.5 million, Europe had the largest annual increase to reach 3.2 million. In the United Kingdom, 67,100 passenger electric cars were registered in 2020. This is promising, Salari says, but the adoption curve is still at the early stage.

IMAGE: Abjad

Salari conducted research in the U.K. looking at the factors contributing to the “sluggish growth rate.” He interviewed 336 individuals in the U.K. to assess their willingness to buy an EV. Like most analysts, he predicts a boom in the coming years, particularly with the U.K. government reaffirming its commitment to ban new petrol and diesel cars in 2030. With pressures like these, new cars will be electric, but people currently seem reluctant to dive into the electric future.

Credit: Abjad

“There are various reasons for this,” Salari tells KUST Review. “This has always been the case for new revolutionary products: the first color TV, smartphone, cameras, for example.

There have always been early adopters and then majority adopters and the people open to embracing technology in general will also be more willing to adopt an electric car. The TRI is a good indicator of this.”

Developed in 2000, the TRI (Technology Readiness Index) is a widely used scale in understanding technology adoption behavior and a powerful tool to predict the adoption of incremental and revolutionary technologies.

“Our data shows no difference between men and women in their willingness to purchase an EV or pay a higher price for the product,” Salari says. “However, the overall TRI is higher amongst men than women, and this difference is statistically significant. This shows that overall, men are more willing to embrace new technology and possess new and unique items in general. There was also no significance between age groups for their willingness to purchase, but I was surprised to see a significant difference in how much environmentalism played a part: The 50-plus age group expressed higher levels of green values than the 20-29 group.”

IMAGE: Unsplash
Bringing down charging times

One of the issues with electric vehicles is the charging time. But a team at Khalifa University is working on cutting that time down. Read more›››

On-board EV charging is generally done through two stages, says Vinod Khadkikar, who leads the project funded by Abu Dhabi’s ASPIRE. In the first stage, AC voltage is converted into DC voltage. But this DC voltage is generally higher than the EV battery voltage, so an additional DC-DC converter is needed to charge the battery. Most current commercial on-board chargers use a full-power processing converter at the DC-DC stage, which requires higher voltage and current rating of switches and diodes. This restricts the charging speed. The size, cost and efficiency of any EV charger also largely depends on the device rating and number of power processing stages.

The KU team proposes partial power processing-based topographies at the DC-DC stage that use a fraction of the power.

“Therefore, the DC-DC converter size is reduced and the charger efficiency is high (97-99 percent with hard switching). The semiconductor device rating is reduced significantly, which helps to achieve higher power density (smaller footprint/compact size). This lets the user use the same footprint size to design the charger for higher power,” Khadkikar says.‹‹‹ Read less

Interestingly, Salari found that most consumers were more concerned by the economic impact of their purchase, rather than the environmentalism aspect: They cared more about their investment than how green they were being.

“Electric vehicles are advertised as environmentally friendly and they are! And people know this, but this isn’t necessarily encouraging people to purchase them,” Salari says. “Environmentalism does not have an impact on purchasing an electric car; its functionality is more important.”

Like Salari, experts believe that demand for electric vehicles will increase as they become more affordable. Morgan Stanley predicts that continued performance improvements and reductions in the cost of batteries (which account for about 35 percent of an EV’s total cost) could lower the average EV price to $18,000 by 2025.

Salari says it also depends on consumer incentives: “People aren’t running out to buy electric vehicles because they’re good for the environment. They’re hesitating because they’re expensive but they’re in favor because their running costs are much cheaper. Regular drivers are more open to adopting EVs because of fuel costs, so it all depends on how you market your product. Enviro isn’t doing it: Shift your marketing to the economic benefits.

Prices will be lower in the future — that’s how innovation works. The first time a product launches, it’s not a cheap product, but as it becomes a mainstream offering, it will become more affordable. The market is still in its infancy. To grow it, we need more early adopters and government incentives are one way to drive adoption.

– Nasir Salari, Marketing Expert at Bath Spa University

Tax credits and improved infrastructure are the way forward then. The U.K. is certainly investing in its electric vehicle readiness: Lampposts across London are being fitted with sensors and EV charging points to reduce emissions and cut congestion, and parking is even free in the capital for EV drivers. New-build houses come with electric vehicle charging stations as standard and many are fitted with solar panels to power this.

As charging infrastructure gets more support, subsidies and incentives become more robust, and governments enforce more petrol-banning policies, electric car sales will continue to rise.

“It’s happening,” Salari tells KUST Review. “It may not be where we expected it to be by now, but it’s happening.”

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We’ve captured carbon. Now what?

Before the industrial revolution the world removed carbon from the air all by itself. With global carbon emissions breaking records in 2022 and potential risks of storing carbon underground, however, companies are getting creative and repurposing captured carbon in unexpected ways.

The Paris Agreement in 2015 had countries all over the world commit to take part in the race to net-zero emissions. Those countries are working toward the agreement’s renewable-energy goals, but more can be done to control greenhouse gases. One solution is carbon capture.

Natural or human-made

Carbon capture is the process of retrieving carbon emissions from the air and storing them. The process can be natural or manmade.

Natural carbon capture and storage is achieved by elements of the planet’s ecosystems. Trees, for example, are an effective carbon-capture and storage mechanism: Their leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air through photosynthesis. But if trees are cut and burned for firewood — or even if the tree dies naturally — stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere.

The largest source of natural carbon capture is the world’s oceans. The United Nations estimates that the oceans soak up about 25 percent of all greenhouse-gas emissions and 90 percent of the surplus heat those emissions cause.

This natural carbon-capture process is called the carbon cycle. The problem is the world’s ecosystems can’t keep up with the greenhouse gases that are being produced by humans.

Enter man-made carbon capture.

Carbon-capture processes are designed to remove carbon from industrial waste or from the air outside. Carbon-capture plants typically have walls of giant fans, sucking in air. They remove the carbon from the air, convert it to liquid, store it underground or use it to inject into oil fields to simplify oil extraction. But there are challenges with carbon capture.

These large plants require a lot of energy in the form of materials to build the facilities and the energy to run them. Additionally, once the carbon dioxide is stored, there are risks. The carbon dioxide could leak out of the stored areas, polluting water sources and eventually reaching the surface — once again polluting the air.

Reasons for concern

There is also concern that pressure from injecting the carbon underground could cause seismic activity and controversy over whether carbon capture and storage might embolden fossil-fuel use. The 2022 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says, “Captured carbon has mostly been used for enhanced oil recovery” and “enhancing oil production is not a climate solution.”

While easing oil removal is the most common use of captured carbon, some companies are getting creative and managing carbon in other unusual ways.

Many large companies purchase carbon offsets to reduce their footprints. But individuals can purchase them as well. One company selling to individuals is Climeworks, a Swiss-based carbon-removal company that captures 900 tons of carbon annually. Buyers can even offer this as a “green gift” in the name of someone else. Climeworks also produces the bubbles for carbonated beverages for such clients as Coca-Cola.

Also getting off the ground is E-Jet fuel from carbon-capture company Twelve. The company says this fuel lowers greenhouse-gas emission of traditional fuels by 80 percent. Twelve entered into a memorandum of understanding with Alaska Air Group and Microsoft to work toward testing the fuel on a commercial flight.

Taking Off

In an announcement of the partnership, Nicholas Flanders, co-founder and CEO of Twelve said, “By producing our drop-in E-Jet fuel from captured CO2, we can rapidly and efficiently close the carbon cycle and allow businesses to sustainably use emissions to power their own business travel.” No date for the testing of the commercial flight has been announced. Air Transport Action Group reports that aviation makes up 12 percent of emissions from all transport sources.

After returning home from a green, commercial flight, weary travelers might do some green laundry with laundry capsules made from captured carbon.

In 2010, Unilever, which produces over 400 household brands such as Omo, Ben and Jerry’s and Dove, began a decades-long commitment to halve its environmental impact by 2030. One of the ingredients used to make foam in Omo (Persil) laundry capsules is fossil fuels. But on World Earth Day in 2021, Unilever launched a limited-edition capsule that used captured carbon instead of fossil fuels in a new process that makes the capsule 82 percent less carbon intensive. Unilever aims to achieve net zero emissions from its product line by 2039.

Even with the volume of removal, storage and creative ways carbon is being repurposed, carbon neutrality remains out of reach. The 2021 Global Status of Carbon Capture and Storage Report estimates that in order to reach mid-century goals, the number of carbon-capture facilities would have to increase by 100 times. There are currently 27.

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History of the mRNA vaccine

Nearly every function in the human body is carried out by proteins. Cells are constantly manufacturing them using single-strand messenger RNA, which is made from a DNA template. Each strand of mRNA holds the information on how to make one type of protein. The cell reads the mRNA, follows the instructions and makes a protein.

mRNA is a recipe book for the body’s cells. The idea? Make precise edits to the recipe, inject people with it, sit back and watch the body make all the proteins you need.

 IMAGE: Anas Al Bounni-KUST Review

Viruses come in different shapes and sizes. Some are DNA viruses, which contain DNA that integrates with the host DNA in certain cells, using that cell’s replication mechanism to multiply. These viruses can activate cancer genes in the host — the human papillomavirus (HPV) is known to cause cervical cancer, for example.

RNA viruses carry RNA and do not integrate that RNA into a host’s DNA. Instead, the RNA is directed to the host ribosomes in cells, with the ribosomes replicating the virus. These viruses do not interact with host DNA.

Once inside the body, the cell reads the vaccine mRNA and begins to make harmless spike proteins of its own. From there, the body recognizes them as a foreign threat and launches an immune response, teaching itself to respond to spike proteins. Should the actual coronavirus come knocking, your cells now know what to do.

The main drawback to mRNA vaccines? The mRNA breaks down very easily. It needs to be delivered inside a protective fatty barrier and kept cold.

mRNA vaccines are a groundbreaking way to elicit an immune response and their real impact is just beginning. Their applications don’t stop at COVID-19; we might be able to figure out the recipe for a cancer or HIV vaccine.

mRNA VACCINE HISTORY

1961-mRNA discovered.

1963-Interferon induction by mRNA discovered.

1965-First liposomes produced.

1969-First proteins produced from isolated mRNA in lab.

1971-Liposomes first used for drug delivery.

1974-Liposomes first used for vaccine delivery.

1978-First liposome-wrapped mRNA delivery to cells.

1984-mRNA synthesized in lab.

1989-First time synthetic mRNA in liposomes is delivered to human cells.

1992-mRNA tested as a treatment in rats.

1993-First mRNA vaccines tested for influenza in mice.

1995-mRNA tested as cancer vaccine in mice.

2005-Discovery that modified RNA evades immune detection.

2013-First clinical trial of mRNA vaccine for infectious disease (rabies).

2020-First mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use.

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Humanoid robots reach new depths

Humanoid robots are used in industries from medicine, law enforcement and hospitality, to maintenance and disaster relief. But Stanford University has developed a deep-sea humanoid robot that is diving in the robotics pool at Khalifa University with an end goal of exploring marine robotics for sustainable ocean ecosystems.

The OceanOneK robot — designed and built by Oussama Khatib and his Stanford team — has been five years in the making and made its Abu Dhabi debut tasked with retrieving plastic waste from the Khalifa University marine robotics pool.

But the team has bigger plans for OceanOneK

Having completed testing in the pool at Stanford on the trifecta of robotic function integration — navigation, bimanual manipulation (reciprocal hand movements needing disparity between hand actions), vision and body-control — it was time to take OceanOneK out to sea.

The robot performed several dives around the Mediterranean, reaching close to 1,000 meters — a record depth — exploring sunken vessels and retrieving artifacts.

As team members operated the robot through its haptic interface (communication system), they were able to feel what the robot was touching.

“It was pretty amazing feeling something that no other human could touch. While it was a (haptically mediated experience), it was still an amazing connection,” says Adrian Piedra, a Ph.D. student in Khatib’s Stanford lab.

CAPTION: Stanford team shares in-field experience with OceanOneK IMAGE: Khalifa University

One of the vessels was Le Francesco Crispi, an Italian steamship torpedoed by the British while enroute from Italy to France in 1943. Delicate white coral has formed on the wreck, Khatib says, that the dive’s marine biologists were very excited to touch and then collect as samples. Also present and observed were iron-eating bacteria.

The robot was able to perform tasks for archaeology and for marine biology.

– Oussama Khatib

This is why a humanoid robot was essential for this project, adds Wesley Guo, another of the project’s Stanford Ph.D. students. “The way we control the robot is direct, as this helps the operator relate intuitively. The easiest way to do this is to have the body at a scale and shape similar to the human form. We also wanted it to appear non-threatening, as it will work in collaboration with human divers at different sites.”

A typical recreational diver can safely descend to about 30 meters – anything deeper requires specialized training and equipment. At 30 meters the pressure is approximately four times that at the surface. What happens to the human body beneath these depths depends on the person’s overall health and fitness levels. At 1,000 meters, the robot experiences 100 times the atmospheric pressure, team leader Khatib explains.

So, such robots are the key to deep-water exploration. And with more autonomy comes more skill sets.

Khatib says autonomy of a robot in the water is challenging, hence the haptic interface back to a human. But the goal is to diminish the need for human intervention as much as possible.

These deep-water diving robots, called remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, are a new type of robot that can collect a lot of image data. “Operations under water require arms, hands and coordination between them, and that is what we’ve brought here with the OceanOne concept,” Khatib says.

“The interface we use goes beyond the visual – it delivers tactile-touch sensing using a haptic device. A haptic device allows humans to touch and feel what the robot is interacting with and permits one to guide the robot while it is executing delicate tasks. It acts as an avatar,” Khatib tells KUST Review.

“It interprets and affects movement and grasp request, maintains attitude and position for the human reference, and passes sensory information back to the human,” he says.

Human movement is just one of the considerations when building a robot like OceanOneK. The working environment must also be factored in. In this case that includes water and how it behaves.

Currents, for example, disrupt the intended movement, and this is where Khalifa University comes in.

The robotics pool at Khalifa University can simulate such environments, but under controllable conditions.

“Here, we can control the amount and direction of currents, we can control the waves, we can control those interactions in an ocean-like environment,” says Khatib.  “This is perfect for training and learning.”

CAPTION: Ku Robotics Pool IMAGE: Khalifa University

The Khalifa University robotics team will also work toward adding to the tasks the robot’s hands can carry out on their own.

“Full autonomy (without human intervention) will be the ultimate target; this, however, is challenging, and in the near-term humans will work with the robot to carry out tasks such as underwater valve-turning and plug-insertion,

Our objective is to increase the robot’s degree of autonomy while reducing the extent of human intervention.

– Lakmal Seneviratne, director of the Center for Autonomous Robot Systems and professor of mechanical engineering at Khalifa University

Stanford’s Khatib says these sensory-mechanical systems are also used out of the water in industries such as medicine, where a physician may interact through a haptic interface when not able to be present in the ICU. Similarly, the systems could be used for robots working on electrical grates or offshore platforms.

“In many of these applications we aim to distance humans from danger while connecting their skills to the task that must be carried out in that environment,” Khatib says.

CAPTION: Stanford and Khalifa University robotics collaboration IMAGE: Khalifa University

“There is a lot of work needed before taking these robots into the field, and Khalifa University offers a unique environment for this preparatory marine robotic study,” Khatib says. “We are also collaborating in other ways,” including curriculum development and teaching, as well as through research focus groups and workshops,” he adds.

“We look forward to more interaction with the researchers, faculty and students here.”

Among future joint projects: Khalifa University KUCARS and Stanford University Robotics Lab have recently established a collaboration to research and develop marine robotics systems for sustainable marine ecosystem applications, including ocean monitoring and ocean cleaning.

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Deciphering the potential of 3D
printed structures

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average house requires a span of seven months to materialize. This includes a cascade of developmental stages: the foundation is laid, the framing is erected, insulation is packed, drywall is hung, the plumbing installed, and the electrical grid established. This calls for a broad array of experts. Now, the construction industry is pivoting toward adopting 3D printing technologies to respond more nimbly, sustainably and affordably to the dynamic demands of modern homebuyers.

Japan, for example, has demonstrated the speed, building a house in 24 hours. While the resulting build serves as an office space now, its swift construction proves its potential for future home-building on a time crunch. Japan further showcased this by fabricating a spacious villa in 45 days.

Time may be money and this axiom resonates well in the world of 3D printed structures. Data from 3D print technology company, COBOD, suggests an economic advantage, with the cost of 3D homes approximately 45 percent lower than traditional construction methods. Personalization is also an option.

3D printers for home construction are essentially giant robots, capable of rendering virtually any design specifications a homeowner might dream up. Want a home shaped like a sphere? With 3D printing, such whimsical abodes could be actualized. Plus, these printed homes come with integrated reinforcement, which means no precast or additional reinforcements are required, making it a greener option.

In 2022, ICON, construction tech development company, and the Lennar Corporation, one of the leading home building companies in the U.S., announced a plan to 3D print an entire neighborhood of 100 homes. These solar-powered homes, ranging in size from 1,524 to 2112 square feet, offer a vision of a sustainable future community.

Projects like these pave the way for solving global issues, from the pervasive shortage of housing and scarcity of skilled labor, to the rehabilitation of regions hit by natural disasters. Swift and cost-effective structures could offer near-immediate shelter to communities affected by natural disasters or to the ubiquitous problem of homelessness. A 2022 report from Urbanet, highlights that over 1.8 million people globally lack adequate housing.

“There are far too many homeless people. Working-class people can’t afford basic housing in regular old American cities. Construction’s too wasteful. Houses aren’t energy-efficient enough. At the suburb scale, it’s dystopian, almost, what we’re getting, right? We’re supposed to be the most advanced version of humanity that’s ever existed and we can’t even meet this basic need properly,” Jason Ballard, CEO of ICON told The New Yorker.

The scope of 3D printing extends beyond the residential. As the 3D home-building market grows, other regions are exploring 3D printed structures for office buildings, bus stops and religious centers.

In 2020, the UAE was awarded the Guinness World Record for the first 3D-printed commercial building which served as the headquarters for the Dubai Future Foundation. After a swift 17-day print, followed by interior outfitting, it stands as a testament to rapid, efficient construction, offering up to 60 percent less waste.

The UAE is also home to the world’s largest 3D-printed building and plans to inaugurate the first 3D-printed, fully-functioning mosque by 2025.