Tag: chemistry

Rare components in batteries can be sustainably recovered. Recycling long-life materials such as PTFE still represents a challenge. But a research team in Japan has found a way to convert PTFE into reusable, organic fluorine compounds. The team exposed the material to a 5 Mega Gray dose of electron beams in a heated environment of 370°C. Treatment that caused...

Smart waste sorting leads to more efficient recycling. But currently it’s more expensive to make polyester or nylon reusable than to manufacture them from scratch. Enter a London-based startup which has been developing bioactive agents for cost-neutral recycling. An AI searches for new combinations of amino acids and proteins which could split plastics into their chemical components under low...

Sustainable background music makes most things easier. Even cleaning. And it could be better yet. A Belgian startup is using spent cooking oil and food waste to produce environmentally-friendly cleaning products. With the help of yeast organisms isolated from bumble bee honey, potato peel and vegetable scraps from the supermarket are fermented in a patented process. The resulting biosurfactants...

Interbreeding plants intelligently helps to create new GMO-free food products. In some parts of the world, clean drinking water is also in short supply. Which is why a woman's Toronto-based startup is eschewing time consuming trial-and-error experimentation in its bid to provide clean water for all. To do so, they are combining quantum chemistry with artificial intelligence. Their system...

They can be used to manufacture dye, animal feed and vegan seafood. Microbes. Now a Canadian startup is using them to produce an environmentally-friendly cleaning agent from food waste. Surfactants are extracted using bacterial cultures in a sustainable process.These disperse oil by enveloping oil particles and separating them, making it easy to remove dirt. Both harmless and biodegradable, surfactants...

There are ‘sweet solutions’ for rare earths. Bacteria, meanwhile, can be used to break down metals. Now, a research team at Northwestern University is investigating how the tiny organisms can help rationalise chemical processes in an environmentally-friendly way. The team reprogrammed an anaerobic bacteria so that it could convert CO2 into two widely-used chemicals. Acetone is mainly used in...