Construction is underway by AIR Co. (Brooklyn, N.Y.; www.aircompany.com) for a commercial demonstration plant capable of converting captured carbon dioxide into fuel-grade paraffins, as well as ethanol and methanol, in a single step. The facility will be a larger version…
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Germany; www.kit.edu) have developed a new class of materials — enzyme foams. Normally, foaming modifies the enzyme structure and enzymes lose their biocatalytic activity. The new protein foams, however, are said to…
Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.covestro.com) has developed a chemolysis process for recycling polycarbonate back into monomers. In laboratory trials, the process has been shown to recycle waste streams with more than 50% polycarbonate content into monomers, closing the loop to…
A new, non-intrusive screening method developed by researchers from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago (pme.uchicago.edu), as well as Argonne National Laboratory (Lemont, Ill.; www.anl.gov) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.uwm.edu), shows promise for…
In recent years, some car manufacturers have developed vehicles that integrate photovoltaic cells into the roof — the easiest surface to use for onboard solar-power generation. Now, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE; Freiburg, Germany;…
Carbon Capture Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR; Newark, Calif.; www.mtrinc.com) Carbon Capture announced it has commenced construction of a large pilot plant at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center (ITC) in Gillette, Wyoming. When operational in 2024, it will be…
Seawater is being used in a new electrolysis scheme for carbon dioxide removal (CDR), while also producing hydrogen as a byproduct. Developed by Equatic (Los Angeles, Calif.; www.equatic.tech), the platform draws seawater into a closed electrolysis system, taking advantage of…
Graphene has been touted as a “super” material, boasting ultra-high strength, superconductivity and many more superlative properties, but, as a planar two-dimensional material, its commercial use has been limited in terms of reactivity, since reactions can only occur at the…
Traditional vapor-compression refrigeration relies on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as refrigerant fluids — a class of compounds with global-warming potentials (GWP) thousands of times higher than that of CO2. A new approach from scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL; Berkeley, Calif.;…
Discovering new catalysts and materials for specific applications can be a tedious and time-consuming process involving labor-intensive tests and expensive samples. Technology developed by Mattiq (Skokie, Ill.; www.mattiq.com) enables the “printing” of tens of thousands of tiny material samples onto…