Industry News

A chance discovery made by researchers at the University of Glasgow could dramatically reduce the cost of treating water for drinking. The team, working on an EPSRC-funded project in collaboration with the University of Michigan, analysing bacteria found in drinking water system in th

Plastic bottles recycled from households in Japan are being used in a kitchen range sold by the household goods and furniture giant Ikea. The company’s Kungsbacka kitchen range, which is available in Ikea stores from this month uses a plastic ‘foil’ produced from PET – polyethylene th

Bioengineers at The University of Nottingham are trialling how to use shrimp shells to make biodegradable shopping bags, as a ‘green’ alternative to oil-based plastic, and as a new food packaging material to extend product shelf life. The new material for these affordable ‘eco-friendl

Pioneering new insights into why high concentrations of some of the most rare and desirable natural elements – vital for the production of vital environmental, digital and security technologies – have been revealed. Pivotal new collaborative research, led by the world-famous Cam

A new type of super-material that could capture carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and turn them into fuel using only sunlight has moved a step closer to reality. Scientists at the University of Reading have used supercomputers to design hypothetical materials with the precise molecular s

Productivity is an economic measure defined as the ratio of GDP to hours worked in a given period. While this sounds a sensible measure, it is, of course, fraught with uncertainty. We know that all the economic data is constantly being revised and it must, in truth, be very difficult

One start-up company is about to use space technology to eliminate the issue of blind spots in lorries, buses and other large vehicles altogether. SeeCycle is developing a system that makes cyclists more visible to HGVs and buses by creating a ‘virtual protective field’ around the veh

Researchers from Georgia Tech have been working on a fabric that harvests energy from both sunshine and motion, which could be used to generate power in the field. The textile combines solar cells constructed from lightweight polymer fibres with fibre-based triboelectric nanogenerator

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has become the first company in the world to introduce a refrigerated delivery lorry cooled by a liquid nitrogen-powered engine. The technology, which is being deployed during a three-month trial, is expected to eliminate emissions associated with refr