Newswise — By comparing sulfuric and boric acid absorption systems, they found sulfuric acid delivers higher recovery rates and reduces isotope fractionation, even at low concentrations. Field applications successfully distinguished emissions from cropland, livestock, orchards, and vegetables, improving the accuracy of ammonia source identification.

NH₃ is the most important alkaline gas in the atmosphere and a major contributor to air pollution. It reacts with sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) to form ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate, key components of fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) that threaten human health, ecosystems, and climate balance. Because agricultural activities dominate NH₃ emissions, accurate source identification is essential for effective air-quality management. δ¹⁵N provides a powerful tool for distinguishing among fertilizers, livestock waste, and other sources. However, reliable isotope tracing depends on precise sampling. Common acidic absorbents used in passive collection may introduce isotope fractionation, particularly at low concentrations, highlighting the need for systematic methodological evaluation.

A study (DOI: 10.48130/nc-0025-0017) published in Nitrogen Cycling on 16 January 2026 by Chaopu Ti’s team, Chinese Academy of Sciences, establishes a more accurate and reliable method for nitrogen isotope analysis of atmospheric ammonia, improving source identification and supporting effective air pollution control strategies.

To evaluate the suitability of different acidic absorbents for NH₃ recovery and δ¹⁵N analysis, researchers conducted controlled laboratory experiments using (NH₄)₂SO₄ and certified N isotope reference materials (USGS-25, USGS-26, and IAEA-N1) as volatilization substrates, each with an initial NH₄⁺–N mass of 2.00 mg. NH₃ released during reaction was passively captured using sponge samplers containing either sulfuric acid or boric acid solutions, and recovery efficiency, reproducibility (CV), and isotope conversion performance were systematically assessed across NH₄⁺ concentrations of 20–100 μmol L⁻¹. Results showed that sulfuric acid achieved consistently high NH₃ recovery rates (95.98–96.88%, mean 96.43%, CV 0.47%) for (NH₄)₂SO₄ and similarly high recoveries for isotope standards (96.03–99.09%), indicating excellent precision and minimal isotopic bias. In contrast, boric acid produced significantly lower recovery rates (80.47–86.48%, mean 83.90%) and greater variability, suggesting potential isotope fractionation, especially at low concentrations. Conversion curves between δ¹⁵N–NH₄⁺ and δ¹⁵N–N₂O demonstrated that sulfuric acid maintained slopes close to the theoretical 0.5 across all concentrations, even before correction, reflecting stable isotope conversion and minimal blank effects. Boric acid showed weaker performance at 20 μmol L⁻¹, where slopes deviated markedly from theoretical expectations, though higher concentrations improved accuracy after correction. Accuracy tests confirmed that both methods reproduced certified δ¹⁵N values within ±0.5‰, but sulfuric acid exhibited superior stability and lower impurity interference. Field application of the optimized sulfuric acid method further revealed distinct δ¹⁵N signatures among agricultural NH₃ sources: cropland (−32.87‰), livestock (−36.64‰), orchards (−19.63‰), and vegetables (−24.95‰), with cropland and livestock significantly more depleted in ¹⁵N. Overall, the results demonstrate that 0.1 mol L⁻¹ sulfuric acid provides higher recovery, stronger reproducibility, and more reliable δ¹⁵N determination across variable concentration ranges, making it the preferred absorbent for atmospheric NH₃ source apportionment.

This study identifies sulfuric acid as the optimal absorbent for accurate δ¹⁵N analysis across varying NH₃ concentrations, providing a more reliable framework for ammonia source tracing. Enhanced isotope precision improves quantification of emissions from fertilizers, livestock, and other agricultural sources. The method strengthens nitrogen source apportionment, supports targeted fertilizer management, and offers robust scientific evidence for reducing PM₂.₅ formation and mitigating regional air pollution.

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References

DOI

10.48130/nc-0025-0017

Original Souce URL

https://doi.org/10.48130/nc-0025-0017

Funding information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42177313), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFC3707402).

About Nitrogen Cycling

Nitrogen Cycling is a multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on the nitrogen cycle. It is dedicated to serving as an innovative, efficient, and professional platform for researchers in the field of nitrogen cycling worldwide to deliver findings from this rapidly expanding field of science.

Newswise — For decades, global soil moisture monitoring from space has depended on reference datasets. Satellite observations, while indispensable, are rarely used alone; instead, their retrieval algorithms are typically calibrated or constrained using external soil moisture products derived from other satellites, models, or reanalysis systems. This practice has helped stabilize retrievals, but it has also introduced fundamental limitations—reducing transparency, constraining transferability across regions, and complicating long-term consistency as reference products evolve. A growing question in Earth observation is whether this dependence is truly unavoidable.

In a study published (DOI: 10.34133/remotesensing.0939) on January 7, 2026, in the Journal of Remote Sensing, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, and the China Meteorological Administration present PHYsics-based Soil rEflectivity Retrieval (PHYSER)—a physics-based framework for spaceborne GNSS-R soil moisture retrieval. The study demonstrates that global soil moisture can be retrieved independently, without relying on any external soil moisture referenSatellite Observationce products.

A long-standing constraint in satellite soil moisture retrieval

Soil moisture governs the exchange of water, energy, and carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere, influencing droughts, floods, ecosystem functioning, and agricultural productivity. Satellite remote sensing has become essential for monitoring soil moisture at regional to global scales, yet existing approaches face persistent challenges.

Conventional microwave sensors provide physically meaningful measurements but often struggle to balance spatial resolution, temporal coverage, and mission cost. More recently, Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) has emerged as a promising alternative. By passively receiving L-band signals continuously transmitted by navigation satellites such as GPS and BeiDou, GNSS-R offers low power consumption, all-weather capability, and dense spatiotemporal sampling.

Despite these advantages, most GNSS-R soil moisture retrieval methods still rely on empirical or semi-empirical relationships calibrated against external soil moisture products. This reliance weakens the physical interpretability of the results and limits their robustness when applied across regions, time periods, or future satellite missions. As GNSS-R constellations rapidly expand, the absence of an independent, physics-based retrieval framework has become a critical bottleneck.

Retrieving soil moisture from physical principles

PHYSER addresses this bottleneck by rethinking GNSS-R soil moisture retrieval from first principles. Rather than fitting GNSS-R observations to existing soil moisture datasets, the framework derives soil moisture directly from the physical interaction between navigation signals and the land surface.

At the core of PHYSER is the accurate reconstruction of soil surface reflectivity from GNSS-R measurements. This is achieved through a stepwise physical correction strategy. First, system-related biases inherent to the GNSS-R “multi-transmitter, single-receiver” observation geometry are corrected using inland water bodies as stable natural calibration targets. This step ensures consistency across different navigation signals and viewing geometries.

Second, land surface effects—particularly vegetation attenuation and surface roughness—are explicitly corrected using a physically based radiative transfer model. These land surface factors are shown to introduce larger uncertainties than satellite system errors, underscoring the importance of addressing them through physics-based correction rather than statistical adjustment.

With these corrections applied, soil reflectivity is transformed into soil permittivity using Fresnel equations. Soil moisture is then retrieved using established dielectric mixing models informed by global soil texture data.

Independent validation across space and ground observations

The PHYSER framework was evaluated using one year of observations from the BuFeng-1 A/B twin satellites, China’s first spaceborne GNSS-R mission designed for technology demonstration. The retrieved soil moisture fields were compared with SMAP satellite products, ERA5-Land reanalysis data, and hundreds of in situ measurement sites worldwide.

Across diverse climatic and land surface conditions, the PHYSER-based retrievals show strong spatial and temporal consistency with these independent datasets. While retrieval errors are comparable to—or only slightly higher than—those of empirical GNSS-R approaches, PHYSER achieves this performance while remaining fully independent of reference soil moisture products.

“This work shows that GNSS-R soil moisture retrieval does not have to be a statistical imitation of other products,” said a member of the research team. “By grounding the retrieval in physics, we gain transparency, robustness, and the ability to extend the method to future missions without retraining against external datasets.”

Implications for future Earth observation missions

As GNSS-R missions multiply and satellite constellations become denser, the need for scalable and physically interpretable retrieval methods is becoming increasingly urgent. PHYSER provides a pathway toward soil moisture monitoring that is not tied to any specific reference product or satellite mission.

The framework has the potential to strengthen climate reanalysis, improve hydrological forecasting, and support agricultural decision-making, particularly in data-sparse regions. With further refinement—especially in densely vegetated environments—PHYSER could help enable operational GNSS-R soil moisture products that complement, and potentially stand alongside, traditional microwave remote sensing systems.

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References

DOI

10.34133/remotesensing.0939

Original Source URL

https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/remotesensing.0939

Funding information

This study is supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. ZR2024QD048), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) project (Grant No. 42471511), the BUFENG-1 Application Extension Program of the China Spacesat Co., Ltd., the ESA-MOST China Dragon5 Programme (ID.58070), the Fengyun Application Pioneering Project (FY-APP-2021.0301), the Beijing Nova Program (Grant Nos. 20230484327 and 20240484540), and the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation project (Grant No. 2024JJ9186).

About Journal of Remote Sensing

The Journal of Remote Sensing, an online-only Open Access journal published in association with AIR-CAS, promotes the theory, science, and technology of remote sensing, as well as interdisciplinary research within earth and information science.

Newswise — Imagine descending nearly a mile and a half into a watery abyss, watching the sunlight disappear as the world around you turns completely black. Then suddenly, you find yourself surrounded by a shower of brilliant, bioluminescent fireworks.

This is just the beginning of an ocean expedition into the realm of deep-sea hydrothermal vents — alien ecosystems teeming with life we have yet to fully understand. Here, a place where the sunlight never reaches, crabs, rays and fish thrive even under the extreme hydrostatic pressure.

A team of intrepid researchers from Arizona State University embarked on a recent journey to these hidden depths to learn more about nitrogen cycling and the microbial life thriving in these extreme conditions. These microscopic organisms play a vital role in the ocean’s delicate chemistry.

“I think the deep sea is one of the final frontiers of exploration on Earth,” said Carolynn Harris, a postdoctoral researcher in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration. “We know more about the surface of the moon than we know about the bottom of the ocean on our own planet.”

Sheryl Murdock, a postdoctoral research scholar with ASU’s School of Ocean Futures, part of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, led the expedition along with Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert, an associate professor with the School of Earth and Space Exploration. Six ASU students and staff participated, working on everything from taking samples and planning the next day’s dive, to testing equipment and leading the team’s experiments and school outreach.

Murdock and her research team are working to understand exactly what the smallest inhabitants of the ocean are contributing to ocean chemistry. While microbes are tiny, they have a tremendous impact, and Murdock says they’re not something that gets thought about often when it comes to protecting and managing the ocean.

“Nobody’s going to buy the ‘save the microbes’ bumper sticker,” Murdock said. “We need the public to know that the way the chemistry of the ocean stays in balance has loads to do with microbes and how they cycle nitrogen and other chemical elements. And by understanding what microbes contribute, we can learn how that plays into the wider ocean chemistry and, importantly, ocean health.”

One way the researchers learn more is by taking samples of microbes that thrive under deep-sea pressure — gathered from water and sediment samples. But this team is trying something that has never been done before.

“We are working to understand the microbes living in tubeworm communities by sampling the fluids and then bringing the water back onto the ship, running incubations, and looking at how those microbes use different sources of nitrogen,” Murdock said. “What’s novel about this is bringing them to the surface but keeping them under seafloor pressure and running experiments at that high pressure.”

This process is difficult at best. The team must travel far out to sea on a ship called the R/V Atlantis — a U.S. Navy-owned research vessel operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This ship is designed specifically to launch Alvin, a specialized “human occupied vehicle,” or HOV, used by researchers to explore the deep sea.

Once the team reached its final destination in the Pacific northwest — a spreading center between tectonic plates called the Juan de Fuca Ridge — the team performed multiple dives in the submersible, as weather conditions allowed.

Their innovative approach to collecting water, sediment and microbial samples — bringing them to the surface under the same pressure — is expected to bring new insights to our understanding of ocean chemistry, what roles microbes play on the seafloor, and how they contribute to ecosystem health and function.

Ship to shore: Bringing deep-sea exploration to the classroom

Beyond the scientific breakthroughs, the expedition sparked a wave of inspiration among hundreds of students back on land. The cruise carried a dedicated outreach team — responsible for a ship-to-shore “virtual field trip” program that brought live video, interviews and demonstrations into classrooms thousands of miles away.

Will Carter, an outreach coordinator with the ASU Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, or BIOS, helped build the pipeline.

“We had a full Zoom setup,” Carter said, describing a dizzying array of gear: a handheld gimbal and iPhone for roaming footage, a 360 conference camera to show a room, and microphones that had to survive both wind and poor bandwidth. “You can imagine with all of these different tech elements, especially being on a ship where there’s limited Wi-Fi, it took a long time to really set up and master.”

Carter, who has a background in biology and media studies, edited dive footage each night and crafted short, punchy videos for the next day’s calls. Their goal was modest at first — reach a few hundred students — but the appetite for real-time science grew fast.

For students at Osborne Middle School in Phoenix, the experience wasn’t a distant slideshow. Science teacher Jim Hess watched his seventh and eighth graders press toward the screen, leaning in to see hydrothermal chimneys and hear Alvin crew explain life in a tin can at the bottom of the world.

“They decorated Styrofoam cups before the team left to go to the boat,” Hess said. The cups were taken down on the outside of the submersible; at 2,300 meters (more than six Empire State Buildings) deep, the air is crushed out of the foam. “Your regular six-inch Styrofoam cup shrinks down to about the size of your thumb,” he told students. The cups were returned as tiny souvenirs — a reminder that sometimes science is a tactile thrill as much as it is data.

Middle schoolers asked the questions adults skip. 

“How do you use the bathroom?” one asked. And the answer — “you try to go before, and if not, then you go on this little red bedpan” — produced exactly the reaction the outreach team wanted: awe and laughter, followed by curiosity. 

“Those middle school questions,” Carter said, “are perfect.”

From the beginning, the ship-to-shore goal was simple but ambitious: bring real impact and working science directly to students in real time, as discovery is unfolding live.

“We knew to get this over the goal line, it couldn’t just be creating a curriculum module,” said Kaitlin Noyes, director of education and community engagement at ASU BIOS. “It needed to be something bigger.” 

That “something bigger” became a series of live broadcasts from the research vessel and the submersible using special communications tools, connecting students from third grade through college — and even professional educators — to science, as it was happening at sea.

Over the course of the two-week expedition, they hosted 29 live shows and reached 857 participants.

“A lot of these kids have never had interaction with anything outside of their immediate area,” Hess said. “They hear about ASU, but they don’t really know what that means. This shows them the world is bigger — and that they can be part of it.”

From under the sea to under the microscope

Back on deck, the science had its own setbacks: rough weather grounded dives, forcing the team to compress their goals into fewer opportunities. Harris described how team dynamics became essential in cramped, chilly, sometimes seasick conditions.

“Anytime you take a group of people and put them in a confined, isolated situation, the group dynamics are so important,” she said. “We had a quarter fewer dives than we had hoped, but we still accomplished all of our major science objectives.”

Now the team’s samples — including water, sediments and microbes — will be analyzed. The next phase will take time and precision: sequencing DNA from microbes, measuring nitrogen species and piecing together how these unseen organisms move nutrients through a world without sunlight.

As the team measures the samples over the next several months, the researchers share a message: The deep sea is not a desolate wasteland but a vibrant ecosystem facing unprecedented threats due to climate impacts, overfishing and bottom-trawling, pollution and potential deep-sea mining.

“Industrialization of the deep sea is really knocking at the door,” Murdock said. “Our research is but one important step to reaching a better understanding of how our ocean works, and by doing that, we hope to contribute to strategies that ensure future ocean health.”

Corpses leave clues behind in the soil long after they’re gone

ASU research has potential to help forensic teams solve cases when a victim’s body has been moved

Newswise — President’s Professor Pamela Marshall (left) and Assistant Professor Katelyn Bolhofner pose with soil samples in one of their labs on Thursday, Feb. 19, on the West Valley campus. The researchers analyze the microbial and chemical traces left behind when remains are moved, uncovering patterns of postmortem change that can guide forensic investigations. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News.  Download article assets

 It is not uncommon for a body to be moved after a murder, usually to hide or eliminate evidence.

And while the Arizona desert may seem like the perfect place to commit such a crime, a new study shows that a cadaver can still leave critical clues behind in that harsh environment.

Arizona State University researchers have found that trace elements linger at an original dump site even after an extensive amount of time. These elements can provide insights into postmortem processes, helping forensic investigators uncover clandestine burials and relocate the remains of murder victims.

“A lot of times a murderer will kill someone and put the body somewhere, stash it, panic and then move it. And how can you ever trace where they have done this?” said Assistant Professor Katelyn Bolhofner with the School of Interdisciplinary Forensics, who collaborated with President’s Professor Pam Marshall from the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences on the study.

“The surprising result was that even with the hot Arizona summer, we could still tell that there had been something that was dying and decomposing in that spot in the desert,” Bolhofner said.

Uncovering signatures in the soil

Prior to the study, Bolhofner and Marshall believed that any evidence on the original site of a transported body would be baked under Arizona’s scorching summer sun.

That was far from the case.

The study used two 200-pound pig models that were dressed up in jeans and a button-up shirt by students, since murder victims are commonly clothed. They were left to decompose in large cages (to keep scavenging animals away) in various environments and seasons in the Sonoran Desert.

After 25 days, the remains were moved to a secondary burial location. Then, over a period of nine months, the researchers tested the soil where the model was originally placed, where it was moved and in a location adjacent to the original burial as a control.

“It’s a multifaceted, year-round project to try to determine timing, insects involved, and the humidity and the temperature and many other of these factors,” Bolhofner said.

What they found were distinct microbial fingerprints where death gave way to new life — bacteria and fungi that once lived inside or on the body and were released into the surrounding ground as decomposition occurred.

“It turned out to be a really crazy finding,” Bolhofner said. “It’s like the murder victim is leaving a signature of themselves in death … almost like leaving breadcrumbs right around the desert (indicating) that they had been there, and those breadcrumbs stayed there in the soil, invisible to the naked eye for a year.”

“No one has ever done an experiment like this,” Marshall said. “It was unique because no one had looked at a dumped body that was then moved. It was also unusual because no one’s been looking at the Sonoran Desert.”

It’s like the murder victim is leaving a signature of themselves in death … almost like leaving breadcrumbs right around the desert.

Kaitlyn BolhofnerAssistant professor of forensics

Counting on collaboration

The study was a collective and collaborative effort.

ASU graduate Jennifer Matta Salinas worked on the study for her honors thesis. She collected and processed the data, and extracted DNA for the study.

“I felt like my results definitely opened the door to a novel area of forensic science that has many avenues to explore and to still verify,” said Salinas, who earned a bachelor’s degree in forensic science. “I’m hoping someday it is used to help find someone’s loved ones months or years after their disappearance no matter where the environment is.”

The DNA was then prepped and analyzed by Kristina Buss in ASU’s Bioinformatics Facility and Desert Southwest Genomics Center, and Teaching Professor Ken G. Sweat performed the chemical analysis of the soil.

“We here in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences and the School of Interdisciplinary Forensics are very collaborative — we depend on each other,” Marshall said. “Without Jennifer needing to write her thesis, this wouldn’t have happened. Without Ken doing the elemental analysis, that part wouldn’t have happened either.”

Future forensic potential

Stuart Somershoe, a retired police detective with the Phoenix Police Department’s missing-persons division, was also a part of the project.

According to the World Population Review, Arizona has one of the highest number of missing persons in the nation, with more than 1,000 people missing and 1,588 resolved cases in 2025.

Somershoe says the desert plays into those statistics. He sees the potential application of this study in cold cases and missing persons cases both now and in the future.

“I read the study and could see the value in police investigations,” Somershoe said. “It would certainly be something that could be used.”

Somershoe said that as this research develops and becomes more well-known, it could become a technique as commonly used as DNA testing.

But first, more experiments and studies will be needed.

“We’re way in our infancy,” Marshall said.

The researchers are interested in taking the study on the road to see if the findings can be confirmed in other climates, but Marshall is hopeful.

“This study is really specific to this climate and this landscape and this geography,” Marshall said. “Our soil and our climate (are) so harsh and so odd. The fact that this can be proven here should show that in other climates, it’s much more doable. Those climates are much friendlier.”

The researchers also plan to verify that human remains would yield similar results.

“We need to confirm that the things we’re seeing in pigs are the same in humans,” she said. “We need to figure out how what we have discovered is transferable.”

 Download article assets

Newswise — As global demand for clothing continues to rise, the textile and apparel industry has become a significant contributor to climate change. In China, the world’s largest textile producer and exporter, rapid urbanization, income growth, and shifting consumption patterns have driven a surge in apparel demand. Traditional studies often focus on factory-level energy use, overlooking emissions embedded in supply chains, exports, and household consumption. This fragmented perspective limits the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. Moreover, fast fashion and short garment lifespans exacerbate resource use and waste. Based on these challenges, there is an urgent need to conduct in-depth research that captures the full carbon footprint of the textile industry and identifies scalable pathways for emission reduction.

Researchers from Nanjing University, in collaboration with international partners, reported (DOI: 10.1007/s11783-026-2109-9) on January 9, 2026, in Engineering Environment a comprehensive analysis of carbon emissions in China’s textile and apparel industry. Using national household consumption data and supply-chain input–output modeling, the team examined emission trends from 2000 to 2018 and projected future mitigation scenarios through 2035. Their study reveals how production, consumption, and exports jointly shape the sector’s carbon footprint and highlights practical strategies—particularly renewable energy and clothing recycling—to curb emissions while supporting sustainable industrial development.

The analysis shows that demand-side forces dominate carbon emissions in China’s textile industry. Household consumption and exports together account for roughly 85% of total emissions growth, far outweighing the contribution from direct energy use in factories. Urban households, in particular, generate more than four times the carbon emissions of rural households due to higher clothing consumption, underscoring the climate impact of lifestyle changes.

By constructing detailed carbon flow diagrams, the study identifies wet processing, electricity use, and long, fragmented supply chains as major emission hotspots. While electrification has reduced emissions from fossil fuels, carbon embodied in upstream sectors—such as chemicals, transportation, and logistics—continues to rise.

To explore mitigation pathways, the researchers modeled five future scenarios. Energy-saving technologies alone delivered limited reductions, while large-scale renewable energy adoption significantly lowered emissions by reducing carbon intensity across the entire supply chain. Clothing recycling emerged as another powerful lever, as extending garment lifespans directly reduces the need for new production. Most notably, a combined strategy integrating renewable energy and recycling could reduce total emissions by nearly 10% compared with a business-as-usual trajectory, effectively flattening long-term emission growth.

“This study shows that decarbonizing the textile industry is not just a technological challenge, but also a consumption challenge,” said the study’s corresponding author. “Focusing only on factories misses the bigger picture. Our results demonstrate that household demand, urban lifestyles, and export-oriented production play decisive roles in driving emissions. By aligning clean energy transitions with circular economy strategies—especially clothing recycling—we can achieve meaningful emission reductions without sacrificing economic vitality. These insights provide a scientific foundation for designing more effective and balanced climate policies.”

The findings have important implications for policymakers, industry leaders, and consumers. For governments, the study highlights the need to integrate demand-side measures—such as promoting clothing reuse and recycling—into climate strategies for the textile sector. For industry, it underscores the value of transitioning to renewable energy while redesigning supply chains to be shorter and more efficient. For consumers, the research quantifies how everyday clothing choices contribute to carbon emissions, reinforcing the climate benefits of longer garment lifespans. Together, these pathways suggest that a shift toward greener production and more responsible consumption can transform textiles from a climate liability into a key contributor to a low-carbon future.

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References

DOI

10.1007/s11783-026-2109-9

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-026-2109-9

Funding information

The study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 72304136, 72234003, and 72488101).

About Engineering Environment

Engineering Environment is the leading edge forum for peer-reviewed original submissions in English on all main branches of environmental disciplines. FESE welcomes original research papers, review articles, short communications, and views & comments. All the papers will be published within 6 months after they are submitted. The Editors-in-Chief are Academician Jiuhui Qu from Tsinghua University, and Prof. John C. Crittenden from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. The journal has been indexed by almost all the authoritative databases such as SCI, EI, INSPEC, SCOPUS, CSCD, etc.

Robert Nelson and Christopher Reddy recognized for pioneering use of GCxGC to track and understand marine pollution

Newswise — Woods Hole, Mass. (February 20, 2026) — Two chemical oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are being awarded the 2026 Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award by the International Symposium on Comprehensive Multidimensional Chromatography.

Robert Nelson and Christopher Reddy, both in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, are being recognized for more than 15 years of continuous, high-impact contributions in the field of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography, commonly known as GCxGC

GCxGC is an advanced analytical technique that separates and identifies highly complex mixtures of chemicals with exceptional detail.

With more than 60 years of combined experience, Nelson and Reddy have pioneered the use of this method to analyze pollutants in the ocean, revolutionizing the field of oil-spill forensics. Their work has advanced scientific understanding and informed response strategies for some of the most significant oil spills in recent history, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, as well as spills in San Francisco, Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, and California, and internationally in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Korea, and Japan.

“As an oceanographer, I am particularly proud that this award is selected by, and presented to, analytical chemists—a field dedicated to advancing how chemicals are measured,” Reddy said. “It is a tremendous honor to have our work recognized by this community.”

“What is especially meaningful to me is that Chris and I worked so closely together—often on site collecting samples on boats and beaches, analyzing them, and writing about the results,” Nelson added. “This award reflects not just our technical work, but a long-term partnership forged in the field and in the lab.”

The Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award for GCxGC Research is one of the highest honors bestowed by the GCxGC community, recognizing sustained innovation and impact in analytical chemistry and separation science. Nelson and Reddy will receive the award at the 44th International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography & 21st GCxGC Symposium in Riva del Garda, Italy, this spring.

About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility.

Newswise — Green hydrogen production technology, which utilizes renewable energy to produce eco-friendly hydrogen without carbon emissions, is gaining attention as a core technology for addressing global warming. Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, a process that separates hydrogen and oxygen by applying electrical energy to water, requiring low-cost, high-efficiency, high-performance catalysts.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Oh Sang-rok) announced that a research team led by Dr. Na Jongbeom and Dr. Kim Jong Min from the Center for Extreme Materials Research has developed next-generation water electrolysis catalyst technology. This technology integrates a single-atom ‘All-in-one’ catalyst precisely controlled down to the atomic level with binder-free electrode technology. A key feature of this technology is its ability to stably perform both hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions simultaneously on a single electrode.

Existing electrolysis systems had limitations requiring different catalysts and electrode structures for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), necessitating the use of large quantities of expensive precious metals. Additionally, the binder used to fix the catalyst to the electrode posed problems, including reduced electrical conductivity and catalyst detachment during long-term operation.

KIST researchers utilized atomic-level precision control technology to uniformly disperse iridium (Ir) atoms across the surface of a manganese (Mn)-nickel (Ni)-based layered double hydroxide (LDH) support incorporating phytic acid. This strategy replaced the conventional use of bulk iridium precious metal. By maximizing the number of active sites for water-splitting reactions with minimal iridium, this approach is analogous to evenly spreading fine grains of sand over a large surface rather than relying on a single large rock.

In particular, the iridium single atom acts as a direct active site for the hydrogen evolution reaction through its strong interaction with the support, while simultaneously enhancing the catalytic performance of the nickel-based active site where the oxygen evolution reaction occurs. Thus, a single-atom catalyst has realized bifunctional catalytic characteristics, exhibiting suitable reactivity for both reactions. Furthermore, the research team applied a method of directly growing the catalyst on the electrode surface, achieving an electrode structure that does not require a separate binder. This significantly improved electrical conductivity and ensured excellent durability even during long-term operation.

This technology significantly reduces precious metal usage to within 1.5% compared to existing precious metal catalysts while achieving outstanding performance in both hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions. In addition, it demonstrates high stability with minimal performance degradation even after continuous operation for over 300 hours in an anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis system. This research outcome demonstrates the technical feasibility of simultaneously enhancing the economic viability and durability of electrolysis systems by minimizing precious metal usage and simplifying electrode structures. It is expected to significantly contribute to the commercialization of green hydrogen production and the reduction of hydrogen production costs in the future.

Dr. Na Jongbeom of KIST stated, “This work is highly significant as it resolves the two essential reactions for hydrogen production using a single catalyst while reducing precious metal consumption.” He added, “This technology will accelerate the commercialization of water electrolysis devices and provide substantial support for expanding hydrogen energy.”

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KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://kist.re.kr//eng/index.do

This research was conducted with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Bae Kyung-hoon) through KIST’s Institutional Program and Excellent New Researcher Program (RS-2024-00350423), the DACU Core Technology Development Project (RS-2023-00259920), and the Korea-US-Japan International Joint Research Project (Global-24-003). The research results were published in the latest issue of the international journal Advanced Energy Materials (IF: 26.0, JCR (%): 2.5%).

Newswise — Woods Hole, Mass. (February 4, 2026) – Alan Seltzer, an affiliated scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), assistant professor at University College Dublin, and former WHOI postdoctoral scholar, has been named the 2026 recipient of the F.G. Houtermans Award by the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG). The award is among the highest international honors recognizing early-career scientists in geochemistry.

Seltzer is being recognized for pioneering the use of dissolved gas isotopes to quantify physical and biogeochemical processes across the Earth system, including exploring the sensitivity of groundwater systems to climate and the dynamics of atmosphere-ocean gas exchange. Much of the work cited by the award committee was conducted at WHOI, where Seltzer was a postdoctoral scholar from 2019 to 2021 and later a member of the scientific staff in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, where he established a gas isotope tracer laboratory and developed several new analytical techniques.

His research helped open new pathways for using noble gas and nitrogen isotopes to investigate groundwater, seawater, air, and volcanic gases. Seltzer also helped extend high-precision noble gas isotope techniques to volcanic systems in collaboration with WHOI associate scientist Peter Barry to better understand the origins and transport pathways of volatiles from Earth’s deep interior. He also expanded oceanic applications of noble gas tracers for air-sea interaction and glacial meltwater circulation with WHOI scientists Bill Jenkins and Roo Nicholson, and more recently advanced high-precision tools for quantifying nitrogen cycling in aquatic environments in collaboration with MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Katelyn McPaul and WHOI associate scientist Scott Wankel.

“It is an honor to be recognized with the F.G. Houtermans Award,” Seltzer said. “WHOI has a special culture in which collaboration and high-risk science are celebrated, and without the encouragement and freedom at WHOI to take risks, push analytical limits, and fail a lot along the way, much of my work would not have been possible. I’m deeply grateful for all the support I’ve received from the WHOI community over my career so far.”

Seltzer’s selection continues a notable streak for WHOI’s Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department. Former WHOI postdoctoral scholar David Bekaert received the Houtermans Award in 2025, marking back-to-back years in which the honor has gone to WHOI-trained scientists—a rare distinction that highlights the strength and impact of the Institution’s postdoctoral program.

The 2026 F.G. Houtermans Award will be formally presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in July.

About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility. 

Newswise — The aviation industry accounts for a significant share of global carbon emissions. In response, the international community is expanding mandatory use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which is produced from organic waste or biomass and is expected to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional fossil-based jet fuel. However, high production costs remain a major challenge, leading some airlines in Europe and Japan to pass SAF-related costs on to consumers.

Against this backdrop, a research team led by Dr. Yun-Jo Lee at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), in collaboration with EN2CORE Technology Co., Ltd., has successfully demonstrated an integrated process that converts landfill gas generated from organic waste—such as food waste—into aviation fuel.

Currently, the refining industry mainly produces SAF from used cooking oil. However, used cooking oil is limited in supply and is also used for other applications such as biodiesel, making it relatively expensive and difficult to secure in large quantities. In contrast, landfill gas generated from food waste and livestock manure is abundant and inexpensive. This study represents the first domestic demonstration of aviation fuel production using landfill gas as the primary feedstock.

Producing aviation fuel from landfill gas requires overcoming two major challenges: purifying the gas to obtain suitable intermediates and improving the efficiency of converting gaseous intermediates into liquid fuels. The research team addressed these challenges by developing an integrated process encompassing landfill gas pretreatment, syngas production, and catalytic conversion of syngas into liquid fuels.

EN2CORE Technology was responsible for the upstream processes. Landfill gas collected from waste disposal sites is desulfurized and treated using membrane-based separation to reduce excess carbon dioxide. The purified gas is then converted into synthesis gas—containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen—using a proprietary plasma reforming reactor, and subsequently supplied to KRICT.

KRICT applied the Fischer–Tropsch process to convert the gaseous syngas into liquid fuels. In this process, hydrogen and carbon react on a catalyst surface to form hydrocarbon chains. Hydrocarbons of appropriate chain length become liquid fuels, while longer chains form solid byproducts such as wax. By employing zeolite- and cobalt-based catalysts, KRICT significantly improved selectivity toward liquid fuels rather than solid byproducts.

A key innovation of this work is the application of a microchannel reactor. Excessive heat generation during aviation fuel synthesis can damage catalysts and reduce process stability. The microchannel reactor developed by the team features alternating layers of catalyst and coolant channels, enabling rapid heat removal and suppression of thermal runaway. Through integrated and modular design, the reactor volume was reduced by up to one-tenth compared to conventional systems. Production capacity can be expanded simply by adding modules.

For demonstration purposes, the team constructed an integrated pilot facility on a landfill site in Dalseong-gun, Daegu. The facility, approximately 100 square meters in size and comparable to a two-story detached house, successfully produced 100 kg of sustainable aviation fuel per day, achieving a liquid fuel selectivity exceeding 75 percent. The team is currently optimizing long-term operation conditions and further enhancing catalyst and reactor performance.

This achievement demonstrates the potential to convert everyday waste-derived gases from food waste and sewage sludge into high-value aviation fuel. Moreover, it shows that aviation fuel production—previously limited to large-scale centralized plants—can be realized at local landfills or small waste treatment facilities. The technology is therefore expected to contribute to the establishment of decentralized SAF production systems and strengthen the competitiveness of Korea’s SAF industry.

The research team noted that the work is significant in securing an integrated process technology that converts organic waste into high-value fuels. KRICT President Young-Kuk Lee stated that the technology has strong potential to become a representative solution capable of achieving both carbon neutrality and a circular economy.

The development of two catalysts enabling selective production of liquid fuels was published as an inside cover article in ACS Catalysis (November 2025) and in Fuel (January 2026).

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KRICT is a non-profit research institute funded by the Korean government. Since its foundation in 1976, KRICT has played a leading role in advancing national chemical technologies in the fields of chemistry, material science, environmental science, and chemical engineering. Now, KRICT is moving forward to become a globally leading research institute tackling the most challenging issues in the field of Chemistry and Engineering and will continue to fulfill its role in developing chemical technologies that benefit the entire world and contribute to maintaining a healthy planet. More detailed information on KRICT can be found at https://www.krict.re.kr/eng/

This research was supported by “Development of integrated demonstration process for the production of bio naphtha/lubricant oil from organic waste-derived biogas” (Project No. RS-2022-NR068680) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Republic of Korea.

Newswise — After high-profile water crises like the one in Flint, Michigan, some Americans distrust the safety of tap water, choosing to purchase drinking water from freestanding water vending machines or kiosks. Yet this more expensive water may contain different pollutants than local tap water, according to a study in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology. Researchers report that water sampled from 20 kiosks in six states sometimes contained lead at levels above public health recommendations.

“Currently, water kiosks are not regulated the same as tap water; their water is not tested for lead or other metals,” says Samantha Zuhlke, a corresponding author of this study. “Updating water kiosk regulations can improve their quality and help consumers make informed decisions about the water they are drinking.”

Water kiosks are privately owned vending machines that are often marketed as being safer than tap water, commanding prices of $0.25-$0.35 per gallon (compared to less than 2 cents per gallon for tap water in most U.S. cities). Kiosk operators generally treat local tap water with purification techniques such as filtration, ultraviolet light or reverse osmosis (RO) to remove potentially harmful contaminants such as lead, microbes, residual disinfectants, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). But water vending machines in the U.S. are poorly regulated. So, a team of researchers led by Zuhlke and David Cwiertny conducted a comprehensive comparison of the chemical and microbial characteristics of kiosk water and tap water from municipalities close to the monitored kiosks.

The team collected water samples from 20 kiosks operated by four different manufacturers across Iowa and in the surrounding states of Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Most of the kiosks advertised treatment of their water by RO, a process that uses pressure to force water through a semipermeable membrane, purifying the water and leaving most contaminants caught behind the membrane. For comparison, the researchers collected tap water samples from community sources within a mile of each kiosk.

They analyzed all samples and found no evidence of microbial contamination in any sample. They also found that RO treatment in kiosks effectively removed most PFAS from the sourced tap water. However, this benefit was offset by concerning levels of lead in some RO-purified kiosk water samples — nearly twice the concentration recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The researchers traced the lead to the corrosion of brass plumbing in the kiosks following RO treatment. Although the plumbing components are marketed as “lead-free,” small amounts of the metal can leach under the low-pH and low-alkalinity conditions of RO-treated water, they say. Replacing the internal metal pieces with other materials could eliminate lead in dispensed water.

“This work adds to growing evidence that allowable levels of lead in ‘lead-free’ plumbing can still be problematic sources of lead in drinking water when such plumbing is exposed to certain types of water, like that generated after RO treatment,” Cwiertny says.

The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Iowa’s Center for Social Science Innovation and the Office of Undergraduate Research. This work was conducted through the University of Iowa Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, which receives support through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The paper’s abstract will be available on Feb. 11 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here:   

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