On cocoa farms around the world, cocoa beans are pulled from their pods, and the hard husks are discarded, leaving some 20 million tons of plant waste to biodegrade and potentially harm future crops.

WSU researchers have developed a novel method that extracts lignin in its native form from wheat straw with high yield and purity, overcoming challenges of heterogeneity usually associated with lignin ...

As demand for electric vehicles soars, scientists are searching for materials to make sustainable batteries. Lignin, the stuff that makes trees woody, is shaping up to be a strong contender. About ...

Carbon is money. Nowhere is this more evident than in our dependence on hydrocarbons in the form of fossil fuels. Scientists and engineers have been grappling with the question of what alternate ...

As the demand for advanced wound healing and drug delivery materials grows, scientists are turning to sustainable, bioactive materials for innovative solutions. A recent study by Bowei Wang et al., ...

Researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a "top-down" synthetic microbiome strategy to enrich microbial consortia capable of efficient lignin ...

But a great hair day doesn’t always require fancy products. Sipponen recalls his experiences after taking a dip in lakes filled with brown-hued water. “It’s amazing,” he says. “When you swim, you ...

Lignin is the rigid polymer that gives trees their strength. The paper industry usually treats lignin as a low-value by-product because it’s too dark to print on. If you coat white paper with standard ...