It's an attractive idea: take the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change and put them underground where they can't do any damage.

Industrial scale CO2 storage projects, now operational or in design, provide strong empirical support for the view that CO2 storage can be implemented safely and at acceptable cost. Nevertheless, significant uncertainties remain regarding the risks, cost and availability of underground storage at the scales necessary for this technology to…

Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) have plenty of advantages over their traditional, silicon-based counterparts. These carbon-based semiconductors are cheaper. They're flexible. They're lightweight. But when it comes to the main measure of performance - charge carrier mobility - they still lag behind.

The problem lies in the poorly organized molecular structure of organic semiconductors. Treating the thin-film transistor with high-tempertures can address this, but it's expensive and…

Today, petroleum refineries are under pressure to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which contribute to global warming. At the same time, they need to meet quality specifications and maximize profits. Because refineries are complex operations, deciding how to best achieve those goals is no simple task. Thanks to chemical engineers at the University of Waterloo, however, the job just got a little easier.

The four researchers created a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model that…

The electricity grid of the future - the so-called "smart grid" - will feature more decentralized electricity generation, more storage and better matching of supply and demand. According to two University of Waterloo researchers, several concepts and technologies pioneered on the Internet can help achieve that vision.

Srinivasan Keshav and Catherine Rosenberg point to many similarities between the electrical grid of tomorrow and the Internet. Both networks involve generation, transmission…