New images reveal global air quality trends

University of Leeds

 

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University of Leeds News

A selection of AQ Stripes graphic images are available here

 

The global concentrations of one of the main air pollutants known to affect human health have been graphically illustrated for the first time by a team of scientists.

The Air Quality Stripes which were created by the University of Leeds, the University of Edinburgh, North Carolina State University, and the UK Met Office, starkly contrast the significant improvements in air quality across much of Europe with the alarming deterioration in parts of Africa and Central Asia.

The project's findings highlight both the successes and ongoing challenges in tackling air pollution worldwide.

Dr Kirsty Pringle from EPCC at the University of Edinburgh and co-director of the project, said: "Air pollution is often called the ‘invisible killer’, but these images make the invisible visible, showing the changes in particulate matter pollution over the decades.”

Dr Jim McQuaid, an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Composition in the Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment who worked on the Air Quality Stripes project with Dr Pringle, said: “The bottom line is that air pollution is one of the world's leading risk factors for death, it is thought to contribute to one in ten deaths globally.

“Our Air Quality Stripes show the huge range in trends and concentrations around the world. The stripes demonstrate that there is still more work to be done to reduce people’s exposure to poor air quality, and in some places a great deal more!”

Inspired by the world-famous climate warming stripes image, the researchers created their own illustration to plot the changing trends in outdoor concentrations of what is known as particulate matter air pollution, a mix of tiny liquid or solid particles such as dust, dirt, soot, or smoke, which are found throughout the atmosphere.

Dr Steven Turnock, a senior scientist from the UK Met Office who provided the data for the Air Quality Stripes project, said: “Presenting this scientific data as Air Quality stripes really brings into focus the stark contrast in air quality trends and people’s exposure to poor air quality depending on where they live.”

There are stripes for the capital city of every nation worldwide with two additional cities for China, India, and the United States. The research team also included their own cities of Leeds, Edinburgh, and Exeter.

The lightest blue stripes meet the World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines which were introduced in 2021, with all other colours exceeding the guideline values.

Data from computer simulations and satellite observations were combined to estimate the changing concentrations of particulate matter since the beginning of the industrial revolution, with the colour palette for the stripes devised by an artist who analysed over 200 online images of “air pollution” to identify the dominant colour palettes.

Key Findings:

• Europe's Air Quality Gains: The images show substantial reductions in particulate matter levels across most of Europe (predominantly Western Europe).  Stricter air quality regulations and technological advancements have successfully reduced particulate matter concentrations in most European cities (e.g. London, Brussels, Berlin).
• Worsening Conditions in Central Asia and parts of Africa: The visualisations reveal a concerning rise in particulate matter pollution in many cities in central Asia and Africa (e.g. Islamabad, Delhi, Nairobi). Rapid urbanisation, industrial growth, and limited regulatory frameworks are contributing to this troubling trend, which poses significant health risks to local populations.
• Global Disparities: The images highlight the stark disparities in air quality progress between different regions, emphasising the need for targeted international efforts to address the growing air pollution crisis in the most affected areas.
• The influence of natural sources was particularly notable in some locations, these sources include desert dust and wildfires, proximity to the coast was often quite noticeable with locations such as Jakarta having lower levels than might be expected.

A cocktail of pollutants

Particulate matter, or PM2.5, have a diameter less than a 30th of the width of a human hair and can penetrate deep into our lungs easily. The smallest particles cross into the bloodstream and affect our health, and some have even been detected in the blood of unborn children.

They can come from natural sources such as volcanoes and deserts but are also produced by human activities such as industry, cars, agriculture, domestic burning, and fires arising from climate change.

PM2.5 has been linked to a very wide range of health issues ranging from breathing problems like asthma, to reduced lung health, increased likelihood of developing cancer and heart disease, and an increased risk of developing many diseases including diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

The World Health Organisation recommends that the annual average concentration of PM2.5 should not exceed a concentration of 5 micrograms per cubic meter air (5 ug/m³).  This new guideline is a concentration which is generally classed as very good air quality. It is important to remember that there is NO safe level of PM2.5 recognised by medical science.  At present, 99% of the world’s population live with concentrations above this value, with the highest PM2.5 levels typically found in low- and middle-income countries.

The AQ stripes use an annual average to take account of the ups and downs due to changes in weather patterns throughout the year, and to make comparison between locations simpler. However the researchers point out that even short-term exposure to very high levels can quickly have acute health effects requiring medical treatment.

Dr McQuaid added: “We created these to try to illustrate the complex data that computer models generate, into something that is much easier to understand.

“Strangely, one of the major headaches for us was the colour scheme. We finally went for blue to black, representing nice clean blue skies, through to black for extremely high levels of pollution.

“In the end we contacted a colleague in the US (Douglas Hamilton) and he worked with one of his team to create a colour scheme using an internet search of images tagged as ‘air pollution’ and they came up with what we finally went with. It was very similar to what we already had, but great to get external validation.

“To me it’s all about that lightbulb moment when someone understands it; that sudden ‘oh yeah now I get it!’ I wanted it to be simple enough that non-experts could look at it and be able to understand it without having done science since leaving school. “ 

Dr Pringle added: "The images show that it is possible to reduce air pollution; the air in many cities in Europe is much cleaner now than it was 100 years ago, and this is improving our health.  We really hope similar improvements can be achieved across the globe."

The Air Quality Stripes follow in the footsteps of the Climate Warming Stripes which were created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and University of Reading in 2018 and have since become very widely used as a visual representation of the Earth’s warming climate.

Professor Hawkin’s work has since inspired the creation of the Biodiversity Stripes which show biodiversity loss, and Ocean Acidification Stripes.

Further information

A selection of AQ Stripes graphic images are available here

The initiative is a collaboration between leading environmental research institutions and data science organisations EPCC and CEMAC. Led by the universities of Leeds and Edinburgh, the project aims to provide valuable insights into air quality trends and support efforts to mitigate air pollution worldwide.  EPCC at the University of Edinburgh is a leading data science hub.  The work was supported by the Software Sustainability Institute which is dedicated to supporting researchers in their use of software.

The University of Leeds and the University of Edinburgh are both members of the Met Office Academic Partnership (MOAP)

For more information, please visit airqualitystripes.info

For media enquiries, Please contact the University of Leeds press office via pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk

University of Leeds

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The University is a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, and is a major partner in the Alan Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes www.leeds.ac.uk

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Catalyst for 'one-step' conversion of methane to methanol

Scientists demonstrate highly selective catalyst for low-temperature, direct conversion of natural gas to liquid fuel

DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory

 

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High-resolution electron microscopy images of the catalyst captured at the CFN. Frame A shows the catalyst with a scale bar representing 20 nanometers (nm) after three consecutive reaction cycles; B zooms in to reveal surface details; C provides a composite elemental map, with individual elements shown in D, E, and F. Together the images reveal that the active metal, palladium (Pd), is highly dispersed on the supporting cerium (Ce) substrate with a thin layer of carbon (C) at the interface. 

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Credit: Sooyeon Hwang/Brookhaven National Laboratory

UPTON, N.Y. — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborating institutions have engineered a highly selective catalyst that can convert methane, a major component of natural gas, into methanol, an easily transportable liquid fuel, in a single, one-step reaction. As described in a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, this direct process for methane-to-methanol conversion runs at a temperature lower than required to make tea and exclusively produces methanol without additional byproducts.

That’s a big advance over more complex traditional conversions that typically require three separate reactions, each under different conditions, including vastly higher temperatures.

“We pretty much throw everything into a pressure cooker, and then the reaction happens spontaneously,” said chemical engineer Juan Jimenez, a Goldhaber postdoctoral fellow in Brookhaven Lab’s Chemistry Division and the lead author on the paper.

The simplicity of the system could make it particularly useful for tapping “stranded” natural gas reserves in isolated rural areas, far from the costly infrastructure of pipelines and chemical refineries, said Brookhaven chemist and study co-author Sanjaya Senanayake. Such local deployments would remove the need to transport high-pressure, flammable liquified natural gas.

“We could scale up this technology and deploy it locally to produce methanol than can be used for fuel, electricity, and chemical production,” Senanayake said.

Brookhaven Science Associates, which manages Brookhaven Lab on behalf of DOE, and the University of Udine, collaborators in this work, have filed a patent cooperation treaty application on the use of the catalyst for one-step methane conversion. The team is exploring ways to work with entrepreneurial partners to bring the technology to market. They are motivated by the idea of “closing the carbon cycle” — essentially, recycling carbon to prevent it from being released into the atmosphere — to enable net-zero carbon clean-energy solutions.

“As scientists, we know the science and technology extremely well, but we’re working with Brookhaven’s Research Partnerships and Technology Transfer Office and entrepreneurial students who are doing the legwork on the economic side — figuring out who are the best potential clients and markets for expanding this out,” Jimenez said.

From basic science to industry-ready

The basic science behind the conversion builds on a decade of collaborative research. The Brookhaven chemists worked with experts at the Lab’s National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) — two DOE Office of Science user facilities that have a wide range of capabilities for tracking the intricacies of chemical reactions and the catalysts that enable them — as well as researchers at DOE’s Ames National Laboratory and international collaborators in Italy and Spain.

Earlier studies worked with simpler ideal versions of the catalyst, consisting of metals on top of oxide supports or inverted oxide on metal materials. The scientists used computational modeling and a range of techniques at NSLS-II and CFN to learn how these catalysts work to break and remake chemical bonds to convert methane to methanol and to elucidate the role of water in the reaction.

“Those earlier studies were done on simplified model catalysts under very pristine conditions,” Jimenez said. They gave the team valuable insights into what the catalysts should look like at the molecular scale and how the reaction would potentially proceed, “but they required translation to what a real-world catalytic material looks like,” he said.

As Senanayake explained, “What Juan has done is take those concepts that we learned about the reaction and optimize them, working with our materials synthesis colleagues at the University of Udine in Italy, theorists at the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry and Valencia Polytechnic University in Spain, and characterization colleagues here at Brookhaven and Ames Lab. This new work validates the ideas behind the earlier work and translates the lab-scale catalyst synthesis into a much more practical process for making kilogram-scale amounts of catalytic powder that are directly relevant to industrial applications.”

New tools uncover the secret sauce

The new recipe for the catalyst contains an additional ingredient: a thin layer of “interfacial” carbon between the metal and oxide. 

“Carbon is often overlooked as a catalyst,” Jimenez said. “But in this study, we did a host of experiments and theoretical work that revealed that a fine layer of carbon between palladium and cerium oxide really drove the chemistry. It was pretty much the secret sauce. It helps the active metal, palladium, convert methane to methanol.”

To explore and ultimately reveal this unique chemistry, the scientists built new research infrastructure both in the Catalysis Reactivity and Structure group’s laboratory in the Chemistry Division and at NSLS-II. 

“This is a three-phase reaction with gas, solid, and liquid ingredients — namely methane gas, hydrogen peroxide and water as liquids, and the solid powder catalyst — and these three ingredients react under pressure. So, we needed to build new pressurized three-phase reactors so we could monitor those ingredients in real time,” Senanayake said.

The team built one reactor in the Chemistry Division and used infrared spectroscopy to measure the reaction rates and to identify the chemical species that arose on the catalyst surface as the reaction progressed. The chemists also relied on the expertise of NSLS-II scientists who built additional reactors to install at two NSLS-II beamlines — Inner-Shell Spectroscopy (ISS) and In situ and Operando Soft X-ray Spectroscopy (IOS) — so they could also study the reaction using X-ray techniques.

NSLS-II’s Dominik Wierzbicki, a study co-author, worked to design the ISS reactor so the team could study the high-pressure, gas-solid-liquid reaction using X-ray spectroscopy. In this technique, “hard” X-rays, which have relatively high energies, enabled the scientists to follow the active metal, palladium, under realistic reaction conditions.

“Typically, this technique requires compromises because measuring the gas-liquid-solid interface is complex, and high pressure adds even more challenges,” Wierzbicki said. “Adding unique capabilities to address these challenges at NSLS-II is advancing our mechanistic understanding of reactions carried out under high-pressure and opening new avenues for synchrotron research.”

Study coauthors Iradwikanari Waluyo and Adrian Hunt, beamline scientists at IOS, also built an in-situ setup at their beamline and used it for lower energy “soft” X-ray spectroscopy to study cerium oxide in the gas-solid-liquid interface. These experiments revealed information about the nature of the active catalytic species during simulated reaction conditions.

“Correlating the information from the Chemistry Division to the two beamlines required synergy and is at the heart of the new capabilities,” Senanayake said. “This collaborative effort has yielded unique insights into how the reaction can occur,” he added, noting this study as a first demonstration of how such multimodal characterization tools can advance scientists’ understanding of high-pressure catalytic reactions.

“The tools we developed for this study now provide additional in situ capabilities for other NSLS-II users interested in studying chemistry under pressurized conditions at our beamlines,” Waluyo said.

In addition, colleagues Jie Zhang and Long Qi at Ames Lab performed in situ nuclear magnetic resonance studies, which gave the scientists key insights into the early stages of the reaction; and Sooyeon Hwang at CFN produced stunning transmission electron microscopy images to identify the carbon present in the material. The team’s theory colleagues in Spain, led by Verónica Ganduglia-Pirovano and Pablo Lustemberg, provided the theoretical explanation for the catalytic mechanism by developing a state-of-the-art computational model for the three-phase reaction.

“We worked with a global team to gain a comprehensive understanding of the reaction and mechanism,” Senanayake said.

In the end, the team discovered how the active state of their three-component catalyst — made of palladium, cerium oxide, and carbon — exploits the complex three-phase, liquid-solid-gas microenvironment to produce the final product.

Now, instead of needing three separate reactions in three different reactors operating under three different sets of conditions to produce methanol from methane with the potential of byproducts that require costly separation steps, the team has a three-part catalyst that drives a three-phase reaction all in one reactor with 100% selectivity for methanol production.

“This is a very valuable example of carbon neutral processing,” Senanayake said. “We look forward to seeing this technology deployed at scale to make use of currently untapped sources of methane.”

John Gordon, chair of the Chemistry Division, stated, “This research is a demonstration of how innovations in catalyst design and a foundational understanding of how reactions occur can help advance chemical processes of the future.”

The research carried out at Brookhaven National Laboratory was supported by the DOE Office of Science and a Brookhaven National Laboratory Goldhaber Distinguished Fellowship. Collaborators and supercomputing resources used for this study were supported by additional funding, including from international organizations spelled out in the research paper. NSLS-II and CFN operations at Brookhaven are also funded by the Office of Science.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

Follow @BrookhavenLab on social media. Find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

Related Links

• Scientific paper: "From Methane to Methanol: Pd-iC-CeO2 Catalysts Engineered for High Selectivity via Mechano-Chemical Synthesis"
• Novel Chemical Reaction Supports Carbon-Neutral Industrial Processes
• Converting Methane to Methanol—With and Without Water
• New Catalyst for Making Methanol from Methane

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Journal

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI

10.1021/jacs.4c04815 

Article Title

From Methane to Methanol: Pd-iC-CeO2 Catalysts Engineered for High Selectivity via Mechanochemical Synthesis

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert

 

Pollution drives families to relocate – but only the rich can afford to live in healthier areas

Pollution levels factor in households’ decision to relocate within the United States, but only richer households can afford areas with improved air quality, a new study finds

Lancaster University

Pollution levels factor in households’ decision to relocate within the United States, but only richer households can afford areas with improved air quality, a new study finds.

Research led by Lancaster University Management School and published in Environmental and Resource Economics, examines county-to-county migration data from 2010 to 2014 provided by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It uses a range of controls to account for households opting to move to a particular county – such as employment opportunities and amenities – and finds environmental quality plays a key role in a choice of destination.

 “We believe our study is the first to examine both household income and environmental quality in households’ decisions to relocate,” Lancaster University’s Dr Aurelie Slechten, co-author of the study, explains.

“We find inequalities exist when it comes to who is exposed to the worst areas of pollution – with poorer families hit hardest. Richer households opt to move into cleaner, healthier areas that tend to be more expensive. However poorer families are priced out of these counties and are the ones who move into areas with higher levels of toxic releases.”

Analysing detailed origin and destination information of households, rather than just aggregate migration flows, the new analysis uncovers a direct link between a household’s income and their new chosen county of residence. Those who leave an area for a location that is less polluted earn more than the average household in their home community, whereas households earning a less than average income in their home area are the ones to move to more polluted destinations.

“This evidence demonstrates it is not just improvements to air quality standards and Toxic Release Inventory reporting that are important when it comes to environmental justice – inequality in income also needs to be considered, as it is clear some families may be forced to live in more polluted areas which may lead them to live unhealthier lives” co-author Dr Anita Schiller, of Lancaster University, adds.

This new paper builds on the academics’ earlier study that looked at the behaviours of firms that cause pollution to discover if these organisations make strategic decisions on their site locations based on population demographics. Focusing on Texas, they found a correlation between lower income locations and the probability of potentially polluting firms choosing to locate there.

Professor Dakshina De Silva of Lancaster University Management School is co-author of the study. He said: “This creates a vicious cycle where firms strategically locate polluting facilities in lower-income areas, and the resulting environmental burdens then fall disproportionately on disadvantaged communities. Wealthier households, meanwhile, are able to effectively ‘vote with their feet’ and avoid these negative impacts.

“Addressing both environmental justice and economic inequality is crucial to break this cycle and create more sustainable communities for all.”

The new paper, Tiebout Sorting and Toxic Releases is written by Professor Dakshina De Silva; Dr Anita Schiller and Dr Aurelie Slechten from Lancaster University Management School and Dr Leonard Wolk from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is published in Environmental and Resource Economics.

It is available here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-024-00893-8

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Journal

Environmental and Resource Economics

DOI

10.1007/s10640-024-00893-8 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Tiebout Sorting and Toxic Releases

Article Publication Date

2-Aug-2024

 

Smallpox vaccination in childhood could offer protection against monkeypox clade II viruses, study finds

A study published in Eurosurveillance has found that prior smallpox vaccination in childhood could protect against infections caused by monkeypox virus (MPXV) clade II in men

Peer-Reviewed Publication

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

A study by co-authors from the ECDC, WHO and national public health institutes in four European countries, and published in Eurosurveillance, has found that prior smallpox vaccination in childhood could protect against infections caused by monkeypox virus (MPXV) clade II in men. However, the estimated degree of protection varied among countries, highlighting the need for  further research to validate the study findings.

In light of the 2022-2023 outbreak of mpox in Europe in that mainly affected certain groups with high-risk behavior among men who have sex with men, the study sought to determine the effectiveness of historical smallpox vaccination during childhood against laboratory-confirmed mpox, to inform vaccination efforts.

Methods

Case-based surveillance data were selected from countries that collected information on prior smallpox vaccination status of mpox cases and had available data on historical smallpox vaccination coverage, namely Denmark, France (mainland only), the Netherlands (mainland only) and Spain.

The study analysed mpox cases born in these countries during the height of national smallpox vaccination campaigns (latest in 1971). Too few mpox cases in females had been reported to adjust for sex in the analysis, so only cases recorded as male were included.

Vaccine effectiveness and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) for each country were then estimated by using logistic regression as per the Farrington screening method. A pooled estimate was then calculated using a random effects model.

Results and public health implications

Estimated historical smallpox coverage was high (80-90%) across all countries until the end of the 1960s, dropping off considerably during the last 10 years of vaccination programmes.

Estimates of vaccine effectiveness of prior smallpox vaccination against mpox caused by MPXV clade II varied widely between countries, ranging from 42% in the Netherlands to 84% in Spain, possibly reflecting different booster strategies. The pooled vaccine effectiveness estimate was 70% with a wide 95% confidence interval of 23–89%, indicating a high level of uncertainty.

The study findings suggest that historical childhood smallpox vaccination in a European setting could protect two-thirds of men against mpox caused by MPXV clade II. However, there was significant uncertainty in the results and variation between countries. The results of this study are therefore not sufficient to support differential smallpox vaccination to protect against mpox based on historical smallpox vaccination status or age.

The authors recommend that individuals with a high risk of exposure be offered mpox vaccination, regardless of vaccination history. With the recent surge of clade Ib mpox cases in several countries in central and East Africa, there is an urgent need to conduct similar studies on the effectiveness of the smallpox vaccine against the most recent circulating clade.

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Journal

Eurosurveillance

DOI

10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.34.2400139 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Effectiveness of historical smallpox vaccination against mpox clade II in Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Spain, 2022

Article Publication Date

22-Aug-2024

 

New evidence suggests ancient origin of the "common enemy effect"

Digging deeply into the roots of bonobo nonviolence

Kyoto University

 

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Bonobo alerting with "high hoot" vocalization. (Wamba, DRC)

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Credit: KyotoU/Shinya Yamamoto

In the face of threats from other groups, humans, chimpanzees, and a selection of other species get closer with their own. Now an international team led by Kyoto University has shown that even our more peaceful cousins, bonobos -- who have never been observed to kill outsiders -- show a moderated version of this effect, hinting that this behavior may have emerged several million years ago, before our lineages went their separate ways.

A link between outgroup threats and ingroup cohesion has been considered since the time of Darwin to be an adaptation for group-based competition. During the years since, studies of all sorts -- from chimpanzees to cichlid fish to mongooses -- have found evidence supporting this view, but a crucial question has remained unanswered: what about species without strong inter-group competition?

To find an answer, the KyotoU team set up an experiment matched as closely as possible to an earlier study with chimpanzees: playback of vocalizations from other groups. In total, eight groups of bonobos at five sites in four countries were studied.

"We had no idea how this would turn out," says lead author James Brooks.

"Without lethal competition between groups, a link between ingroup cohesion and outgroup competition wouldn't be so adaptive, but if the effect dated back to before the human-chimpanzee-bonobo evolutionary split, then there might still be relics of the effect in modern bonobos."

The team's findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, indicate that the observed bonobos were alert and attentive to the calls of other groups, but showed just a minor increase in affiliation with their own group when compared to chimpanzees. The bonobos were observed sitting upright more and resting less, with a subtle increase in rates of social grooming, a key behavior for reinforcing social bonds.

The authors hypothesize that our common ancestor -- living 5–6 million years ago -- may have had some group-based conflict, but that as the intensity decreased in bonobos' evolutionary history, so too did the strength of the effect.

"Although our study exposes deep roots to group conflict among our species, the real takeaway is that this can be overcome," adds Brooks, "not merely in individual instances, but on a species level."

All other ape species, including gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, gibbons, and humans, have been observed killing one another in the wild. Bonobos may have found a way to end this pattern, not only because they do not commit lethal aggression today, but more importantly because at some point within the past few million years they somehow stopped.

"Humans are capable of both: we can commit horrific acts to those we see as outside our group, but we're also capable of collaborating and working together across borders," says senior author Shinya Yamamoto.

"Bonobos teach us that the ways our ancestors treated other groups does not seal our fate. Our own species has elements of both chimpanzee and bonobo group relations, so it is crucial that we understand how both can, and have, evolved."

Two bonobos engaging in social grooming. (Wamba, DRC)

Credit

KyotoU/Shinya Yamaimo

The paper "Increased alertness and moderate ingroup cohesion in bonobos' response to outgroup cues" appeared on 21 August 2024 in PLOS ONE, with doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307975

About Kyoto University
Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

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Journal

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0307975 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Increased alertness and moderate ingroup cohesion in bonobos’ response to outgroup cues

Article Publication Date

21-Aug-2024

 

Slow down in China’s methane emission growth

Science China Press

 

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Figure 1. China's Annual Methane Emissions and Their Global Contributions.

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Credit: ©Science China Press

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric methane concentrations have nearly doubled, with its radiative forcing accounting for one-third of all greenhouse gases. As one of the world's largest methane emitters, China made a clear commitment as early as 2007 to "strive to control the growth rate of methane emissions." The country's 12th, 13th, and 14th Five-Year Plans all proposed measures to control methane emissions. In 2023, China released the "Methane Emission Control Action Plan," which provides a comprehensive strategy for controlling methane emissions.

Accurately quantifying methane emissions and their contributions from various sectors is crucial for tracking changes in emissions and assessing the effectiveness of reduction measures. The "Methane Emission Control Action Plan" comprehensively calls for the strengthening of methane monitoring, accounting, reporting, and verification systems. China's methane emission accounting started late, with a weak foundation, and there is an urgent need to enhance emission control and monitoring capabilities. In the past, the international community generally believed that China's methane emissions had a significant impact on the global increase in methane concentrations. However, the latest research from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, indicates that since 2016, the growth rate of China's methane emissions has significantly slowed, and its contribution to global methane emissions is decreasing. This research was published in the National Science Review under the title "Slow Down in China’s Methane Emission Growth."

This study, based on China's independent global atmospheric inversion system "GONGGA", successfully developed the GONGGA-CH4 system, which boasts high inversion accuracy and low computational cost. Using this system, GOSAT satellite methane column concentration observations were assimilated to systematically assess global and China's methane emissions from 2011 to 2021. The results revealed that China's methane emission growth significantly slowed from 2016 to 2021 (0.1±0.3 Tg CH4 yr-2), in stark contrast to the higher growth observed from 2011 to 2015 (0.9±0.5 Tg CH4 yr-2). Meanwhile, global methane emissions accelerated during the same period (2016 to 2021) (Figure 1).

Compared to previous inversion methods, the GONGGA-CH4 atmospheric system distinguishes major methane emission sectors using a unique 4DVar regularized multi-factor joint inversion technique. The study's results indicate that the reduction in agriculture and wetland emissions is the primary reason for the slowdown in China's methane emission growth (Figure 2). Previous studies generally estimated that methane emissions from China's rice paddies accounted for about 30% of global rice paddy emissions, with straw return measures leading to increased methane emissions from rice fields. However, the GONGGA-CH4 system's inversion results provide a different perspective: as most rice paddies have achieved stable straw return in recent years, the rice planting area has become the main driver of changes in methane emissions, with its decrease leading to a reduction in agriculture methane emissions since 2016. Furthermore, the study found that the drier climate conditions in southern China in recent years have significantly reduced wetland methane emissions. This contrasts sharply with the rising methane emissions trend in tropical regions globally, further highlighting the substantial regional differences in the impact of climate change on methane emissions. However, the study also noted that although China's coal mine methane emissions briefly decreased following the implementation of the "shutdown of small coal mines" energy policy, recent increases in energy demand have led to a significant rise in coal methane emissions. This underscores the ongoing challenges China faces in controlling methane emissions.

Dr. Zhao Min, at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the first author of the paper, explained that due to methane's relatively short atmospheric lifetime (about 10 years), reducing methane emissions is considered a quick and effective means of mitigating global warming. The successful development of the GONGGA-CH4 system lays a solid foundation for China's active participation in the Global Carbon Project's methane emission assessments in the future. This is crucial for achieving the goal set by the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 ℃.

The findings were published online on June 26, 2024, in the National Science Review. The study was co-corresponding authored by Researcher Xiangjun Tian and Associate Researcher Yilong Wang. This research was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2022QZKK0101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41988101, 41975140, 42001104), and the Young Scholars Innovation Program of the Key Laboratory of Earth System and Resources Environment of the Tibetan Plateau (TPESER-QNCX2022ZD-01).

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Journal

National Science Review

DOI

10.1093/nsr/nwae223 

 

Activated bamboo charcoal’s slow-release properties for enhanced anti-acne formulations containing bamboo vinegar

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

 

image: 

Fig. 1. Relationship between dissolved tar content of two distillates and temperature

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Credit: Ziyi Li, Yanan Wang, Sheng Zhang

Bamboo vinegar is a concentrated liquid obtained from bamboo under high temperature and anaerobic conditions. It contains more than 200 organic components, including organic acids, phenols, ketones, alcohols, and esters, among which acetic acid is the main component. Although bamboo vinegar has been approved by the China Food and Drug Administration as a cosmetic raw material, commercially available bamboo vinegar often contains impurities whose efficacy is not clear, and phenolic compounds and aromatic hydrocarbons in it may be harmful to humans.

Nevertheless, bamboo vinegar has anti-acne potential, especially against the inhibitory effect of Propionibacterium acnes, the key microorganism in the pathogenesis of acne. While antibiotics are commonly used to treat acne, the concerns for drug resistance have limited their use.

In a study published in the Volume 1, Issue 2 in Journal of Dermatologic Science and Cosmetic Technology, a team of researchers from Central South University of Forestry and Technology in China explored the mechanism of the controlled-release system of bamboo vinegar and its application potential of in cosmetics.

“Bamboo vinegar was refined through reduced-pressure distillation, which increased the content of organic acids, reduced tar content and enhanced the active ingredients while minimizing harmful components,” explains corresponding author Sheng Zhang. “We used activated bamboo charcoal to adsorb the bamboo vinegar, allowing for a gradual release over a period exceeding two hours, effectively demonstrating a slow-release effect.”

The findings auggest that refined bamboo vinegar could be a promising raw material for anti-acne cosmetic formulations. The release rate of the bamboo charcoal/bamboo vinegar complex in water reached 70.57% within 15 minutes and then slowed to a plateau. This slow-release behavior aligns with the Ritger-Peppas model, which is advantageous for reducing skin irritation and extending the bacteriostatic duration.

“The findings present a novel concept for anti-acne cosmetics and lay the groundwork for further research into the use of bamboo vinegar slow-release systems with bamboo charcoal as a carrier,” adds Zhang. “Future studies should explore additional cosmetic benefits of bamboo vinegar, such as dandruff removal, anti-wrinkle effects and more.”

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Contact the author: Sheng Zhang, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China, gingshen123@126.com

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

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Journal

Journal of Dermatologic Science and Cosmetic Technology

DOI

10.1016/j.jdsct.2024.100016 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Inhibition of Propionibacterium acnes by refined bamboo vinegar and preparation of the slow-release system with bamboo charcoal as the carrier

COI Statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Sheng Zhang is an Editorial Board Member for Journal of Dermatologic Science and Cosmetic Technology and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article.