Energy and the environment are two of the most important issues this century. More than 80 % of our energy comes from the combustion of fossil fuels, which will still remain the dominant energy source for years to come. It is agreed that carbon dioxide produced from the combustion process to be the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas leading to global warming. Atmospheric CO(2) concentrations have indeed increased by almost 100 ppm since their pre-industrial level, reaching 384 ppm in 2007 with a total annual emission of over 35 Gt. Prompt global action to resolve the CO(2) crisis is therefore needed. To pursue such an action, we are urged to save energy without the unnecessary production of carbon emissions and to use energy in more efficient ways, but alternative methods to mitigate the greenhouse gas have to be considered. This Minireview highlights some recent promising research activities and their prospects in the areas of carbon capture and storage and chemical fixation of CO(2) in constructing a future low-carbon global economy with reference to energy source, thermodynamic considerations, net carbon emissions and availability of reagents.

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Catalytic coupling of carbon dioxide with epoxide to cyclic carbonate is an important reaction that has recently been receiving renewed interest. This route allows the use of carbon dioxide as a greener chemical feedstock, which challenges the current practices for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates and derivatives. The present study is mainly concerned with catalytic coupling reaction between CO(2) and propylene oxide using organic amine as catalyst. The structural aspects of amines and the effects of their immobilization on solid surfaces on reaction kinetics are particularly studied. It is found that 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4,4,0]dec-5-ene (TBD) amine maintains high catalytic activity both with and without solid support, but other primary amines, such as p-phenylenediamine give much reduced activity when placed on a solid surface. It is attributed to the absence of surface hydrogen in the supported TBD, prohibiting the catalyst sites from CO(2) poisoning. The coupling of other epoxides, including epichlorohydrin and styrene oxide over the solid supported amine, is also briefly carried out. Reaction mechanisms are proposed to explain the experimental observations.

Biopesticides are biological pest control agents that are viewed as safer alternatives to the synthetic chemicals that dominate the global insecticide market. A major constraint on the wider adoption of biopesticides is their susceptibility to the ultraviolet (UV: 290-400 nm) radiation in sunlight, which limits their persistence and efficacy. Here, we describe a novel formulation technology for biopesticides in which the active ingredient (baculovirus) is micro-encapsulated in an ENTOSTAT wax combined with a UV absorbant (titanium dioxide, TiO 2). Importantly, this capsule protects the sensitive viral DNA from degrading in sunlight, but dissolves in the alkaline insect gut to release the virus, which then infects and kills the pest. We show, using simulated sunlight, in both laboratory bioassays and trials on cabbage and tomato plants, that this can extend the efficacy of the biopesticide well beyond the few hours of existing virus formulations, potentially increasing the spray interval and/or reducing the need for high application rates. The new formulation has a shelf-life at 30 °C of at least 6 months, which is comparable to standard commercial biopesticides and has no phytotoxic effect on the host plants. Taken together, these findings suggest that the new formulation technology could reduce the costs and increase the efficacy of baculovirus biopesticides, with the potential to make them commercially competitive alternatives to synthetic chemicals. Baculoviruses are dsDNA viruses that infect insects and have, since the 1980s, been used in crop protection as commercial biological insecticides 1,2. Baculoviruses are seen as attractive biological control agents against insect crop pests for many reasons: they have a long and detailed history of research, so basic knowledge of their taxonomy, biology and pathogenicity is available 3 ; they have an established profile of safety and environmental acceptability 4 ; they are highly efficacious pathogens of some of the world's most important crop pests, such as the various Heliothis / Helicoverpa species, Spodoptera spp. and Plutella xylostella 5 ; and, finally, their use as biological pesticides is feasible because commercially-viable mass production systems are well advanced for many baculoviruses 6. These factors have motivated the establishment of a growing commercial production of baculovirus insecticides in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa 5,7. Moreover, biopesticides are now seen as a major candidate for replacing the many chemical pesticides that have been, and continue to be, withdrawn from the market due to safety concerns 5,8 , and/or where the insect pests have developed resistance to conventional chemical pesticides 9. Baculovirus products, however, still represent only a $50-70 million per annum sector of a global biopesticides market estimated to be worth $2.8 billion dollars a year 10. While a number of factors have been identified as restricting the adoption and expansion of the use of baculovirus biopesticides by growers 5 , a centr...