Plastic packaging is designed around appearance, convenience and function, but what happens after disposal is often considered separately—yet managing this waste is key to building a circular economy, since good recycling requires sorting plastics correctly by type. Transparent polyethylene terephthalate and polystyrene, for example, can be difficult to distinguish visually, making accurate separation challenging.

A digital scheduling framework combining machine learning, optimization and blockchain technology could reduce carbon emissions at a lower cost in regional energy systems, according to research in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. The system cut the marginal emission-reduction cost—the additional expense of removing one more ton of carbon—by about 12% when the carbon quota was restricted to half the system's baseline emissions.

A research team has developed a highly durable platinum-nickel (PtNi) hydrogen evolution catalyst that suppresses nickel (Ni) leaching through atomic ordering. Nickel leaching is a major cause of performance degradation in catalysts used for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE). The findings are published in the journal Carbon Energy.

As extreme weather intensifies, Reese Greenlee is testing the limits of 3D-printed concrete to create stronger, more accessible storm shelters for vulnerable communities.

With airlines and consumers increasingly concerned about carbon, nitrogen and hydrocarbon emissions, biofuels have emerged as a green alternative. Among these, those made from coconut oil are particularly attractive because they have fatty acid chain lengths similar to the hydrocarbon chain lengths required for jet fuel, suggesting they could make effective fuels with minimal processing.

Australia's growing mountain of solar panel waste could become far more valuable, with University of Newcastle researchers taking a major step toward making solar panel recycling economically sustainable. The team has successfully scaled up a process that recovers valuable silver from end-of-life solar panels, demonstrating almost 100% silver recovery during the world's first continuous pilot-scale flotation trial for solar-panel recycling.

One of the most promising technologies is perovskite solar cells. They are highly efficient at converting sunlight into electricity, can be manufactured as thin and flexible devices, and require less energy and lower production costs than conventional silicon modules. However, their commercial adoption has long been limited by a fundamental challenge—insufficient long-term stability when exposed to moisture, heat and oxygen.

Cornell researchers are using artificial intelligence to speed the search for better battery materials while using a creative approach to chemistry to expand the design space for electrolytes, unlocking new possibilities for safer, higher-performing energy storage.

Residents of Moerdijk, a small Dutch port village that survived World War II bombing and subsequent flooding, are facing a new existential challenge: the threat of being bulldozed in the name of clean energy.

European energy operators are braced for next week's solar eclipse, which is expected to cause a temporary dip in power generation, and have taken steps to keep electricity flowing to businesses and consumers, an industry body said Friday.

Keele scientists have developed a new kind of electrolyzer that produces both hydrogen and the base materials for sustainable plastic production, opening avenues for a range of applications in green technology and sustainable development.

Amazon confirmed Friday that it is financing a massive private gas power plant in Texas that could become the single-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

On paper, a megawatt-hour is just a megawatt-hour; it will charge your phone or run your dishwasher the same way, regardless of the source. However, its value to, or impact on, the environment is not fixed. It depends almost entirely on what power plant it replaces. A new wind turbine only helps the climate and local air quality to the extent that it pushes a more polluting plant offline. If instead it is just competing with another clean energy source, the environmental benefit effectively disappears.

Researchers have developed a process for converting carbon dioxide and industrial waste into green hydrogen, reporting in a new study that turning trash into valuable mineral products could usher in a more efficient way to produce clean fuel.

Doyeon Kim, an undergraduate researcher in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, has published a paper in an academic journal. The research focuses on implementing drone artificial intelligence (AI) identification technology through low-power semiconductors. This study could dramatically improve the battery efficiency of systems that monitor unauthorized drones in real time in military and industrial environments. The research is published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.

Improving the efficiency of solar cells is key to reducing the cost of solar power. Now, scientists have developed a new synergistic metallization strategy for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells. The approach achieved a certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 26.31%, among the highest reported for this technology.

Fusion power plants of the future will not only require extremely hot plasmas and strong magnetic fields but also a fuel cycle in which the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium can be recovered, separated and reused. Together with partners, a team from HZDR has now demonstrated a highly efficient method for separating hydrogen isotopes using a silver-containing zeolite.

When people picture a data center, they often imagine something remote: a huge warehouse humming quietly far from the city. New research from NYU Tandon School of Engineering shows that assumption is largely wrong.