A next-generation absorbent material with a high affinity for short- and long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has recently been granted a patent in the U.S. Developed by Puraffinity Ltd. (London, U.K.; www.puraffinity.com), the material is bottom-up-designed, beginning with a…
Surfactants can stabilize oil and water in an emulsion, a useful mechanism in many industrial processes and in cleaning up oil spills. But separating and recovering the oil and water, such as for eliminating waste discharge, can be difficult. A…
Powerful permanent magnets Permanent magnets — materials that create their own persistent magnetic field — are frequently used in most types of electronics, turbines, engines and motors. Currently, nearly all powerful permanent magnets require rare-earth elements (REEs), such as neodymium…
Electrochemically converting carbon dioxide into useful chemicals or fuels is a promising CO2-utilization strategy, but scaling up the process is a challenge. One reason is that the gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) used to facilitate contact between gaseous CO2, solid catalyst and…
Dry reforming of methane (DRM), in which carbon dioxide and methane are combined to form synthesis gas (H2 and CO), is an attractive route to making syngas because it does not require consumption of water and does not produce CO2…
Meeting climate-change goals requires steep reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants and hard-to-abate industry operations. However, the energy required to release captured CO2 from sorbent material is a challenge for the economic viability of these efforts. Also, retrofitting…
One of the main limiting factors in the production of “green” hydrogen via electrochemical water splitting is the relatively slow rate of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the use of very expensive noble metals like iridium to catalyze the…
A new demonstration plant is upcycling gypsum (calcium sulfate) — a material that is typically challenging to dispose of — at a metal-refining site using a process that combines salt-splitting electrolysis, caustic direct-air capture (DAC) and mineralization. Travertine Technologies, Inc.…
Scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; Upton, N.Y.; www.bnl.gov) and collaborating institutions have engineered a highly selective catalyst that can convert methane into methanol in a one-step reaction. The system could help make better use of “stranded” natural gas…
Conventional combustors that employ air-blast and pressure-swirl injection technologies are very sensitive to fuel properties, especially viscosity, limiting their ability to utilize certain classes of fuels and blends, including bio-based fuels. The new swirl-burst (SB) fuel-injector technology developed at Baylor…