As the U.S. population grows, so does the number of cattle, and that in turn is giving rise to one heck of big, strange waste disposal problem. At least one cattle carcass recycling method that was used in the past is no longer available in this country, so billions of pounds of waste meat and bone have been classified as fit only for
Take the weight advantage of plastic, add the ability to self-repair small cracks before they become big cracks, and you’ve got yourself a durable new material that could improve the lifespan for thousands of ordinary objects, and help to reduce energy demand in vehicles and machines. That’s the idea behind … [continued]
A new catalyst developed by researchers at Tel Aviv University could bump sugar-based bioplastics up into a wider variety of uses that require greater durability. Using plant sugars such as corn, wheat, and sugarcane combined with cornstarch, the research team is confident that the new bioplastic will be even more … [continued]
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known as DARPA, has been developing next generation solar technology and a slew of other game-changing innovations designed to drive the military into a more sustainable future. The latest example is a new kind of bioplastic made from yeast. And what, you … [continued]
Move over, Peter Piper, because a new pickle-picker has picked up on the potential for pickles to provide a solution to the pollution problem posed by azo dyes from industrial wastewater.
Researchers from The University of Cambridge have come up with a low-cost organic solar cell that could make practically any plastic object into a solar power generator.
Not this year but maybe next, that plastic wrap in your kitchen drawer could be made of sustainable bioplastic from algae instead of petroleum. Bioplastics manufacturer Cereplast, Inc. has just announced that it should be ready to take its new Cereplast Algae Plastics to market by the end of 2010. … [continued]
Shrink Nanotechnologies is one of several companies that is using bioplastics to find a new way of making devices that will minimize the use of increasingly-scarce rare metals. The company’s OptiSol Solar Concentrator is billed as a nanotechnology-based plastic solar concentrator and solar film. Traditional silicon solar cells absorb only … [continued]
Greenhouse gas-sucking rubber ducks could be in the future. Myriant Technologies LLC has just won U.S. Department of Energy funding of up to $50 million to construct a new plant that will produce Succinic Acid from sorghum, using a biobased process that is more energy efficient than conventional methods, and … [continued]
Researcher Susan Sun of Kansas State University has an answer for all those hungry cows out there: let them eat barrels. Sun’s work on sustainable biomass adhesives has already lead to an edible barrel for cattle feed made with straw and soy adhesive. More products are on the horizon, including … [continued]
