Bio-tar, once seen as a toxic waste, can be transformed into bio-carbon with applications in clean energy and environmental protection. This innovation could reduce emissions, create profits, and solve a major bioenergy industry problem.
Read moreElectrons flow underground in ways far more extensive than once believed, forming networks that link distant chemical zones. Minerals, organic molecules, and specialized bacteria can act as bridges, creating long-distance electron highways. These discoveries hold promise for pollution cleanup strategies, remote remediation, and protecting ecosystems. Scientists now see the subsurface as an interconnected redox system with exciting practical potential.
Read moreUniversity of Maine researchers developed a new process to make HBL, a key ingredient in many medicines, from renewable glucose instead of petroleum. The approach not only lowers drug production costs but also reduces emissions.
Read moreAmerica already mines all the critical minerals it needs for energy, defense, and technology, but most are being wasted as mine tailings. Researchers discovered that minerals like cobalt, germanium, and rare earths are discarded in massive amounts, even though recovering just a fraction could eliminate U.S. dependence on imports.
Read moreNext-generation solar cells that mimic photosynthesis with biological material may give new meaning to the term 'green technology.' Adding the protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR) to perovskite solar cells boosted the efficiency of the devices in a series of laboratory tests, according to an international team of researchers.
Read moreScientists have developed a forensic tracer that uses lead isotopes to detect and measure coal fly ash in dust, soil and sediments. Tests show the new tracer can distinguish between the isotopic signature of lead derived from coal ash and lead that comes from other major human or natural sources. Exposure to fly ash from dust, soil or sediments has been linked to numerous diseases and health concerns.
Read moreThe transition from coal to natural gas in the US electricity sector is reducing the industry's water use, research finds. For every megawatt of electricity produced using natural gas instead of coal, the water withdrawn from rivers and groundwater drops by 10,500 gallons, and water consumed for cooling and other plant operations and not returned to the environment drops by 260 gallons. Switching to solar or wind power could boost these savings even more.
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A widely-used gas that is currently produced from fossil fuels can instead be made by an 'artificial leaf' that uses only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and which could eventually be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to gasoline.
Fluctuations in atmospheric pressure can heavily influence how much natural gas leaks from wells below the ground surface at oil and gas sites, according to new research. However, current monitoring strategies do not take this phenomenon into account, and therefore may be under- or over-estimating the true magnitude of gas emissions.
Read moreScientists have conducted an in-depth study on how carbon nanotubes with oxygen-containing groups can be used to greatly enhance the performance of perovskite solar cells. The newly discovered self-recrystallization ability of perovskite could lead to improvement of low-cost and efficient perovskite solar cells.
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