4th generation X-ray brilliance and nanoscale microscopy reveal clearest crystalline form

To capture extraordinary nanoscale details in crystallography takes the powerful coherent flux of a 4th generation light source. Recent work in Light: Science & Applications by an international research team has revealed 3D images of a complex crystalline star structure using Bragg ptychography and new advanced analysis tools at MAX IV’s NanoMAX beamline. The results demonstrate the possibility of unprecedented data quality beyond experimental limitations from new synchrotron sources.

HALOS – A unique collaboration in Life Science

A new EU project in the program area Öresund-Kattegatt-Skagerak (ÖKS) has been approved. The Hanseatic League of Science (HALOS) will build a unique collaboration between Hamburg and South-West Scandinavia, bring together the four unique research facilities MAX IV, ESS, DESY and European XFEL, and create a centre for integrated, world-leading Life Science innovation and research.

Designing a Model Catalyst for Large-Scale Biofuel Production

The future of efficient biofuel production is within reach. With measurements from MAX IV’s SPECIES beamline, a group from Lund University and RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden, has successfully developed a model catalyst that, once tuned, holds the potential to significantly improve the treatment process for the large-scale manufacture of viable biofuels from lignin. Lignin is a plant polymer only secondary in abundance to cellulose in nature.

The role of synthesis gas in tomorrow’s sustainable fuels

In a new publication in Nature Communications, a team from the Dutch company Syngaschem BV and the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research elucidates for the first time some aspects of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, used for converting synthesis gas into synthetic fuels. Analysis performed at the HIPPIE beamline at MAX IV was instrumental to achieving these results.

Identifying chemical content to increase the usefulness of solid waste ashes

Fortum Waste Solutions, Sysav, Eon, Stena and NOAH, in collaboration with Researchers from RISE and Chalmers, used beamline Balder to identify chemical species of copper and zinc in ashes that remain after burning solid waste. Not all forms of the metals in ashes pose the same risk to the environment. Therefore, more detailed knowledge can increase the possible uses of the ashes.

COOL sustainability more than a pipe dream in Lund

Sustainability measures, when applied intelligently, bolster societal productivity and deliver tangible improvements to the natural environment. Some argue that world economies cannot survive the impacts of business as usual in terms of pollution and high energy demands. In Lund, sustainability in work and life is a consistent aim, and in the most constructive way with COOL DH—the build project for the world’s largest low temperature district heating grid—nearing completion.

Scientists succeed in soaking protein guests into host crystals – a major step towards solving guest structures

A group of researchers have successfully soaked proteins into large protein crystals, marking a hitherto never reported achievement. The X-ray diffraction data, which were collected on MAX IV’s BioMAX beamline, indicate that the guest proteins could follow at least some of the hosts’ structures signifying a so far unparalleled step towards using crystallographic methods to solve guest protein structures. Such insights could pave the way for major advances in biotechnology, material science, and structural studies.