New reactor could save millions when making ingredients for plastics and rubber from natural gas

With oil production dropping, a process using natural gas is needed to avert a shortage of a workhorse chemical used for automotive parts, cleaning products and more

29-Mar-2024 - A new way to make an important ingredient for plastics, adhesives, carpet fibers, household cleaners and more from natural gas could reduce manufacturing costs in a post-petroleum economy by millions of dollars, thanks to a new chemical reactor designed by University of Michigan engineers. The ...

Deep Learning despite sparse data

DFG research group focuses on evaluation of chemical process data

29-Jul-2022 - The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the new research group "Deep Learning on sparse chemical process data" for four years with around 3.5 million euros. It is coordinated at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (TUK). The group is working on making Deep Learning methods, a ...

Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

“This work really demonstrates the power of bringing together different disciplines, from synthetic biology to chemical engineering to artificial intelligence”

29-Apr-2022 - An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin can break down environment-throttling plastics that typically take centuries to degrade in just a matter of hours to days. This discovery, published in Nature, could help solve one of the world’s most ...

Removing toxic mercury from contaminated water

22-Nov-2018 - Water which has been contaminated with mercury and other toxic heavy metals is a major cause of environmental damage and health problems worldwide. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present a totally new way to clean contaminated water, through an electrochemical ...

A path to sustainable and biodegradable polyesters

04-Jun-2018 - There's a good chance you've touched something made out of the polyolefin polymer today. It's often used in polyethylene products like plastic bags or polypropylene products like diapers. As useful as polyolefins are in society, they continue to multiply as trash in the environment. Scientists ...

Don’t wait for a unicorn: investing in low-carbon tech now will save money

22-May-2018 - Waiting for a ‘unicorn technology’ that provides green energy at low cost could be more expensive than adopting low-carbon energy technologies now. Researchers from Imperial College London say if Britain invested more in today’s low-carbon energy technologies, it would save more money in the long ...

A simple method etches patterns at the atomic scale

27-Apr-2018 - A precise, chemical-free method for etching nanoscale features on silicon wafers has been developed by a team from Penn State and Southwest Jiaotong University and Tsinghua University in China. In standard lithography, a photosensitive film is deposited on a silicon wafer and a pattern called a ...

CNT membranes used to make carbon-zero fuels for less than fossil fuels

13-Mar-2018 - Mattershift, an NYC-based startup with alumni from MIT and Yale has achieved a breakthrough in making carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes at large scale. The startup is developing the technology's ability to combine and separate individual molecules to make gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from CO2 ...

3-D printing improves cell adhesion and strength of PDMS polymer

25-Jan-2018 - Combining two different polymer forms can switch manufacturing of silicone parts from molding, casting and spin coating of simple forms to 3-D printing of complex geometries with better mechanical characteristics and better biological adhesion, according to a team of Penn State researchers. "So ...

Cheaper catalytic converter meets modern engines

Less platinum needed

18-Dec-2017 - As cars become more fuel efficient, less heat is wasted in the exhaust, which makes it harder to clean up the pollutants being emitted. Researchers at Washington State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of New Mexico have created a catalyst capable of reducing ...