Researchers develop crystals to harvest water from air, inspired by desert life

Novel crystals capture humidity with unprecedented efficiency

New York University

 

image: 

Center for Smart Engineering Materials - 01

view more 

Credit: NYU Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi, November 19, 2024: A team of researchers from Jilin University, NYU Abu Dhabi’s Smart Materials Lab, and the Center for Smart Engineering Materials, led by Professor of Chemistry Pance Naumov, has developed a new crystalline material that can harvest water from fog without any energy input.

The design of the novel type of smart crystals, which the researchers named Janus crystals, is inspired by desert plants and animals, which can survive in arid conditions. Desert beetles and lizards, for example, have evolved to develop surface structures that have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic areas and effectively capture moisture from the air. Water is attracted to the hydrophilic areas and droplets are accumulated and transported through the hydrophobic areas.

The findings are presented in the paper titled “Efficient Aerial Water Harvesting with Self-Sensing Dynamic Janus Crystals,” recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The researchers chose three chemically versatile organic compounds from which they grew elastic organic crystals. They then tested how each of these materials interacted with the airborne water, which led to the creation of the new water-collecting materials, Janus crystals, that contain both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions on the surface level, one to capture water and one to transfer it to a receptacle for collection. The Janus crystals capture humidity from humid air with the highest-to-date water collection efficiency. The crystals’ narrow and light-translucent structures enable researchers to monitor the collection and condensation of fog droplets in real time by using light. 

Desalination is a widely used method to produce potable water, however an energy-intensive process is required to separate the dissolved salt in saltwater. In contrast, the process of condensation of aerial humidity or fog utilized by the Janus crystals is spontaneous under ambient conditions and can be performed without the input of energy, potentially providing an endless source of clean water. Unlike previously reported porous organic crystals, the Janus crystals combine water-collection and water-delivery functions at their surface, creating a highly efficient water harvesting process that maximizes the amount of collected water at ambient conditions.

“The earth’s atmosphere contains an abundance of untapped fresh water, but we desperately need materials that can efficiently capture and collect this humidity and condense it into potable water,” said Naumov. “The crystals developed by our team not only capitalize on the mechanical compliance and optical transparency of organic crystals, but also pave the way for the design of active, self-sensing, and efficient surface-active harvesters which, when used at a larger scale, can help us combat water scarcity at a societal level.

ENDS

Center for Smart Engineering Materials - 02

Credit

NYU Abu Dhabi 

About NYU Abu Dhabi

www.nyuad.nyu.edu
NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. Times Higher Education ranks NYU among the top 30 universities in the world, making NYU Abu Dhabi the highest-ranked university in the UAE and MENA region. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective undergraduate curriculum across the disciplines with a world center for advanced research and scholarship. The university enables its students in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and arts to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from over 120 countries and speak over 100 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.

---

Journal

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Article Title

Efficient Aerial Water Harvesting with Self-Sensing Dynamic Janus Crystals

 FOREVER CHEMICALS

Garden produce grown near Fayetteville works fluorochemical plant contains GenX, other PFAs

North Carolina State University

Residential garden produce grown near the Fayetteville Works fluorochemical plant can expose those who consume it to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to a new study conducted by researchers from North Carolina State University, East Carolina University and the Colorado School of Mines.

“It is often assumed that contaminated drinking water is the main pathway through which we are exposed to PFAS,” says Detlef Knappe, professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering at NC State and a lead investigator of the study. “An important goal of our study was to determine whether people who live in PFAS-impacted communities are also exposed to PFAS through home-grown produce.”

The researchers collected 53 produce samples from five residential gardens located near the fluorochemical manufacturer Fayetteville Works in Fayetteville, N.C. Samples were analyzed for 43 PFAS. The targeted PFAS included GenX and 12 other per- and polyfluoroalkyl ether acids (PFEAs) that are uniquely associated with the Chemours-owned facility.

The summed PFAS concentrations detected in as-received produce reached up to 38 nanograms per gram (ng/g), with PFEAs from the manufacturer overwhelmingly dominating the PFAS profile.

Among different types of produce studied, which included fruits, vegetables, and nuts, researchers found that water-rich produce, like berries and figs, exhibited the highest PFAS levels. When comparing frozen produce harvested in the area over time, researchers observed a general decreasing trend in PFAS levels from 2013 to 2019, though with some variations. While the exact cause of this decline is unclear, researchers suspect that interventions implemented to reduce air emissions at the nearby fluorochemical manufacturer might have played a role.

Next, the researchers looked at how PFAS exposure through consuming contaminated produce compared to exposure through drinking water. Specifically, researchers determined how much produce would give the same exposure to GenX as drinking water with 10 ng/L of GenX, the highest level allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“The comparison was made based solely on GenX because it was the only one of the detected PFEAs for which toxicity information was available,” says Pingping Meng, assistant professor of chemistry at ECU and lead author of this study.

For the site with the highest average GenX concentration in the studied produce (0.19 ng/g), the researchers found that for children, daily exposure to GenX from drinking water containing 10 ng/L GenX is similar to eating about 17 g (0.6 ounces, or about 10 blueberries) and adults eating about 68 g (2.4 ounces) of produce. These produce quantities are about nine times lower for children and four times lower for adults than the typical intake of fruits and vegetables.

To assess the long-term risk of consuming GenX-contaminated produce in impacted communities, researchers also calculated the chronic-exposure daily limit, which is the maximum amount of produce that an individual could safely consume daily.

For children aged 3 to 6 years, the daily limit for chronic exposure was 289 grams daily (about 10 ounces, or one and two-thirds cups of blueberries), which is higher than the typical value of 186 grams per day. However, the researchers note that the risk from consuming this amount of produce is likely underestimated because the calculation didn't consider other PFAS in the produce.

“We may be underestimating the risk because we are not considering the potentially additive effects of PFEA mixtures, particularly for PFEAs that were detected at concentrations higher than GenX but for which health-based reference doses are lacking,” Meng says. “Research is urgently needed to better understand the toxicity of the dominant PFEAs that we detected in the produce.”

“Our results show that people who live near Fayetteville Works and consumed locally grown fruits and vegetables were exposed to numerous PFEAs through their diet,” adds Knappe. “These findings highlight that diet, in addition to drinking water, can be an important human exposure pathway.”

The study, “Residential Garden Produce Harvested Near a Fluorochemical Manufacturer in North Carolina Can be an Important Fluoroether Exposure Pathway” appears in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and was supported by the U.S. EPA [Grant R839482: U.S. National Investigation of Transport and Exposure from Drinking Water and Diet (PFAS UNITEDD)] and the North Carolina Collaboratory. NC State co-authors include Nadia Sheppard, Sarangi Joseph and Owen Duckworth. Christopher Higgins of the Colorado School of Mines also contributed to the work.

-30-

Note to editors: An abstract follows.

“Residential garden produce harvested near a fluorochemical manufacturer in North Carolina can be an important fluoroether exposure pathway”

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.4c06177

Authors: Pingping Meng, East Carolina University; Nadia Sheppard, Sarangi Joseph, Owen W. Duckworth, Detlef R. U. Knappe, North Carolina State University; Christopher P. Higgins, Colorado School of Mines

Published: Nov. 20, 2024 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Abstract:
Dietary intake can be an important exposure route to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Little is known about the bioaccumulation of emerging per- and polyfluoroalkyl ether acids (PFEAs) in garden produce from PFAS-impacted communities and the associated dietary exposure risk. In this study, fifty-three produce samples were collected from five residential gardens near a fluorochemical manufacturer. Summed PFAS concentrations ranged from 0.0026 to 38 ng/g wet weight of produce, and water-rich produce exhibited the highest PFAS levels. The PFAS signature was dominated by PFEAs, and hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid (commonly known as GenX) was detected in 72% of samples. Based on average measured GenX concentrations, chronic-exposure daily limits were as low as 289 g produce/day for children (3-6 yr). This analysis does not consider other PFEAs that were present at higher concentrations, but for which reference doses were not available. This study revealed that consuming residential garden produce grown in PFAS-impacted communities can be an important exposure pathway.

---

Journal

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

DOI

10.1021/acs.jafc.4c06177 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Residential garden produce harvested near a fluorochemical manufacturer in North Carolina can be an important fluoroether exposure pathway

Article Publication Date

20-Nov-2024

Chemistry paper discusses new approach to breakdown PFAS, forever chemicals

Researchers have found a new approach for breaking down a group of human-made chemicals that can carry health risks from long-term exposure

Colorado State University

 

image: 

Garret Miyake

view more 

Credit: Colorado State University College of Natural Sciences/John Cline

Researchers at Colorado State University have found a new approach for breaking down PFAS – a group of human-made “forever” chemicals commonly used for their water-resistant properties that can carry health risks from long-term exposure. 

The carbon-fluorine bond found in PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) compounds is particularly challenging to break apart. That durability has led to widespread use of these manufactured chemicals in medical, industrial and commercial settings. However, that inherent stability has also made them difficult to dispose of, and over time, they have made their way into water, air and soil across the world according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says exposure to these lingering compounds can lead to health problems, including cancer or reproductive issues. 

In a paper published today in Nature, CSU researchers showcase an effective LED light-based photocatalytic system that can be used at room temperature to break down those key carbon-fluorine bonds. The system is an improvement over traditional chemical manufacturing processes that typically require high temperatures to achieve similar results.  

Work at CSU was led by Professor Garret Miyake in the Department of Chemistry. His team partnered with fellow CSU chemistry Professor Robert Paton as well as Professor Niels Damrauer at the University of Colorado Boulder on the paper. 

Miyake said complimentary expertise across those teams led to this high-impact interdisciplinary research finding.  

“Our approach is a fundamental advancement in organic synthesis that achieves activation of these challenging carbon-fluorine bonds across a variety of situations,” he said. “Our method is more sustainable and efficient and can be used to address stubborn compounds in plastics, for example, in addition to the obvious uses around PFAS.” 

Most people in the world have been exposed to PFAS by touching or eating materials containing them. A common source of exposure is drinking water, but the compounds can also be found in non-stick consumer products, food packaging, and common manufacturing processes. Research led by the EPA shows that even low-level exposure can result in developmental effects like low birth weight or reduced immune response, among many other health issues. 

Postdoctoral researcher Mihai Popescu served as an author on the paper and contributed to the mechanistic understanding of the research using computational chemistry. He said the next challenge will be in taking the technology and preparing it for application in the field across many instances. 

“We need to make this technology more practical so it can be used in water or soil – places where PFAS are found,” said Popescu. “We need the chemistry we are showcasing here to be useful in those conditions and that is where a lot of work remains.” 

Miyake currently serves as director of the National Science Foundation funded Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis (SuPRCat) on campus. That center launched in 2023 with a goal of developing chemical manufacturing processes that harness light energy and utilizing readily available materials as catalysts. 

Miyake noted that similar research projects to the one discussed in the paper are happening every day through the center. Postdoctoral researcher Xin Liu – who lead the synthetic development of this work and is also a member of SuPRCat – said the work holds many possibilities. 

“This paper deals specifically with forever chemicals, but our approach in SuPRCat to using LED lights presents a host of possibilities towards achieving these reactions in a more sustainable and efficient way,” said Liu. “From dealing with plastics that don’t degrade quickly to improving the manufacturing process of needed fertilizers, this is a key area and something CSU is well positioned to lead on.” 

---

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-024-08327-7 

Article Title

Photocatalytic C‒F bond activation in small molecules and polyfluoroalkyl substances

Article Publication Date

20-Nov-2024

Study tracks PFAS, microplastics through landfills and wastewater treatment plants

Contaminants end up in biosolids, which are sprayed on croplands as fertilizer

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

 

image: 

Microplastics and PFAS flow into wastewater treatment plants from landfill leachate, left, and from storm and sanitary sewers. Both contaminants accumulate in biosolid waste, most of which is carted out and spread on agricultural fields. On the right, a sample of the microplastics recovered from wastewater treatment plants in Illinois.

view more 

Credit: Photo by Fred Zwicky

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists analyzed the liquid waste, or leachate, released by four Illinois landfills and the inflows and outflows of associated wastewater treatment plants to determine the fate of two contaminants: microplastics and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

The good news from the study is that landfills retain most of the plastic waste that is dumped there, and wastewater treatment plants remove 99% of the microplastics and a some of the PFAS from the wastewater and landfill leachate they take in. The bad news is that both microplastics and PFAS accumulate in the biosolids that settle to the bottom of wastewater treatment plants. These biosolids must be disposed of in other ways.

The findings are reported in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

According to the industry-funded National Biosolids Data Project, 70% of the biosolids from Illinois wastewater treatment plants are used as fertilizers on agricultural land, and 30% are buried in landfills. This means that most of the microplastics and PFAS that flow into wastewater treatment plants are going right back into the environment, said John Scott, a research scientist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the study with fellow ISTC research scientist Andres Prada.

“The wastewater treatment plants are just taking the contaminants from one media and putting it into another,” Scott said.

Several hundred million tons of plastics are produced each year globally, and an estimated 79% of this material ends up in landfills or “becomes fugitive in the environment,” the researchers wrote in their report. Both microplastics and the endocrine-disrupting chemicals known as PFAS are now ubiquitous: detected in soil, water and in the human body, they said.

The new study is unusual in that it calculated the mass of microplastics in landfill leachate and wastewater influent and effluent. Most studies simply count the number of microplastic particles per volume of liquid, an unreliable measure because the particles will keep breaking into smaller bits, Prada said. To get the mass, the team measured the total surface area of the plastic particles and incorporated a standard measure of thickness and density based on the most common microplastic waste types: polyethylene and polypropylene.

“Landfills and wastewater treatment plants are usually studied separately, but in reality, those are combined systems,” Prada said. “Regulations require that landfills send their liquid waste to the treatment plants.”

And many studies look at only one contaminant at a time, he said.

“We wanted to put everything together, look at both systems and give results for both contaminants,” Prada said.

The analysis revealed that while landfills do a good job of retaining microplastics, their leachate contains high levels of PFAS.

“We were surprised how high the PFAS levels were in landfill leachate, while the microplastics were lower than expected,” Prada said.

While plastics degrade more slowly in landfills due to the compression of waste and the lack of solar radiation once they’re buried, the plastics will continue to break down into smaller particles, which will eventually flow out with the leachate, Scott said.

Wastewater treatment plants are designed to take in thousands of gallons of wastewater from sanitary and storm sewer systems, and that water also carries a significant load of microplastics and PFAS. While the concentration of PFAS in water flowing through these systems is lower than that found in landfill leachate, the massive volume of water coming in from sewers brings in a higher overall load of both contaminants, the team reported.

Wastewater treatment plants can take in 10,000 gallons of wastewater per minute but only about 30,000 gallons of landfill leachate per day, Prada said.

The problem of microplastics and PFAS in biosolids is not easy to solve, the researchers said. Spreading PFAS and microplastics across cropland is not a good practice, Scott said. “But what else are we to do with it? If we landfill it, we’re just going around and around in the circle of moving it from landfill to wastewater treatment plant and back to the landfill.”

Trying to treat the biosolids before disposal is a very expensive prospect, Scott said. The best practice would be to prevent the problem of plastic and PFAS pollution further upstream, he said.

“It’s time to tell people to start moving away from these things, stop producing these things,” Scott said. “Let’s turn them off at the tap before this gets any worse.”

This research was funded by the Hazardous Waste Research Fund, which is administered by the ISTC, a part of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.

The paper “Microplastics and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in landfill-wastewater treatment systems: A field study” is available online or from the U. of I. News Bureau.

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176751

---

Journal

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176751 

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Microplastics and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in landfill-wastewater treatment systems: A field study

 

Climate change and air pollution could risk 30 million lives annually by 2100

New study projects a sharp rise in temperature- and pollution-related mortality, with the impact of temperature surpassing that of pollution for a fifth of the global population.

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

The researchers base their calculations on projections from 2000 to 2090, analyzed in ten-year intervals. “In 2000, around 1.6 million people died each year due to extreme temperatures, both cold and heat. By the end of the century, in the most probable scenario, this figure climbs to 10.8 million, roughly a seven-fold increase. For air pollution, annual deaths in 2000 were about 4.1 million. By the century's close, this number rises to 19.5 million, a five-fold increase,” explains Dr. Andrea Pozzer, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz and adjunct associate professor at The Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The study shows significant regional differences in future mortality rates. South and East Asia are expected to face the strongest increases, driven by aging of the population, with air pollution still playing a major role. In contrast, in high-income regions—such as Western Europe, North America, Australasia, and Asia Pacific—deaths related to extreme temperatures are expected to surpass those caused by air pollution. In some countries within these regions, such as the United States, England, France, Japan and New Zealand, this shift is already occurring. The disparity is likely to grow, with extreme temperatures becoming a more significant health risk than air pollution also in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland and Romania) and parts of South America (e.g., Argentina and Chile).

By the end of the century, temperature-related health risks are expected to outweigh those linked to air pollution for a fifth of the world’s population, underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive actions to mitigate this growing public health risk.

“Climate change is not just an environmental issue; it is a direct threat to public health,” says Andrea Pozzer. “These findings highlight the critical importance of implementing decisive  mitigation measures now to prevent future loss of life”, adds Jean Sciare, director of the Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C) of The Cyprus Institute, key contributor to the study.

---

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-53649-9 

Article Title

Atmospheric health burden across the century and the accelerating impact of temperature compared to pollution

 

Greg Liu is in his element using chemistry to tackle the plastics problem

Liu, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, has found a way to convert certain plastics into soaps and detergents, and now he is helping to explore business models that can profitably use his process on a much larger scale.

Virginia Tech

 

image: 

Greg Liu (at left) has spent the past five or six years working on ways to recycle plastics, and he and his team now believe they have found a solution to a growing global problem.

view more 

Credit: Photo by Spencer Coppage for Virginia Tech.

As an undergraduate student at Zhejiang University in eastern China, Greg Liu went with some of his classmates on a university-sponsored trip to tour a host of chemical industries within the area.

The tour gave students pursuing degrees in chemical engineering an opportunity to learn more about the manufacturing and production processes of chemicals within China at the time. Liu realized that day exactly what he wanted to do for a career – find ways to alleviate or stop the industry from polluting the environment.

“I realized that this was not going to be the sustainable way of our future. Pollution was everywhere, water, soil, road, you name it. Workers were in unbearable working conditions. I didn’t want to be in an environment like that, nor our future generations,” Liu said. “That basically drove me to think, ‘OK, I must pursue an advanced degree to change the way we work in the chemical industry.’”

Liu later came to the United States and earned his doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now, his zeal to use his knowledge of chemical engineering to create a more sustainable world has led to him developing a revolutionary way to deal with arguably one of the world’s most pressing issues — plastic pollution.

A long research project encompassing five or six years finally led to a breakthrough, with Liu, a professor within Virginia Tech’s Department of Chemistry housed in the College of Science, and his team of undergraduate and graduate students finding a way to convert certain plastics into soaps, detergents, lubricants, and other products. Liu has written an article about the process and the feasibility and commercialization of it that recently published in Nature Sustainability, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

In simple terms, Liu’s system was two steps. It first involved using thermolysis, or breaking down a substance – in this case, plastic – by using heat. Plastic placed in a reactor built by Liu’s team and heated to between 650 and 750 degrees Fahrenheit broke down into chemical compounds, leaving a mixture of oil, gas, and residual solids. The key to this first step was breaking down the polypropylene and polyethylene molecules that make up plastic within a certain carbon range, and Liu and his team were able to accomplish this.

The residual solids left behind were minimal, and the gas could be captured and used as fuel. The oil, though, was the product of the most interest here.

During his research, Liu was able to functionalize, or change the chemistry, of the oil into molecules to be converted into soaps, detergents, lubricants, and other products.

“These materials are stable,” Liu said, holding up a vial of soap. “This vial of soap has been in my office for, I would say, a year already. … You could use it to wash your hands and dishes. We have used it to wash our lab glassware in the laboratory.”

<p>Your browser does not support iframes. Link to iframe content: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/0lbGVu7Eky5xH6XX2emY7s?utm_source=generator&theme=0">https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/0lbGVu7Eky5xH6XX2emY7s?utm_source=generator&theme=0</a></p>

The process, which took less than a day, led to almost zero air pollution output, thus offering clues to a desperately needed solution to a global problem. According to the United Nation’s website, the world produces 430 million tons of plastic each year, with the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic dumped into oceans, rivers, and lakes each day.

Plastic pollution leads to an increased choking of marine wildlife, the damaging of soils, the poisoning of groundwater, and the causing of negative human health impacts. In addition, there are greenhouse gas emissions released into the air during production.

The United Nations expects plastic pollution to triple by 2060 if no action is taken. Unfortunately, according to the United Nation's website, less than 9 percent of plastic actually gets recycled – though there is a reason for that, according to Amanda Morris, the head of the Virginia Tech’s Department of Chemistry.

“We make plastics to last from the perspective that many of them have to hold a liquid inside them that you don’t want coming out of a bottle. So they have to be relatively strong materials,” Morris said. “The bonds that hold the polymer together and give us that strength and give us the properties of the bottles that we use are also really hard to break, and so it’s just trying to come up with ways to do it in an energy efficient manner where you get clean product.

“The other thing is that those polymers can degrade into many different things. Are there ways that we can get it to one specific product that then could actually be used downstream again? I think those are some of the things that we’ve struggled with.”

Liu and his team have come up with a way to break those bonds, but now potentially comes the hard part – scaling up the system and making it a continuous one, while, more importantly, making it cost effective.

His is the plight of many researchers. They often find solutions to issues, but those solutions can come with hefty price tags, often resulting in the solutions remaining on the sidelines. Liu said industries have expressed interest in upscaling this process, but any effort, energy, and investment needs to result in profitability.

Liu said he is seeking help from the community to test a business model. This involves securing capital needed to build a reactor to run continuously in his lab, or perhaps creating a private offsite start-up company to test the ramping up of his process. Yes, soap can be created from a few pieces of plastic, but can tons of plastic generate soaps and detergents profitably?

“There will be a lot of demand on our end to further derisk the process,” Liu said. “We have to derisk it so they [businesses] can see real value out of it, and they can potentially adopt it.

“My estimate is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range to test this. The good thing is that we’re training talented students and postdocs in this lab right now. They will be the ones who can potentially carry on this process in the future. But we definitely need more resources, especially funds, to build reactors and test the reactors.”

Back-end challenges aside, Morris remains optimistic about Liu’s findings and their future impacts. She welcomes opportunities to publicize his efforts tackling the plastics problem and discussing the chemistry department’s efforts in meeting this challenge as part of Virginia Tech’s Global Distinction ambitions.

“I think that any time that we can make our science accessible to the broader public, including our alumni and friends, it’s incredibly beneficial,” Morris said. “It’s beneficial for them to see the impact that we’re having not just as Hokies, but also that they can have by investing further in the Virginia Tech mission.

“The goal is really to take Greg’s technology, make modifications based on what we understand fundamentally about the process, and then make it even more energy efficient and more beneficial to industry. The other thing is that Greg’s technology is for a few polymer classes [with a recycle code of 2, 4, and 5], so can we apply that to other polymer classes? Are there ways where we can increase the reach of the technology? That has me excited as well.”

Liu doesn’t view himself as a pioneer, although, in this case, he truly is a pioneer of converting plastic waste to soap. Instead, he views himself as someone contributing a small piece to the solution of a global problem that requires everyone’s diligence. He said he welcomes more involvement from the scientific and industrial community.

In other words, science needs more collaboration on this problem. The stakes are too high without it.

“It’s no longer enough to be like, ‘Oh, I can play with my cool chemistry in the laboratory, and I can magically generate something out of it, and then I’m good enough,’” Liu said. “That is surely cool, but that isn’t the real solution to the pressing problem of plastic crisis.

“I hope, down the road, we find a solution, and I hope plastic is no longer a problem to worry about. I hope, in time, society will take care of all these waste materials. We can generate useful chemicals and materials from waste, and hopefully we can close the loop of carbon and plastics. That is my dream. I believe we can achieve it, but it’s going to take a while. With everyone’s will, we will solve it.”

---

Journal

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-024-01464-x 

Article Publication Date

18-Nov-2024

 

Why substitute sugar with maple syrup?

First human clinical trial explores how replacing refined sugars with pure maple syrup can help in preventing metabolic disease

Ellen LaNicca Fearless PR

 

image: 

Dr. Andre Marette, PhD, was the lead scientist for first human trial substituting refined sugars with pure maple syrup. The study found significant improvement in multiple cardiometabolic risk factors.   

view more 

Credit: Maple From Canada

Quebec, CA, November 18, 2024 – A new study published in the The Journal of Nutrition, found that substituting two tablespoons of pure maple syrup for refined sugars reduced several cardiometabolic risk factors in humans.  It was the first placebo-controlled clinical trial exploring potential health benefits of maple syrup in humans.

“We know from decades of research that maple syrup is more than just sugar. It contains over 100 natural compounds, including polyphenols, that are known to prevent disease in part through their anti-inflammatory effects,” remarked Dr. André Marette, PhD, and lead scientist on the study.  “Because the fundamental chemistry of maple syrup is unique, I wondered if ingesting maple syrup instead of an equivalent amount of refined sugar would differently impact the cardiometabolic health and the intestinal microbiota in humans.  The results were extremely encouraging. I did not expect to see so many improvements of risk factors within a relatively short treatment period.”   

The study was conducted by a Laval University team led by Dr. André Marette, PhD, at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute and Dr. Marie-Claude Vohl, PhD, at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods.

Study Protocol

Forty-two volunteers from the greater Québec city area, between the ages of 18-75 in good health, and with a BMI of 23-40, participated in the study. Participants substituted 5% of their daily caloric intake (corresponding to 2 tablespoons) from refined sugars with either Canadian maple syrup or an artificially flavored sucrose syrup. Each phase lasted 8 weeks with participants switching between maple syrup and sucrose syrup groups after a four-week washout period. The cross-over design ensured that the same test subject was his or her own control, consuming both placebo and maple syrup. Primary outcomes focused on the oral glucose tolerance test, the OGTT.  Secondary outcomes included changes in blood lipid profile, blood pressure, body fat composition (measured by DEXA scan) and changes in gut microbiota composition.  

Maple, the Smarter Sweetener, Improves Multiple Cardiometabolic Risk Factors

Blood Sugar Lowered

Study participants who consumed pure maple syrup had an improved response to the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) than those who received a flavored syrup of refined sugar. Their bodies managed blood sugar levels better after eating (-50.59 vs. +29.93).

Blood Pressure Lowered

Blood pressure was also lowered in the subjects who consumed maple syrup during the trial.  Systolic blood pressure decreased significantly in the maple syrup group (-2.72 mm Hg) while it increased slightly in the sucrose group (+0.87 mm Hg). “Lowering blood pressure continues to be an important factor in lessening the risk of cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Marette commented. “Natural sweeteners, such as pure maple syrup, when substituted for refined sugars, can be part of an overall solution in helping to prevent metabolic diseases.”

Abdominal Fat Reduced

Visceral fat is the deep fat that wraps around the internal organs in your belly.  It can increase an individual’s risk of serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and stroke. The maple syrup trial showed that android fat mass, the fat in the abdominal region, significantly decreased in the maple syrup group as compared to an increase in the group consuming the sucrose solution (-7.83 g vs. +67.61 g).

Healthier Gut

An unexpected discovery was the improved levels of potentially beneficial gut bacteria and a decrease in levels of potentially harmful gut bacteria in the maple syrup participants. The study showed a reduction in Klebsiella species and Bacteroides pectinophilus, which are linked to inflammation and metabolic disorders, and the increased growth of beneficial bacteria like Lactocaseibacillus casei and Clostridium beijerinckii.

“Both individually and collectively, the study findings are quite significant,” Dr. Marette noted.  “The combined decrease of such key risk factors may help to reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Making a commitment to lifestyle changes and small adjustments to our everyday diets is important and can be a powerful tool in preventing future diseases.”

According to one participant: “Before the study, I would consume pure maple products regularly but not consistently. I have always enjoyed it. Today my routine is to replace refined sugars with 2 tablespoons of pure Canadian maple syrup daily.”

First Human Trial Builds Upon American Researcher’s Cellular and Animal Studies

Dr. Marette’s clinical study builds upon his own work in animal models of diabetes and previous work on maple syrup and its bioactives by  American scientist Navindra P. Seeram, PhD, of the University of Rhode Island, College of Pharmacy. Dr. Seeram’s extensive foundational work with maple syrup set the stage for this first human clinical trial. “With each new study, we learn more benefits that natural products from medicinal plants and functional foods, like maple syrup, provide.” noted Dr. Seeram. “The significant promising results of this first human trial provide more reasons for us to educate consumers about maple syrup’s many health benefits. It is truly a ‘smarter sweetener’ and a healthier alternative to refined sugar.”

“While this study was limited to a relatively small sample size (42 men and women) and took place during a relatively short duration of time, the results are still significant,” Dr. Marette remarked.  “We now have human evidence to support replacing refined sugars with maple syrup, a natural sweetener, for preventing metabolic diseases.  Our next goal is to conduct larger studies with other populations to explore how replacing refined sugars with maple syrup might impact their unique health conditions.”     

General nutrition claims for 2 tablespoons of maple syrup:

• Excellent source of manganese (35%).
• Good source of riboflavin (15%).
• Source of calcium (2%), thiamin (2%), potassium (2%) and copper (8%).
• It contains 12% fewer calories than in light corn syrup.
• By comparison, refined sugar requires a large amount of processing and therefore lacks any real nutritional value. 

The study was jointly funded by Québec Maple Syrup Producers and the Québec Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) through its healthy food production initiative, the Programme Alimentation santé.

To find out more about  this and other clinical studies about maple syrup, please visit ppaq.ca/en/medias/clinical-study.

The Québec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP) represent over 13,500 maple producers and 8,400 maple enterprises. Québec produces 72% of the world’s maple syrup and exports it to over 70 countries. 

  

In the first ever human clinical study, replacing refined sugars with the same amount of pure maple syrup for 5% of daily energy intake resulted in improved glycemic response, lower systolic blood pressure and reduced abdominal fat.  

Maple syrup provides functional food benefits for cardiometabolic health, when replacing refined sugars.  

Maple Syrup from Canada (IMAGE)

Ellen LaNicca Fearless PR

Maple syrup from Canada is an excellent source of manganese (35%), a good source of riboflavin (15%), calcium (2%), thiamin (2%) potassium (2%) and copper (8%) 

Credit

Maple from Canada

Journal

Journal of Nutrition

DOI

10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.08.014 

Method of Research

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Substituting Refined Sugars With Maple Syrup Decreases Key Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Individuals With Mild Metabolic Alterations: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Crossover Trial

COI Statement

The study was jointly funded by Quebec Maple Syrup Producers and the Quebec Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) through its healthy food production initiative, the Programme Alimentation sante.