Read the full story from Yale Climate Connections.
Algae in a pond may look flimsy. But scientists are using algae to develop industrial-strength material that’s as hard as steel but only a fraction of the weight.
Thomas Brück of the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and his team developed a process that uses algae oil to create carbon fibers. They’re strong, lightweight materials that can be used in cars, airplanes, and buildings.
Read the full story from NPR.
When California’s historic five-year drought finally relented a few years ago the tally of dead trees in the Sierra Nevada was higher than almost anyone expected: 129 million. Most are still standing, the dry patches dotting the mountainsides.
But some trees did survive the test of heat and drought. Now, scientists are racing to collect them, and other species around the globe, in the hope that these “climate survivors” have a natural advantage that will allow them to better cope with a warming world.
This capsule report was prepared under EPA Grant Number 00E02050, funded through the EPA Source Reduction Assistance Grant Program. This program funds Pollution Prevention (P2) assistance projects that provide technical assistance and/or training to businesses/facilities to help them adopt source reduction approaches.
Various tasks have been performed under this EPA grant. The purpose of this particular project was to demonstrate the Coventya 3S Technology, which is a zinc/nickel electroplating bath maintenance system. The project focused on the potential reduction of water use, reduction of discharges to the wastewater treatment system, and reduction of energy use.
This capsule report was prepared under EPA Grant Number 00E02050, funded through the EPA Source Reduction Assistance Grant Program. This program funds Pollution Prevention (P2) assistance projects that provide technical assistance and/or training to businesses/facilities to help them adopt source reduction approaches. Various tasks have been performed under this EPA grant. The purpose of this particular project was to demonstrate certain pollution prevention (P2) aspects of a new electroless nickel (EN) bath chemistry.
The new EN solution contains approximately 50% less nickel than a conventional EN bath. The P2 project focused on the potential reduction of water use, reduction of nickel discharges to the treatment system, reduction of sludge generation, reduction of off-site disposal, and reduction of air emissions.
The project was performed at a metal finishing facility in Michigan that operates an automated EN barrel line for plating small automotive parts. During the P2 demonstration a conventional midphosphorus 6 g/l nickel bath was replaced with a mid-phosphorous 3 g/l nickel concentration bath (RI8712) formulated by Coventya Chemicals Company.
The purpose of this manual is to help metal finishing facilities improve their rinsing processes. Better rinsing is crucial for high quality production. At the same time, a well-chosen rinse system can actually save water and minimize sludge generation, leading to reduced pollution and lower operating costs.
In this manual, you will find:
Read the full story from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
By now it’s well established that microplastics are a problem in the environment, even in the remotest parts of the planet. But where do different microplastics come from and how they get there, especially in the Arctic?
Read the full story from The Guardian.
‘Secret sustainability’ is on the rise, with companies loath to talk about their ecological credentials. Why?
Read the full story in Recycling Today.
Concern about auto shredder emissions is not a new issue, but it is a growing one. Shredding automobiles creates very fine particles of dirt and dust that can become airborne. European countries have long-established guidelines. In the U.S., government scrutiny of auto shredder emissions varies from state to state and city to city. To date, most of the scrutiny has been in California and several large metropolitan areas around the U.S.
Read the full post from Inside Science Resources.
The makers of Zotero have created a citation generator, ZoteroBib or ZBib, which produces quality citations and bibliographies online without needing a Zotero account. ZoteroBib relies on the same Zotero technology that extracts bibliographic data and creates (mostly) accurate citations, including the over 9,000 citations styles in the Zotero style library. ZoteroBib is a handy little tool that has a few more features than a run-of-the-mill citation generator, but isn’t as robust as the full Zotero program.
Read the full story in The Guardian.
A project to produce detailed maps of all the land on Earth through laser scanning has been revealed by researchers who say action is needed now to preserve a record of the world’s cultural, environmental and geological treasures.
Prof Chris Fisher, an archaeologist from Colorado State University, said he founded the Earth Archive as a response to the climate crisis.
Environmental News Bits 