Pollution

Europe's lofty plan to phase out the sale of internal combustion engine cars by 2035 now seems all but dead. The European Commission announced it's dropping the ban on new gas-powered cars a decade from now, owing to pressure from the auto industry.

IC engines have long received flack for how wasteful they are. That may soon change, as a team of researchers claims to have discovered the means of converting exhaust heat into energy, using a small device called a thermoelectric generator (TEG).

A decade after it was revealed, London's "super sewer" is now finally complete. The mega-project is expected to revolutionize the handling of waste in the British capital, boosting the capacity of its 150-year-old sewer system significantly.

Years before Samsung and others started tackling microplastic from machine washes escaping into the environment, there was Slovenia-based PlanetCare. Now the company has announced its second-generation external filter.

Traffic is among the biggest sources of air pollution, but what if the very roads they drive on could help clear the air? Engineers in Korea have now demonstrated that photocatalytic concrete can help reduce pollution in tunnels.

Scientists at the University of Georgia have created a "superfoam" with two very valuable potential applications. It could be used not only to clean up oil spills, but also to keep infections from occurring at medical implant sites.

Imagine if there were a robotic fish that filtered microplastic particles out of the water as it swam. Well, now there is one, and it's the physical version of the winning concept in the first-ever Natural Robotics Contest.

In wastewater produced by the textile industry and others, dye is one of the primary pollutants. A newly developed synthetic polymer is capable of removing that dye from the water, plus it can be cleaned up and reused to treat more wastewater.

When mines extract oil or ore from other materials, they generate liquid waste known as tailings. This waste is stored in tailings ponds, which have to be monitored – and that's where the amphibious Helix Neptune robot is designed to come in.

Industrial piping has a hard life, as it's constantly exposed to liquids that can damage its inner surface over time. A new polymer coating could help protect such pipes, while removing toxic metals from the liquids as it does so.

Wastewater treatment plants generally aren't known for their nice smell, and they have to be monitored in order to ensure that they're not becoming too stinky. An experimental new system uses an "e-nose" and a drone to do the job better.

Because many cyclists ride all over town, they encounter a wide range of air quality – more so than could be monitored by stationary sensors. The bar-mounted Air was designed with that in mind, as it measures the air quality while its user pedals.