waste
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Chemistry
Q&A: Photo Production makes medicines from waste
Tsuda (right) and a student working on a demonstration experiment at a sewage treatment plant in the Higashinada district of Kobe City. Credit: Tsuda Akihiko KOBE University Start-up Photo-on-Demand Chemical Co. Ltd. has demonstrated that methane can be produced from sewage to refine it into pharmaceutical ingredients and other useful chemicals. To this end, Tsuda Akihiko, CEO and Associate Professor…
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Chemistry
New research leads to executable solutions for recycling polycotton fiber waste.
Polycotton’s sample (left) and (right) processing (right) and after (right) (right). The sample on the right is transparent because all cotton is removed. Only polyester remains. Credit: HIMS / AVANTIUM In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers in the Sustainable Chemical Group at the University of Amsterdam (UVA) offer a solution to the difficult recycling of polycotton fabric waste.…
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Chemistry
Polymer editing allows waste to be upcycled into higher-performance plastics
To upcycle discarded plastic polymers, chemists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a method to produce new polymers with more valuable properties than the starting materials. Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Department of Energy Chemists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered a way to create new polymers with more valuable properties than the starting materials…
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Chemistry
Acid dissolution of mine waste – a new environmentally friendly way to extract metals
Credit: CC0 Public Domain New research shows that magnesium and other metals in mine waste can be solubilized and recovered thanks to acid-producing bacteria. Researcher Nathan van Wyk believes this method has great potential to reduce environmental pollution, extend the life of mines and provide raw materials for industry. Each year, more than 3 billion tons of metals are produced…
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Chemistry
Conversion of marine waste and carbonated water into hydrogels by COâ‚‚ emission behavior
Carbon dioxide creates the acidic environment necessary for calcium ions to bind alginate chains and form a hydrogel. However, the rapid release of CO2 after gelation limits the availability of calcium ions and reduces the cross-linking of alginate chains. Credit: Reprinted from Teshima et al. With permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry Hydrogels are soft materials made of cross-linked…
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Chemistry
Chemists discover easy way to make biodiesel from waste oil
Graphical summary. Credit: Energy and Fuels (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.4c03643 Chemists at the University of California, Santa Cruz have discovered a new way to make biodiesel from waste oil that simplifies the process and requires relatively mild heat. The discovery has the potential to make alternative fuel sources more attractive to the large industrial sector that is the backbone of the…
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Chemistry
Overcoming the drawbacks of waste plastic pyrolysis through chemical-biological processes
Schematic diagram of the newly developed method for upcycling mixed plastic waste. Credit: Journal of Cleaner Production (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141890 A joint research team has developed a technology to recycle mixed waste plastics to produce high-value-added plastic raw materials called dicarboxylic acids (α,ω-diacids). The study is published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. The team was led by Dr. Sang-Goo…
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Chemistry
Graphene oxide and chitosan sponges found to be 10 times more efficient at removing gold from electronic waste
SEM images of Au3+ extraction and reduction by GO/chitosan sponge. Au3+ is displayed in yellow. Credit: Kou Yan A team of chemists and materials scientists from the National University of Singapore, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Manchester in the UK and Guangdong University of Technology in China, have developed a type of sponge made of graphene oxide…
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Environment
Analysis shows no significant PFAS emissions under approved waste incineration conditions
Credit: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Fluoropolymers have become an integral part of modern society, both in industrial and consumer applications. At the end of their useful life, these high-performance materials can become both industrial and domestic waste. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in collaboration with international partners, analyzed the contribution of fluoropolymer waste incineration to the release of…
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Environment
Understanding the relationship between food waste, climate change, and population aging
Researchers investigated how household food waste is related to a variety of demographic and economic factors and found that age plays a complex role. Credit: Dr. Yosuke Shigetomi, Ritsumeikan University Producing food and delivering it to people’s tables requires the consumption of large amounts of energy and resources. Unfortunately, around one-third of the food produced around the world goes to…
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