A new perspective article in Engineering explores the application of AI in process manufacturing. It examines how AI can be combined with process systems engineering tools, reviews current applications, and outlines challenges and opportunities, offering insights for a more efficient and sustainable manufacturing future.

A study in Engineering has developed a tin-modified Ce–Nb mixed-oxide catalyst. This catalyst shows enhanced performance in selective catalytic reduction of NO_x with NH₃, a key process for diesel vehicle emission control. It offers improved activity and hydrothermal stability, providing a potential solution for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions.

Biochar, once limited to soil and environmental management, now offers a breakthrough opportunity for advancing ESG goals at both local and global levels. In a recent study, Prof. Yong Sik Ok presents a strategic analysis of biochar’s market potential, scalability, and reliability as a carbon-negative solution. The study outlines clear pathways to drive innovation, enabling institutions and industries to leverage biochar to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals and align corporate climate strategies with major global initiatives.

As industries seek innovative solutions for carbon capture, scientists have turned to advanced materials that efficiently trap and store carbon dioxide (CO₂) from industrial emissions. A recent study of a team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden University of Technology (TUD), and Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland) sheds light on the gas adsorption physics of so-called Calgary Framework 20 (CALF-20), a zinc-based metal-organic framework (MOF). While applying a combination of advanced techniques, the scientists reveal the material’s unique adaptability under varying conditions, as they report in the journal Small (DOI: 10.1002/smll.202500544). The research highlights how CALF-20 efficiently captures CO₂ while resisting interference from water – a common issue in carbon capture materials.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, Durham University and the University of Toronto have detailed the geological ingredients required to find clean sources of natural hydrogen beneath our feet.

The work details the requirements for natural hydrogen, produced by the Earth itself over geological time, to accumulate in the crust, and identifies that the geological environments with those ingredients are widespread globally.

Hydrogen is $135 billion industry, essential for making fertiliser and other important societal chemicals, and a critical clean energy source for future low carbon emission technologies, with a market estimated to be up to $1000 billion by 2050.

These findings offer a solution to the challenge of hydrogen supply, and will help industry to locate and extract natural hydrogen to meet global demands, eliminating the use of hydrocarbons for this purpose.

The findings were published today (Tuesday 13 May) in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.

Astronomers have developed a groundbreaking computer simulation to explore, in unprecedented detail, magnetism and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) — the vast ocean of gas and charged particles that lies between stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Described in a new study published today in Nature Astronomy, the model is the most powerful to date, requiring the computing capability of the SuperMUC-NG supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Germany. It directly challenges our understanding of how magnetized turbulence operates in astrophysical environments.

From the ocean’s rolling swells to the bumpy ride of a jetliner, turbulence is everywhere. Yet despite its ubiquity, turbulence remains one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. It's especially complicated to understand how it behaves in space. By developing the world’s largest-ever simulations of magnetized turbulence, an international team of scientists has measured — with unprecedented precision — how turbulent energy moves across a vast range of scales. The result: it doesn’t match with long-standing theories. By simulating galactic-type turbulence in exquisite detail, the researchers found significant departures from the models that have guided astrophysical theory for decades. The findings could reshape how scientists understand the structure of the Galaxy, the transport of high-energy particles, and even the turbulent birth of stars. In practical terms, understanding and properly modeling turbulence and the transport of highly energetic particles can shed light on how to safely navigate space, at a time when commercial space flight is growing and attracting the interest of civilians and celebrities alike.