A study published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts examines whether hydrophilic deep eutectic solvents (DESs) can provide a technically and economically viable alternative to conventional pre-hydrolysis Kraft pulping for dissolving pulp production. Using Aspen Plus process simulation together with techno-economic analysis, life-cycle assessment, sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis, the researchers evaluated five process configurations at an industrially relevant scale. The results indicate comparable pulp yields, while revealing that DES recovery and energy consumption remain major barriers to competitiveness. A pre-hydrolysis-assisted configuration achieved the lowest modeled minimum selling price of 1,330 yuan per air-dry metric ton. The analysis also shows that economic and environmental performance do not necessarily favor the same process configuration.

A perspective published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts examines the emerging role of silk fibroin (SF)/polylactic acid (PLA) composite scaffolds in bone and related tissue regeneration. The review brings together evidence on material chemistry, scaffold architecture, interfacial bonding, degradation, mechanotransduction, osteogenesis, angiogenesis and immunomodulation. Rather than treating fabrication methods or biological responses separately, the authors discuss how these factors interact to determine scaffold performance. The review also assesses evidence across in vitro, animal and translational studies, concluding that substantial work remains before SF/PLA scaffolds can move toward human clinical applications.

In today's electric vehicle batteries, a single weak cell can limit the life of the entire battery pack, even when the other cells are still working well. The goal is for future batteries to be able to bypass weak cells and make better use of the remaining capacity. A study, led by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, now shows that a new ‘smart battery architecture’, under optimal conditions, can give electric vehicle batteries over 20 percent longer life in certain vehicles. At the same time, the total cost can be reduced over the battery's lifetime. 

Illinois physicists devise a new way to define and categorize non-equilibrium mixed-state phases of matter, providing an alternative definition that solves issues plaguing existing classification methods.

Researchers discover a fully deterministic, nonchaotic model that is initially unpredictable yet gives rise to predictability that gradually self-organizes through the model’s dynamics.

Research by University of Auckland and US researchers, reported in Nature, suggests a new path for shrinking ultraprecise measuring tech to chip size for navigation systems, communications networks, precision sensors and portable atomic clocks.

Quantum mechanics has long been confined to (sub)atomic phenomena on the nanometer scale, far removed from our human senses. Thanks to a clever setup of magnets and a nitrogen-vacancy diamond, researchers have now successfully moved a centimeter-wide slab with quantum spin force alone, a key milestone on the way to achieving macroscopic quantum superposition and testing quantum theories of gravity.