blog posts

• Biobased lignin gels offer sustainable alternative for hair conditioning

  Jun 26, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Stockholm University, 2/21/25

  Hair conditioners typically contain 20–30 ingredients, many derived from petroleum and oleochemicals, raising concerns about sustainability and environmental impact. A new study published in Science Advances, demonstrates that micellar lignin gels can effectively stabilize emulsions with natural oils, reducing the need for synthetic surfactants and complex stabilizers commonly used in commercial formulations. The research team, led by Mika Sipponen at Stockholm University, sought to explore lignin, a common and renewable component in wood biomass, as a multifunctional component for hair conditioning.

• Recycled cements drive down emissions without slacking on strength

  Jun 25, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Princeton University, 3/18/25

  Giving a second life to construction materials after demolition, engineers at the University of São Paulo and Princeton have developed an approach for recycling cement waste into a sustainable, low-carbon alternative that is comparable in performance to the industry standard. In addition to lowering the carbon intensity of the cement and concrete industry, the process could enable new uses for construction and demolition waste, of which concrete is a significant component. In 2018 in the United States, the total amount of construction and demolition waste was more than twice that of household waste. In their paper, published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, the researchers demonstrated that mixtures containing up to 80% of this recycled cement were just as strong as conventional Portland cement by itself while generating a fraction of the carbon emissions.

• PFAS could be replaced with safe graphene oxide solution

  Jun 20, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Northwestern University, 5/29/25

  Current food packaging often relies on plastics and toxic PFAS coatings, which pose environmental and health risks and are difficult to recycle or compost. Current food packaging often relies on plastics and toxic PFAS coatings, which pose environmental and health risks and are difficult to recycle or compost. This innovation offers a scalable, sustainable alternative to harmful materials, enabling safer, stronger, and more eco-friendly food packaging that meets growing regulatory and consumer demands.

• Industry’s Path to a Greener Future: A Perspective on Current Sustainable Practices and Areas of Opportunity

  Jun 19, 2025 9:00 am

  Lozano-Onrubia, G., Castillo-Pazos, D. J., Grieger, K., Wheeler, M., Grignon, E., Pazoki, F., Gallenstein, R., Castilla-Acevedo, S. F., Fan, F., Musa, E. N., Beena, N. C., Ahuja, H., Popoola, O., Battaglia, A. M., Kaur, G., Alahakoon, I., Chipangura, Y. E., Aransiola, E., Moumbogno Tchodimo, F. C., … Moores, A. (2025). Industry’s Path to a Greener Future: A Perspective on Current Sustainable Practices and Areas of Opportunity. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 13(19), 6849–6874. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c00741

  Abstract: Chemistry is directly and indirectly related to some of the most polluting industries, making it exceptionally critical for chemists to act and develop novel solutions toward more sustainable industrial practices. In this perspective, participants of the 2023 ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy describe state-of-the-art developments that the chemical industry has spearheaded to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute toward achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Herein, we illustrate a variety of methods that the chemical industry has employed, ranging from technological factors, such as using catalysis, implementing AI to reduce energy-intensive processes, and developing carbon capture technology and sustainable fuels, to socioeconomic factors─incorporating circularity, society targeted innovation and education, and developing successful collaborations between the private and public sectors. This perspective aims to trigger discussions and highlight how multifaceted approaches are necessary to support the transition to a greener industrial sector.

• Plant-based plastics could help reduce the millions of tonnes of medical waste hospitals generate each year

  Jun 4, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: The Conversation, 3/13/25

  There’s a growing push to find eco-friendly alternatives to traditional plastics. Bioplastics, such polylactic acid (PLA), may be promising alternatives to the plastics used in medical products.

• Behind Keurig’s bid to make coffee pods without plastic

  Jun 2, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Trellis, 4/30/25

  Years of persistence and experimentation led to a biodegradable coffee pod that improves brewing performance. Keurig Dr Pepper backed the innovation once it proved both sustainable and appealing to consumers. Collaborating with customers and potential competitors were key for development.

• Breakthrough in fuel cell recycling turns ‘forever chemicals’ into renewable resources

  May 29, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: University of Leicester, 5/2/25

  A new technique that uses soundwaves to separate materials for recycling could help prevent potentially harmful chemicals leaching into the environment.  Researchers at the University of Leicester have achieved a major milestone in fuel cell recycling, advancing techniques to efficiently separate valuable catalyst materials and fluorinated polymer membranes (PFAS) from catalyst-coated membranes (CCMs). 

• Stained, warped and terroir rich: the global and shockingly sustainable lives of wine barrels

  May 23, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: The Guardian, 5/12/25

  In the alcohol industry, when ageing liquor can easily take decades, the vessels that house them can also become more covetable over the years. In an age of disposable materials and dire news of plastics polluting our environment, reused wooden barrels exist in stark contrast. The lives of barrels are long, shockingly sustainable and currently imperiled by trade war.

• Universities turn to My Green Lab to cut energy, waste in research facilities

  May 22, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: E+E Leader, 4/22/25

  Laboratories are hubs of scientific discovery—but they are also resource-intensive spaces, consuming as much as 10 times more electricity and four times more water than typical academic buildings, according to Georgia Tech. With nearly 900,000 square feet of lab space on campus, the university faced a challenge shared by many research institutions: how to reconcile innovation with environmental responsibility.

• Cancer-causing chemicals are in many beauty products women use, a study finds

  May 16, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: NPR, 5/8/25

  More than half of Black and Latina women in Los Angeles who participated in a new study regularly used personal-care products containing a known carcinogen. Study participants photographed the ingredient lists of all the products they used at home over the course of a week. The journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters published the study Wednesday.

  Of 64 women, researchers found that 53% reported using soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, skin lightener, eyeliner, eyelash glue and other beauty products that contained formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives — toxins found to cause cancer in humans.

• Ultrasound unlocks a safer, greener way to make hydrogels

  May 14, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: McGill University, 5/8/25

  Researchers at McGill University, in collaboration with Polytechnique Montréal, pioneered a new way to create hydrogels using ultrasound, eliminating the need for toxic chemical initiators. This breakthrough offers a faster, cleaner and more sustainable approach to hydrogel fabrication, and produces hydrogels that are stronger, more flexible and highly resistant to freezing and dehydration. The new method also promises to facilitate advances in tissue engineering, bioadhesives and 3D bioprinting. Hydrogels are gels composed of polymers that can absorb and retain large amounts of water.  They are widely used in wound dressings, drug delivery, tissue engineering, soft robotics, soft contact lenses and more. 

• Scientists create tiny, water-based reactors for green chemistry

  Feb 20, 2025 3:15 pm

  Source: Rice University, 2/10/25

  Researchers at Rice University have developed a new method for performing chemical reactions using water instead of toxic solvents. The scientists created microscopic reactors capable of driving light-powered chemical processes by designing metal complex surfactants (MeCSs) that self-assemble into nanoscale spheres called micelles. This innovation could drastically reduce pollution in industries including pharmaceuticals and materials science, where harmful organic solvents are often necessary. 

• New water purification technology helps turn seawater into drinking water without tons of chemicals

  Feb 7, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: University of Michigan, 1/20/25
  
  Water desalination plants could replace expensive chemicals with new carbon cloth electrodes that remove boron from seawater, an important step of turning seawater into safe drinking water. A study describing the new technology has been published in Nature Water by engineers at the University of Michigan and Rice University.