Biobased Barbies, pineapple waste paper, 3D printed fruit, Super Bowl’s fiber food packaging, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of December 25th

#10 An international team of scientists has built a machine learning model to simulate new fuel cell prototypes before building expensive prototypes

In China, H2-View reports that scientists from Loughborough University and Tianjin University have created a computer simulation, enhanced by machine learning, that allows car manufacturers in China to virtually test hydrogen fuel cell engines instead of building expensive prototypes. Professor Xuan of Loughborough University explained the impact of this development by discussing some of the hurdles that still need to be addressed to bring renewable hydrogen to the mass market, “…the power output needs to double before this technology can become commercially viable… The simulation platform developed by the project is being used to help optimize these fuel cell engines so that the final fuel cell product will be close to design specs and with maximum performance without expensive in-process modification or trial and error.” The platform has dramatically sped up the R&D process as well as reduce costs for several automotive fuel cell companies.
More on the story, here.