A fundamental breakthrough in chemistry promises to unlock ammonia as a clean fuel, and it could help decarbonize the entire chemical industry in the process. Rice University researchers have created a small, LED-powered device that converts ammonia to hydrogen on the fly. It uses a light-driven catalyst that’s as efficient as expensive thermal catalysts that need thousand-degree temperatures to operate, […]
Revolutionary Photocatalyst
Vertical Biophilic Urbanism In Singapore
What makes this high-rise building in Singapore different from all the other tall buildings around the world? Not only is this one of the tallest towers in Singapore, but it also honors the natural world and the history of the city around it. The design was created by BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group and CRA, Carlo Ratti Associati. The CapitaSpring building is […]
Tough & Cheap Water Level Sensors
Water level sensors serve an important purpose in rivers, warning of floods and unsafe recreational conditions. A new one is claimed to be not only more robust and reliable than others, but also considerably less expensive. According to scientists at Germany’s University of Bonn, conventional water level sensors suffer from one or more limitations – they get damaged in floods, […]
Home Compostable Plastic Don’t Really Biodegrade
If you’ve ever been turning over your compost heap and found months-old “compostable” plastic items that were still mostly intact – well, you’re not alone. New research states that 60% of such plastics don’t fully biodegrade in home composting systems. The findings are the result of a study undertaken by scientists from University College London, which began with ordinary citizens […]
Light-Powered Catalyst Makes Profitable Hydrogen
Hydrogen sulfide famously stinks like rotten eggs, and contributes that eye-watering, low-hanging punch to the bouquet of the very worst farts. It’s also toxic, corrosive, flammable and produced in large amounts as an expensive-to-treat by-product at petroleum refineries. Now, researchers have found an easy, profitable way to turn it into hydrogen. The current method for dealing with this stuff – […]
Facade Materials That Are Sustainable And Beautiful
Facades are an essential aspect of architectural design. They envelope interior spaces and protect them from climatic conditions. Since facades are the first part of the building that people interact with, designers must consider aesthetics, maintenance and, of course, implementing sustainable materials. Below are some unconventional yet beautiful materials that can be used for facades to enhance the climate resilience and spatial […]
New Biopolymer Road
Along with their use in foods, soybeans have also been utilized as a source of graphene, a greener alternative to mulch, and an ingredient in longer-lasting tires. Now, they’re additionally being used to extend the life of asphalt roads. Usually, in order to make asphalt more pliable and thus less likely to crack, a synthetic rubber known as polybutadiene is added to […]
Cleaning Microplastics From Water
Starting as a research project and evolving into a nonprofit research organization, Wasser 3.0 developed a technology that uses a centrifuge and a clumping agent to pull microplastics from the water and recycle the collected material. To understand this solution, we have to first understand the problem. Over the past five decades, plastic has become one of the most ubiquitous materials on the planet. […]
Recyclable Hydroponic Garden
Thousands of conflicts in human history have been spawned by a quest for land. It has started wars and has caused pain across the centuries. But here’s a secret about land: it’s just dirt. And this incredible garden by Kettal and Tectum Garden proves that, actually, you don’t need dirt to grow delicious food. Everything in this garden is grown without […]
Cheap Wind Harvester
While wind energy systems can come in some pretty big forms, scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore have been working on a low-cost solution at the other end of the spectrum. The team has developed an inexpensive device sensitive enough to capture energy from a light breeze and turn it into electricity, generating enough to run a small commercial […]