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Categories: Energy: Fossil Fuels, Environmental: Wildfires

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Researchers have discovered a new process that uses fuel to control non-living materials, similar to what living cells do. The reaction cycle can easily be applied to a wide range of materials and its rate can be controlled -- a breakthrough in the emerging field of such reactions. The discovery is a step towards soft robotics; soft machines that can sense what is happening in their environment and respond accordingly.

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Researchers have developed a proof-of-concept system to autonomously detect compressed air leaks on trains and relay the location of the leaks to mechanical personnel for repair. The automated system could reduce the time, costs and labor needed to find and repair air leaks, and it could lower the locomotive industry's overall fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

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A simple material can separate carbon dioxide from other gases that fly out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. It lacks the shortcomings that other proposed carbon filtration materials have, rivaling designer compounds in its simplicity, overall stability and ease of preparation.

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Wildfires may seem unpredictable, leaving random ruin in their wake. Engineers have now developed a model that can predict how wildfire will impact a community down to which buildings will burn. They say predicting damage to the built environment is essential to developing fire mitigation strategies and steps for recovery.

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Researchers have made a serendipitous scientific discovery that could potentially revolutionize the way water is broken down to release hydrogen gas -- an element crucial to many industrial processes. The team found that light can trigger a new mechanism in a catalytic material used extensively in water electrolysis, where water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. The result is a more energy-efficient method of obtaining hydrogen.

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Prescribed fire -- a tool increasingly used by forest managers and landowners to combat invasive species, improve wildlife habitat and restore ecosystem health -- also could play a role in reducing the abundance of ticks and the transmission of disease pathogens they carry, according to a team of scientists.

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Researchers found thousands of seedlings growing after recent fires in Montana, especially at sites with cooler, damper conditions -- often found in the shade of the dead trees and upper canopy, as well as on the north side of mountains with higher elevations and more undergrowth. Researchers found fewer seedlings at sites with less shade and drier, hotter conditions.

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A new study shows for the first time that wildfires burning in West Coast states can strengthen storms in downwind states. Heat and tiny airborne particles produced by western wildfires distantly intensify severe storms, in some cases bringing baseball-sized hail, heavier rain and flash flooding to states like Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Dakotas.

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Los Angeles is known for its movie stars and beaches. It's also known for being one of only two megacities in the world that supports a population of big cats. Despite being surrounded by a vast network of busy freeways and over ten million people, mountain lions have somehow managed to eke out a living in the wooded LA-area hills. Now, researchers have found that wildfires, and specifically the 2018 Woolsey fire, are putting the LA mountain lions' future in more doubt.

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The strong winds and torrential rains that accompany a cyclone do tremendous damage to ecosystems, and this damage can make them more prone to future wildfires. As intense cyclones are projected to become more frequent worldwide, a team of researchers examines the links between cyclones and forest fires, how they fuel one another, and why we may see fires burning in unlikely places in the future.

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Synthetic fuels produced from renewable sources, so-called refuels, are deemed potential game changers in fighting climate change. Refuels promise to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional fuels and they allow for the continued use of existing vehicle fleets with combustion engines and of the refueling infrastructure, from fuel production to transport to sales. Researchers carried out extensive fleet tests in a large-scale project with industry partners and proved that refuels can be used in all vehicles and produced in large quantities in the foreseeable future.

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Using a new power sector model, a team of researchers has proposed a method for Europe to eliminate natural gas imports from Russia.

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A new study identifies the political factors that allow some countries to lead in adopting cleaner sources of energy while others lag behind. By analyzing how different countries responded to the current energy crisis and to the oil crisis of the 1970s, the study reveals how the structure of political institutions can help or hinder the shift to clean energy. The findings offer important lessons as governments race to limit the impacts of climate change.

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The number of trout in a southern Oregon stream system showed no decline one year after a fire burned almost the entire watershed, including riparian zone trees that had helped maintain optimal stream temperatures for the cold-water fish.

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Polyethylene plastics -- single-use bags and general-purpose bottles -- are indestructable forever plastics. That also makes them hard to recycle. Chemists have found a way to break down the polymer -- a chain of about a thousand ethylene molecules -- into three-carbon molecules, propylene, which are in high demand for making another plastic, polypropylene. The process could turn waste plastic into high-value feedstocks and reduce the need for fossil fuels to make propylene.

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Turning plastic waste into useful products through chemical recycling is one strategy for addressing Earth's growing plastic pollution problem. A new study may improve the ability of one method, called pyrolysis, to process hard-to-recycle mixed plastics -- like multilayer food packaging -- and generate fuel as a byproduct, the scientists said.

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Rates of traumatic injury among workers in the Oregon agricultural and construction sectors are significantly higher during periods of high heat compared with periods of more moderate weather, a recent study found.

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An underutilized natural resource could be just what the airline industry needs to curb carbon emissions. Researchers report success in using lignin as a path toward a drop-in 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Lignin makes up the rigid parts of the cell walls of plants. Other parts of plants are used for biofuels, but lignin has been largely overlooked because of the difficulties in breaking it down chemically and converting it into useful products.

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The use of virtual fencing to manage cattle grazing on sagebrush rangelands has the potential to create fuel breaks needed to help fight wildfires, a recent study found.

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When you're cooking or cleaning inside your home, what chemicals are you breathing, and are they potentially harmful? Chemists have given us a solid start on the answer. A large, collaborative research experiment recently attempted to map the airborne chemistry of a typical home. Researchers performed typical home activities like cooking and cleaning and used sophisticated instrumentation to document the chemistry that resulted.