Ammonia is a critical chemical for fertilizers that support global food production, and it is increasingly seen as a carbon-free energy carrier. However, the traditional Haber-Bosch process relies on fossil fuels and produces significant carbon emissions. A new review outlines emerging renewable-powered alternatives that can synthesize ammonia under milder conditions using electricity or sunlight. Researchers are also exploring the conversion of nitrogen pollutants such as nitrate and nitrite into ammonia, linking environmental cleanup with sustainable manufacturing. Advances in catalyst design and real-time monitoring are accelerating progress toward scalable, low-carbon ammonia production for a more sustainable future.

The team led by Prof. Gengtao Fu from Nanjing Normal University has successfully enhanced the electrocatalytic oxidation performance of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) by employing a rare-earth Cerium (Ce) doping strategy to tune the geometric and electronic structure of a CuO catalyst. This catalyst achieves efficient conversion of HMF to FDCA with near-theoretical-limit Faradaic efficiency (98.4%) and high production rate. By enabling optimal configuration matching, it effectively reduces steric hindrance, offering a novel approach for biomass electrocatalytic conversion.

Carbon dioxide energy storage (CES) is an emerging compressed gas energy storage technology which offers high energy storage efficiency, flexibility in location, and low overall costs. This study focuses on a CES system that incorporates a high-temperature graded heat storage structure, utilizing multiple heat exchange working fluids. Unlike traditional CES systems that utilize a single thermal storage at low to medium temperatures, this system significantly optimizes the heat transfer performance of the system, thereby improving its cycle efficiency. Under typical design conditions, the round-trip efficiency of the system is found to be 76.4%, with an output power of 334 kW/(kg·s−1) per unit mass flow rate, through mathematical modeling. Performance analysis shows that increasing the total pressure ratio, reducing the heat transfer temperature difference, improving the heat exchanger efficiency, and lowering the ambient temperature can enhance cycle efficiency. Additionally, this paper proposes a universal and theoretical CES thermodynamic intrinsic cycle construction method and performance prediction evaluation method for CES systems, providing a more standardized and accurate approach for optimizing CES system design.

Biochar has been widely promoted as a sustainable solution for improving soil health, cleaning polluted water, and capturing carbon. However, a comprehensive review warns that its environmental safety may be more complex than previously thought.

Researchers from Koç University have developed a new artificial intelligence model that predicts where people direct their attention in 360-degree videos by integrating both audio and visual cues, addressing a key challenge in immersive media where viewers are free to explore their surroundings rather than being guided by a fixed camera frame; unlike conventional approaches that rely mainly on visual information, the model jointly analyzes sound and image data to better reflect how humans perceive complex, dynamic environments, resulting in more accurate attention prediction in virtual reality and 360-degree video settings, with potential applications ranging from immersive media design and video production to human–computer interaction and content optimization.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers proposed a geometry-aware framework for automatically removing human noise from TLS point clouds by projecting 2D instance segmentation masks into 3D space and validating candidates through multi-stage geometric filtering.