Latest Posts
Bioplastic from Australian Bee’s Nesting Material
A New Zealand company, named Humble Bee, is reverse-engineering the nesting material of the Australian solitary masked bee in a bid to manufacture a biodegradable alternative to plastic on a large scale and at a competitive price. Read more »
Capturing Clean Water from Power Plant Cooling Towers
About 39% of all the fresh water withdrawn from rivers, lakes, and reservoirs in the United States is used for cooling electric power plants. Most of that water ends up in clouds of vapor. Engineers at MIT have now developed technology which captures fresh water from power plant cooling towers. Read more »
Affordable Carbon Capture from the Air
A Canadian company has published results of a pilot study that shows that CO₂ can be captured from the atmosphere for less than $us100 a tonne – far less than previous estimates of $600 to $1,000 a tonne. The company is commercalising technology which uses the captured CO₂ to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Read more »
New Plastic Can Be Recycled Repeatedly
Scientists at Colorado State University have discovered a plastic polymer which, unlike typical petroleum plastics, can be recycled repeatedly without losing its quality and without the use of toxic chemicals or intensive lab procedures. Read more »
Cheap and Efficient Ways of Using Wood To Purify Water
Engineers at the University of Maryland’s School of Engineering have investigated ways of using energy from the sun and a block of wood smaller than an adult’s hand to heat water to produce steam point which can be condensed to provide purified water in an efficient, easily accessible, environmentally friendly, biodegradable way and at an extremely low cost. Read more »
Using Waste Plastic Bags to Double the Life of Lithium Sulfur Batteries
Engineers at Purdue University have found a way to increase the life of lithium-sulfur batteries which has the added benefit of being a way to recycle plastic bags. Read more »
Pink Greenhouses That Generate Electricity
Researchers from the University of California-Santa Cruz have shown that greenhouses made with a special pink glass can control temperature and generate solar electricity at the same time. Read more »
Graphene Makes Concrete Stronger and Reduces CO2 Emissions
Researchers at the University of Exeter have developed a new technique that uses nanoengineering technology to incorporate graphene into traditional concrete making it more than twice as strong and four times more water resistant than existing concretes while significantly reducing carbon emissions. Read more »
Speeding Up Carbon Sequestration in the Ocean
Scientists at Caltech and the University of Southern California have discovered that adding a common enzyme will make the slow part of the chemical reaction that sequesters carbon dioxide into the ocean go 500 times faster. They believe that, if they can scale this process up, it could make a real difference in reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Read more »
Food Choices Can Squander Environmental Resources
It is often estimated that about a third of the food produced for human consumption globally is lost or wasted. But an even bigger waste, which is not included in this estimate, may be through dietary choices that result in the squandering of environmental resources. Read more »
