Future generations: NSF-funded project explores how nanoplastics are transmitted to offspring

Smaller than a human hair, these tiny plastic particles are widespread in the environment

Binghamton University

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Nanoplastics are present in drinking water, food and the air, and have been detected in both tap water and bottled water.

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Credit: "water bottle" by Muffet is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

You can’t see nanoplastics with the naked eye, but they’re everywhere — including your body.

Tinier than the better-known microplastics, these plastic particles range from one nanometer to one micrometer in size; a human hair, by comparison, is about 100 micrometers thick.

“Nanoplastics are present in drinking water, food and the air, and have been detected in both tap water and bottled water,” explained Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Huiyuan Guo. “They are widely detected in the environment.”

Guo and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Anthony Fiumera recently received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate how nanoplastics pass from mothers to their offspring. The interdisciplinary project will create special trackable versions of these particles to see exactly how they move through organisms and understand why they cause harm that can last for generations.

The researchers will use Daphnia magna, a tiny species of freshwater crustacean commonly called water fleas, as the animal model. Daphnia, which have transparent bodies, reproduce quickly and are sensitive to environmental stress; they are often used as an indicator species in environmental toxicity testing, Fiumera explained.

“They’re actually a great model to study transgenerational or epigenetic inheritance,” he added. “They’re also surprisingly similar to humans in the way in which that works.”

Research has already demonstrated that nanoplastics can affect aquatic species such as daphnia, affecting their survival and reproductive capacities; other research has investigated potential toxicity on a molecular level. However, this research typically focuses on a single generation or short-term effects of toxicity, Guo said.

Water fleas are close to the bottom of the food chain, feeding on small particles such as algae. In turn, daphnia are food for fish and other animals; what affects them can thus end up affecting other species in an ecosystem’s food chain.

Detecting nanoplastics

A mother daphnia may directly transmit the tiny plastic particles to her offspring. In fact, Guo’s lab has already published research on how nanoplastics can transfer from a daphnia’s intestines to other body parts; from there, they will explore how these tiny particles may breach the biological barrier between mother and offspring.

First, however, researchers need to detect the tiny particles, a difficult feat.

“That’s why our first objective is to develop a detectable nanoplastic model,” Guo said. “We can use it to better understand how they transfer from one generation to another.”

They will use two approaches to detect the nanoplastics in daphnia: confocal surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

They will also consider how nanoparticles affect gene expression in the mother, her offspring and subsequent generations.

“It’s possible that these particles are being physically transferred, but it’s also possible that changes in gene expression are being inherited in addition to the actual nanoparticles,” Fiumera said. “That’s one of the things we’re trying to figure out: How important is the actual particle transfer versus the transfer of these epigenetic effects?”

While the grant lasts for three years, Guo and Fiumera plan to continue their work long into the future, looking at different animal models and addressing additional questions.

Here’s one. Plastics have traditionally been petroleum-based; however, recent years have seen the development and adoption of bioplastics, made from renewable biomass sources, as an eco-friendly alternative. How might the shift to bioplastics affect the environment over the long term?

“Some of these plastics are considered biodegradable. However, this biodegradability also means they are more likely to become smaller particles like nanoplastics,” Guo said. “How do you know which one is safer?”

To answer that question, the researchers will compare the different types of nanoplastics to see which are more toxic and which are more easily transmitted to future generations.

Future generations are also a focus in a different way: A community outreach component seeks to foster the next generation of scientists, in collaboration with the New York State Master Teacher Program and the Go Green Institute, which provides an intensive, 10-day hands-on learning experience for middle- and high-school students.

Some high school and first-year University lab classes already study daphnia, Guo said. The researchers propose to integrate their project into an undergraduate research course at the University and pilot-test related scientific kits through the Go Green Institute summer camp. These kits can then be distributed to K-12 schools and the local community to conduct their own research into the environmental impact of plastic.

“It’s a pipeline to give an authentic research experience to as many students as we can,” Fiumera said.

Female Daphnia magna with a clutch of asexual eggs. The animal is about 4 mm long.

Credit

Dieter Ebert, Basel, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Oil Giants Bet Big On European LNG Trading Strategies

By Irina Slav - Sep 21, 2025

• U.S. oil giants Exxon and Chevron are significantly expanding their liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading operations, a segment previously dominated by European counterparts.
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• This strategic shift is driven by forecasts of surging global LNG demand, especially in Asia, and the recognition that diversified trading is crucial for long-term success.
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• The increased involvement of U.S. supermajors is expected to boost competition among suppliers, potentially leading to better prices for LNG consumers worldwide.
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Most of the media coverage of Big Oil majors tends to draw comparisons between the European companies and their U.S. peers, almost invariably at the expense of the Europeans. Yet there is one sector where BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, and Eni are ahead: LNG trading. Now, Exxon and Chevron are trying to catch up.

The Financial Times reported this week that both companies were eager to expand their LNG trading operations despite previously treating this business segment as too risky to be worth the effort. “I want to scale it now. I need all the talent,” the FT quoted one company executive as saying. “Inside Exxon, they say only three things now matter: Guyana, the US and trading,” an unnamed gas trader told the publication. Not a moment too soon, either.

When Shell published the 2025 edition of its annual LNG report, the company said demand for liquefied natural gas was about to go through the roof in the coming years. By 2040, this demand was set to soar by 60%, Shell said, driven by economic growth in Asia.

“Upgraded forecasts show that the world will need more gas for power generation, heating and cooling, industry and transport to meet development and decarbonisation goals,” the head of Shell’s LNG trading division, Tom Summers said at the time.

Now, Shell is the biggest LNG trader in the world. It could be talking its book. However, it is far from the only one forecasting ever-stronger natural gas—and specifically LNG—demand. Take Europe, for instance. The majority of European countries are about to become dependent on LNG for more than two-thirds of their gas supply.

As the European Union’s leadership tries to quit all remaining Russian energy imports and replace them with U.S. energy, the share of the latter in the bloc’s total LNG imports is about to grow much closer to 100%--as long as that leadership reconsiders its strict methane emissions and supply chain due diligence legislation.

Asia, meanwhile, is living up to the name “developing economies”. Asian countries are growing, and they are certainly growing faster than, say, European ones. Indonesia, for instance, earlier this year said it would be deferring LNG cargoes for export in order to secure domestic supply and rising demand for the fuel. The country, by the way, is the sixth-largest LNG exporter in the world. As demand for liquefied gas in Asia rises, the European supermajors are ready to provide the supply.

Shell said two months ago it was going to add LNG capacity of 12 million tons by 2030. TotalEnergies plans to boost its LNG volumes under management by 50% by 2030. BP started a new LNG project earlier this year offshore Senegal and Mauritania, and plans to turn the two countries into a major LNG hub. Now, the U.S. supermajors are joining the party.

The FT reported that both Exxon and Chevron had recently appointed new heads of their LNG trading operations—both based in Asia, the demand driver. They have also started signing supply deals, to the tune of 7 million tons annually for each, according to the people that the Financial Times spoke to. This is not a whole lot, but it is just the start for Exxon and Chevron. 

“If you go back in history, you found a customer, and you signed them up for the full offtake and you had a ship that basically went backwards and forwards,” the head of Exxon’s LNG segment, Peter Clarke, told the FT. “Today it is totally different.” Indeed, today even large LNG producers such as BP and Shell are quite open to signing trading deals with other producers, such as Venture Global—even if the deal sours, as it happened with Venture Global. LNG trade is a lucrative business, and Big Oil knows how to make the best of it.

This should be good news for large LNG consumers. The more competition there is among suppliers, the better the price buyers are going to get—especially with supply set to rise in the next few years in response to the healthy pace of demand growth.

The International Energy Agency said in a report in July that demand for liquefied gas was about to accelerate next year after an anticipated overall slowdown in natural gas demand this year due to economic factors. The International Gas Union, however, sees demand for natural gas this year remaining stable and rising, at a rate of 1.7%, compared with an estimated 1.5% increase a year ago. The IGU said in its annual report, published earlier this month, that “Observed trends suggest global energy demand is expected to follow an upward trajectory over the next decade, especially leading up to 2030.”

Exxon and Chevron are already among the largest gas—and LNG—producers in the world. However, as the head of one Swiss gas producer and trader told the FT, “If you are only in one segment, you have two, three good years and then a terrible year.” “If you want to be successful in LNG, you need to be everywhere,” Benjamin Lakatos, chairman of MET Group also said.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com 

Trump Calls on World Bank To Reconsider Oil and Gas Financing

By Michael Kern - Sep 22, 2025

• The Trump Administration is advocating for the World Bank to increase its financing for oil and gas projects, a reversal of its previous policy to cease funding new fossil fuel ventures after 2019.
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• This push prioritizes energy security, especially for upstream gas developments, and also extends to other development banks to finance fossil fuel projects.
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• The article notes a trend of North American banks and asset managers withdrawing from net-zero alliances following President Trump's election, indicating a shift away from climate-focused lending in some sectors.

The Trump Administration is pushing the World Bank to boost funding for oil and gas in what would be a U-turn in the lender’s policy not to finance new fossil fuel projects.

Back in 2017, the World Bank Group said it would no longer finance upstream oil and gas after 2019. But the group noted that “In exceptional circumstances, consideration will be given to financing upstream gas in the poorest countries where there is a clear benefit in terms of energy access for the poor and the project fits within the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments.”  

The U.S. Administration is now pushing for more developments, especially upstream gas, prioritizing energy security to any concerns about climate change, development officials have told the Financial Times.

The U.S. is also pushing other development banks to finance fossil fuels, including gas pipeline projects, according to FT’s sources. 

In recent years, the World Bank and many commercial banks have backed out of lending money to some fossil fuels, including coal, oil sands, and Arctic oil and gas. Banks were under intense shareholder and stakeholder pressure to cut their exposure to fossil fuels and align their lending portfolios to the Paris Agreement goals. 

But the tables have turned with the U.S. Administration strongly promoting fossil fuels and America’s dominance in oil and gas exports. 

“An all-of-the-above energy strategy that provides for the financing of upstream gas would be a positive step towards reconnecting the World Bank, and all other multilateral development banks, to their core missions of economic growth and poverty reduction,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury Department told FT. 

After years of scrutiny and blacklisting from Republican states in the U.S. and lawsuits from Republican attorney generals, North American banks and asset managers began quitting net-zero alliances en masse following President Trump’s election victory. 

The top U.S. banks and four of Canada’s largest banks are no longer part of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a group of leading global banks committed to aligning their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

SCI-FI-TEK

China Is Desperate to Dominate Nuclear Fusion

By ZeroHedge - Sep 22, 2025

• China has invested up to $13 billion in fusion energy since 2023, aiming for commercial power by 2030.
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• U.S. lawmakers and scientists warn that Chinese dominance in fusion could reshape global geopolitics.
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• Experts call for a $10 billion federal funding boost and stronger public-private partnerships to keep America competitive.
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China has spent up to $13 billion developing fusion energy since 2023 and could commercially replicate star power to generate electricity by 2030, becoming the first nation to master what’s commonly dubbed “the holy grail of energy solutions.”

Doing so would give the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “the potential to reshape global geopolitics” and “dominate a new energy era,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicists warn.

This cannot happen, said Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), who chairs the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Energy Subcommittee.

“Fusion energy technologies must be developed and deployed by nations that uphold democratic values, transparency, and international cooperation—not by authoritarian regimes that might exploit energy dominance as a weapon,” he said in opening remarks of a Sept. 18 hearing on the nation’s fusion programs.

“The U.S. must prioritize fusion energy development to outpace the CCP’s aggressive timelines,” Weber added, or China will dominate “the most consequential breakthrough of the century.”

Four fusion experts told the subcommittee during the two-hour hearing that the CCP doesn’t have to win what they see as an existential race, calling on the Trump administration to boost funding to match China’s investment, coordinate research and development with allies, and establish fusion demonstration programs using the same “playbook” that spearheaded breakthroughs in other technologies.

Unlike fission, nuclear fusion replicates the reaction produced by firing atoms, which is the power emitted by stars, and has the potential to provide limitless, clean energy. It is often referred to as “the holy grail of energy solutions.”

Fusion has been researched by academic institutions and government laboratories since the 1950s, with significant breakthroughs in 2022—including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility completing a nuclear fusion reaction that produced more energy than used to power the experiment—spurring rapid, exponential advancements since.

“This is our ‘Kitty Hawk’ moment, ushering in a new era of virtually unlimited fusion power,” Commonwealth Fusion Systems Co-Founder/CEO Bob Mumgaard said, calling for a $10 billion one-time “kick” in Department of Energy (DOE) funding.

A rendering of Pacific Fusion’s Demonstration System, which the company maintains will achieve “net facility gain”—or more energy produced than consumed in a reaction—by 2030. Pacific Fusion illustration provided for congressional testimony on Sept. 18, 2025

‘Decisive Moment Is Upon Us’

Mumgaard, whose company aims to build a small fusion power plant with an ARC tokamak design by the early 2030s, said the nation’s fusion industry has grown from 23 companies that raised $1.78 billion in private capital in 2021 to 53 companies that raised $10.6 billion in 2024.

But now these burgeoning enterprises need to test experimental fusion reactors in a limited-risk environment, which is where DOE and federal funding could make the difference, he said.

Mumgaard said in his testimony that a fusion demonstration program similar to DOE’s advanced fission reactor program would “accelerate deployment of at least three different fusion power plant approaches, with construction starting by the end of 2028 and entering operation by the early 2030s.”

He called for “milestone-based, cost-shared funding that awards only those who show substantial progress toward the goal” with “selection of participants based not just on scientific merit, but also by requiring a clear path to commercial and business success.”

“I agree this $10 billion injection would go a long way to setting us on the course,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fusion Energy Division Director Troy Carter concurred.

“The decisive moment is upon us,” he testified. “With deliberate action now—by supporting new facilities, public-private partnerships, and sustained innovation—we can ensure the U.S. leads in bringing fusion energy from scientific promise to commercial reality.”

“The U.S. fusion industry is on the cusp of commercialization,” Pacific Fusion founder and President Will Regan said in his testimony. “America wrote the playbook on investing in fundamental scientific breakthroughs and then scaling their industrial application through the private sector. Fusion is no different, and today we’re at the last mile of solving key scientific challenges to enabling commercial deployment.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said, while “very much opposed overall” to the fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget crafted by President Donald Trump, “I would like to say when it comes to his specific request for fusion, it’s moving in the right direction, and I am glad for that.”

DOE’s FY26 budget request provides $7.1 billion for the Office of Science, which includes fusion research and explicitly directs Congress to allocate in a way that “maintains U.S. competitiveness in priority areas such as fusion.”

“I’m hoping we’ll continue to work on a bipartisan basis to get to where we need to go,” Lofgren said. “Like Wayne Gretzky said, ‘You need to skate to where the hockey puck is going to be.’”

“In a world increasingly concerned with how to address rapidly growing energy needs, as well as geopolitical tensions arising from access to energy and energy resources, fusion energy gives us hope,” University of Wisconsin assistant professor Stephanie Diem testified. “We have achieved remarkable scientific advances; now we need robust support to build a thriving fusion energy ecosystem.”

By Zerohedge

 

Irish Tycoon Proposes Major UK Gas Storage Expansion

By City A.M - Sep 22, 2025

• Tony O’Reilly Jr’s Dcarbonx proposes an £830m gas storage site in the Irish Sea, aiming to increase the UK’s gas storage capacity by over 50 percent.
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• The project seeks to enhance the UK’s energy security by insulating it from global gas market volatility and the intermittency of renewables.
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• The proposal introduces new competition to Centrica, which operates the majority of the UK’s current gas storage, and precedes a government consultation on gas system resilience.

An Irish energy tycoon has revealed plans to build a new gas storage site in the Irish Sea that would boost the UK’s capacity by over 50 per cent.

Tony O’Reilly Jr’s Dcarbonx, which is backed by gas infrastructure behemoth Snam, wants to redevelop a former gas site off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness as part of an £830m megaproject that it claims would address the “mounting national security risk”.

O’Reilly, who is the son of the billionaire former Heinz boss of the same name, said the project would help insulate the UK’s grid from the intermittency of renewables and sudden fluctuations in natural gas prices.

“Without domestic gas storage, the UK is exposed to global gas market volatility, especially during winter,” he said. “The question isn’t whether we need more storage, it’s whether we’re serious about building it.”

The announcement precedes an expected government consultation on Britain’s ‘gas system resilience’, which will seek to examine the country’s storage requirements with natural gas likely to remain an integral part of the UK’s energy mix.

It provided 29 per cent of the UK’s energy demand in 2024, a slight reduction from its recent peak of 38 per cent in 2022.

UK has lowest gas storage capacity in G7

City AM understands the proposal will seek views on whether the government should help prop up gas storage projects, which tend to incur vast upkeep costs.

But according to Dcarbonx, Britain can currently only stockpile 12 days’ worth of average winter gas demand, the lowest gas storage capacity of any G7 economy despite our outsized reliance on the fuel. The average across other major European countries is 90 days.

The firm’s proposed North Sea facility, which was run by British Gas as a extraction site before being decommissioned 2018, would be capable of storing 1.4bn cubic metres of gas, roughly enough to meet an extra six days of average demand, it said.

O’Reilly added: “The UK doesn’t just have a market gap – it has a strategic risk.

“Gas is no longer just a commodity; it is the key transition fuel and an insurance policy for stable growth.”

Dcarbonx, which specialises in gas and hydrogen energy storage, said the site could be operational within five years, subject to regulatory approval and investor appetite.

The proposal has also teed up a fresh bout of competition between O’Reilly’s little-known British-Irish group and British Gas-owner Centrica, which operates the Rough storage site off the North Sea coast.

The site, which the London-listed energy provider recommissioned in the wake of the 2022 energy shock, provides the majority of the UK’s gas storage.

But Centrica expects its Rough site to shoulder an adjusted operating loss of between £50m and £100m this year, a figure which boss Chris O’Shea has branded unsustainable without government support.

O’Reilly told The Times that Dcarbonx’s proposal was a “totally different economic proposition” to the Centrica-run facility.

A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which would have to approve the proposal, said: ““Our clean power mission is about improving our long-term national energy security by replacing our dependence on fossil fuel markets with clean homegrown power that we control.

“Our varied sources of gas supply means that the UK is less reliant on gas storage than some other European countries, but we remain open to discussing proposals on gas storage sites, as long as it provides value for money for taxpayers.”

By City AM

 

Coal Demand Rebounds Across Asia Ahead of Winter

By Irina Slav - Sep 23, 2025

Thermal coal imports into Asia reversed a nine-month losing streak last month, rising to the highest in almost a year, Reuters’ Gavin Maguire reported, noting the rise could extend over the coming winter months.

Citing data from commodity analytics provider Kpler, Maguire reported that thermal coal imports in Asia jumped to 85.34 million tons last month, up by 6.4 million tons from July and the first monthly amount exceeding 81 million tons since December 2024.

The increase was driven by coal production curbs in China aiming to ease domestic oversupply, which drove output down 3% in August. A rebound in industrial activity across East Asia also contributed to the uptick in coal imports last month. The biggest coal buyers in Asia in August were China, South Korea, and Japan. Going forward, coal demand strength will be supported by demand for heating unless, of course, the Asia winter turns out milder than usual.

The news comes on the back of reports about a rebound in international coal prices, thanks to stronger demand from China, published earlier this month. The prices of key seaborne thermal coal grades rebounded in September from four-year lows in June and July amid the strengthening of demand and China’s production decline.

After months of falling coal imports earlier this year, with July arrivals down by 23% from a year earlier, China’s coal imports strengthened in August and are set to remain at high levels in September, too. China is on track to import 27.41 million metric tons of seaborne thermal coal this month, per Kpler data.

The latest developments in coal suggest this will not be the first year when global coal demand experiences a comprehensive annual decline, as some observers had hoped. The Reuters report coincides with news out of the IEA, which expects electricity demand in Southeast Asia to boom in the coming years, doubling from current levels to 2050.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com