Currently there are no therapy options available for those suffering acute radiation sickness. But hope is on the horizon. A combination of carbon and pectin developed by the EU-funded NanoMed project can absorb damaging molecules generated in the body after exposure to radiation. It’s the first step towards a simple pill that can be given to those exposed to high levels of radiation.
Many of the precursor chemicals essential to our everyday products are derived from fossil fuels. A breakthrough in molecular engineering made by the EU-funded CATACOAT project could help industry transition towards renewable sources of carbon, such as plants. This could help to reduce our carbon footprint, and create new green business opportunities.
Airborne pollutants are a threat to researchers and citizens alike. Using low-cost sensing technologies, the EU-funded VIDIS project hopes to deliver more accurate assessments of particulate matter exposure. Routine monitoring of air quality could offer significant health benefits for EU citizens.
Catalytic reactions are crucial for energy conversion and the production of chemicals, but their operation is limited by slow heat transfer. The EU-funded INTENT project developed new reactor designs with improved potential for heat transfer. The research and results will help in the transition of Europe’s energy sector away from fossil fuels.
Until electric cars and other energy-efficient innovations are practical and affordable to all, the internal combustion engine will continue to be widely used, with the consequent greenhouse gas emissions. To help reduce pollution levels, EU-funded researchers have developed new laser ignition techniques, which have the potential to make combustion engines far more energy-efficient.
EU-funded researchers are developing low-polluting techniques for recovering valuable metals from communications and green technology waste. This 'urban mining' could help to reduce pollution and ensure a secure supply of metals critical to a low-carbon, connected economy.
Your dinner leftovers, vegetable peelings and discarded packaging paper could provide environmentally friendly alternatives to commonly used chemicals, thanks to innovative technologies and fermentation processes being developed by EU and industry-funded researchers.
An EU-funded project has developed the ability to rotate molecules in a gas to point in any desired direction, opening up new possibilities for probing the dynamics of complex molecules.
Methane has a global warming impact 25 times higher than that of carbon dioxide and is the world's second most emitted greenhouse gas. An EU-funded project is developing new strains of microorganisms that can transform methane into useful and bio-friendly materials.
A new EU-funded laboratory in Romania has given researchers a head start in applying the insights of supramolecular chemistry to biomedical applications such as gene therapy, tissue engineering and drug delivery.
