Petroleum News

April 20, 2025

Top Headlines

Study Finds Dramatic Boost in Air Quality from Electrifying Railways

Apr. 16, 2025 — Switching from diesel to electric trains dramatically improved the air quality aboard the San Francisco Bay Area's Caltrain commuter rail line, reducing riders' exposure to the carcinogen black carbon by an average of 89%, finds a new study. The ...

Scalable Graphene Membranes: A Leap for Carbon Capture

Apr. 11, 2025 — Scientists have developed a scalable method to produce porous graphene membranes that efficiently separate carbon dioxide. The breakthrough could significantly reduce the cost and footprint of carbon capture ...

Global EV Adoption Fails to Cut CO2

Apr. 10, 2025 — The transition to electric vehicles won't reduce carbon emissions unless countries clean up their electricity ...

Bio-Oils for Greener Industrial Applications

Apr. 9, 2025 — New technology could enable more sustainable and cheaper production of bio-oils to replace petroleum-based products in electronic, construction and automotive applications. The technology, known as PYROCOTM, uses high temperatures without oxygen to ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:05am EDT

Decarbonization Improves Energy Security for Most Countries

Apr. 9, 2025 — Researchers analyzed trade-related risks to energy security across 1,092 scenarios for cutting carbon emissions by 2060. They found that swapping out dependence on imported fossil fuels for increased ...

Carbon Capture Technology to Produce Clean Fuel from Air

Apr. 3, 2025 — A unique carbon capture technology could offer a more cost-effective way to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and turn it into clean, synthetic ...

Oxygen for Mars

Mar. 24, 2025 — To mitigate global climate change, emissions of the primary culprit, carbon dioxide, must be drastically reduced. A newly developed process helps solve this problem: CO2 is directly split ...

Household Electricity Three Times More Expensive Than Upcoming 'Eco-Friendly' Aviation E-Fuels, Study Reveals

Mar. 23, 2025 — Existing tax policies during the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources will lead to major energy injustices and skewed priorities, ...

Reusing Old Oil and Gas Wells May Offer Green Energy Storage Solution

Mar. 18, 2025 — Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like wind and solar will require better ways to store energy for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. A new study by ...

Green Recipe: Engineered Yeast Boosts D-Lactic Acid Production

Mar. 20, 2025 — Researchers have engineered yeast to efficiently convert methanol into D-lactic acid, a key compound for biodegradable plastics and pharmaceuticals. By optimizing gene and promoter combinations, they ...

Nanocellulose Treated With Red Onion Dye Provides Effective UV Protection for Solar Cells

Mar. 19, 2025 — Researchers investigated how to use bio-based materials to produce effective UV protection films for solar cells. The study was the first to compare ...

EPA Regulations Cut Power Sector Emissions but Miss Opportunities for Deeper Reductions

Mar. 19, 2025 — Regulations finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2024 could cut emissions from the power sector by 51% over 2022 levels, compared to ...

How Industrial Waste Gases Could Replace Fossil Fuels in Everyday Consumer Products

Mar. 13, 2025 — Industrial waste gases, long seen as a major contributor to climate change, could soon be captured and repurposed into everyday household products ...

Cities That Conducted Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories Moved Needle Toward Reduction

Mar. 12, 2025 — Researchers gathered emissions data from hundreds of US cities that either conducted a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, or reported they employed ...

Self-Optimizing Catalysts Facilitate Water-Splitting for the Green Production of Hydrogen

Mar. 11, 2025 — Researchers have developed cost-effective and efficient water-splitting catalysts to be used in the eco-friendly production of hydrogen. Catalyst performance surprisingly increases over ...

Clothes Dryers and the Bottom Line: Switching to Air Drying Can Save Hundreds

Mar. 10, 2025 — By replacing clothes dyers with line drying, households in the U.S. could save upwards of $2,100 and avoid 3 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the lifetime of a dryer. The exact impacts, however, ...

Developing the Inherent Functionality of Highly Pure Porous Organic Polymers

Mar. 7, 2025 — Soaking up pollutants like a sponge, porous organic polymers (POPs) may be the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to ...

A Sustainable Iron Catalyst for Water Oxidation in Renewable Energy

Mar. 5, 2025 — A newly developed pentanuclear iron complex can offer an efficient, stable, and cost-effective solution for water oxidation. By electrochemically polymerizing the complex, researchers have obtained a ...

New Discovery Could 'Revolutionize Carbon Fiber Industry'

Mar. 5, 2025 — A research team has developed a groundbreaking new method of producing carbon fiber while drastically reducing its energy ...

Engineers Create More Effective Burner to Reduce Methane Emissions

Mar. 3, 2025 — Researchers have published a new study showing an advanced new methane flare burner, created with additive manufacturing and machine learning, eliminates 98% of methane vented during oil ...

Breakthrough in High-Performance Oxide-Ion Conductors Using Rubidium

Feb. 21, 2025 — Rubidium could be the next key player in oxide-ion conductors. Researchers have discovered a rare rubidium (Rb)-containing oxide-ion conductor with exceptionally high conductivity. Identified through ...

A Catalytic Two-Step: Transforming Industrial CO2 Into a Renewable Fuel

Feb. 19, 2025 — Scientists have taken a critical next step in creating a scalable process to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and 'recirculate' it as a renewable fuel. Chemists now describe their ...

Study Reveals Extent of Ecological Damage from Niger Delta Oil Spills

Feb. 18, 2025 — An international research team has used earth observation radar data to map oil pipeline networks covering a 9000 km2 region in the Niger Delta and pinpoint where crude oil spills have caused the ...

Turning Car and Helicopter Exhaust Into Thermoelectric Energy

Feb. 11, 2025 — Combustion engines, the engines in gas-powered cars, only use a quarter of the fuel's potential energy while the rest is lost as heat through exhaust. Now, a study demonstrates how to convert ...

Researchers Are Driving the Charge of Zero Emissions

Feb. 10, 2025 — New research finds that electric vehicles generally produce less non-exhaust emissions compared with gasoline-powered ...

Rethinking Energy Demand Can Foster Sustainable Development and Reduce Emissions from Buildings and Transport

Feb. 6, 2025 — In a new study, scientists show that a mix of policy measures, including both technological solutions and behavioral changes, can significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy use ...

Coal Emissions Cost India Millions in Crop Damages

Feb. 4, 2025 — New research shows grain yields critical to India's food security are dragged down 10% or more in many parts of the country by nitrogen dioxide pollution from power stations that run on coal. ...

Engineers Model Electric Grid Demand for EVs to Charge While in Motion

Feb. 4, 2025 — Running out of gas in a remote area far from a gas station is every driver's worst nightmare. A similar stressor, known as "range anxiety," exists for owners of electric vehicles who ...

Nanomaterials Are Emerging as a Powerful Tool for Coastal Oil Spill Cleanup

Feb. 4, 2025 — Advances in nanotechnology may provide solutions to oil spill cleanups in coastal regions that are more effective, safer and work much faster than current methods, according to a new paper. The paper ...

Electricity Prices Across Europe to Stabilize If 2030 Targets for Renewable Energy Are Met, Study Suggests

Feb. 3, 2025 — National targets for solar and wind power will see reliance on natural gas plummet, reducing electricity price volatility across Europe, with major beneficiaries including the UK and Ireland, the ...

Plant-Based Substitute for Fossil Fuels Developed for Plastic Foams

Jan. 28, 2025 — An environmentally-friendly preparation of plant material from pine could serve as a substitute for petroleum-based chemicals in polyurethane foams. The innovation could lead to more environmentally ...

Floating Solar Increases Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Small Ponds

Jan. 27, 2025 — While floating solar -- the emerging practice of putting solar panels on bodies of water -- is promising in its efficiency and its potential to spare agricultural and conservation lands, a new ...

Researchers Discover New Way to Store Hydrogen Using Lignin Jet Fuel

Jan. 27, 2025 — An international team of scientists has discovered a way to store and release volatile hydrogen using lignin-based jet fuel that could open new pathways for sustainable energy production. In a new ...

Technology for Oxidizing Atmospheric Methane Won't Help the Climate

Jan. 17, 2025 — Atmospheric scientists show proposed 'geoengineering' effort to remove methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere could worse air quality while providing minimal climate ...