Technology

IT MIGHT not turn the oil industry

green, but it would be a start.

A catalyst that allows waste gas to

be easily converted into a useful

chemical could cut the industry’s

carbon dioxide emissions.

Since 2002, the World Bank has

been urging oil firms to stop “gas

flaring” – burning the methane

that sits above oil deposits. Yet

economic ways to exploit the gas

have been elusive. Now Johannes

Lercher and colleagues at the

Technical University of Munich

in Germany have found that

lanthanum chlorides catalyse

a reaction between methane,

hydrogen chloride and oxygen.

This produces methyl chloride,

a key plastics-industry chemical.

Oil firms could produce the

material as a by-product and sell

it, they suggest (Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI:

10.1021/ja066913w).

LANE markings on roads could

one day be changed at the click

of a mouse.

Dutch electronics firm Philips

last week filed a patent on a

hard-wearing version of the

electronic ink used in emerging

flexible displays for e-books (US

2007/0041785). Instead of painted

white lines, ultrathin plastic strips

would be attached to road

billion dollars. Damages Microsoft was last week ordered to pay Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over the MP3 format

Would you consider rubbing used oil

from a deep-fat fryer into your face?

Oil from restaurant kitchens may

soon be recycled into products ranging

from cosmetics and soaps to industrial

surfactants used to clean up oil spills.

Researchers at Dowling College in

Oakdale, New York, found that used

vegetable oil can be fermented with

the yeast Candida bombicola to produce

“biosurfactants”.

Surfactants play a key role in

products as diverse as detergents and

pesticides. The yeast process creates

biodegradable surfactants called

sophorolipids, which are often used

in skin and hair products. Normally,

though, these surfactants are made

from petroleum, are not biodegradable

and can interfere with the life cycles

of some aquatic organisms.

Waste cooking oil is a great

untapped resource, says lead researcher

Vishal Shah. Restaurants and hotels

in the US alone produce more than

11 billion litres of the stuff each year,

the majority of which is disposed of

as sewage or in landfill sites. “We are

turning an environmentally harmful

waste product into something that is

both safe and useful,” says Shah.

The prospect of turning waste

cooking oil into biosurfactants has

been investigated before, but Shah

and colleagues have demonstrated

the feasibility of the process by

showing it can be done cheaply in

commercial fermenters (Biotechnology Progress, DOI: 10.1021/bp0602909).

Biosurfactants could net as much as

$20 per litre when used in cosmetics,

says Shah.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN…

surfaces. Electric fields applied

to the display attract coloured,

charged particles to the surface –

making them visible to motorists .

This would allow lane

markings or speed limits to be

changed at will. “Two lanes on a

road can then be changed into

three when the need arises during

the rush hour,” Philips says.

Likewise, three lanes could

become two in bad weather.

The displays only draw current

when they change, so they use

very little power.

Google has launched a fresh attack on Microsoft’s dominance. Last week, the search

giant released online software geared to the corporate market. While consumers

already use free versions of the applications, which include email, instant messaging,

word processing and spreadsheets, the $50 Google Apps Premier Edition can be

integrated with businesses’ own systems, enabling remote, web-based access.

When a passenger jet depressurises at altitude, the lack of oxygen can sometimes

make the crew pass out before they realise what is happening. Now Boeing has filed

a patent (US 2007/0043482) on an emergency descent system that automatically brings

an aircraft down to an altitude where there is enough oxygen to revive the crew,

by linking an air-pressure sensor to the autopilot.

GIZMO

Antenna 4.0 mm square

Actual size

Chip 0.05 mm square

Pinhead

SHRINKING ID TAGHitachi has built the world’s smallest wireless

tag, but it needs an antenna 6000 times its size

Andrew Brookes of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, on the US ballistic missile defence shield. The British government confirmed last week it

has asked the US administration to consider the UK as a possible site from which to launch its missile interceptors (The Guardian, London, 24 February)

“They are spending $18 billion a year on it and not getting it right”

–…into a pot of face cream–

GARY

HOU

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/COR

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ASHI

NGTO

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STSO

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: BBC

ONL

INE

Gas flares go

out of fashion

Now you see it,

now you don’t

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