Explore the latest insights from top science journals in the Muser Press daily roundup, featuring impactful research on climate change challenges.
In brief:
How industrial waste gases could replace fossil fuels in everyday consumer products
A new study1 led by Professor Jhuma Sadhukhan at the University of Surrey has successfully demonstrated the environmental benefits of turning CO2 emissions into key chemical ingredients. As part of the Flue2Chem initiative, researchers for the first time assessed the entire life cycle of converting waste gases from steel and paper mills into chemical components (surfactants) for essential consumer goods.
The study, published in the Journal of CO2 Utilization, found the approach reduces global warming potential (GWP) by around 82% for paper mill emissions and nearly half for the steel mill industry compared to fossil-based surfactant production – highlighting a promising pathway to bring the UK closer to its Net-Zero targets.
Professor Jin Xuan, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at Surrey and co-author of the study, said:
“For decades, fossil fuels have been the backbone of manufacturing, not just as an energy source but as a key component in the products people use daily. However, this reliance has come at a high environmental cost. Our findings show that waste CO2 can be part of the solution rather than the problem. This isn’t just about cutting emissions – it’s about creating a circular carbon economy where waste becomes the building blocks of essential products and fuel.”
Recent life cycle assessments show that CO2-based products offer significant environmental benefits. However, a techno-economic analysis highlights key challenges, such as high costs and limited hydrogen supply – both critical for converting CO2 into surfactants. Given the energy-intensive nature of the process, the study emphasises the need for further investment in renewable energy infrastructure.
A separate University of Surrey-led study2, published in Digital Chemical Engineering, also looked at the economic feasibility of different production methods and found that the CO2 capture route remains more expensive, at $8/kg compared to $3.75/kg for fossil-based sources. However, there is hope that technological advancements and increasing demand for sustainable products will help bridge the gap, making CO2-derived surfactants a cost-effective alternative in future.
With consumer industries valued at over £73 billion in the UK alone, the results of these studies will play a crucial role in shaping the future of sustainable chemical manufacturing. The findings will be used to guide industrial partners, providing key recommendations to policymakers on how to accelerate the transition toward a circular carbon economy.
Journal Reference:
(1) Jhuma Sadhukhan, Oliver J. Fisher, Benjamin Cummings, Jin Xuan, ‘Novel comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of sustainable flue gas carbon capture and utilization (CCU) for surfactant and fuel via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis’, Journal of CO2 Utilization 92, 103013 (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jcou.2024.103013
(2) Oliver J. Fisher, Jhuma Sadhukhan, Thorin Daniel, Jin Xuan, ‘Techno-economic analysis and process simulation of alkoxylated surfactant production in a circular carbon economy framework’, Digital Chemical Engineering 13, 100199 (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.dche.2024.100199
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by University of Surrey
Earth’s ‘dirty mirror’ effect is accelerating climate change
New research shows that cloudy areas over oceans are reflecting less sunlight to space than before, adding to heating from rising greenhouse gas levels and causing climate change to accelerate.
The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, found this dimming effect was occurring in several regions, including cloudy areas off the coasts of California and Namibia, but also at the fringes of Antarctica where recent significant melting of sea ice can also explain more absorption of sunlight by the oceans.
Professor Richard Allan, lead author of the study at the University of Reading, said: “Think of Earth as a mirror reflecting sunlight back to space. Over time, that mirror is getting dirtier, particularly over our oceans where clouds are changing. This means more solar energy is being absorbed rather than reflected, adding to the heating caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
“An important puzzle to solve is, are the clouds melting away as temperatures rise like a mirror steaming up? Or is declining air pollution that artificially brightened the mirror like a cleaning spray now wearing off? We need to find out which explanation is causing clouds to become less shiny to understand how much global warming will occur and how fast. The remarkable global dimming helps explain why we saw such unprecedented warming in 2023.”
Air pollution impacts
The researchers examined the warming that occurred in 2022 to 2023 and discovered the ocean surface warmed even more rapidly than could be explained by the increased energy absorption alone. This led them to the conclusion that either the heat was concentrated in a shallower layer of ocean than normal, or extra heat stored in deeper ocean layers was returning to the surface. The second explanation aligns with the development of El Niño conditions in 2023, when warm water from ocean depths rose to the surface in the Pacific.
The study also found that eastern China is reflecting less sunlight than expected, likely due to successful efforts to reduce air pollution. This finding is significant because while reducing air pollution improves public health, cleaner air also allows more sunlight to pass through the atmosphere and clouds to reach Earth’s surface, adding to the warming from increases in heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
The research suggests that these reductions in aerosol particles over China could be influencing climate patterns beyond its borders, potentially affecting cloudiness and temperature patterns over the north Pacific region through atmospheric wind patterns.
Journal Reference:
Richard P. Allan, Christopher J. Merchant, ‘Reconciling Earth’s growing energy imbalance with ocean warming’, Environmental Research Letters 20 (4): 044002 (2025). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/adb448
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by University of Reading
Salt influx from land and sea spells ‘double trouble’ for drinking water
An influx of salt from both land and sea and a warming world are condemning the world’s rivers, streams and estuaries to a “saltier future,” according to a new study led by University of Maryland Geology Professor Sujay Kaushal in collaboration with researchers from other institutions.
Published in a special edition of the journal Biogeochemistry, their research tells a comprehensive story of freshwater salinization — rising concentrations of salt ions in bodies of fresh water worldwide — and offers a framework for predicting and preventing the issue.
Researchers strive to find solutions to freshwater salinization because it affects ecosystems and animals adapted to certain salinity levels and can hamper public utilities and food production. Roughly 70% of drinking water in the United States comes from surface waters such as rivers, and higher concentrations of salt can be difficult and costly to remove. Fresh water is also used to irrigate crops and run power plants, and excessively salty waters can corrode infrastructure like wastewater pipes, bridges and underwater cables.
Kaushal has studied land-based sources of salt contamination for more than 20 years and previously led research that found that road salt, mining, land development and other human activities are accelerating the natural “salt cycle,” or the movement of salts to Earth’s surface. In their new study, Kaushal and his co-authors also assessed the threat of saltwater intrusion — the mixing of ocean water with fresh water — of coastal water supplies along tidal rivers.
“Our paper involves oceanographers for the first time to point out the growing problem of double trouble: salinization from both land and sea,” said Kaushal, who holds a joint appointment in UMD’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center. “We now recognize that these salts are coming from two directions and represent an emerging risk that’s going to affect a lot of infrastructure, ecosystems, agriculture and drinking water supplies around the world.”
Extreme weather — from droughts to floods to record-high temperatures — can also affect salinity levels for better or worse. Despite this variability, the researchers noted that the effects of climate change, land-based salt pollution and briny ocean water can interact in complex ways, sometimes triggering biogeochemical chain reactions in fresh water that amplify the problem.
Kaushal’s previous research revealed that road salts, widely used to make icy roads and sidewalks safer, have unintended consequences. They often run off into local waterways, mobilizing chemicals that may already be in the water and creating “toxic cocktails.”
Study co-author and Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies founder Gene E. Likens said their research revealed that the chain reactions don’t stop there.
“What we started realizing is that some of the primary mobilized chemical cocktails react with other contaminants to form secondary chemical cocktails, packing a one-two punch to water quality,” Likens said. “What’s concerning is that these chain reactions are happening all along the freshwater-marine continuum now with cascading effects on ecosystems, agriculture and infrastructure.”
In one example, the researchers found that tidal fresh waters of the Patuxent River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, contain particularly high concentrations of road salts. “Strong pulses” of salt ions are particularly apparent in the winter months when salt-laced solutions are used to treat icy roads.
“In some places, the road salt and the pollution from the urban areas goes far downstream into the tidal areas,” Kaushal said. “We never expected to trace these pulses of road salt from land to tidal waters or that these pulses could impact intakes for drinking water, power plants and agriculture.”
Though the Washington, D.C. region has experienced fewer snow days over the last century, it has also had more intense snowfalls over shorter time periods in recent decades. The researchers noted that urban development and continued reliance on road salts has led to increasingly severe salinity spikes in many local streams and rivers, including the Potomac.
“People are tempted to say that this problem has gone away with a warming climate, but we found that this isn’t true and that salinity pulses can be amplified by weather extremes,” Kaushal said. “I think a big contribution of our paper is recognizing the role of climate variability and how that can increase salt coming from pollution on land as well as saltwater intrusion.”
Kaushal explained that salinization can be an added stressor for waterways that are already experiencing issues like eutrophication — an overload of nutrients that can trigger harmful algal blooms, which can deplete oxygen in the water and hurt fish and other aquatic animals. Kaushal and his co-authors noted that more research is needed to predict how climate change will affect the spread and severity of these types of chain reactions along streams, rivers and tidal waters.
Despite the unknowns, Kaushal said many of the effects of salinization can be predicted and prevented. His team’s latest research proposes a risk management framework designed to pinpoint where and when salinization might occur along a particular waterway.
“There’s no comprehensive guidance document that explains all the risks and where they would occur from fresh water to marine water, so I think our paper is a first step in that direction,” Kaushal said. “Even though we have shown that there are global changes in salinization, each river or estuary has its own set of unique risks, so our framework can help anticipate emerging risks faced by headwater streams all the way down to tidal waters that will affect our water, energy sources and food.”
Kaushal hopes their framework will be used by those who oversee rivers, estuaries and drinking water supplies because freshwater salinization is an issue that affects fundamental human needs like drinking water.
“We don’t have plans to deal with salt,” Kaushal said. “Regional salinity management plans and guidance documents and risk assessments for rivers around the world that are based on our framework — that’s what I’d like to see come out of our study.”
Journal Reference:
Kaushal, S.S., Shelton, S.A., Mayer, P.M. et al., ‘Freshwater faces a warmer and saltier future from headwaters to coasts: climate risks, saltwater intrusion, and biogeochemical chain reactions’, Biogeochemistry 168, 31 (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s10533-025-01219-6
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by University of Maryland
New study shows how climate change affects rain and floods
Climate change may lead to more precipitation and more intense floods. A new study shows that to understand the details of this relationship, it is important to distinguish between different types of rainfall and flood events – namely, between short-term events that occur on a time scale of hours, and longer-term events that last several days. In each case, climate change has a different impact.
An Austrian research team has now shown for the first time that short-term precipitation and flood events on the scale of a few hours are particularly affected by the temperature increase caused by climate change. For events on a longer time scale, the relationship is more complicated.
This finding was made using detailed data collected in Austria over more than a century – but it can also be applied to other regions of the world. It also allows conclusions to be drawn about which regions will experience changes in the probability of flooding, and how they will be affected.
The results have now been published in the journal Nature.
Excellent data
Climate change is affecting water cycles all over the world. A look at Austria is particularly revealing: “We are in the very fortunate situation of having excellent data available,” says Prof. Günter Blöschl of TU Wien (Vienna), who led the research project. Since 1900, precipitation in Austria has been recorded by two separate institutions: by the meteorological service, now Geosphere Austria, and by the Austrian Hydrography, which is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture. The Austrian data are therefore particularly reliable and can be used to make forecasts for other countries.
These data sets have now been analysed in a cooperation of TU Wien, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BML), GeoSphere Austria and the University of Graz.
Significantly more frequent precipitation events on short timescales
The analysis showed that short-term precipitation events lasting only a few hours have increased significantly in the last 30-40 years – by about 15%. “This had already been predicted by climate models, albeit with uncertainties. We have now been able to confirm it,” says Günter Blöschl.
The increase was equally strong on both sides of the Alps – this is an important result, as these are two different regions in climatological terms. “This clearly shows that large-scale weather systems are not the decisive factor for these short-term precipitation events, because they would be different near the Mediterranean than north of the main Alpine ridge,” says Blöschl.
“Instead, the temperature increase caused by climate change leads to more intense precipitation locally. This is partly because warmer air can hold more moisture, but also because there is more energy in the system, and stronger warming at ground level leads to stronger upward movement of air masses. Then they also cool down faster, which leads to more rain.”
A more complicated picture on a longer time scale
This is a universal phenomenon: other regions are affected by this mechanism in much the same way as Austria. However, if longer-term rainfall events lasting several days are analyzed, a different picture emerges. In that case, global weather phenomena such as El Niño, a climate process influenced by ocean temperatures, play a much more decisive role.
Rainfall events on this timescale are therefore not changing everywhere in the same way. In the Mediterranean, in some regions of Italy, Spain and Greece, long periods of precipitation may even become rarer as a result of climate change.
This difference between short and medium-term rainfall events also means that different regions are affected quite differently by floods.
“Smaller rivers with smaller catchment areas are strongly influenced by short-term intense rainfall. The risk of short-term flooding is therefore much higher in areas close to such rivers,” explains Günter Blöschl. The situation is different for larger rivers like the Danube. They are less influenced by local precipitation on an hourly scale; here, weather events on a daily scale play a more important role, causing floods to increase or change little depending on the hydro-climatic situation.
The data collected in Austria thus clearly show that different types of rainfall and flood events are definitely influenced by climate change – but not always in the same way. If you want to assess the risk of flooding correctly, you have to distinguish between different time scales.
Journal Reference:
Haslinger, K., Breinl, K., Pavlin, L. et al., ‘Increasing hourly heavy rainfall in Austria reflected in flood changes’, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08647-2
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by Vienna University of Technology
Featured image credit: Gerd Altmann | Pixabay
