Illinois study: Systematic review of agricultural injuries can help inform safety measures

Agricultural Injury Surveillance in the United States and Canada: A Systematic Literature Review

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

 

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS RESEARCHERS REVIEWED U.S. AND GLOBAL LITERATURE ON AGRICULTURAL INJURIES, HELPING TO INFORM SAFETY EDUCATION AND POLICIES.

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CREDIT: COLLEGE OF ACES

URBANA, Ill. – Agricultural occupations are  hazardous with one of the highest rates of workplace injuries and fatalities in the U.S. The manual and often strenuous nature of the work, combined with the use of machinery and exposure to environmental hazards create a challenging work environment. Understanding the nature and causes of injuries can help improve safety guidelines and policy measures. However, obtaining a comprehensive overview of injuries is hindered by the absence of a central reporting system. Two new papers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign provide a systematic review of academic literature on agricultural injuries in the U.S. and globally.

“When it comes to agriculture, there's no single source for injury data. In other occupations, work injuries in the U.S. must be reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), but farm work is often exempt from these requirements because many farms are small and have less than 10 full-time employees,” said Salah Issa, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) and an Illinois Extension specialist; both units are part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois. ABE is also part of The Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois.

“There have been a lot of grassroots efforts to track surveillance data, but they are based on different methods so it’s hard to get a complete look at agricultural injuries. Our work combines results into one large dataset, providing a comprehensive overview of previous research,” Issa explained.

In the first study, the researchers conducted a systematic literature review of 48 academic papers published in the U.S. and Canada from 1985 to 2022.

“We identified five different surveillance methods: newspaper clippings, surveys, death certificates, hospital records and emergency medical services (EMS) data, and multiple sources,” said Sihan Li, a doctoral student in ABE and lead author on the first paper. 

The researchers also analyzed and categorized information such as the type and source of injury, the event leading up to it, and the gender of the victim.

Overall, vehicles (including tractors and ATVs) were the most common source of injury, with over 55,000 incidents reported, as well as the leading source of fatalities. Other significant causes of injury included machinery, slips and trips, animals, chemicals, and tools. Men were more than twice as likely as women to be victims of injury. Age varied by surveillance method, with newspaper clippings skewed to younger victims (22% of incidents) and death certificates skewed to older victims (30% over 65).

In the second study, the researchers reviewed 69 articles from 17 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia, including the U.S., Canada, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Austria, Italy, and others. 

The main data sources identified in these studies were hospital records, followed by surveys, government records (including death certificates), insurance claims, and multiple sources.

“For the global perspective, we narrowed our scope to focus primarily on machine-related injuries, which involves tractors and farm equipment,” said Mian Muhammad Sajid Raza, a doctoral student in ABE and lead author on the second paper.

The researchers found that tractors stand out as the leading cause of fatal incidents, with tractor overturns accounting for 45% of all machinery-related incidents in North America. Furthermore, injuries linked overall to agricultural machinery significantly contribute to both fatal and non-fatal incidents.

“It is also interesting to look at other sources of injury. In North America and Europe, animals are the cause of less than 3% of all injuries. But in Asia, animals represent 7% of the total injuries and 35% of the fatalities. This is likely because farming is less automated and animals are still used extensively in some Asian countries,” Raza said. 

The research shows agriculture is a dangerous occupation globally, with injuries reported in at least three continents. Overall trends are as expected, with vehicles and machinery playing a large role in injuries and fatalities, Issa noted.

“One of our most important findings is that the way you conduct injury surveillance will have an impact on your results,” he said. “For example, if you use newspaper clippings, your findings will skew towards a younger age group. The discrepancies are so large it’s clearly worth evaluating the type of surveillance methods employed, and it’s important to use multiple sources to get a good picture of what’s going on.”

Understanding the nature and source of injuries is important for developing educational programs and interventions, Issa concluded.  

Both papers, “Agricultural Injury Surveillance in the United States and Canada: A Systematic Literature Review’ [DOI: 10.1080/1059924X.2024.2304699] and “Global Patterns of Agricultural Machine and Equipment Injuries- A Systematic Literature Review” [DOI: 10.1080/1059924X.2024.2304704] are published in the Journal of Agromedicine.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Agromedicine

DOI

10.1080/1059924X.2024.2304699 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

ARTICLE TITLE

Agricultural Injury Surveillance in the United States and Canada: A Systematic Literature Review

 

Product that kills agricultural pests also deadly to native Pacific Northwest snail

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A product used to control pest slugs on farms in multiple countries is deadly to least one type of native woodland snail endemic to the Pacific Northwest, according to scientists who say more study is needed before the product gains approval in the United States.

Dee Denver of the Oregon State University College of Science led a 10-week laboratory project that showed the effect of a biotool marketed as Nemaslug on the Pacific sideband snail. The study was published today in PLOS One.

Nemaslug is based on the organism Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita, a species of tiny, parasitic worm known as a nematode.

The speed of the Pacific sidebands’ demise depended on the concentration of Nemaslug exposure and the size and maturity of the snails, but by the end of the study all 90 were dead, whereas all 30 snails in a control group were still alive.

“This finding is a big deal because there are strong efforts to bring this commercialized nematode to U.S. markets to control invasive pests, such as the gray field slug, that cause damage to a variety of agricultural crops,” said Denver, who heads OSU’s Department of Integrated Biology and directs the university’s School of Life Sciences.

“Our research is the first to demonstrate that these nematodes infect and kill a non-target gastropod species in the Northwest, which due to its rainy climate is a land slug and snail biodiversity hotspot.”

If P. hermaphrodita were sold and released in Oregon and similar environments, Denver said, there is “strong potential” that the nematodes would infect and kill a range of non-target native species including the iconic Pacific banana slug, dealing a blow to biodiversity and creating other negative ecosystem impacts.

Before Nemaslug is made available in the United States, more research is needed to investigate the effects it might have on non-pest slugs and snails, including research in conditions that mimic those species’ natural environments, he added.

Presently, Nemaslug is sold in Canada, Kenya and the United Kingdom and throughout the European Union.

For it to be made available in the U.S., Denver said, it would need both the approval of the federal Department of Agriculture as well as the sign-off of regulators in individual states where it was distributed.

The nematodes sold as Nemaslug work by entering small openings in the bodies of host slugs and fatally infecting them. The nematodes then reproduce inside the dead host and disperse in search of new hosts.

Denver and his co-authors – biologists and crop and soil scientists at OSU – note that the history of biocontrol of agricultural pests is somewhat checkered, in part because unintended consequences for non-target species remain understudied and hard to predict.

One biocontrol effort involving the introduction of a non-native snail, they point out, led to the extinction of hundreds of native snail species on Hawai’i and other Pacific islands.

“Terrestrial slugs and snails make up more than one-third of the total documented animal species extinctions since the year 1500,” Denver said. “Beyond factors like rising global temperatures and habitat loss, gastropods have historically suffered greatly from poorly designed and executed biocontrol attempts.”

Collaborating on this research were Dana Howe of the Department of Integrative Biology and Andrew Colton, Casey Richart and Rory McDonnell of the Department of Crop and Soil Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

In 2018, a paper by some of the same collaborators described the first report of P. hermaphrodita in Oregon, and last year, another paper was the first report of a similar nematode, P. californica, in Washington state.

P. californica, discovered in 2013 as a species new to science, is sold in England, Scotland and Wales as Nemaslug 2.0; Denver and McDonnell found P. californica in Oregon for the first time during a 2018-19 nematode survey.

How widespread either species is in the Northwest has not been determined, Denver said.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0298165 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

The biocontrol nematode Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita infects and increases mortality of Monadenia fidelis, a non-target terrestrial gastropod species endemic to the Pacific Northwest of North America, in laboratory conditions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Mar-2024

 

Forest, stream habitats keep energy exchanges in balance, global team finds

PENN STATE

 

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SYCAMORE CREEK FLOWS THROUGH AN ARID LANDSCAPE IN ARIZONA. IT WAS ONE OF THE STREAMS INCLUDED IN THE STUDY ON HOW STREAMS AND FORESTS EXCHANGE ENERGY. 

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CREDIT: DANIEL ALLEN/PENN STATE

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Forests and streams are separate but linked ecosystems, existing side by side, with energy and nutrients crossing their porous borders and flowing back and forth between them. For example, leaves fall from trees, enter streams, decay and feed aquatic insects. Those insects emerge from the waters and are eaten by birds and bats. An international team led by Penn State researchers has now found that these ecosystems appear to keep the energy exchanges in balance — a finding that the scientists called surprising.

Scientists around the world who have conducted research on the exchange of energy, materials and organisms between these connected ecosystems have come to call the phenomenon “allochthony” — meaning the consumption of resources by organisms residing in one ecosystem, when that energy was produced in another ecosystem. The balance between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems has been difficult to gauge and poorly understood at a global scale because it depends on an uneven flow of energy and nutrients that fluctuates across seasons and across different climates.

But findings of a new study recently published in Ecology Letters sheds new light on the relationship between forests and streams. The researchers, who analyzed data from 149 studies of coupled forest-stream ecosystems around the world, found that aquatic and terrestrial organisms consume the same amount of energy that comes from the opposite ecosystem.

“This was a really interesting and unexpected result because we know that there’s way more energy flowing into streams in the form of leaves that fall from trees than what comes out in the form of emergent aquatic insects,” said the study’s lead author Daniel Allen, assistant professor of aquatic ecology, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. “But the quality of the resources is vastly different, because the aquatic insects that emerge from streams are very nutritious.” 

The researchers also found that consumer allochthony varies with feeding traits for aquatic invertebrates, fish and terrestrial arthropods — such as insects, beetles and spiders — but not for terrestrial vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Finally, they reported that allochthony is nearly twice as great in arid climates than tropical ones for aquatic invertebrates, but remains steady for fish across varied climates.

“Most people don’t think about streams and forests being interrelated, but the organisms those habitats support are dependent on energy and resources that come from outside their ecosystem,” Allen said. “This phenomenon is true around the world, and this study is important because we collected data across the planet, to look at how this fundamental process varies in different climates, seasons and from over 700 different stream and riparian species.”

Contributing to the research at Penn State were postdoctoral scholar Veronica Saenz, graduate student Kierstyn Higgins and recently graduated master’s degree student Alice Belskis, all in ecosystem science and management. Also contributing to the research were: James Larson, U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center; Christina Murphy, U.S. Geological Survey, Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; Erica Garcia, Charles Darwin University, Australia; Kurt Anderson, University of California, Riverside; Michelle Busch, University of Kansas; Alba Argerich, University of Missouri; Brooke Penaluna, PNW Research Station, U.S. Forest Service; Jay Jones, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; and Matt Whiles, University of Florida.

The U.S. National Science Foundation supported this research.

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JOURNAL

Ecology Letters

DOI

10.1111/ele.14401 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Global patterns of allochthony in stream–riparian meta-ecosystems

 

Novel method to measure root depth may lead to more resilient crops

New approach could lead to faster breeding of plants better able to withstand drought, acquire nitrogen and store carbon deeper in soil

PENN STATE

 

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ALTHOUGH THIS METHOD OF IDENTIFYING DEEP-ROOTING PLANTS WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH CORN, SHOWN HERE ON A CLOUDY SUMMER MORNING GROWING AT PENN STATE'S RUSSELL E. LARSON AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER, IT CAN BE USED WITH ALL PLANTS, THE RESEARCHERS SAID. 

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CREDIT: PENN STATE

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As climate change worsens global drought conditions, hindering crop production, the search for ways to capture and store atmospheric carbon causing the phenomenon has intensified. Penn State researchers have developed a new high-tech tool that could spur changes in how crops withstand drought, acquire nitrogen and store carbon deeper in soil.

In findings published in the January issue of Crop Science, they describe a process in which the depth of plant roots can be accurately estimated by scanning leaves with X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, a process that detects chemical elements in the foliage. The method recognizes that roots take up elements they encounter, depending on the depth they reach, and a correlation exists between chemical elements in the leaves and root depth.

The new technology is the subject of a provisional patent application by Penn State, because it promises to speed up the plant-breeding process, according to research team leader Jonathan Lynch, distinguished professor of plant science in the College of Agricultural Sciences. The ability to measure the depth of plant roots without excavating them is a game-changing technology, he said.

“We've known about the benefits of deeper rooting crops for a long time — they are more drought tolerant and have an enhanced ability to take up nitrogen, which tends to move deep with water — but the problem has been how to measure root depth in the field,” he said. “To breed deeper-rooted crops, you need to look at thousands of plants. Digging them up is expensive and time consuming because some of those roots are down two meters or more. Everybody wants deep-rooted crops — but until now, we didn’t know how to get them.”

An added benefit to deeper-rooting crops, Lynch noted, is that they store carbon in the soil more effectively. And soil is the right place to put carbon, he pointed out, because carbon in the atmosphere is a bad thing — it causes global warming. Carbon in the soil is a good thing — it boosts fertility.

“Having deeper roots means that carbon the plants get from photosynthesis is stored down deeper in the soil when they build roots. And the deeper carbon is put in the soil, the longer it stays in the soil,” he said. “The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that just having deep-rooted crops in America alone could offset years of our total carbon emissions. That’s huge — think about all the acres growing crops in America. If those roots grow just a little bit deeper, then we’re storing massive amounts of carbon deeper in the soil.”

Developing the new method — which the researchers called LEADER (Leaf Element Accumulation from DEep Root) — took six years and involved the collection and analysis of more than 2,000 soil core samples at four research sites across the country, noted Molly Hanlon, a former postdoctoral scholar in Lynch’s research group, who spearheaded the study.

It involved growing a set of 30 genetically distinct lines of corn at Penn State’s Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center, the University of Colorado’s Agricultural Research and Education Center, the University of Wisconsin Arlington Agricultural Research Station, and the University of Wisconsin Hancock Agricultural Research Station. The researchers found that they could correctly classify the plots with the longest deep root lengths — deeper than 30 or 40 centimeters — using the LEADER method with high accuracy.

A major tenet of soil science is that biological, physical and chemical properties vary with soil depth, explained Hanlon, now a senior research scientist with Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis.

“And plant roots grow through these different soil layers,” she said. “The elements are then transported to the shoot where we can quickly and easily assay the elemental content of leaf tissue using X-ray fluorescence. In this way, the leaves can serve as indicators or sensors of where the roots are in the soil.”

In the study, the researchers were able to accurately estimate root depth by analyzing the foliar accumulation of elements naturally occurring in diverse soils. As an alternative method for assessing root depth, in both field and greenhouse experiments, they injected strontium into the soil at a set depth as a tracer for LEADER analysis. Later, they harvested plants growing nearby and determined that strontium detected in the leaves strongly correlated to the depth of their roots.

Although the LEADER method was accomplished with corn, it offers a wider application, Lynch suggested.

“It shows promise as a tool for measuring root depth in different plant species and soils,” he said. “It made sense to do this research with corn — it’s one of the world’s most important crops, grown extensively as a staple food for humans, livestock feed, as a biofuel and as a starting material in industry. Deeper-rooted corn crops able take up more water and nitrogen under limiting conditions, with increased long-term soil carbon storage would be a major development. But this LEADER method can be used with all plants.”

Kathleen Brown, Penn State professor emeritus of plant stress biology, contributed to the research.

This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-e and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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JOURNAL

Crop Science

DOI

10.1002/csc2.21149 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

LEADER (Leaf Element Accumulation from DEep Roots): A nondestructive phenotyping platform to estimate rooting depth in the field

Research team identifies genetic contribution to the composition of the microbiome around maize roots

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE OF PLANT GENETICS AND CROP PLANT RESEARCH

 

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MAIZE PLANTS GROWING UNDER DROUGHT STRESS IN THE EXPERIMENT PERFORMED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN.

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CREDIT: DR. PENG YU, UNIVERSITY OF BONN

In order for plants to grow, they absorb water and nutrients through their roots. In doing so, they rely on tiny helpers: bacteria and fungi in particular are found in a thin layer around the roots. These microbes also ward off organisms that are harmful to the plant, just as the "microbiome" in the human gut helps determine whether we fall ill or stay healthy.

An international research team led by the University of Bonn and with the participation of the IPK Leibniz Institute has now demonstrated on maize plants that the genetic make-up of the host plant has a significant influence on the composition of the root microbes. "It was shown that the root microbiome is strongly dependent on stress conditions such as nutrient or water deficiency," says Dr. Yong Jiang, one of the first authors of the study and a scientist in IPK's research group “Quantitative Genetics”.

The genetic make-up of different maize varieties varies greatly. Regional varieties are adapted to very different environmental conditions, depending on whether they are grown in the cooler highlands or warmer lowlands of South America. "The centuries-long selection of maize varieties adapted to the local climate led to very different genotypes, which we were able to use for the study," says Dr. Peng Yu, head of the junior research group "Functional Root Biology" at the University of Bonn.

The research team has now analysed 129 maize varieties. These were grown under "normal" conditions and under a lack of phosphorus, nitrogen and water. In addition, the DNA of microbes from 3,168 samples taken from the layer around the roots, which is just a few millimetres thick, was sequenced.

The role of the genetic material in the root was revealed under stress conditions. Nutrient and water deficiency also had an influence on the composition of the microbes. However, under the same stress conditions, differences in the microbiome of the maize varieties were nevertheless revealed. "We have shown that certain maize genes interact with certain bacteria," explains Dr. Peng Yu.

The international research team was even able to use data on the growing conditions at the place of origin of a particular maize variety and its genetic make-up to predict which key organisms occur in the microbiome at the root. Bacteria of the genus Massilia stood out in particular: "It was striking that only a few specimens of these microbes were present when there was a sufficient supply of nitrogen," explains Prof. Dr. Gabriel Schaaf from the Ecophysiology of Plant Nutrition department at INRES and member of the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn. If, on the other hand, nitrogen was scarce, many Massilia were found at the roots. The team then "inoculated" maize roots with this bacterium. This showed that the plants subsequently formed many more lateral roots and thus significantly improved their nutrient and water uptake.

In further investigations, the researchers discovered that the root attracts Massilia bacteria with flavones. This is a plant pigment that stimulates the formation of lateral roots with the help of the bacteria. "However, the prerequisite for this was that the maize plant had a microtubule-binding gene," says Dr. Peng Yu.

"For this study, we also opened up the toolbox of quantitative genetics for microbiome research," explains IPK scientist Dr. Yong Jiang. "We were surprised by the large proportion of the genetic component in the formation of the microbiome." The results can be used by both science and breeding. "They can serve as a basis for investigating further agroecological issues and for developing new maize varieties that are better adapted to climate change based on the genome and microbiome data."

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JOURNAL

Nature Plants

DOI

10.1038/s41477-024-01654-7 

ARTICLE TITLE

Heritable microbiome variation is correlated with source environment in locally adapted maize varieties

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Mar-2024

 

Scientists develop catalyst designed to make ammonia production more sustainable

Created at a FAPESP-supported research center, the material helps produce ammonia by electrochemical reduction of nitrogen gas, dispensing with the high temperature and pressure required by the conventional method

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Ammonia is one of the most widely produced chemicals in the world, and is used in a great many manufacturing and service industries. The conventional production technology is the Haber-Bosch process, which combines nitrogen gas (N2) and hydrogen gas (H2) in a reactor in the presence of a catalyst. This process requires high levels of temperature and pressure, resulting in substantial power consumption. Indeed, ammonia production is estimated to consume 1%-2% of the world’s electricity and to account for about 3% of global carbon emissions.

In pursuit of more sustainable alternatives, researchers affiliated with the Center for Development of Functional Materials (CDMF) have developed an electrochemical nitrogen reduction process using catalysts made of iron oxide and molybdenum disulfide. Because the process is electrochemical, it does not require high temperature and pressure.

CDMF is one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) supported by FAPESP, and is hosted by the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar).

An article on the subject is published in the journal Electrochimica Acta. The authors are Caio Vinícius da Silva Almeida, a postdoctoral fellow at UFSCar with a scholarship from FAPESP, and Lucia Helena Mascaro, a professor in UFSCar’s Department of Chemistry.

The catalysts in question are prepared by electrodeposition, a simple and inexpensive method. As reported in the article, they are efficient, stable and durable. The results of the research open up possibilities for the use of simple, low-cost catalysts in ammonia production and the synthesis of amorphous materials for nitrogen fixation.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

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JOURNAL

Electrochimica Acta

DOI

10.1016/j.electacta.2023.143680 

ARTICLE TITLE

Enhancing electrochemical N2 reduction at mild conditions with FexOy co-deposited on amorphous MoS2

 

New reactor could save millions when making ingredients for plastics and rubber from natural gas

With oil production dropping, a process using natural gas is needed to avert a shortage of a workhorse chemical used for automotive parts, cleaning products and more

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

 

 

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A new way to make an important ingredient for plastics, adhesives, carpet fibers, household cleaners and more from natural gas could reduce manufacturing costs in a post-petroleum economy by millions of dollars, thanks to a new chemical reactor designed by University of Michigan engineers.

The reactor creates propylene, a workhorse chemical that is also used to make a long list of industrial chemicals, including ingredients for nitrile rubber found in automotive hoses and seals as well as blue protective gloves. Most propylene used today comes from oil refineries, which collect it as a byproduct of refining crude oil into gasoline.

As oil and gasoline fall out of vogue in favor of natural gas, solar, and wind energy, production of propylene and other oil-derived products could fall below the current demand without new ways to make them.

Natural gas extracted from shale holds one potential alternative to propylene sourced from crude oil. It's rich in propane, which resembles propylene closely enough to be a promising precursor material, but current methods to make propylene from natural gas are still too inefficient to bridge the gap in supply and demand.

"It's very hard to economically convert propane into propylene," said Suljo Linic, the Martin Lewis Perl Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering and the corresponding author of the study published in Science.

"You need to heat that reaction to drive it, and standard methods require very high temperatures to produce enough propylene. At those temperatures, you don't just get propylene but solid carbon deposits and other undesirable products that impair the catalyst. To regenerate the reactor, we need to burn off the solid carbon deposits often, which makes the process inefficient."

The researchers' new reactor system efficiently makes propylene from shale gas by separating propane into propylene and hydrogen gas. It also gives hydrogen a way out, changing the balance between the concentration of propane and reaction products in a way that allows more propylene to be made. Once separated, the hydrogen can also be safely burned away from the propane, heating the reactor enough to speed up the reactions without making any undesirable compounds.

This separation is achieved through the reactor's nested, hollow-fiber membrane tubing. The innermost tube is made up of materials that splits the propane into propylene and hydrogen gas. While the tubing keeps most of the propylene inside the innermost chamber, the hydrogen gas can escape into an outer chamber through pores in a membrane layer of the material. Inside that chamber, the hydrogen gas is controllably burned by mixing in precise amounts of oxygen.

Because the hydrogen can be burned inside the reactor and can operate under higher propane pressures, the technology could allow plants to produce propylene from natural gas without installing extra heaters. A plant that produces 500,000 metric tons of propylene annually could save as much as $23.5 million over other methods starting with shale gas, according to the researchers' estimates. Those savings come on top of the operational savings from burning hydrogen produced in reaction, rather than other fuels

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the RAPID Manufacturing Institute and the National Science Foundation.

The reactor materials were studied at the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization. The team is pursuing patent protection with the assistance of U-M Innovation Partnerships and is seeking partners to bring the technology to market.

Suljo Linic is also a professor of integrative systems and design.

Study: Overcoming limitations in propane dehydrogenation by co-designing

catalysts/membrane systems (DOI: 10.1126/science.adh3712)

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adh3712 

 

Bar-Ilan University researchers develop cost-effective method to detect low concentrations of pharmaceutical waste and contaminants in water

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

Pharmaceutical waste and contaminants present a growing global concern, particularly in the context of drinking water and food safety. Addressing this critical issue, a new study by researchers at Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Chemistry and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials has resulted in the development of a highly sensitive plasmonic-based detector, specifically targeting the detection of harmful piperidine residue in water.

Piperidine, a small potent molecule that serves as a building block in the pharmaceutical and food additive industries, poses significant health risks to both humans and animals due to its toxic nature. Detecting even miniscule amounts of piperidine is essential for ensuring drinking water and food safety. The plasmonic substrate developed at Bar-Ilan University, comprising triangular cavities milled in a silver thin film and protected by a 5-nanometer layer of silicon dioxide, offers unparalleled sensitivity to piperidine, detecting low concentrations in water.

Mohamed Hamode, a PhD student at Bar-Ilan’s Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with Dr. Elad Segal, developed the dime-sized device using a focused ion microscope to drill nanometer-sized holes on a metal surface. By programming the beam with a custom-built computer program, Hamode creates holes of various shapes. These holes, smaller than the wavelength of visible light, enhance the electrical field on the surface, leading to concentrated light in very small areas. This amplification enables optical phenomena to be significantly increased, allowing for the identification of a low concentration of molecules that were previously undetectable with optical probes.

Due to its confined and enhanced electromagnetic field, the plasmonic substrate offers an efficient alternative to other substrates currently used in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), opening avenues for the use of cost-effective and portable Raman devices that enable quicker and more affordable analysis.

“This study represents a significant advancement in the field of environmental monitoring,” said lead researcher Prof. Adi Salomon, of Bar-Ilan’s Department of Chemistry and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials. “By leveraging nano-patterned metallic surfaces, we’ve demonstrated the detection of low concentrations of piperidine in water using affordable optics, offering a promising solution for environmental analytical setups.”

The findings of the study, just published in the journal Environmental Science: Nano,  underscore the potential of plasmonic-based detectors in revolutionizing environmental monitoring, particularly in the detection of pharmaceutical waste and contaminants.

Next week Mohamed Hamode will present the innovation at an international conference on microscopy taking place in Italy.

 

  

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JOURNAL

Environmental Science Nano

DOI

10.1039/D3EN00821E 

ARTICLE TITLE

Plasmonic Based Raman Sensor for Ultra-Sensitive Detection of Pharmaceutical Waste