Electrochemically reducing carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide offers a pathway to use CO2 as a feedstock, but the reaction is challenging because it requires catalyst molecules and dissolved CO2 to meet on the electrode surface. One approach to help this…
For the first time, researchers have proven that multigene bioengineering of photosynthesis increases the yield of the major food crop soybean in field trials. An international collaborative team of the RIPE project (Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency), led by the University…
Researchers from Chung-Ang University (Seoul, South Korea; https://neweng.cau.ac.kr) have developed a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that is operable via breathing and can, therefore, be integrated into gas masks. The device is capable of powering LEDs and Bluetooth trackers, and can monitor…
E-Cracking Last month, construction began on the world’s first demonstration plant for large-scale, electrically heated steam cracker furnaces. The demonstration plant will be fully integrated into one of the existing steam crackers at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. It…
An expanding array of CO2-capture approaches are quickly developing for hard-to-abate industrial sectors. The key objective is to significantly lower the costs of traditional CO2-capture techniques, which are based on aqueous alkanolamine absorption and desorption Achieving climate mitigation objectives, such…
Evonik Industries Ag (Essen, Germany) has announced progress to make the recycling of lithium simpler, more cost-effective, and more environmentally friendly. This metal is essential for the batteries used to drive millions of electric vehicles. At present, however, up to…
Flyash, a waste byproduct from coal burning, has been used effectively as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in Portland cement to displace a portion of the cement and lower the CO2 emissions associated with cement making. But because coal burning…
Sodium-ion batteries have many advantages over lithium-ion batteries due to sodium’s abundance and low cost. However, there are several performance challenges to overcome with sodium-ion batteries because there is typically a tradeoff between energy density and lifecycle. Now, a research…
Chemists from the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Freiburg (Germany; uni-freiburg.de) have synthesized a cationic, low-valence aluminum complex salt. “So far, there has been only one example of a cationic, low-valent aluminum compound, but it…
Last month at Achema 2022 (August 22–26; Frankfurt am Main, Germany), Q.ANT GmbH (Stuttgart, Germany; www.qant.de) introduced what is said to be the world’s first industrial-grade quantum sensor (photo) for particle analysis. By the use of super-fast software, electronics and…