🌡️ CLIMATE: A Kansas State University professor is one of the leading researchers on a U.S. Army project to develop a 3D-printed, miniature holographic device that is installed on drones to detect and characterize aerosols. Currently, the technology is primarily being tested on pollen and dust to understand the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere, but it holds promise for other substances and applications, including studying climate change.

⛏ COAL: North Dakota state regulators approved additional funding for carbon capture and storage technology development that supporters say could help keep open a coal plant set to close in 2022, reports The Bismarck Tribune.

🌽 AGRICULTURE:

• St. Louis-based CoverCress is collaborating with the Salk Institute on using cutting-edge technologies to improve soil health and organic carbon storage in crops.
• A Silicon Prairie News article highlights how The Combine incubator at the University of Nebraska’s innovation campus is helping to launch new agtech startups.

🥤 PLASTICS: Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University are collaborators on the new BOTTLE consortium, a National Renewable Energy Laboratory-led effort to advance technologies that tackle the plastics pollution problem.

We’re proud to be leading BOTTLE, a new @energy collaboration bringing together expertise from #NationalLabs and universities to innovate solutions for our growing waste plastic #pollution crisis. Learn more at https://t.co/ZHDnoayG09 #BioenergyDay #NationalChemistryWeek #NCW pic.twitter.com/yRaPT5gG7z

— NREL (@NREL) October 21, 2020

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⚖️ SETTLEMENT: Dayton Power and Light Company reached a settlement agreement to resolve several cases. It will invest $249 million in capital projects over the next four years to modernize operations and install smart grid technologies.

🗺️ JUUUST OUTSIDE THE MIDWEST:

• Colorado School of Mines researchers are using neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to investigate how to make crack-free welds on large thermal energy storage tanks at concentrating solar plants.

  

• In other ORNL news, a process developed there has been licensed by Dallas-based Momentum Technologies to recover metals from lithium-ion batteries for reuse.

🏆 AWARDS: The Cleanie Awards announced its 2020 winners who are driving innovation in clean energy. Michigan-based Consumers Energy received a new award recognizing its above-and-beyond efforts to keep the power on for customers during the pandemic.