Bioscience engineers at KU Leuven, Belgium, already knew how to make gasoline in the laboratory from plant waste such as sawdust. Now the researchers have developed a roadmap, as it were, for industrial cellulose gasoline. In 2014, at KU Leuven’s Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, researchers succeeded in converting sawdust into building blocks for…
Unravelling the Atomic and Nuclear Structure of the Heaviest Elements
Little is known about the heaviest, radioactive elements in Mendeleev’s table. But an extremely sensitive technique involving laser light and gas jets makes it possible for the very first time to gain insight into their atomic and nuclear structure. An international team led by scientists from the Institute for Nuclear and Radiation Physics at KU…
Falsifying Galileo Satellite Signals Will Become More Difficult
The European Union activated its Galileo satellite navigation system in December 2016. The EU is dedicated to setting this system apart from other navigation systems such as GPS — the US counterpart of Galileo. Researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering at KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium) have now risen to this challenge as…
Producing Biodegradable Plastic Just Got Cheaper & Greener
Biodegradable drinking cups or vegetable wrapping foil: the bioplastic known as polylactic acid (PLA) is already a part of our everyday lives. And yet, PLA is not yet considered a full alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics, as it is costly to produce. Researchers from the KU Leuven Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis now present…