Transforming waste to wealth: Harnessing carbon dioxide for sustainable solutions

The escalating levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions present a critical challenge to global sustainability, considering that CO2 is the primary cause of climate change. This dilemma presents a unique opportunity: converting waste CO₂ into useful resources. This review provides an in-depth analysis of CO₂ sources and waste streams, examining their potential as feedstocks for various industrial processes. By reviewing cutting-edge conversion technologies—such as catalysis, electrochemical, and photochemical methods—this work emphasizes how revolutionary ideas in Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) can play a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while generating both environmental and economic advantages. Through a systematic review of case studies and success stories in Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU), the review illustrates the practical viability of these technologies. Additionally, the challenges facing CCU implementation, including economic, technical, and policy-related barriers, are explored. The review fills a critical gap by providing a comprehensive overview of both the current state and future potential of CO₂ utilization. Finally, it outlines future directions, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary approaches, policy frameworks, and technological advancements to fully realize the potential of harnessing CO₂ for sustainable solutions

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

CO2 reforming of CH4 on mesoporous alumina‑supported cobalt catalyst: optimization of lanthana promoter loading

The impact of La2O3 promoter loading on alumina-supported cobalt catalysts was investigated in terms of physicochemical properties and catalytic performance for CO2 reforming of methane (CRM) at stoichiometric CH4/CO2 ratio and 1023 K. Both Co3O4 (with crystal size: 5.2–8.4 nm) and La2O3 nanoparticles were finely dispersed on support surface. The promotional La2O3 effect could noticeably increase CH4 and CO2 conversions to 29.3% and 17.3%, correspondingly due to improved basic site concentration and decreasing crystallite size of active metal in association with promoter addition. 5%La loading was an optimal promoter content for reactant conversions as well as yield of H2 and CO. 5%La-10%Co/Al2O3 also exhibited the highest resistance to carbon deposition owing to the basic nature, redox feature and oxygen vacancy of La2O3 dopant. Notably, the H2/CO ratio obtained within 0.84–0.98 is preferable for Fischer-Tropsch reaction in downstream to yield liquid hydrocarbon fuels