This technology revolutionizes hydrogen production by using induction heating for catalytic methane decomposition, significantly increasing hydrogen yield.

Revolutionizing the upcycling of carboxylic acid-based chemical waste products to aldehyde derivatives using engineered biological systems.

This technology introduces a novel electrocatalyst design that significantly improves stability and activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic environments.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a sustainable alternative to Portland cement by utilizing alkali-activated binders (AAB) with biomass ash, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Introducing a groundbreaking orthogonal redox cofactor, NMN+, to revolutionize redox reaction control in biomanufacturing.

       Spectral machine vision collects both the spectral and spatial dependence (x,y,λ) of incident light, containing potentially useful information such as chemical composition or micro/nanoscale structure.  However, analyzing the dense 3D hypercubes of information produced by hyperspectral and multispectral imaging causes a data bottleneck and demands tradeoffs in spatial/spectral information, frame rate, and power efficiency. Furthermore, real-time applications like precision agriculture, rescue operations, and battlefields have shifting, unpredictable environments that are challenging for spectroscopy. A spectral imaging detector that can analyze raw data and learn tasks in-situ, rather than sending data out for post-processing, would overcome challenges. No intelligent device that can automatically learn complex spectral recognition tasks has been realized.       UC Berkeley researchers have met this opportunity by developing a novel photodetector capable of learning to perform machine learning analysis and provide ultimate answers in the readout photocurrent. The photodetector automatically learns from example objects to identify new samples. Devices have been experimentally built in both visible and mid-infrared (MIR) bands to perform intelligent tasks from semiconductor wafer metrology to chemometrics. Further calculations indicate 1,000x lower power consumption and 100x higher speed than existing solutions when implemented for hyperspectral imaging analysis, defining a new intelligent photodetection paradigm with intriguing possibilities.

An innovative reactor design that converts sunlight into hydrogen fuel efficiently and cost-effectively.

      Quantum sensing is rapidly reshaping our ability to discern chemical processes with high sensitivity and spatial resolution. Many quantum sensors are based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, with nanodiamonds (NDs) providing a promising approach to chemical quantum sensing compared to single crystals for benefits in cost, deployability, and facile integration with the analyte. However, high-precision chemical quantum sensing suffers from large statistical errors from particle heterogeneity, fluorescence fluctuations related to particle orientation, and other unresolved challenges.      To overcome these obstacles, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a novel microfluidic chemical quantum sensing device capable of high-precision, background-free quantum sensing at high-throughput. The microfluidic device solves problems with heterogeneity while simultaneously ensuring close interaction with the analyte. The device further yields exceptional measurement stability, which has been demonstrated over >103s measurement and across ~105 droplets.  Greatly surpassing the stability seen in conventional quantum sensing experiments, these properties are also resistant to experimental variations and temperature shifts. Finally, the required ND sensor volumes are minuscule, costing only about $0.63 for an hour of analysis. 

Photosynthetic organisms use “soft” macromolecular assemblies for light absorption and concentration of electronic excitation energy. These generally work via an optically inactive protein-based backbone that acts as a host matrix for an array of light-harvesting pigment molecules. The pigments are organized in space such that excited states can migrate between molecules, ultimately delivering the energy to the reaction center. 

Prof. Charles Cai and colleagues from the University of California, Riverside have developed a method for high yield co-conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to produce high octane fuel additives dimethyl furan (DMF) and methyl furans (MF). This technology works by using Cu-Ni/TiO2, a unique catalytic material that enables high yield (~90%) conversion of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) and furfural (FF) sourced from lignocellulosic biomass into methylated furans (MF) in either single or co-processing schemes. This invention is advantageous compared to existing technologies due to its high yield and efficiency, low cost, and stable conversion process.   Fig 1: UCR’s furfural conversion and product yields as function of reaction time over Cu-Ni/TiO2.  

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed synthetic biochemical compounds that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or sources such as power plants. These new derivatives mimic how some plants capture carbon dioxide from the air and use it for photosynthesis.

The inventors have developed two new CasX gene-editing platforms (DpbCasXv2 and PlmCasXv2) through rationale structural engineering of the CasX protein and gRNA, which yield improved in vitro and in vivo behaviors. These platforms dramatically increase DNA cleavage activity and can be used as the basis for further improving CasX tools.The RNA-guided CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein CasX has been reported as a fundamentally distinct, RNA-guided platform compared to Cas9 and Cpf1. Structural studies revealed structural differences within the nucleotide-binding loops of CasX, with a compact protein size less than 1,000 amino acids, and guide RNA (gRNA) scaffold stem. These structural differences affect the active ternary complex assembly, leading to different in vivo and in vitro behaviors of these two enzymes.

Brief description not available

A system that enhances and accelerates enzyme evolution process for synthetic biology applications using microfluidic technology and fluorescent sensors.

Brief description not available

Fabricating materials from naturally occurring proteins that are inherently biocompatible enables the resulting material to be easily integrated with many downstream applications, ranging from batteries to transistors. In addition, protein-based materials are also advantageous because they can be physically tuned and specifically functionalized. Inventors have developed protein-based material from structural proteins such as reflectins found in cephalopods, a molluscan class that includes cuttlefish, squid, and octopus. In a space dominated by artificial, man-made proton-conducting materials, this material is derived from naturally occurring proteins.

The Liao group at UCLA has constructed a Non-Oxidative Glycolysis pathway for the synthesis of biofuel precursors with a 100% carbon conversion rate.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical Engineering have developed a new portable device to rapidly measure yeast cell viability and concentration using a lab-on-chip design.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a novel system for acetoin and 2,3-butanediol synthesis from carbon dioxide.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a novel group of enzymes with the potential to facilitate production of energy dense alcohols for use in biofuel and chemical production.

Cyanobacteria and other microalgae can be used as photosynthetic platforms to heterologously generate terpene hydrocarbons and other high-value bioproducts. In addition to being a renewable and biological means of synthesis, cyanobacteria can be grown in high-volume liquid cultures; and terpenes are key ingredients in synthetic chemistry, medical products, cosmetics, and potentially fuels. However, current approaches to generating terpene using microalgae exhibit slow rates of production.   To address these low production levels, researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a method to increase transgenic terpene synthase expression resulting in high rates and yields of terpene hydrocarbon synthesis.   In proof-of-principle experiments, this Berkeley method yielded 20-fold higher amounts of terpene product, which could be easily harvested by siphoning off the top of the culture.

A method of production of sugar oligosaccharides and sugar oligosaccharide adonic acids directly from inexpensive cellulosic biomass. Researchers have engineered a fungus that can directly produce sugar oligosaccharides and/or sugar oligosaccharide adonic acids from cellulose without any addition of exogenous cellulase. Sugar oligosccahride adonic acids are valuable chemicals numerous applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and chemical industries. Sugar oligosaccharides can be used as feedstock for further fuels and chemicals production.

Generating fuel and chemicals from the photosynthesis of cyanobacteria has great potential – especially in comparison to other approaches to producing biofuels. However, improving the efficiency of the cyanobacteria photosynthetic process is necessary to lowering the production costs of the resulting biofuel – so that it is more cost-competitive with conventional fuels. To address this opportunity, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a novel approach to improving the photosynthetic efficiency of cyanobacteria. This Berkeley innovation is based on minimizing the phycobilisome light-harvesting antenna, and it has shown an increase in the saturation of photosynthesis by a factor of about two. This increase in efficiency in a population of cells would decrease the cost associated with producing isoprene, beta-phellandrene, and other chemicals from cyanobacteria photosynthesis.

Researchers from the UCLA have designed a cell-free system capable of producing fatty acids at a rate that is an order of magnitude higher than normal cell culture systems.

To employ energy-efficient processes for wastewater treatment while simultaneously recovering the energy contained as organic matter in wastewater would be incredibly beneficial to the environment. It has been demonstrated that utilizing microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology can generate energy, such as electricity. A MFC, or biological fuel cell, is a bioelectrochemical system that drives a current by mimicking bacterial interactions found in nature. These devices use electrogenic bacteria to oxidize  organic matter and then transfer the electrons to an electrode to generate electrical energy. UCSC researchers have been pursuing methods to enhance, harness, and utilize the energy produced directly from the degradation of organic matter in a microbial fuel cell.