Behind the Pioneering Technology that Enabled the First 100% SAF Trans-Atlantic Flight

Significant step towards a lower carbon future

04-Dec-2023 - In a landmark achievement for the aviation industry, BioForming® Sugar to Aromatics (S2A) technology developed by Virent and Johnson Matthey has enabled the first-ever drop-in 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) trans-Atlantic flight by a commercial airline. This historic flight represents a ...

Harvesting more solar energy with supercrystals

An impetus for greener hydrogen production

04-Dec-2023 - Hydrogen is a building block for the energy transition. To obtain it with the help of solar energy, LMU researchers have developed new high-performance nanostructures. The material holds a world record for green hydrogen production with sunlight. When Emiliano Cortés goes hunting for sunlight, he ...

Recovering instead of shredding: recycling batteries more efficiently

KIT researchers are working with industry to develop a more sustainable recycling process to recycle materials from lithium-ion batteries more effectively

30-Nov-2023 - The market for electric cars is growing rapidly and with it the demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIB). Their recycling is also an important component in the production cycle. Current processes break down the active battery materials into their molecular components - using large amounts of energy ...

Boosting PET recycling with higher standards for laboratory experiments

New study shows how enzymatic plastic degradation could be brought one step closer to commercialisation

29-Nov-2023 - Many enzymes promise to break down plastic. But what works well in the lab often fails on a large scale. Now a new study by Gert Weber, HZB, Uwe Bornscheuer, University of Greifswald, and Alain Marty, Chief Scientific Officer of Carbios, shows how raising the bar for laboratory experiments could ...

Fighting global warming with tamarind polymers

Start-up wins ISC3 Innovation Award 2023

28-Nov-2023 - If South Mumbai is flooded in seven years, 20 million people will lose their homes. The number of cases of cancer in children will rise by 37 percent this year. The mountains of garbage in his homeland are getting bigger and bigger. As one of eight finalists in the Innovation Challenge 2023 of ...

Hundreds of toxic chemicals in recycled plastics

The scientists judge recycled plastics unfit for most purposes

14-Nov-2023 - When scientists examined pellets from recycled plastic collected in 13 countries they found hundreds of toxic chemicals, including pesticides and pharmaceuticals. The results are published in a study led by scientists at the University of Gothenburg. Because of this, the scientists judge recycled ...

How lab-made catalysts can help to get a grip on difficult greenhouse gases

09-Nov-2023 - Natural gas consists of light hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. Such gases are more potent greenhouse gases than CO2, are constantly released into the atmosphere from natural gas wells, and are more difficult to store than, for example, their corresponding alcohols (methanol and ethanol, ...

Plastic-eating bacteria turn waste into useful starting materials for other products

Microbial Upcycling of Waste PET

03-Nov-2023 - Mountains of used plastic bottles get thrown away every day, but microbes could potentially tackle this problem. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science report that they’ve developed a plastic-eating E. coli that can efficiently turn polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste into adipic acid, which ...

Tracking down Environmental Toxins

Detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by interrupted energy transfer

02-Nov-2023 - PFAS, a family of highly fluorinated substances, represent a danger for humans and the environment. Particularly problematic members of this family, such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) appear to cause organ damage and cancer, as well as disrupting the ...

Plants transformed into detectors of dangerous chemicals

Scientists engineer plants to speak in color

26-Oct-2023 - What if your house plant could tell you your water isn’t safe? Scientists are closer to realizing this vision, having successfully engineered a plant to turn beet red in the presence of a banned, toxic pesticide. To achieve this, UC Riverside researchers had to solve an engineering puzzle: how ...