Self-powered pump harnesses light and chemistry to target, capture pollutants

Dartmouth team develops light-controlled pump with potential applications for environmental cleanup

08-Aug-2024 - Dartmouth researchers have developed a self-powered pump that uses natural light and chemistry to target and remove specific water pollutants, according to a new report in the journal Science. As water enters the pump, a wavelength of light activates a synthetic molecular receptor designed to ...

Oxyle and Waterleau join forces in the fight against PFAS contamination

Partnership agreement signed for the sustainable removal of PFAS from the environment

21-May-2024 - Oxyle, the Swiss pioneering water treatment startup, and Waterleau announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This MoU marks a pivotal moment in the global effort to combat micropollutants in water resources. Joining forces for the complete elimination of PFAS The strategic ...

Biosurfactants might offer an environmentally friendly solution for tackling oil spills

Biosurfactants are produced by microorganisms and can increase the bioavailability of oil components

25-Jul-2023 - Can biosurfactants increase microbiological oil degradation in North Sea seawater? An international research team from the universities of Stuttgart und Tübingen, together with the China West Normal University and the University of Georgia, have been exploring this question and the results have ...

PFAS contaminated water becomes clean again

Promising and environmentally friendly process developed

25-Jul-2023 - There are many man-made environmental pollutants. One of the most serious is pollution with the harmful perpetual chemical PFAS, which can be found in many soils and waters and thus also in our food. Although it is possible to remove it, it is costly and produces hazardous waste. Now, researchers ...

Young Inventors Prize 2023 for drawing microplastics out of the ocean

The latest prototype uses a unique mixture without requiring filters or chemicals and removes over 85% of microplastics in a single pass

06-Jul-2023 - The European Patent Office (EPO) announced that Irish environmentalist Fionn Ferreira has won third place in the Young Inventors Prize at the European Inventor Award 2023. Ferreira, a 22-year-old chemistry master's degree student and teaching assistant at the University of Groningen in the ...

AI systems for the airborne detection of plastic waste in the oceans

06-Jun-2023 - Aircraft that routinely fly over bodies of water around the world to monitor pollution could in future not only detect oil and chemical spills on the high seas, in coastal waters and on beaches, but also plastic waste floating on the surface of the water. In the PlasticObs+ project, a consortium ...

Jellyfish-like robots could one day clean up the world’s oceans

27-Apr-2023 - Roboticists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a jellyfish-inspired underwater robot with which they hope one day to collect waste from the bottom of the ocean. The almost noise-free prototype can trap objects underneath its body without physical ...

New wood-based technology removes 80% of dye pollutants in wastewater

Method can also be used against other types of pollutants

31-Mar-2023 - Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new method that can easily purify contaminated water using a cellulose-based material. This discovery could have implications for countries with poor water treatment technologies and combat the widespread problem of toxic ...

A sea change for plastic pollution: new material biodegrades in ocean water

Marine microorganisms found to feast on new polyurethane materials used in a startup's sustainable shoes

26-Sep-2022 - Plastics, now ubiquitous in the modern world, have become a rising threat to human and environmental health. Around the planet, evidence of plastic pollution stretches from grocery bags in the deep sea to microplastics in our food supplies and even in our blood. Seeking solutions to counteract ...

New method can remove dyes from wastewater

16-Aug-2022 - North Carolina State University researchers have demonstrated that a synthetic polymer can remove certain dyes from water, and that the polymer can be recovered and reused. The findings offer a new potential method for cleaning wastewater after use by textiles, cosmetics or other ...