AI: Educating the Educators
The Chemeca conference in Australia had more questions than answers on how AI should best be harn...
Features
The Challenges of Eliminating Nitrous Oxide from the Water Sector
Nitrous oxide emissions from water resource recovery facilities have long been under-estimated sa...
Wastewater Breakthrough
Engineers from Severn Trent and AtkinsRealis explain how applying novel process engineering tec...
Plastics: Biodegradable, Bio-based, or Compostable?
Conventional plastics are widely recognised as harmful to the environment, but are the alternativ...
Not All Plastics Are Made Equally Recyclable
Aniqah Majid looks at the multiple plastics clogging up the waste management system and whether t...
Microbes, Microwaves, and Mixes: Eco-friendly Plastics Solutions
Amanda Jasi speaks to innovators striving to improve plastics sustainability and reduce their env...
Why the Lessons of the Fulcrum Fiasco must not be Wasted
Fulcrum BioEnergy shut down its flagship waste-to-fuel plant in May. Alex Howard looks at the imp...
IChemE takes centre stage at the Process and Chemical Engineering Show this May
The ChemUK 2024 Expo will return on 15 and 16 May at the NEC in Birmingham. Running as part of th...
The Science Behind Sustainability: Chemical Engineers Equipping Decision-Makers to Improve the Plastics Economy
To mark Earth Day’s focus on slashing plastic production, Amanda Jasi speaks to David Gardner and...
Let’s Go Round Again: Closing the Loop on Problem Plastics
With today’s Earth Day campaign calling for action on plastic production, Adam Duckett talks to J...
The Challenges of Developing a Fusion Fuel Cycle: and How Chemical Engineers are Helping to Make Fusion Energy Sustainable
In the final part of our series on fusion energy, Mirjana Damjanovic and Lewis Simmons highlight ...
Our Research Focus: Converting a Problem into a Solution
James Young asks chemical engineers if they’re ready to realise the potential in creating feedsto...
Nuclear Waste Disposal: The Defining Chemical Engineering Challenge of Our Time?
Steve Reece of Nuclear Waste Services on the challenges of developing a geological disposal facility
Plastic Recycling: A Crosslinking Approach for Managing Mixed Waste
Amanda Jasi talks to Eugene Chen, Sanat Kumar, and Tomislav Rovis about the crosslinking solution...
Waste Away
Adam Duckett on our plastic plight and the efforts of engineers
Plastic Feedstocks: From Plants and Emissions
Kerry Hebden speaks to researchers exploring novel routes to greener plastics
The Rise of AI
Adam Duckett on the rise of artificial intelligence
Our Research Focus: Securing the future of water
Kariappa Karumbaiah explains how Hydroxsys hopes to place innovative membrane technology at the...
Wastewater Treatment: When Renting Might be the Better Option
Plant operators are increasingly looking at ways to improve the efficiency and reliability of the...
Chemical Looping Diversity: Biofuels, Power, CCS and Chemicals
Adam Duckett and Amanda Jasi speak to engineers who are developing a variety of chemical looping ...
A Virtuous Circle: Chemical Looping has Solid Potential for Optimising Processes
Ben Anthony and Paul Fennell explore the advantages of chemical looping and call on governments t...
Book Review: Recycling of Plastics
Norbert Niessner; ISBN: 9781569908563; Hanser Publications; 2022; US$249.99
Our Research Focus: Spinning out, going green
Jason Hallett on why forming spin-out companies became routine, and how he hopes to help others c...
A Wasted Life
Martin Pitt reflects on the history of the waste industry, including his own experiences
Book Review: Synthesis and Operability Strategies for Computer-Aided Modular Process Intensification
Efstratios Pistikopoulos and Yuhe Tian; ISBN: 9780323855877; Elsevier; 2022; US$190
Question Time: Food & Water
IN the sixth webinar of IChemE’s Centenary series, experts discuss how chemical engineering can ...
Food & Water: Using Water Smarter
Amanda Jasi reports on a project that aims to introduce circular symbiotic arrangements between i...
Food & Water: Water from Unconventional Resources
With clean water scarcity a major problem, Kerry Hebden looks at unconventional options for obtai...
Question Time: Built Environment & Transport
A panel of experts speaking at IChemE’s Centenary webinar urged attendees to think and work toget...
Bidding Farewell to the Forever Chemicals
Paul Stevenson discusses options for remediation of PFAS contamination
Made in Space
Andrew Bacon talks to Adam Duckett about plans to launch feedstocks into space, and bring them ba...
Bioplastics Promise
Nyssa Nair, Steven Pratt, Paul Lant and Bronwyn Laycock explain the use of bacteria to produce bi...
Sustainable Business Decisions
Paul Hodges discusses the challenges that companies should consider on the path to a sustainabl...
Question Time: Sustainability
Experts gather to discuss our discipline’s future in terms of sustainability and the environment
Nitrate: An Emerging Solution
Jonathan Wright and colleagues explain how their IChemE Award-winning ion exchange and encapsul...
Recycling Needs You
David Hobson talks about his role in recycling and consulting on developing processes for the cir...
The Muon: A Particle that Punches above its Weight
Peter Walmsley explains the role of muon tomography in waste management at the Sellafield site
We Are the Universal Engineers
Rosey Deverall talks about her roles in nuclear safety and decommissioning
Power Hungry
Amrit Chandan talks about his focus on growing and scaling his company's advanced lithium battery...
DRAM It!
Joshua Pearce explains the use of open-source hardware to use recyclables as feedstock for custom...
A Change of Clothes
Tahani Kaldéus talks about her work towards a greener fashion industry
Trapping a Slippery Foe
Alfonso Rodriguez and Charlie Espinosa explain innovations to map and remove mercury contaminatio...
Materials Utilisation
The importance of materials efficiency in the fight against the climate crisis
Producing Hydrogen While Storing CO2 in the Oceans
Mike Kelland and Greg Rau talk to Amanda Doyle about their clean-tech goals
From Wastewater to Resource
Khor Bee Chin discusses plans to reclaim precious resources from the wastewater that goes down th...
Reducing the Daily Grind
Liza Forbes, Kym Runge, Mike Mankosa, Jaisen Kohmuench and Luke Vollert discuss a froth-free flot...
Transforming Supply Chains
Industry will be forced to adapt, says Paul Hodges
Challenges for recycled polymers in Europe
An analysis of the increasing pressure faced by the recycled plastic supply chain in Western Europe
The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Then and Now
Geoff Gill reviews how the accident played out, and the huge engineering challenges involved in m...
Fukushima in Numbers
The Fukushima disaster in numbers
How on Earth
Adam Duckett on Fukushima and the future of nuclear
Oils & Fats: Essential Engineering
Qua Kiat Seng charts the evolution of vegetable oil production
Brewing Up Energy
Constantine Tsounis, Bijil Subhash, and Khushal Polepalle chart their journey from undergrad desi...
Turning Points for IX
John Bewsey describes a new ion exchange process for cleaning up acid mines and brackish water
Malaysia Versus Waste
Malaysia has much to do, say Kok Siew Ng and Eleni Iacovidou
Palm Oil: Better with Enzymes
How enzyme technology could make the industry greener and more efficient
Using wood waste to produce biochemicals: green chemistry for a green future
Amanda Doyle speaks to Florence Gschwend, CEO and Co-founder of Lixea, about the company's new pr...
Pyrolysis Gets Personal
Adam Duckett visits the workshop of Nik Spencer to understand more about a pyrolysis unit that ...
Hot Water
A bright future awaits chemengers in the water industry, say Richard Hill and Chris Short
Plastics: Towards a Circular Economy
Using chemical recycling to tackle the problem of plastics waste
Going Digital for Water
How digital measurement is making waves in water and wastewater treatment
Powering the future: the lithium battery that doesn’t get thrown away
Amanda Doyle speaks to Amrit Chandan, CEO of Aceleron, about the company’s battery pack design wh...
The Next Best Thing
Ruby Ray and Fabio Ruggeri describe an innovative process to produce substitute natural gas – a s...
Digging Deeper
Glen Corder and Artem Golev look at the mining industry’s role in a circular economy
Go With the Flow
Gordon Varney and Lydia Gaunt explain how to select pumps in the water, wastewater and sewage in...
Policy Perspective
Nooryesha Choudhury explains how IChemE is supporting members to influence policy
Waste to jet fuels project set for take off
Velocys is a company that has developed technology to convert feedstocks such as household waste ...
What to do About Waste?
Conclusions from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s summit on future waste science policy.
Answering the Call of Nature
Dyllon Randall explains how bio-bricks can be grown from human urine
UN report calls for urgent action to tackle chemical pollution
INDUSTRY will not achieve environmentally sound management of chemicals and waste by 2020 without...
BioSNG: Fuelling the Future with Trash
Massimiliano Materazzi and Richard Taylor discuss the promise of a bio-substitute for natural gas
No More Lost Light Gases
Jason Ornstein, Ray Ozdemir & Anne Boehme on adapting failed automotive capture technology for ...
Worth its Weight
It is increasingly important for companies to maximise the sustainability of their manufacturing ...
Process Hengineering, You Say?
How a team of process engineers turned waste calcium hydroxide into valuable animal feed
From Slime to Sublime
The potential of algae to recover valuable resources from waste could transform the traditional w...
Developing Policies: What Can We Do?
Increasing chemical engineering contributions to sustainable policy development: an Australian ...
Nereda: Redefining Effluent Treatment
There is a new player in the wastewater process sector, re-writing the rules of the game
Industrial Aftermath: Project Ends Toxic Pesticide Legacy
Mag Sim of Pure Earth takes us inside the collaborative effort that cleaned up a polluted industr...
Funding Available for Sellafield Cleanup Innovators
Sellafield Ltd is seeking game-changing solutions from chemical and process engineers to address ...
Landfill vs Skyfill
How landfill might be the better option for disposal of low-grade plastics
A Battery Olympics
Getting around the limitations of battery devices with clever ways of teaming different technolo...
Demolition Man
Expert observations of demolition dangers and how to avoid them
A Greener Future for IChemE
The BioFutures Programme will address the opportunities and challenges faced by the chemical engi...
Buses Full of Beans
The route from coffee waste to biofuel: Dickon Posnett, Argent Energy Director of Corporate Affai...
Something in the water
Managing the safe discharge of active pharmaceutical ingredients during drug production
Into the Future
Water and wastewater processes: the last (and next) 30 years
CCS: Carbon Capture and Strategy
Helen Tunnicliffe goes on safari in Norway to learn about a government-backed scheme to set up ...
Turning Ocean Trash into Cash
Project turns plastic waste in the sea into vehicle fuels
News
Neste and Technip join forces for ‘copy and paste’ liquefaction for plastics recycling
IN A BID to reduce the upfront costs for the chemical recycling of plastics, Neste, Alterra and T...
Engineers call for smaller electric car batteries and ban on vapes
USING smaller electric car batteries and stripping materials out of old wind turbines for use in ...
Veolia sells sulfuric acid regen business for US$620m
VEOLIA has sold its North American sulfuric acid regeneration business to private equity group Am...
Taking the P out of pee
ENGINEERS at the University of Surrey are investigating how phosphorous can be filtered from huma...
Sellafield pleads guilty to cybersecurity failures
SELLAFIELD, which processes the UK’s nuclear waste, has pleaded guilty to all criminal charges re...
enfinium commits to net zero by 2033 ahead of summer carbon capture project
ONE of the UK’s largest waste-to-energy companies, enfinium, has committed to using carbon captur...
Australian minerals and hydrogen research gets A$59m funding boost
A FLOATING device that uses sunlight to produce hydrogen from wastewater and a leaching process a...
Wizz and poo: airline signs US$1bn deal to buy jet fuel made from human waste
YOUR flight abroad could one day be powered by human waste after a UK company announced plans to ...
Dow and P&G partner to create polyethylene recycling technology
DOW and Procter & Gamble (P&G) are jointly developing a new process to recover near-virgin qualit...
Water companies’ £180m sewerage investment must target ‘those responsible for the largest polluting flows’
WATER expert Tom Stephenson says it is vital that water companies target the worst polluting rele...
Southern Water fined £330,000 after stream pollution killed 2,000 fish
A UK court has fined Southern Water £330,000 (US$416,748) for a raw sewage leak in July 2019 that...
UK Space Agency announces £3.5m funding to make satellites more sustainable
THE UK Space Agency has announced millions in funding for work aimed at prolonging the life of sa...
NDA calls together group-wide researchers to discuss decommissioning innovations
THE UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will host a first-of-its-kind meeting in Sheffield lat...
Heriot-Watt researchers make hydrogen from whisky wastewater
WASTEWATER from whisky distilleries could be used to produce hydrogen, saving precious freshwater...
LyondellBasell to build industrial-scale advanced recycling plant in Germany
MULTINATIONAL LyondellBasell is set to build the company's first industrial-scale catalytic advan...
Air Liquide wins contract for Teesside waste-to-jet-fuel plant
AIR LIQUIDE has been awarded a contract to help build a £1.5bn (US$1.9bn) plant in Teesside, UK t...
Mura Technology’s flagship advanced plastics recycling plant opens in Teesside
MURA Technology’s first site, ReNew ELP, which turns 'unrecyclable' plastics that would usually b...
Welsh Water admits illegally spilling sewage at dozens of treatment plants for years
WELSH WATER has admitted to spilling untreated sewage at dozens of treatment plants for years. Da...
Engineers successfully trial single process to produce zero emissions steel and cement
ENGINEERS working on a process to produce zero-emission cement as a byproduct of recycling steel ...
Prince William unveils third class of Earthshot Prize finalists leading the way in climate change solutions
A GREENER and more easily recycled lithium-ion battery, a microbial fuel cell for cleaning water ...
UK-Japan partnership funds nuclear research to support waste management at Sellafield and Fukushima sites
RESEARCH projects led by the universities of Strathclyde and Sheffield in the UK are receiving a ...
Plans for nuclear waste facility in South Australia scrapped after traditional owners' court win
BARNGARLA traditional owners who fought to stop a nuclear waste facility planned for a site in Na...
Greentech company announces first of 16 pyrolysis hubs that will form the UK’s biggest carbon removal initiative
ONNU, which transforms biomass into valuable biochar that acts as a carbon sink, has announced pl...
BASF opens centre to research microplastics and biodegradation
BASF has opened a research facility in the US to help understand how plastics disintegrate and bi...
Johnson Matthey licenses technology for largest-of-its-kind biodegradable plastics plant
JOHNSON MATTHEY is licensing its butanediol (BDO) process technology for a new plastics plant in ...
Engineering options that can prevent sewer overflows
WITH industry forced to apologise for dumping untreated sewage into rivers, changes upstream incl...
Chemical engineers helping to close the loop on electric car batteries
CHEMICAL engineers at Imperial College London are working with Altilium Metals to prove that elec...
Chemical engineers work to create hydrogen from steel sludge
CHEMICAL engineers from Imperial College London have joined forces with the UK’s Materials Proces...
Waste processing and disposal resumes at Chernobyl
AFTER the departure of Russian troops from the site, radioactive waste processing and disposal ac...
New ‘forever chemical’ elimination method ‘might be the start of something practically interesting’
A TEAM of multinational researchers has developed a novel method for breaking down environmentall...
Back in style: using enzymes to recycle PET from big brand clothing
FRENCH biotech firm Carbios has signed an agreement with On, Patagonia, Puma, and Salomon, to spe...
Engineers push to make zero emissions steel and cement from a single process
WHAT if it were possible to make cement as a byproduct of recycling steel – and power its product...
Magnox reprocessing: The end of an era
As almost 60 years of reprocessing operations come to an end at Magnox, what’s next?
Plant-based alternative to plastic microbeads set for scaleup
ENGINEERS have received funding to scale up a technology that produces sustainable alternatives t...
Cemex opens new non-fossil fuelled facility in UK
CEMEX has officially opened its new Climafuel facility at its Rugby, UK cement plant. The plant, ...
AI discovers routes for recycling chemical waste
RESEARCHERS have used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover routes for recycling waste into us...
Now or never: emissions need to peak by 2025 says IPCC
IN its latest report, the IPCC has warned that emissions must peak by 2025 and halve by 2030 if t...
Royal Mint plant will recover gold from electronics waste
THE UK’s Royal Mint is building a chemical plant that uses a room temperature process to recover ...
Fluor will engineer Itero’s chemicals recycling process
FLUOR has won the contract to engineer a chemical recycling demonstration plant for Itero in the ...
Viridor opens state-of-the-art resource recovery facility
VIRIDOR has officially opened its £317m (US$417.3m), state-of-the-art, plastics recycling and was...
UK nuclear treatment plant to increase access for European market
NUCLEAR firm Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a non-binding agreement with Perma-Fix Envi...
175 countries commit to create historic global plastics treaty
ONE HUNDRED and seventy-five nations have agreed to create a global treaty to end plastics pollut...
Veolia announces its first UK battery recycling plant
VEOLIA is building its first electric vehicle battery recycling facility in the UK, with the capa...
RSC calls for action to reuse huge volumes of leftover paint
THE UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is calling for the Government to support a national rem...
Australia chooses site for national nuclear waste facility
THE Australian Government has selected Napandee as the site for its National Radioactive Waste Ma...
ABSL agrees to develop five UK gasification plants to turn waste to fuel
ADVANCED BIOFUEL SOLUTIONS (ABSL) has signed an agreement with biofuels supplier Greenergy to con...
Plastic Energy and Axens join forces to license circular plastics processes
PLASTIC ENERGY has partnered with engineering services firm Axens to license its plastics recycli...
Students awarded first US$5m from Elon Musk’s carbon removal prize
23 student-led teams have won the first US$5m portion of the US$100m carbon removal prize launche...
Research could see fish waste used for nylon production
SCOTTISH researchers are exploring a new bio-based process for more environmentally-friendly and ...
North-west industry calls for UK Government action to support green growth
INDUSTRY in north-west England has published a manifesto, calling on the UK Government to impleme...
IAEA reviews Fukushima water release
OFFICIALS from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have visited Japan to review the pla...
UK regulator relaxes effluent rules as water treatment firms begin running out of chemicals
A SHORTAGE of chemicals used to treat wastewater in the UK has led the Environment Agency to rela...
Partnership to convert landfill waste into hydrogen for transport
RENEWABLE fuels company Raven SR has entered into an agreement with a Republic Services sanitary ...
Engineered yeast strain could revive interest in non-food bio-feedstocks
CHEMICAL engineers at MIT have genetically engineered yeast that are tolerant to toxic biorefinin...
At least two killed in explosion at German chemical disposal site
AN EXPLOSION at a hazardous chemical disposal site in Germany has killed at least two people, wit...
Johnson Matthey set targets to lower waste and improve safety on journey to net zero
JOHNSON MATTHEY has announced targets to heavily focus its sales and R&D spend in line with UN Su...
Pilot project develops process to recycle single-use face masks
A COLLABORATION between research and industry is developing a closed loop process where single-us...
Waste-to-methanol facility to be constructed at Port of Amsterdam
GIDARA Energy has announced that it will construct an advanced biofuels facility in Amsterdam tha...
Dairy pioneer Kevin Marshall honoured by the Queen
KEVIN Marshall has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the Queen, for his ...
Peel NRE plans second plastic-to-hydrogen facility in UK
PEEL NRE has announced plans to develop a waste plastic to hydrogen facility in West Dunbartonshi...
Biorefining company gets funding boost for scaleup
LIXEA has received a grant of €2m (US$2.4m) from the European Innovation Council Fund to support ...
Industry joins RSC taskforce to chart a greener path for PLFs
UNILEVER, Croda and Crown Paints have joined a taskforce convened by the Royal Society of Chemist...
Novel sponge tech collects oil in ultra-cold waters
RESEARCHERS in Canada and the UK have developed a coating for commercially-available sponges that...
Turning food waste into aviation fuel
A BIOREFINING process that converts wet waste – including food waste and wastewater sludge – into...
TEPCO to flush Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific
THE Japanese Government will allow TEPCO to discharge treated wastewater stored at the Fukushima ...
Wastewater leak causes concern for Florida marine life
ENVIRONMENTALISTS are concerned about the impacts on marine life after days of leakage of contami...
Pilot plant will convert soybean waste into bioplastic
A FINNISH consortium is building a pilot plant to convert waste from soybean processing into comp...
Covestro pilots chemicals recycling process to close loop on used mattress foam
COVESTRO has begun to pilot a chemical process to recycle the foam from used mattresses. If succe...
Plastic Energy joins forces with ExxonMobil on plastic waste
PLASTIC ENERGY has agreed another partnership with an industry heavyweight – this time ExxonMobil...
Partners to convert waste sewage into hydrogen
Organics Group, Severn Trent, and researchers at Coventry University, UK, are collaborating to co...
Jacobs awarded US$10.4m Dounreay nuclear contract
JACOBS and its supporting partners have been awarded a six year contract, worth an estimated US$1...
Concerns over stockpile of hazardous waste at New Zealand aluminium smelter
CONCERNS have been raised over a stockpile of hazardous waste at Rio Tinto’s Tiwai Point aluminiu...
UK announces nuclear waste competition winners
FOURTEEN companies have won contracts in a £3.9m (US$5.5m) competition aimed at developing a wast...
New bacterium can improve wastewater treatment
A NEWLY-discovered bacterium strain could be used to remove nitrogen and phosphorous from sewage ...
Shell withdraws from UK sustainable aviation fuels project
SHELL has withdrawn from a collaboration with Velocys and British Airways to develop the commerci...
Recovering precious metals from industrial waste
AN inexpensive, non-toxic method has been developed to recover silver and palladium from industri...
Shell buys into waste-to-fuels plant in Québec
SHELL is taking a 40% stake in a Canadian plant that will use Enerkem’s processing technology to ...
Four killed in explosion at UK water treatment site
FOUR people have died and another has been injured in an explosion at a UK water treatment works.
Vale opens plant to make mining waste into construction products
MINING company Vale has opened a pilot plant that will make products for civil construction using...
Partnership forms Australia’s first biomethane-to-gas project
ENERGY infrastructure company Jemena has entered a partnership with Sydney Water to inject biomet...
Suez agrees to explore CCS for energy-to-waste plants
SUEZ will explore developing a modular system to capture carbon dioxide from energy-to-waste plan...
UK announces funding for five new circular economy R&D centres
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced £22.5m (US$29.9m) in funding for five new circula...
Four proposed UK plastic recycling facilities receive funding
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has invested £20m (US$26m) in four proposed plastic recycling p...
New produced water recycling facility constructed in Permian Basin
BREAKWATER Energy Partners, which supplies water supply chain solutions to oilfields, has announc...
Pilot project to convert waste into construction material
UK COMPANY Carbon8 Systems will run its first energy-from-waste (EfW) pilot project at an AVR sit...
New recycling facility in Europe will recycle plastic repeatedly
TECHNOLOGY company Loop Industries and environmental services company SUEZ have announced that th...
Partnership to accelerate plastic waste elimination
PACKAGING company Sealed Air has announced a partnership with advanced recycling technology compa...
Initiative launches first global standard for safer mining waste storage
ON 5 August, the Global Tailings Review (GTR) initiative established the first global standard fo...
Sustainable battery company gets £2m funding to scale up production
ACELERON has announced that it has received £2m (US$2.6m) in equity investment which will allow i...
International group publishes safety guidelines for mining waste storage
AN international group of 142 scientists, community groups and NGOs from 24 countries has publish...
EPA takes a step to exempt ‘forever chemical’ release
THE US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which aims to protect human health and the environm...
Recycling Association calls for Government to support paper and cardboard recycling
THE UK’s Recycling Association has called for Government to support investment in UK paper and ca...
Funding boost for waste-to-jet fuels plant
SUSTAINABLE fuels company Velocys has received further funding from the UK’s Department for Trans...
CCS pilot phase successfully completed on Norwegian waste-to-energy plant
FORTUM Oslo Varme’s Klemetsrud site in Oslo, Norway, has successfully validated carbon capture te...
Urgent call for members to donate unused PPE for testing
ICHEME is calling on members and their employers to donate any unused PPE they can spare to a vol...
Vattenfall plans London heat network
VATTENFALL will design a heat network to supply more than 10,000 homes in London, using heat capt...
Coronavirus could lead to packaging material shortage, warns Recycling Association
THE UK risks a shortage in material for vital packaging needed to protect food and medical suppli...
First aerogels made using rubber
RESEARCHERS at Singapore’s National University of Singapore (NUS), have achieved a major technolo...
TEPCO proposes methods to dispose of treated water stored at Fukushima
TEPCO, Japan’s largest power company group, has released a report which outlines two potential me...
UK water industry sets 2030 net zero target
WATER UK has announced that it will develop plans to achieve net zero emissions across the water ...
US EPA relaxes policy, citing coronavirus pandemic
THE US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced temporary policy that will allow non-c...
Green light given to UK plastic-to-hydrogen facility
THE UK’s first plastic-to-hydrogen facility has received planning consent at a site near Ellesmer...
Replacing petroleum with wood in chemicals production
AN interdisciplinary team of researchers has calculated how wood could replace petroleum in the c...
Vale to begin disposing of mining waste from fatal Brazil dam collapse
MINING giant Vale is to begin disposing of the mine tailings from the fatal collapse of one of it...
Judge accepts fatal dam collapse charges
REUTERS reports that a Brazilian state judge has accepted homicide and environmental crime charge...
Vale to invest in technology to reduce dam use and increase safety
BRAZILIAN mining giant Vale is to invest in technology to reduce tailings dam use and increase op...
Innovative sponge for offshore oil drilling wastewater cleanup
RESEARCHERS at Imperial College London, UK and the University of Toronto (UoT), Canada have devel...
16 charged with homicide over fatal Brazil dam collapse
BRAZILIAN prosecutors have charged 16 people – including former Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman – with...
Turning banana waste into food packaging
RESEARCHERS at the University of New South Wales, Australia, have developed a process to turn ban...
Vale launches project to recover area affected by fatal dam collapse
BRAZILIAN mining giant Vale has launched a pilot project for the environmental recovery of the ar...
Several factors led to fatal Brazil dam collapse, reports expert panel
AN expert panel commissioned by Brazilian mining giant Vale has concluded that a number of factor...
Four new biofuel plants receive funding in UK
THE UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) has announced funding for four new biofuel plants.
Prince William launches Earthshot Prize to repair the planet
PRINCE WILLIAM has launched a new initiative, billed as the world’s most prestigious environmenta...
Steam cracking transforms waste plastic into new
A PROCESS has been developed for steam cracking of plastic waste to produce new plastic, which co...
US$1.32m to accelerate waste-reduction innovation and research
ECOSURETY, a UK producer responsibility compliance scheme, has launched a £1m (US$1.32m) innovati...
Upcycling plastic bottles for the chemical industry
RESEARCHERS at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia have ...
Dam collapse tragedy could have been prevented
BRAZIL’s National Mining Agency (ANM) has released a technical report on the history of the taili...
100+ partners commit to the Circular Plastics Alliance
MORE than 100 public and private partners, including from the chemical sector, have signed the De...
Velocys signs CCUS agreement for its US biomass-to-fuel plant
RENEWABLE fuels company Velocys has signed an agreement with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV) to ca...
Removing pharmaceutical pollutants from wastewater
NOURYON and Van Remmen UV Technology have teamed up to combine their technologies to remove pharm...
Australian mining leads the way in tailings safety
THE Australian minerals industry has released a communiqué, which reinforces its position as a gl...
Behold the Plastic Age: synthetic fibres found in fossil record
GEOLOGISTS could one day determine the age of rocks by measuring the amount of plastic found in s...
Petronas Chemicals looks to convert waste plastic into feedstock
PETRONAS Chemicals is investigating building a plant to turn plastic waste into virgin feedstock ...
Producing sustainable aviation fuel in the Netherlands
SUSTAINABLE aviation fuel supplier (SAF) SkyNRG will develop Europe’s first dedicated waste-to-fu...
New plastic can be recycled repeatedly
SCIENTISTS at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL) hav...
Final trials begin on a facility to store Chernobyl’s spent nuclear fuel
ON 6 May the final system-wide trials of a new dry storage facility at Chernobyl began. ISF2, loc...
Cattle feed and dye membranes win MIT water prize
ENTREPRENEURS who are developing process technologies to remove dyes from industrial wastewater a...
Three more Brazil dams at critical alert
VALE has put three more of its Brazilian mine tailings dams on the highest level of alert – level...
Operations halted at Vale
A court decision has ordered Vale to stop activities at 13 of its mine tailings containment struc...
Brazil dam in critical alert
ON 22 March Vale raised the alert level of its Sul Superior Dam of the Gongo Soco mine located in...
Employees re-arrested after fatal Brazil dam collapse
ACCORDING to Reuters, last week a Brazilian court ordered the arrest of 11 Vale employees and two...
Warnings new UK coal mine undermines green ambitions
THE UK’s first deep coal mine in 30 years has been given the go ahead by Cumbria County Council, ...
Shell joins W2C Rotterdam project
SHELL has partnered with world-leading companies to build Europe’s first advanced waste-to-chemic...
Stabilising coal ash ponds using ‘biocement’
RESEARCHERS at North Carolina State University (NCSU), US have developed a technique that adds ba...
Employees removed following Brazil dam collapse
FOLLOWING the fatal collapse of a Vale mine tailings dam the company has decided to remove severa...
Novel water treatment pilot plant
RESEARCHERS in Singapore are to build a pilot membrane filtration plant to treat industrial waste...
Brazil dam collapse prosecutors investigate collusion
THE lead prosecutor investigating the cause of the fatal dam collapse at a mine in Brazil has all...
Brazil approves dam safety bill
THE Brazilian Senate has passed a bill to tighten dam safety, reports Reuters. This follows the c...
A new process for converting plastic waste to fuel
A NEW process has been developed that uses supercritical water to transform polypropylene plastic...
A matter of cost
The fatal Brazil dam collapse highlights failings in the mining industry. Amanda Jasi speaks to e...
Creating useful products from desalination waste
ENGINEERS at MIT, US have proposed a method that could use desalination waste to produce useful c...
Report identifies challenges towards a plastics circular economy
THE European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) has released a report identi...
Brazil bans upstream dams
BRAZIL has decided to ban tailings dams built by the upstream method. The decision follows the fa...
Employees arrested after Brazil dam breach
EIGHT Vale employees have been arrested as part of a criminal investigation into the collapse of ...
Vale ‘knew’ Brazil dam was at risk of collapse, report says
REUTERS says it has seen an internal document that shows that Vale knew last year that its dam in...
Update: 165 people confirmed dead after Brazil dam breach
165 people have now been confirmed dead following the collapse of a Vale mine tailings dam in Bra...
Update: 157 confirmed dead after dam breach in Brazil
TWO weeks after the collapse of a Vale tailings dam 157 people have been confirmed dead, 134 of w...
Update: 134 confirmed dead after Brazil dam breach
FOLLOWING the collapse of a Vale dam in Brazil, 134 people have now been confirmed dead, with 120...
Update: Number killed in Brazil dam breach reaches 99
AFTER the fatal collapse of a Vale mine tailings dam in Brazil, 99 people have been reported dead...
Fatal dam breach in Brazil leaves hundreds missing
A TAILINGS dam in Brazil has collapsed, leaving a reported 16 people dead and 297 missing. Other ...
IChemE launches energy and resource efficiency guide
ICHEME has launched an energy and resource efficiency guide which outlines how engineers and orga...
New alliance combatting environmental plastic waste
NEARLY 30 companies from across the plastic value-chain, including BASF, Dow Chemical, Shell, and...
UK relaunches search for a GDF site
The UK has relaunched its search for a site to bury its nuclear waste after previous plans were h...
Scepticism over the UK bioeconomy strategy
INDUSTRY has expressed mixed reactions towards the recently-released UK Bioeconomy Strategy. The ...
UK government announces £60m in funding for sustainable packaging
THE UK government has announced the launch of a £60m (US$76m) innovation fund to accelerate the d...
Explosion at hazardous waste facility kills one
AN explosion at a US Ecology facility in Idaho, US, has killed one worker and injured three.
Nuclear reprocessing ends at Sellafield’s Thorp plant
THE thermal oxide reprocessing plant (Thorp) at Sellafield, UK, has ceased reprocessing spent nuc...
Neste and Clariant sign deal for sustainable chemicals production
RENEWABLE fuels and chemicals producer Neste has signed an agreement to provide sustainable raw m...
UK set to see surge in biomethane plants
THE UK is set to see a 50% rise in biomethane plants operating by 2020, with as much as £400m (US...
UN climate experts warn society must make unparalleled shift
LIMITING global warming to 1.5°C requires rapid and unprecedented changes to society, UN climate ...
Caltech chemical engineer Frances Arnold wins Nobel Prize
CHEMICAL engineer Frances Arnold has been awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her pione...
New US plant will convert household waste into fuel
FULCRUM BioEnergy has announced that it will convert municipal solid waste into biojet fuel using...
Joint report calls for immediate action to remove greenhouse gases
The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) have released a joint report outli...
Nuvia wins contract for Dounreay Site Restoration Limited
NUVIA (UK) has won a multi-million-pound contract with Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) t...
Carbon capture studies to go ahead at Norwegian waste incineration plant
NORWAY’s ministry of petroleum and energy has announced that it will fund FEED studies on CO2 cap...
Membrane filters out antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wastewater
A TECHNIQUE has been developed combining a photocatalytic membrane and UV light to remove most an...
Picky porous electrodes take out toxins
RESEARCHERS at Rice University, US, are developing a novel water treatment technology to selectiv...
New technique for recycling multi-layer packaging
CRISP packets, chocolate wrappers, and blister packets for pills are all extremely difficult to r...
New packaging: cheap and slippery
FANS of fast food know how tricky it is trying to squeeze out the last drops of ketchup from thos...
Neste aims to turn plastic waste into fuel
NESTE, a producer of renewable diesel, is developing ways to turn liquified plastic waste into a ...
Oil and gas wastewater spread on roads releases harmful toxins
WASTEWATER from oil and gas facilities can be spread on roads for dust suppression or de-icing, b...
Wood invests in nuclear decommissioning
WOOD has launched a new fund that will invest in technologies developed by small and medium enter...
Stemming the flow of plastic waste
EUROPE has proposed a law banning or restricting single-use plastics, the UN has released a polic...
SUEZ agrees to help improve water treatment at Rosneft sites
SUEZ has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Rosneft to improve water and wastewater pr...
Reducing the environmental impact of palm oil production
NEW technology has been developed that will convert palm oil waste into building materials and bi...
Unilever joins forces with Ioniqa to scale up breakthrough plastic waste recycling process
UNILEVER has formed a partnership with processing pioneer Ioniqa and Indorama, the world’s larges...
Keeping proteins active outside of the cell
A METHOD has been developed for keeping proteins functional in non-native environments, which cou...
Siempelkamp develops new process for nuclear decontamination
A PROCESS for the chemical decontamination of nuclear reactor cooling systems has been developed ...
Europe's first waste-to-chemistry facility provides solution for non-recyclable plastics
A FACILITY that will convert non-recyclable wastes into biofuels and chemicals for industrial use...
Developing a safe and efficient method for the removal of micropollutants from water
A RESEARCHER at the University of Bath, UK, has been awarded a grant to develop the photocatalysi...
Extracting lithium from water using synthetic membranes
A metal-organic framework (MOF) has been developed that can extract lithium from water, which cou...
Dell turns e-waste gold into jewellery and new boards
COMPUTER technology giant Dell has partnered with Texas recycling company Wistron GreenTech and a...
UK launches 25-year plastic waste plan
THE UK government has launched a 25-year plan to protect the environment and reduce “avoidable” p...
UK plastic recycling crisis expected
THE UK’S recycling industry says it may not be able to cope with an increase in plastic waste, as...
A new whey to drink
TOFU whey, a byproduct from tofu manufacture, has been fermented into a new alcoholic drink, whic...
Cutting long-lived nuclear waste
THE half-life of nuclear fission products could be reduced from hundreds of thousands of years to...
Locking plastic in concrete
ADDING plastic bottles to concrete could lead not only to lower carbon emissions, but improve str...
Putting human waste to good use
NUTRIENTS, energy and water will be safely recovered from the faeces and urine of up to 1,000 peo...
Removing silica from power plant water
COOLING tower water could be reused and recycled ten or more times by using a new silica-removing...
Functionalising waste methane in remote locations
A NOVEL electrochemical process to convert methane into methanol precursors could reduce the need...
Arup: Organic waste could be used in construction
A NEW report from engineering major Arup says that organic waste such as that from bananas, potat...
An olive branch for a circular economy
RESEARCHERS have piloted a process to turn a waste stream from olive oil manufacture into biofuel...
Lund team turns chicken feathers into food
MILLIONS of tons of chicken feathers are wasted every year, but researchers at Lund University in...
Filtering fracking water for reuse
A SUPERHYDROPHILIC filter has been shown to remove 90% of hydrocarbons, bacteria, and particulate...
A fashionable process
A PILOT facility in Finland has successfully trialled an environmentally-friendly process to recy...
Biodiesel: The tip of the fatberg
A GIANT “fatberg” made of congealed insoluble matter will be converted into 10,000 L of biodiesel...
Two injured in Nottingham gas explosion
TWO men have been seriously injured in a gas explosion at the Colwick Industrial Estate in Nottin...
Caterpillars might not break down plastic after all
RESEARCHERS in Germany say that research earlier this year showing that waxworms can chemically b...
First hole cut in the world’s oldest nuclear waste store
THE WORLD’S oldest nuclear store – containing waste untouched since the dawn of the UK’s atomic w...
Wessex Water and Bath trial algae treatment
WESSEX WATER and the University of Bath, UK, are trialling the use of algae farms to reduce the n...
Making polysulfates and polysulfonates
RESEARCHERS using so-called “click chemistry” say they have developed a fast, easy way to make su...
Turning dirty foil into useful catalysts
CONTAMINATED foil is unrecyclable as grease and fats damage recycling equipment, so it is often l...
Consider treating unused desal filters
A BIOFOULING study that has examined colonies of bacteria on membranes suggests desalination plan...
