Themed collection Editor-in-Chief’s choice – Karen Wilson

The use of renewable fuels will exacerbate nitrogen oxide emissions, damaging the climate, environment, and human health. Sustainable technologies in development must replace current abatement techniques.

Single-atom catalysis for lignocellulosic biomass refinery for fuels and chemicals provides a new insight and improved catalytic performances for the sustainable development of the society.

The preparation and utilization of hydrogen (H₂) energy rely on the water splitting and fuel cell technology, specifically involving the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), respectively.

Electrocatalytic aldehyde oxidation, which has low oxidation potentials, has emerged as a promising anodic reaction to be coupled with a diversity of electroreduction reactions.

Complex and heterogeneous aromatic structures present limitless opportunities for the valorization of abundant residual lignin resources in nature and industry.

This is the first comprehensive review of the impact of water impurities on PEM, AEM, and alkaline water electrolysers.

Glycol-based deep eutectic solvents were used to peel cathode materials in spent lithium-ion batteries. Under optimized reaction conditions, the separation efficiency of ethylene glycol-potassium acetate deep eutectic solvent was nearly 100%.

Mechanochemically synthesized materials show competitive performance in selective photooxidation. The study includes comprehensive characterization, light–matter interaction modeling, and quantum efficiency calculations.

In this paper, we analyze the cost-optimality of transporting eight liquid or gaseous green energy carriers, including H₂, via pipelines and shipping, over distances from 250 to 3000 km.

Fast pyrolysis of woody materials is a technology pathway for producing renewable fuels and chemicals.

Reaction pathway for one-step synthesis of 2-cyclopentylcyclopentanone from cyclopentanone over NiO-Co₃O₄/TiO₂ is first proposed. The sequence for appearance of active sites is first acid–base active sites, followed by hydrogenation active site.

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a green oxidant and potential energy carrier. Using iron oxide nanoparticles in a photo-flow reactor, an improved H₂O₂ production of >14× over batch conditions was obtained, achieving solutions of 0.02 wt% H₂O₂.

This study aimed to investigate the desulphurisation of model biodiesel with thiophene using three solvents: sulfolane, ionic liquids ([BMIM]AlCl₄, [BMIM]MSA), and deep eutectic solvents (choline chloride : phenol, ChCl : polyethylene glycol).

Ethanol can be catalytically upgraded to drop-in diesel fuel.

trans-Nerolidol was converted into high-performance sustainable aviation fuel by a combination of ring-closing olefin metathesis, dehydration, and hydrogenation. The fuels exhibited exceptional gravimetic energy density and low viscosity.

Guaiacol, a key building block of lignin, which is the intricate glue that holds biomass, was transformed into cyclohexanol, an industrial chemical used as a solvent, nylon precursor, and plasticizer over a Co/CoO catalyst.

A low-cost bimetallic bifunctional 5–5 wt% FeNi/H-Beta-300 catalyst was investigated in solventless hydrodeoxygenation of lignin-derived model compounds isoeugenol or dihydroeugenol in batch and continuous modes.

Glucose electrochemical oxidation toward gluconic and glucaric acids over innovative NiO/Ni 3D foam, a mechanism investigation.

Jet fuel-range C₁₄ and C₁₅ dicycloalkanes are synthesized for the first time with creosol and formaldehyde, two platform compounds that can be derived from lignocellulose.