GlobalSpec

Researchers from Rice University and Vanderbilt University have developed an electrochemical ion pumping (EIP) platform that simultaneously desalinates industrial wastewater and selectively captures heavy metals. This single-step platform, which can also clean industrial brine and can harvest pure, reusable metals directly from toxic waste, promises to offer an alternative to existing methods, such as reverse osmosis and chemical precipitation.

GlobalSpec News Desk | August 14, 2026 Automated, economical and reliable handling of sensitive and geometrically irregular products: Schmalz is expanding its portfolio with the finger gripper mGrip Basic and the control module SRCU Basic. This makes automation available even where a high degree of flexibility and cost-efficiency is required.

An opportunity for enhancing the energy efficiency of green hydrogen generation via photocatalytic water splitting has been advanced by researchers from Zhoukou Normal University (China), RMIT University (Australia) and Xinyang University (China). The process is based on the use of an upgraded titanium dioxide (TiO2) catalyst to optimize the adsorption and activation energy of water, offering a low-cost path to increased hydrogen evolution.

S. Himmelstein | August 12, 2026 An illustration of the thermal treatment process that transforms heterogeneous plastic waste into a biomass-like hydrogen source, enabling hydrogen production without carbon dioxide emissions. Source: Younghee Lee/CUBE3D Graphic Instead of becoming a persistent environmental pollutant or requiring complex, energy-intensive processes for recycling, plastic waste can represent a source of hydrogen production.

Ammonia rarely makes headlines, but much of modern life depends on it. The compound of nitrogen and hydrogen is the key ingredient in the fertilizers that help feed roughly half of the world’s population. It is also attracting serious attention as a carbon-free fuel for ships, power plants and heavy industry. The problem is how we make it.

At IMTS 2026, SMW Autoblok will be featuring the SLX Digit vise: a hydraulic long-stroke vise featuring integrated sensor technology that is built for automated quick jaw changes. Ideal for precision machining and robotic automation, it offers self-centering clamping, extra-long jaw strokes and a fully sealed design for low maintenance.

A new platform technology that enables medical patches, wound dressings, soft robotics and wearable health devices to stay in place longer while simultaneously delivering treatment and monitoring healing has been developed by a team from the University of Newcastle.

Maintenance in traditional industrial fluid handling systems comes in one of two flavors — either the equipment runs until it breaks (reactive maintenance) or maintenance is performed at a scheduled time, either based on operating hours or some other time-based metric (preventive maintenance (PM)). Each has significant disadvantages, so with the advent of the industrial internet of things (IIoT), a third, more proactive method is increasingly being adopted — predictive maintenance (PdM).

GlobalSpec News Desk | August 07, 2026 A global air wellness brand has developed what it suggests is the world’s first biobased wool filter for air purifiers Blueair, alongside Lanaco, a New Zealand-based wool technology company, created a bio-based, USDA-certified wool filter that uses biodegradable alternatives. Source: Blueair "At Blueair, technology decisions are driven by measurable user value.

Marie Donlon | August 07, 2026 A team from the University of Wollongong (UOW) has built an inexpensive device that is capable of identifying disease-carrying mosquitoes based on the sound of their wingbeats. The device — which promises to offer a rapid alternative to existing surveillance methods used for tracking malaria and dengue — relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to identify mosquitoes belonging to three of the most significant disease-carrying groups: Aedes, Anopheles and Culex.