New Materials May Cut Energy Costs for Carbon Capture

A study of over four million absorbent minerals has determined that industrial minerals called zeolites could help electricity producers slash as much as 30 percent of the parasitic...

Technology Awarded for Improving Submarine Air Quality

Creators of a nanotech-based system that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere within a submarine while providing a more environmentally friendly removal process have won the...

Copper-Gold Nanoparticles Efficiently Convert Carbon Dioxide

Copper is one of the few metals that can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels with relatively little energy, but it is temperamental and easily oxidized. MIT researchers...

Identifying Effective Carbon Capture Technologies

Approximately 75 percent of electricity used in the U.S. is produced by coal-burning power plants that expel carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Berkeley Lab researchers are searching for...

A Step Forward for Bioremediation

Berkeley Lab researchers have revealed critical genetic secrets of a bacterium that holds potential for removing toxic and radioactive waste from the environment. The researchers have provided the first...

Automotive IC

STMicroelectronics (Geneva, Switzerland) introduces the L99PM72PXP, an automotive IC supporting advanced networking technology to unlock valuable improvements in fuel efficiency and emissions. The new chip reduces the energy...

Edible Carbon Dioxide Sponge

A team of researchers at Northwestern University has discovered that a class of nanostructures made of sugar, salt, and alcohol can efficiently detect, capture, and store carbon dioxide. And the compounds...

Electricity and Carbon Offsets from Hog Waste

A system constructed by Duke University and Duke Energy on a hog finishing facility converts hog waste into electricity and creates carbon offset credits. Google, which invests in carbon...

Speeding Cleanup of Contaminated Sites

An engineering team at Oregon State University has invented a new type of radiation detection and measurement device that will be useful for cleanup of sites with radioactive contamination - making...

Desalinate Water, Produce Hydrogen, and Treat Wastewater?

Water purification requires a lot of energy, while utility companies need large amounts of water for energy production. Researchers from the University of Colorado Denver College of...

Organic Solvent System May Improve Recycling of Catalysts

Noble metals such as platinum and palladium are becoming increasingly important because of growth in environmentally friendly applications such as fuel cells and pollution control...

Electronic Monitoring For Coastal Waters

With a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, researchers from North Carolina State University are developing a cost-effective electronic monitoring system that will advance understanding of...

New Geoengineering Approaches Offset Global Warming More Efficiently

Releasing engineered nano-sized disks or sulphuric acid, a condensable vapour, above the Earth are two novel approaches that offer advantages over simply putting sulphur...

Solar-Powered, Oil-Cleaning Robots: Solution for Oil Spill?

A team of researchers at MIT's SENSEable City Laboratory have developed Seaswarm, a robot that autonomously navigates the water’s surface and uses nanofibers to absorb 20 times...

Paving Slabs Clean the Air

Innovative paving slabs that are coated in titanium dioxide nanoparticles can reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide in the air. Titanium dioxide is a photocatalyst; it uses sunlight to accelerate a naturally...

Sustainable Biochar to Mitigate Climate Change

By producing biochar - a charcoal-like substance made from plants and other organic materials - up to 12 percent of the world's human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be sustainably...

Switchgrass Lessens Soil Nitrate Loss Into Waterways

By planting switchgrass and using certain agronomic practices, farmers can significantly reduce the amount of nitrogen and nitrates that leach into the soil, according to Iowa State...

Road Surface Purifies Air by Removing Nitrogen Oxides

Road surfaces can make a big contribution to local air purity. This conclusion can be drawn from the first test results on a road surface of air-purifying concrete, which reduces the...

Improving Water Quality With Algae

According to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist, algae could remove nitrogen and phosphorus in livestock manure runoff - giving resource managers an eco-friendly option for reducing the...

Eco-friendly Nanocatalyst

A new nanotech catalyst developed by McGill University chemists Chao-Jun Li, Audrey Moores, and their colleagues offers industry an opportunity to reduce the use of expensive and toxic heavy metals. Li describes the...

Computer Model Simulates the Impact of White Roofs

The first computer modeling study to simulate the impact of white roofs on urban areas worldwide - led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO -...

Paper Strips Detect Toxin in Water

Engineers at the University of Michigan led the development of a new biosensor - a strip of paper infused with carbon nanotubes - that can quickly and inexpensively detect a toxin produced by algae in...