PET recycling impact
Meeting US recycled plastics content goals by 2030 would significantly alter the region’s PET resin and upstream aromatics markets. The impact would be most felt in the PET resin market, with less of an effect on the upstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and paraxylene (PX) markets – although the influence would still be significant.
Applied chemistry
Silk materials that can wrinkle into highly detailed patterns, including words, textures and images as intricate as a QR code or a fingerprint, are now available (Y. Wang, B. J. Kim, B. Peng, W. Li, Y. Wang, M. Li, F. G. Omenetto; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911563116).
Organic chemistry
Harnessing the power and selectivity of enzymes in organic chemistry has been for many years an evergreen topic, but recent advances that have made gene and protein sequencing far less expensive, and annotated protein sequences far more extensively available, have opened up new opportunities.
Quality from LIMS
Trish Meek & Abigail Orozco from Thermo Fisher Scientific describe how a LIMS improved quality and regulatory compliance at a Chilean oil and gas supplier
Risky climate
Climate change has impacts across the globe. One of the most damaging is that it can suppress food production, with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) anticipating widespread yield declines of 10 to 20% by 2050. Anthony King reports