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Frequently, hazardous bacteria left on plates, bowls, and silverware are not completely destroyed by conventional dishwashers. They also need lengthy cycle periods, which consume a lot of electricity, and the soap is pumped in and out, which pollutes the environment. Dishwashers that use superheated steam might be a better, more sustainable option. Researchers from the Technical Universities of Dortmund and Munich modelled such a dishwasher for Physics of Fluids and discovered that it eliminated 99% of bacteria on a plate in just 25 seconds. A box with solid side walls, a top opening, and a nozzle at the bottom represents the idealized dishwasher. Above the nozzle is a plate with a heat-resistant strain of bacteria on it. In the simulation, the microbes are considered inactivated after the plate hits a specific threshold temperature. "At an extremely high velocity, steam emerges from the nozzle. We can observe shocks, and the resulting turbulent flow has eddies and vortices "...

There is some good news if you've been depressed by recent revelations that dangerous man-made chemicals known as PFAS, which may persist for thousands of years and make even rainfall unfit to drink, have completely invaded Earth's water supplies. Chemists at UCLA and Northwestern University have created a straightforward method to degrade over a dozen different kinds of these "forever compounds" at relatively low temperatures without creating any negative consequences. In a paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers demonstrate that in water heated to just 176 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit, common, inexpensive solvents and reagents severed some of the strongest known PFAS molecular bonds, starting a chemical reaction that "gradually nibbled away at the molecule" until it was gone, according to Kendall Houk, distinguished research professor at UCLA and co-corresponding author. There is no upper limit to the amount of water that may be handled ...

There is some good news if you've been depressed by recent revelations that dangerous man-made chemicals known as PFAS, which may persist for thousands of years and make even rainfall unfit to drink, have completely invaded Earth's water supplies. Chemists at UCLA and Northwestern University have created a straightforward method to degrade over a dozen different kinds of these "forever compounds" at relatively low temperatures without creating any negative consequences. In a paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers demonstrate that in water heated to just 176 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit, common, inexpensive solvents and reagents severed some of the strongest known PFAS molecular bonds, starting a chemical reaction that "gradually nibbled away at the molecule" until it was gone, according to Kendall Houk, distinguished research professor at UCLA and co-corresponding author. There is no upper limit to the amount of water that may be handled ...