Researchers at Queensland University of Technology have developed a recyclable and renewable barrier coating for paper and cardboard. Historically industrial coatings have included wax or thin plastic films such as polyethylene or polypropylene. However there is an inherent problem with these conventional coatings in that recycling is often very difficult. The novel QUT approach utilises a unique lignin-based formulation to facilitate the formation of a thin film that acts as a barrier to moisture.

Background: Currently the biofuel industrial needs highly stable and active cellulases that can withstand harsh conditions in ethanol production and processing. Developing these ideal cellulases with desirable enzyme chemistry is a time-consuming trial-and-error approach. Previous work demonstrated that enzymes from an ancient enzyme superfamily called thioredoxin are suitable with ideal enzymatic properties suitable for industry.

Radioactive water waste presents several unique challenges to remediation efforts. It often contains large amounts of other innocuous ions as well as being extremely alkaline and at high temperature. Most materials that are commonly used for decontamination are simply not stable enough to survive these conditions and still effectively bind ions. Northwestern University researchers have invented a method to generate bulk quantities of a highly stable material that can bind radioactive ions effectively.

To make paper from wood wood first must be transformed into pulp. However current pulping techniques require high amounts of energy or large quantities of wood and can result in poor quality paper. The inventors previously developed an efficient method for producing pulp from wood chips by pretreating the chips with oxalic acid and sodium bisulfate (see WARF reference number P00342US). This processing step required little time and improved both the economics of the pulping process and the properties of the finished paper product.

University of Nevada Reno researcher Chanwoo Park of the Mechanical Engineering Department focuses on two-phase heat transfer energy storage/conversion electronics cooling vehicle thermal management combustion and nanotechnology. Technology Summary: Porous burners have been extensively studied because of their low pollutant emissions and fuel flexibility. Current radiant porous burners are less than 25% efficient with much of the heat leaving through convection heat transfer in the form of flue gas and not being utilized.