Virginia Tech engineers have developed a new technique to recover precious rare earth minerals from coal and coal byproducts. The team has collaborated with industry and academic partners in a major pilot project, which aims to extract rare earth elements from coal waste.
A new method to create plastic has been developed by Stanford scientists, using carbon dioxide (CO2) and inedible plant material, such as agricultural waste and grasses. This method could provide a low-carbon substitute to the existing petroleum-based plastic bottles and other items.
Renewable non-food biomass could potentially replace petrochemical raw materials to produce energy sources, useful chemicals, or a vast array of petroleum-based end products such as plastics, lubricants, paints, fertilizers, and vitamin capsules. In recent years, biorefineries which transform non-edible biomass into fuel, heat, power, chemicals, and materials have received a great deal of attention as a sustainable alternative to decreasing the reliance on fossil fuels.
A milestone study in solar cell fabrication was conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in partnership with Washington State University (WSU) and the University of Tennessee. This research will facilitate the use of solar energy to directly contend with electricity generated from traditional energy sources.
An economy that depends solely on fossil fuels seems unsustainable in the current global scenario. Oil prices are crashing, and supplies of coal, oil, and similar fuels are limited.
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have successfully developed an environmentally-friendly food packaging material that is free from chemical additives, by fortifying natural chitosan-based composite film with grapefruit seed extract (GFSE). This novel food packaging material can slow down fungal growth, doubling the shelf-life of perishable food, such as bread.
The JEC World exhibition that reaches in 2016 the unequalled surface of 62,000 sqm will introduce, for the first time, four new display areas totaling more than 1,800 sqm. The so-called Planets will feature innovative and iconic parts, final products, and some of the 2016 JEC Innovation Awards recipients.
Chemists from the University of Texas at Arlington have created new high-performing materials to develop cells that utilize sunlight to separate water and carbon dioxide into useable fuels, such as hydrogen gas and methanol. These “green fuels” are used for home appliances and to store energy in batteries and power cars.
Pollens hold promise for potential application as anodes in lithium-ion batteries, according to a team of researchers from the Purdue University.
In today’s world, cooling is a very important process. The challenge for the future is to carry out cooling that is not harmful to the climate, and facilitates the conservation of natural resources. Professors Stefan Seelecke and Andreas Schütze from Saarland University have used cooling systems that use shape memory alloys, also referred to as ‘artificial muscles’ or ‘metal muscles.
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