The future looks good for greener passenger transport in Africa
By 2040, battery-powered electric vehicles and solar off-grid charging may provide a cost-effective solution for low-emission personal road transport in Africa. Such a future could be sped up if governments and global financial institutions introduce climate orientated policies and financial incentives that help lower car prices and expand charging infrastructure.
A paper in Nature Energy1 involving researchers from Switzerland, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa considered the economic cost and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of low-carbon passenger transport by 2040 in 52 African countries. The work provides quantitative data on the economic viability and life-cycle emissions of low-carbon passenger vehicles in Africa, where motorization is increasing.
The researchers do not expect synthetic fuel vehicles to feature in Africa’s transport future, but are optimistic that falling battery and solar photovoltaic manufacturing costs will lead to more electric vehicles on the continent’s roads.
Aloe vera gel and the search for viable carbon dots
Aloe vera gel could be a viable, sustainable ingredient in the manufacturing of carbon dots. Researchers from Tanta University, the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, and the Kafrelsheikh University published in Scientific Reports2 about their search for sustainable, highly fluorescent materials that can be used in bioimaging, biosensing, and drug delivery applications.
Carbon dots are considered by researchers in the sensing and biosensing fields as sustainable alternatives to the metal-based quantum dots currently used in such applications. Key features are their distinctive photoluminescence, specific chemical and electronic properties, biocompatibility, and minimal toxicity.
The Egyptian researchers involved in the Scientific Reports study produced a sustainable carbon precursor from aloe gel through a green one-step hydrothermal synthesis process. They tested the impact of different reaction temperatures and timeframes on the end product. The best results were found after synthesising the gel for 12 hours at 240°C.
Did ancient Egyptians quarry granite with washing soda?
Miners in ancient Egypt may have used molten sodium carbonate, also known as washing soda or soda ash, to quarry hard granite rock and to crack massive blocks into more manageable sizes, according to research published in NPJ Heritage Science3.
Granite was widely used three to four millennia ago to craft Egyptian monuments such as the standing statue of Ramses II in Giza and the King’s Chamber in Khufu’s Pyramid.
The study was inspired by a wall painting in Rekhmire’s burial site in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings of a group of Egyptians. They are seen heating an unknown substance in a kiln and then pouring a red liquid on a red rectangular block.
While millennia of weathering, rainfall, and sand abrasion may have removed most traces of sodium carbonate and sodium silicate from the original quarry surfaces, future research could examine quarrying tools or worked granite objects for mineral residues, thereby providing new evidence for reconstructing ancient Egyptian quarrying procedures, temperature-control practices, and material-use strategies, according to the study authors.
