Articles

Bridgestone Americas announced it received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office. Bridgestone will design, build and operate a pilot plant that will advance an innovative, potentially more sustainable and cost-effective approach to obtaining butadiene from ethanol. The project will evaluate the economic and commercial viability, as well as the carbon footprint, of converting ethanol to butadiene.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new artificial photosynthesis system that can bind two carbon atoms together into a hydrocarbon. The resulting product is ethylene and this method has demonstrated a remarkable ability to produce it efficiently, abundantly, and consistently compared to other artificial photosynthesis systems currently in use. The resulting ethylene, an important ingredient of many plastics, with much higher efficiency, yield and longevity than competing systems is a key step toward reusing CO2 to make sustainable fuels.

The family of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is facing intense scrutiny. A reporting rule will take effect in the United States in 2026, while Europe has actually been considering a sweeping, cross-industry ban on these substances since early last year. The implications of such a ban on fluoropolymers would be particularly critical, as a discontinuation of these high-performance materials would drastically impact many industries. But what kinds of challenges would emerge in the search for adequate substitutes? This was the focus of a recent study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWM) in cooperation with materials experts from the Freudenberg Group.