Green hydrogen is considered to be an important part of the global climate transition, especially as a fuel and energy carrier for heavy transport and industry. However, large-scale green hydrogen production requires sustainable ways of managing water resources to avoid giving rise to water shortages and conflicts with agriculture over access. This has been shown in a unique study from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, that connects local water supply with a range of scenarios for future hydrogen needs in Europe.

Published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, this study introduces a revolutionary mechanochemical strategy that challenges conventional material synthesis paradigms. The research demonstrates that water, when combined with mechanical grinding, can activate sodium methylsilicate to generate reactive hydroxyl groups, enabling condensation with over 40 different substrates ranging from natural macromolecules to metal compounds. The resulting hydrophobic porous materials exhibit exceptional properties including surface areas of 129–388 m²/g, yields of 66%–90%, and remarkable versatility in environmental applications. Notably, the system can directly utilize untreated plant tissues and atmospheric CO₂, converting the greenhouse gas into valuable sodium bicarbonate byproducts. The materials demonstrate outstanding performance in oil-water separation with petroleum ether permeability exceeding 801 L/(m²·h), propofol medical waste adsorption rates above 85%, and dye degradation efficiencies reaching 99.99% for pollutants including Rhodamine B, Congo red, and Nile red. This work establishes a generalizable platform for sustainable material manufacturing that aligns with green chemistry principles, requiring no heating, organic solvents, or harmful catalysts while maximizing the utilization of naturally abundant renewable resources.

Gold nanoparticles with surface functionalization are vital to improve their stability, bio-compatibility to engineer them to be suitable candidates in advanced bio-medical technologies, including drug delivery systems, biosensors, bioimaging, photothermal cancer therapy etc.  They are also being exploited in catalysis and energy applications. Their performance in these applications depends strongly on how their surfaces interact with the surrounding medium, particularly the interfacial water, at the nanoscale. Therefore, understanding the thermodynamics and intermolecular structure of the interfacial water is crucial in the design process.

In order to unify the existing hypotheses to cover the entire scenarios of OoL, Prof. Yongdong Jin at the School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University, China, has proposed the “nanozymes hypothesis” of the OoL on Earth.

Excess phosphorus in lakes and reservoirs fuels harmful algal blooms, threatens drinking water safety, and damages aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Now, researchers have developed a new machine learning–guided strategy to design advanced biochar materials that remove phosphorus efficiently while dramatically lowering treatment costs. The study provides a practical pathway for restoring eutrophic waters at large scale.

A new review of emerging research suggests that biochar, a carbon-rich material produced from biomass, could play an important role in making 3D printing more sustainable while improving material performance. The study brings together recent advances in biochar–polymer composites and outlines the scientific and engineering challenges that must be solved before the technology can be widely adopted.

Researchers have developed a new biochar material derived from marine microalgae that can detect hydrogen peroxide rapidly, sensitively, and without the need for enzymes. The discovery could support applications ranging from medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring and food safety.