Year: 2021

Yin Li and his team at the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have developed a simple synthetic pathway for enzymatic carbon fixation based on thermodynamic and kinetic calculations. The POAP cycle relies on only four enzymes involved, pyruvate carboxylase, oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase, acetate CoA ligase, and pyruvate synthase, achieves a CO2 fixation rate of 8.0 nmol CO2 per minute per mg of CO2-fixing enzymes, and still functions at 50 C under anaerobic conditions. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c04151

A research team led by LIU Jianguo from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that light-independent metabolic pathways, in addition to light-dependent metabolic pathways, can also regulate astaxanthin accumulation in Haematococcus.  The study will help to improve astaxanthin yields in photobioreactors. CAS news release, December 23, 2021

Methane is usually produced from petroleum by consortia of petrolem-degrading bacteria and methanobacteria. A team from Shenzhen University, the Chengdu Biogas Institute and the Max-Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology in Bremen has now isolated an archaebacterium from a oil reservoir surface which grows on petroleum in the absence of other petroleum degraders. Molecular analyses revealed that Candidatus Methanoliparum contains and overexpresses genes encoding alkyl-coenzyme M reductases and methyl-coenzyme M reductases, the marker genes for archaeal multicarbon alkane and methane metabolism. Incubation experiments with different substrates and mass spectrometric detection of coenzyme-M-bound intermediates confirm that Ca. Methanoliparum thrives not only on a variety of long-chain alkanes, but also on n-alkylcyclohexanes and n-alkylbenzenes with long n-alkyl (C≥13) moieties. In traditional recovery process, crude oil deep underground is recovered by the pressure of water or chemicals, but more than half of the deposits are difficult to recover and stay underground.  The wide distribution of Ca. Methanoliparum could lead to a new process where the crude oil could be degraded into methane leading to a mixed recovery of oil and methane with higher recovery efficiency. The exploitation life of depleted oil fields could thus be extended. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04235-2

According to a revised Law on Progress of Science and Technology, China will strongly support the goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. It also demands establishing and improving a sound laboratory system led by national laboratories, with national key laboratories as supporting forces. Regional sci-tech innovation will require all local administrations to leverage regional advantages to choose a development path with regional characteristics. At all levels, enterprises and institutions should improve the mechanism for training, assessing and motivating female scientists, care for female sci-tech workers during their nursing period, as well as encourage and support female sci-tech workers to play a greater role in sci-tech progress. Xinhua, December 24, 2021

According to the Ministry of Industry and information Technology MIIT, new regulations will encourage the recycling of batteries through cooperation of NEV and battery manufacturers, echelon utilisation enterprises and scrap automobile recycling companies. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers indicate that the cumulative NEV sales volume in China in the first 11 months of 2021 were close to 3 million, accounting for 12.7 percent of China’s total vehicle sales volume. The service life of the dominant lithium batteries is from five to eight years, while the effective life is four to six years. In 2020, about 200,000 to of batteries were decommissioned in China, and in 2025 the figure will rise to 780,000 to.  The following processes will be encouraged: use of decommissioned batteries for energy storage and power backup (echelon utilization), crushing and extraction of nickel, cobalt and lithium, waste utilisation and pollution control technologies during recycling As to the MIIT, by the end of October 2021 there were 10,000 battery recycling service outlets in China, operated by 171 enterprises Xinhua news release, December 16, 2021

WEN Liping and colleagues at the CAS Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology have developed a bionic graded porous adsorbent membrane based on an intrinsic microporous polymer. The decreasing pore size structure allows uranyl ions to diffuse rapidly in the membrane, and tests have shown that the graded porous membrane can increase the adsorption capacity up to 20 times. The amount of uranium in seawater is estimated at over 4 billion t, 1,000 times the amount of uranium reserves on land, but concentration in seawater is only ~3.3 ppb. CAS news release, December 6, 2021

According to an evaluation of the Ministry of Science and Technology MOST, the number of science and technology museums and science and technology museums nationwide increased to 1525 in 2020. Due to the influence of the new coronavirus, however, the number of visitors decreased by 53% to 115 million. Last year, a total of  98,5 popular science books were published, and 158 million science and technology newspapers, and 131 million popular science periodicals were issued. The broadcast time on science education on radio was 128,300 hours, and on television 164,600 hours. In addition, several thousand microblogs and WeChat accounts for science education were opened. Government Affairs: Rui Technology, November 23, 2021

Composite polyimide materials protect exterior surfaces of spacecraft in low Earth orbits from oxygen radicals, UV and high temperatures. Shuhong Yu’s team at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) took inspiration from the brick mortar microstructure of mother-of-pearl and combined PI with mica nanoplatelets to form a dispersion. Using spray coating and thermal curing, high mica density was achieved in the top layer. The double-layer PI mica film was much harder. China Science News, Dec. 1, 2021