Greener

Parks, small woodlands and even simple patches of grass not only keep a city attractive, but also help people find a sense of bliss in an otherwise bustling urban environment. With new technologies, we can plan and monitor these urban “green spaces” better than ever before. As several studies have highlighted, nature within urban settings plays a pivotal role in combating many of the global public health challenges commonly associated with urbanization. This includes maladies such as…

In recent weeks, a crew of staffers from a company called Charm Industrial have been working on the edge of Kansas corn fields, moving rolled bales of stalks, leaves, husks, and tassels up to a semi-trailer.Inside, a contraption called a pyrolyzer uses high temperatures in the absence of oxygen to break down the plant material into a mix of biochar and bio-oil. This oil is pumped into EPA-regulated deep wells used for industrial waste, or into salt caverns. Charm says it solidifies there, locking away carbon for…

Finding and extracting enough rare earth minerals to power the growing number of mobile phones is a tough challenge that can wreak havoc on the environment — but new techniques could help. Researchers say they have removed valuable rare earth elements (REE) from waste at high enough yields to resolve issues for manufacturers while boosting their profits. The scientists said in a recent paper that their process is kinder to the environment because it uses less energy than other methods and turns the stream of acid…