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An eco-friendly detergent

May 8, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Household products such as laundry detergents and dishwasher tablets are an indispensable part of everyday life, but such products contain all sorts of chemicals that have undesirable properties. Many are difficult to break down when they enter the environment, and some add nutrients that trigger environmentally harmful algal blooms. The ingredient lists for even what are described as environmentally friendly cleansing products can be filled with lots of polysyllabic chemicals with unknown potential impacts. Detergents made from harmless stuff are often difficult to make, hard to rinse off, and sometimes potentially damaging to fabrics.

Researchers at Tianjin University in China have developed an environmentally friendly detergent made of tiny wood fibers and corn protein that removes stains from clothes and dishes as well as commercial products.

The researchers combined cellulose nanofibers from wood with zein protein, which is taken from corn, to produce an emulsion. The cellulose can attract and repel water and can form emulsions and attract various kinds of stains. The zein protein helps to stabilize the emulsion and trap oils.

They tested the new detergent by cleaning cotton cloth and dishes stained with ink, chili oil, and tomato paste. They compared the results against commercial laundry detergent and dish soap. Their new detergent was somewhat less effective than the commercial products when used at 1% concentration but was more effective when used at a 5% concentration.

The results suggest that this natural detergent could be an efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable alternative to the synthetic cleaning agents that currently dominate the market.

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Researchers create eco-friendly detergent from wood fiber and corn protein

Photo, posted July 31, 2009, courtesy of Mei Anne Mendoza via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Recycling lithium-ion batteries

March 28, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Lithium-ion batteries are used to power computers and cellphones and, increasingly, vehicles. The batteries contain lithium as well as various other valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese. Like other batteries, lithium-ion batteries have a finite lifetime before they can no longer perform their intended function.

Recycling lithium-ion batteries to recover their critical metals is an alternative to mining those metals. A recent study by Stanford University analyzed the environmental impact of obtaining those metals using lithium-ion battery recycling compared with mining. They found that the recycling process is associated with less than half of the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional mining. The process uses about one-fourth of the water and energy of mining new metals. North America’s largest industrial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility is Redwood Materials, located in Nevada, which uses a clean energy mix that includes hydropower, geothermal, and solar power.

These calculated advantages are associated with recycling batteries that have been in use. The advantages are even greater for recycling scrap: defective material from battery manufacturers.

The advantages of recycling are dependent on the sources of electricity at the recycling plant and the availability of fresh water.

At present, the U.S. recycles about half of its available lithium-ion batteries. By comparison, 99% of lead-acid batteries (like those found in cars and trucks) have been recycled for decades. As the supply of used lithium-ion batteries continues to increase, it is important for the availability of industrial-scale battery recycling to keep pace.

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Recycling lithium-ion batteries delivers significant environmental benefits

Photo, posted May 7, 2020, courtesy of Mark Vletter via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Ecofriendly Glass

October 2, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Glass has been used for thousands of years to make everything from windows to bottles to microscope slides. For all that time, most glass has been in the form of soda lime silicate glass, which is made by melting quartz sand with carbon-based ingredients – soda ash and limestone – at high melting temperatures of about 2600 degrees Fahrenheit.

The process results in substantial carbon emissions. Worldwide, glass manufacturing produces over 86 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Most of that comes from burning fuel to reach the high temperatures needed to make the glass, but about a quarter of it comes from the decomposition of the carbon-based materials used.

Researchers at Penn State University have developed an entirely new type of glass that represents an alternative to soda lime glass. The glass – that they call LionGlass – eliminates the use of carbonate batch materials and has a melting temperature 700 degrees lower than traditional glass. The new material has the potential to cut the carbon footprint of glass manufacturing in half. It is also 10 times more crack-resistant than ordinary glass, which would enable light weighting of glass products, lowering the emissions associated with transporting glass and glass products.

Recently, Penn state has entered into a partnership with the Italian company Bormioli, one of the world’s leading glass manufacturers that specializes in high-end packaging for fragrances, cosmetics, and tableware. By focusing on a smaller, high-end market, the focus can be on fine-tuning the glass and determining the feasibility of scaling it up further for other uses.

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Ecofriendly glass invented at Penn State secures partner for product development

Photo, posted December 26, 2005, courtesy of Lachlan Hardy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Race For EV Batteries | Earth Wise

February 1, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Lithium-ion batteries have been the power source for electric vehicles since 2008, when the Tesla Roadster was introduced. They took over for nickel-metal hydride batteries that powered most hybrid electric cars such as the Prius. Lithium-ion batteries store much more energy for a battery of a given weight, which leads to greater driving range.

But lithium-ion is not an ideal solution. The batteries depend on critical materials that are obtained by hacking into mountains, utilizing scarce desert groundwater, and in some cases, making use of child labor. Many materials depend on countries with whom economic ties have complicated geopolitical consequences.

State and federal mandates and incentives are pushing auto companies to prioritize electric vehicles in their future plans. The Inflation Reduction Act in particular provides credits and other incentives for both consumers and manufacturers to electrify. So, sources for EV batteries are a key issue.

The Department of Energy is funding 20 different companies with $2.8 billion to bolster the production and processing of critical minerals in the U.S. The goal is to bring the electric vehicle supply chain onshore to the greatest extent possible. Some of the work involves redesigning lithium-ion batteries to reduce or eliminate problematic materials such as cobalt. Other efforts seek to find domestic sources of critical materials such as lithium without causing serious environmental problems.

Given all this, it is no surprise that academic and industrial researchers are also exploring a wide variety of alternative battery technologies.

The future of transportation is electrification and the race for EV batteries is on.

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For U.S. Companies, the Race for the New EV Battery Is On

Photo, posted August 27, 2021, courtesy of Ron Frazier via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Electricity From Bacteria | Earth Wise

June 3, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Microbiologists at Radboud University in the Netherlands have demonstrated in the laboratory that methane-consuming bacteria can generate electrical power. Their study was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

The bacteria studied is called Candidatus Methanoperedens and in the natural environment it consumes methane in water sources that are contaminated with nitrogen including places like water-filled ditches and some lakes. The bacteria in the study make use of the nitrates in the water to break down and digest the methane. Methanogens, which are bacteria that reduce carbon dioxide to form methane, are the source of the methane in these places.

The researchers exploited these complex interactions of bacteria to create a source of electrical power that is essentially a kind of battery with two terminals. One of the terminals is a chemical terminal and one is a biological terminal. They grew the bacteria on one of the electrodes where the bacteria donate electrons that result from its conversion of methane. (Other microbiologists at the same institution had previously demonstrated electrical generation from a similar battery containing anammox bacteria that use ammonium rather than methane in their metabolic processing).

In the study, the Radboud scientists managed to convert 31% of the methane in the water into electricity but they are aiming at higher efficiencies.

This approach represents a potential alternative to conventional biogas electricity generation. In those installations, methane is produced by microorganisms digesting plant materials and the methane is subsequently burned to drive a turbine to generate power. Those systems in fact have an efficiency of less than 50%. The researchers want to determine whether microorganisms can do a better job of generating electricity from biological sources than combustion and turbines can do.

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Bacteria generate electricity from methane

Photo, posted December 3, 2008, courtesy of Martin Sutherland via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Weaning Off Fossil Fuels | Earth Wise

June 2, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

We recently talked about California producing 97% of its electricity from renewables on one sunny afternoon in April. On May 8th, the state produced enough renewable electricity to meet 103% of consumer demand. These sorts of records are likely to be increasingly commonplace in the spring when the weather is still fairly mild.

But even while renewables were producing more electricity than California needed, natural gas power plants in the state were still running.

Turning off the gas power plants is not possible. The reason is that as the sun sets and solar farms stop producing power, California has to quickly replace the power with electricity from other sources. Natural gas plants are massive industrial facilities that cannot be turned on and off rapidly. Some take as many as 4 to 8 hours to switch on. Operators back them down as far as they can go, but even when there is plenty of solar power during the day, natural gas plants are still running.

The state is rapidly building huge battery storage projects as an alternative to gas plants, but so far, they are still only a small fraction of what is needed. Wind power is another part of the solution along with hydropower. California imports some power from other states as well and, in fact, also exports power when there is excess. But keeping the energy system balanced and stable is an ongoing challenge.

California is building huge amounts of solar, huge amounts of wind, and huge amounts of energy storage, which should get the state to at least 90% of the way to a clean grid. It’s the last 5-10% that is much harder to accomplish before natural gas is no longer part of the energy system.

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California just ran on 100% renewable energy, but fossil fuels aren’t fading away yet

Photo, posted January 10, 2014, courtesy of F.G. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Synthetic Palm Oil | Earth Wise

February 18, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Palm oil is the world’s cheapest and most widely used vegetable oil. Producing it is a primary driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss in the tropics. In Borneo, for example, oil palm cultivation has accounted for more than half of all deforestation over the past two decades. More than one million square miles of biodiversity hotspots could be threatened by oil palm cultivation, which could potentially affect more than 40% of all threatened bird, mammal, and amphibian species.

Today, the world consumes over 70 million tons of palm oil each year, used in products ranging from toothpaste and oat milk to biodiesel and laundry detergent.

Given this situation, there are now multiple companies developing microbial oils that might offer an alternative to palm oil while avoiding its most destructive impacts.

A company called C16 Biosciences is working on the problem in Manhattan, backed by $20 million from a Bill Gates’ climate solutions investment fund. A California-based startup called Kiverdi is working to manufacture yeast oil using carbon captured from the atmosphere.

Xylome, a Wisconsin-based startup is working to produce a palm oil alternative that they call “Yoil”, produced by a proprietary strain of yeast. The oil from the yeast strain is remarkably similar to palm oil.

The challenge is to be able to produce microbial oils at large scale and at a competitive price. Unless valuable co-products could be manufactured along with the oil, it may be difficult to compete with palm oil. Without regulatory pressures and willingness of consumers to pay more, it may be difficult to replace palm oil in many of its applications.

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Can Synthetic Palm Oil Help Save the World’s Tropical Forests?

Photo, posted December 9, 2008, courtesy of Fitri Agung via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Ever Cheaper Solar Power | Earth Wise

May 14, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The price of electricity from solar panels has been dropping dramatically over the last decade. The average cost of utility-scale solar power has gone down more than 80% since 1980, making it the least expensive power source in many places. The plunging price of solar power is one of the driving forces behind the transition to clean energy.

The 2020 average cost of solar power was 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. The Department of Energy has recently set a target of reducing the cost of solar power by more than half again by 2030, to an unsubsidized average of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. The 2-cent goal is not just the ordinary cost of electricity; it is the levelized cost of energy which is based on a formula that includes the cost of construction and operation of a power plant.

If the least expensive power source becomes that much cheaper, it will really shake the foundation of many energy debates. One of these debates is how to meet the need for more interstate power lines to transport renewable energy from rural areas to population centers. If large amounts of additional renewable energy sources are added, policymakers will need to work harder to reform the regulatory system to make sure that new interstate power lines get built.

If the average cost of solar power reaches 2 cents a kilowatt-hour, the actual price will be lower in sunnier regions and higher in those that get less sun. However, the continuing decrease in solar electricity costs will actually have the greatest impact in the northern, less sunny regions, because solar power may not currently be the least expensive option there but it will become the cheapest alternative over time.

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Inside Clean Energy: What Happens When Solar Power Gets Much, Much Cheaper?

Photo, posted May 14, 2020, courtesy of Courtney Celley/USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic From Algae | Earth Wise

June 9, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Many researchers consider algae to be one of the best renewable resources for replacing fossil fuels and even as a food source. The green microalgae Nannochloropsis salina is already a common source of omega-3 fatty acids that are sold as dietary supplements. As a result, that algae strain is already grown on a large scale for the production of omega-3 products.

A group of researchers at UC San Diego has developed a way to make use of the waste stream from that production to create plastics and other useful products. Currently, when the algae is processed to extract the omega-3 oil, leftover oils comprising more than 70% of the starting material are either thrown away or burned.

The UCSD team has developed a process to purify and convert this waste stream into azelaic acid, which is a building block for flexible polyurethanes. These materials have all kinds of commercial applications from flip-flops and running shoe soles to mattresses and yoga mats.

By analogy to the use of animals by native American tribes, the researchers wanted to “use the whole buffalo” in their solution for algae processing waste and therefore figured out how to convert heptanoic acid – another substance in the algae waste stream – into a food flavoring and fragrance. The flavoring molecule is valued at over $500 per kilogram.

The work, published in the journal Green Chemistry, demonstrates that an algae-source waste stream has both the practical and economic potential to support production of polyurethanes. The team is already working with shoe companies to commercialize the technology. With mounting concern over petroleum-based plastic waste, renewable plastic made from algae is an attractive alternative.

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Researchers Turn Algae Leftovers into Renewable Products with Flare

Photo, posted November 8, 2006, courtesy of Adam Moore via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Foods of the Future? | Earth Wise

March 27, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In a world where many go hungry in the context of rapidly changing environments, many experts contend that alternative food sources will be necessary to solve global food security problems. So-called novel food sources are central to this conversation, defined as foods with no history of consumption in a region – or perhaps anywhere.

Three popular examples are lab-grown meat, insect farming, and seaweed aquaculture. Each of these offer opportunities as well as challenges.

Lab-grown meat can refer to actual animal tissues raised in vats as well as the increasingly common cultured plant products made to resemble meat. Lab-grown meat faces push back from the livestock industry that contends it should not be labeled as any kind of meat. While results to date are positive, barriers still remain including concerns over product taste, healthiness, and cost. And while less land- and water-intensive than conventional livestock, cultured meat production is still energy intensive.

Insects do form a significant part of diets across the globe but have yet to be embraced in any substantial way in western cultures. Nutritionally, numerous species of insects are rich in key proteins, micronutrients, and minerals. But the “yuck factor” is a big barrier to cross.

Seaweed is a long-established part of many East Asian diets and has many potential dietary uses. Several selectively bred varieties of seaweed supply a range of valuable nutrients. Growing seaweed does not tax freshwater and terrestrial resources. But intensively cultivated seaweeds would have potential negative effects on local marine ecosystems.

There is no single solution to complex issues like food security. Novel foods may very well form part of the solution to a growing food crisis.

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Insects, seaweed and lab-grown meat could be the foods of the future

Photo, posted March 12, 2009, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Controlling Malaria Without Chemicals

August 28, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Nearly half of the world’s population lives in areas vulnerable to malaria. The disease kills roughly 450,000 people each year, most of them children and pregnant women. Malaria is spread by Anopheles mosquitoes and, over time, the mosquitoes have been developing resistance to the chemical insecticides that are used to control them. In addition, there is great concern about the toxic side effects of the chemicals used on the mosquitoes.

About 30 years ago, scientists identified a type of bacteria that kills Anopheles, but the mechanism was not understood. As a result, the bacteria could not be replicated or used as an alternative to chemical insecticides.

But now, an international research team, headed by researchers at UC Riverside, has identified the neurotoxin produced by the bacteria and has determined how it kills Anopheles. The work is described in a paper published in Nature Communications.

It took the team 10 years to achieve a breakthrough in understanding the bacteria. Modern gene sequencing techniques were the key.

While many neurotoxins target vertebrates and are highly toxic to humans, the neurotoxin that kills Anopheles mosquitoes does not affect humans, vertebrates, fish, or even other insects. Known as PMP1, the substance is not even toxic to mice when given by direct injection.

The team has applied for a patent on this discovery and hopes to find partners to help them develop the bacteria-based insecticide.

There is a high likelihood that PMP1 actually evolved to kill the Anopheles mosquito. This finding opens the door to new avenues of research into other environmentally friendly insecticides that would be targeted at other disease-spreading pests.

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Controlling deadly malaria without chemicals

Photo, posted June 9, 2018, courtesy of Mario Yardanov via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plant-Based Jet Fuels

May 9, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The global aviation industry uses a whole lot of fuel: more than 5 million barrels a day. It is an incredibly energy-intensive industry and almost all of its energy comes from petroleum-based fuels.

While other large energy sectors such as electric power, ground transportation and commercial buildings have well-defined pathways to adopting renewable energy sources, the aviation industry does not have such a straightforward way to make a transition to sustainability. Electrifying planes using batteries or fuel cells is very challenging for a number of reasons, notably the weight restrictions on aircraft. So liquid biofuels as replacements for petroleum-based fuels remain the most promising approach.

A new study at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concludes that sustainable plant-based biofuels could provide a competitive alternative to conventional petroleum fuels if current development and scale-up initiatives are successful.

Multidisciplinary teams based at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute are focused on optimizing each stage of the bio-jet fuel production process. This includes bioengineering ideal source plants and developing methods for efficiently isolating the carbohydrates in non-food biomass that bacteria can digest and bioconvert into fuel molecules.

The critical issue is cost. The theoretical cost of bio-jet fuel has come down dramatically in recent years but is still around $16 a gallon. The cost of standard jet fuel is about $2.50 a gallon. So, the real challenge is bridging that gap.

Reducing the cost of the fuel could come both from the material and process improvements that are underway as well as by finding ways to turn the leftover lignin residuals from the bioconversion process into valuable chemicals.

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Bright Skies for Plant-Based Jet Fuels

Photo, posted March 28, 2009, courtesy of Yasuhiro Chatani via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bursting The Carbon Bubble

July 25, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

One way or another, the fossil fuel industry seems to be destined to shrink away. A combination of technological advances and climate policies are going to drastically reduce the global demand for fossil fuels over the course of time. New research shows that the demise of the fossil fuel industry will have profound consequences.

Oman’s Rocks

June 13, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There is growing interest in the idea of capturing and storing carbon dioxide. Reducing the amount of it we are putting into the atmosphere is essential for limiting the effects of climate change, but even eliminating emissions entirely is not enough because the CO2 already there stays in the atmosphere for decades or more.

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