Humify – superfood for the soil

Fighting climate change with green chemistry: The start-up Humify has developed a technology that can reactivate soil as a carbon sink

05-Aug-2025 - Hot and humid temperatures, no light, no air and then that intense odour: when the high-pressure cooker is fired up in the start-up Humify's laboratory, it is hard to imagine that under such conditions the resulting product – a kind of black liquid sludge – could help to influence climate change ...

Potential for significant defossilisation of the chemical industry using biomass

Study Confirms Biomass Can Meet 20% of Carbon Demand in Chemicals Sector by 2050 without compromising food and feed supply

21-Feb-2025 - A new study commissioned by the Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI) and the Biobased Industries Consortium (BIC) reveals that meeting 20% of the total global carbon demand of the chemicals and derived materials sector by 2050 from biomass is achievable and sustainable. This key finding highlights ...

Don’t burst that bubble: research explores nanobubble stability

Research is advancing knowledge about why nanobubbles don’t burst in a solution, which has real-world applications ranging from batteries to agriculture

03-Jan-2025 - Gases are essential for many chemical reactions, and bubbles are one way for these gases to be held in solution. When compared to larger bubbles, nanobubbles have increased stability—meaning that they can remain in a solution longer without popping. Due to their increased stability, they allow ...

Microbes could help reduce the need for chemical fertilizers

A coating protects nitrogen-fixing bacteria: Start-up to commercialise coated bacteria for large-scale use in regenerative agriculture

21-Nov-2023 - Production of chemical fertilizers accounts for about 1.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. MIT chemists hope to help reduce that carbon footprint by replacing some chemical fertilizer with a more sustainable source — bacteria. Bacteria that can convert nitrogen gas to ammonia ...

The weight of pollution: exposure linked to obesity

Chronic exposure to environmental pollutants found to increase risk of cardiovascular disease

08-Nov-2023 - In an era where exposure to commonly used pollutants present in our environment, in our homes and in our food, is virtually inevitable, ground-breaking research conducted by Professor Brice Appenzeller of the Luxembourg Institute of Health has unveiled a profoundly surprising health outcome of ...

How can the use of plastics in agriculture become more sustainable?

New study on plastic in our food systems

26-Sep-2023 - It is impossible to imagine modern agriculture without plastics. 12 million tonnes are used every year. But what about the consequences for the environment? An international team of authors led by Thilo Hofmann from the Division of Environmental Geosciences at the University of Vienna addresses ...

Insecticides affect aquatic insects in unexpected ways

24-Aug-2023 - Pesticide pollution of streams in agricultural areas has adverse effects for stream organisms. A new study, led by researchers from the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), provides evidence that aquatic insect larvae respond to insecticide exposure with alterations of ...

Weed killers of the future could soon be based on failed antibiotics

Researchers discovered there were similarities between bacterial superbugs and weeds at a molecular level

01-Jun-2023 - A molecule which was initially developed to treat tuberculosis but failed to progress out of the lab as an antibiotic is now showing promise as a powerful foe for weeds that invade our gardens and cost farmers billions of dollars each year. While the failed antibiotic wasn’t fit for its original ...

Artificial photosynthesis for environmentally friendly food production

Researchers produce important amino acid from greenhouse gas CO₂

03-May-2023 - Ensuring the supply of food to the constantly growing world population and protecting the environment at the same time are often conflicting objectives. Now researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have successfully developed a method for the synthetic manufacture of nutritional ...

Producing fertiliser without carbon emissions

Fighting climate change and food security

28-Dec-2022 - Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Carnegie Institution for Science have shown how nitrogen fertiliser could be produced more sustainably. This is necessary not only to protect the climate, but also to reduce dependence on imported natural gas and to increase food security. Intensive agriculture ...