Month: January 2026

– This year’s Prevent Blindness “It Started With an Eye Exam” campaign shares patient testimonials on how eye exams saved sight and improved quality of life –

CHICAGO, Jan. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Prevent Blindness, the nation’s leading patient advocacy organization dedicated to preventing blindness and preserving sight, is embarking on its second “It Started With an Eye Exam” campaign, aiming to spread awareness and encourage the public to share their stories on the positive impact of eye exams and treatment on their life. The “It Started With an Eye Exam” program is supported by a grant from Viatris Inc., a global healthcare company.

Starting on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, Prevent Blindness will begin sharing a new series of stories, including videos, on its various social media channels of those whose lives have been positively impacted through eye care and treatment. The public is invited to share their stories, using #ItStartedWithanEyeExam or submit their stories to Prevent Blindness for sharing at PreventBlindness.org/getting-professional-eye-care. 

Access to eye care may begin with a certified vision screening, such as those provided by Prevent Blindness and its network of affiliates. For individuals who do not pass a vision screening and are unable to afford care on their own, Prevent Blindness partners with leading companies, such as AEG Vision, EssilorLuxottica Foundation, VSP Vision, and Zenni, to provide vouchers for eye exams and prescription glasses.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, different types of eye exams include:

• Routine/General exams: These are like a routine physical or checkup for your eyes. These happen regularly for people with no eye conditions or those who need corrective lenses.
   
• Follow-up exams: This is a more specific type of exam, for example, follow up after a previous eye injury or procedure. People with certain chronic conditions, like diabetes, glaucoma, or macular degeneration, also need regular follow-up exams.
   
• Medical/Emergency exams: These happen when there might be an issue affecting your vision — especially an urgent one. Examples include an eye injury, sudden vision loss, or a head injury.

In addition to eye exams for vision correction, including prescriptions for eyeglasses or contact lenses, eye exams with dilation may detect eye diseases, such as glaucoma or macular degeneration. And, a comprehensive eye exam may also detect other health issues, such as brain stroke, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Dilation is a critical part of an eye exam that temporarily widens the pupil to allow the eye care provider to check the health of the back of the eye. Drops are available to un-dilate the eye faster, if needed.

Prevent Blindness provides a free directory of vision care financial assistance resources in English and Spanish at PreventBlindness.org/vision-care-financial-assistance-information. For glaucoma, Prevent Blindness offers a listing of glaucoma financial assistance programs at https://preventblindness.org/glaucoma-help.

“I know from personal experience the tremendous impact that access to quality eyecare has on everything, from success in the classroom as a child, to being able to maintian independence as an adult,” said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “Our ‘It Started With an Eye Exam’ campaign is designed to spread the word about how healthy vision improves lives across the age span of children, adults, and seniors.”

For general vision and eye health information, please visit PreventBlindness.org. 
To share your story through the It Started With an Eye Exam program, visit https://preventblindness.org/getting-professional-eye-care.

About Prevent Blindness
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening and training, community and patient service programs and research. These services are made possible through the generous support of the American public. Together with a network of affiliates, Prevent Blindness is committed to eliminating preventable blindness in America. For more information, visit us at PreventBlindness.org, and follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.

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SOURCE Prevent Blindness

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Jan. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — World-famous Laugh Factory Hollywood will host an America’s Got Talent Comedy Showcase on Wednesday, January 28 at 9:45 PM, featuring promising young comedians from across America.

The showcase will be led by four-time Emmy winner and comedy legend Howie Mandel, whose distinguished career also includes serving as a judge on America’s Got Talent, and hosting Deal or No Deal. He most recently starred in a Laugh Factory production, the motion picture Toad, directed by Adam Rifkin.

Mandel will guide the showcase. Standout performers may be selected as contestants for America’s Got Talent.

Laugh Factory has always been recognized for discovering and nourishing young comics. It is also a place where many of the greatest stars of comedy—such as Richard Pryor, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Tim Allen, Eddie Murphy, and Chris Rock—have come to refine their new material.

“Laugh Factory Hollywood is a place where fresh faces of comedy come to hone their acts,” said Howie Mandel. “I’m looking forward to enjoying some great standup comedy sets and discovering who is ready to take the next step to stardom.”

“We’re excited to host this special America’s Got Talent showcase,” said Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada. “I’ve watched Howie perform for four decades, and in all those years, I’ve never seen him have a bad show. Every time I see him, I laugh at everything he does, and so does the rest of his audience. He is simply a master comedian.”

Additional information is available at https://www.agtauditions.com/howie 

About Laugh Factory:
For more than 45 years, Laugh Factory has conducted community outreach efforts to help those in need, such as its Comedy Camp (which has helped thousands of kids (including Tiffany Haddish, Nick Cannon and Amanda Bynes) to increase their confidence and self-esteem. Laugh Factory also feeds thousands of people annually with its free Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts and comedy shows and has raised tens of millions of dollars for charitable organizations at its clubs around the nation. 

Laugh Factory • 8001 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90046 • www.laughfactory.com

Contact: Greg Waskul at gregwaskul@aol.com or (818) 926-0079
or Anne Edmond at pforpublicist@gmail.com or (917) 238-1229

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/laugh-factory-hollwood-to-host-americas-got-talent-comedy-showcase-starring-howie-mandel-on-wednesday-january-28th-302661024.html

SOURCE LAUGH FACTORY

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Jan. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — World-famous Laugh Factory Hollywood will host an America’s Got Talent Comedy Showcase on Wednesday, January 28 at 9:45 PM, featuring promising young comedians from across America.

The showcase will be led by four-time Emmy winner and comedy legend Howie Mandel, whose distinguished career also includes serving as a judge on America’s Got Talent, and hosting Deal or No Deal. He most recently starred in a Laugh Factory production, the motion picture Toad, directed by Adam Rifkin.

Mandel will guide the showcase. Standout performers may be selected as contestants for America’s Got Talent.

Laugh Factory has always been recognized for discovering and nourishing young comics. It is also a place where many of the greatest stars of comedy—such as Richard Pryor, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Tim Allen, Eddie Murphy, and Chris Rock—have come to refine their new material.

“Laugh Factory Hollywood is a place where fresh faces of comedy come to hone their acts,” said Howie Mandel. “I’m looking forward to enjoying some great standup comedy sets and discovering who is ready to take the next step to stardom.”

“We’re excited to host this special America’s Got Talent showcase,” said Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada. “I’ve watched Howie perform for four decades, and in all those years, I’ve never seen him have a bad show. Every time I see him, I laugh at everything he does, and so does the rest of his audience. He is simply a master comedian.”

Additional information is available at https://www.agtauditions.com/howie 

About Laugh Factory:
For more than 45 years, Laugh Factory has conducted community outreach efforts to help those in need, such as its Comedy Camp (which has helped thousands of kids (including Tiffany Haddish, Nick Cannon and Amanda Bynes) to increase their confidence and self-esteem. Laugh Factory also feeds thousands of people annually with its free Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts and comedy shows and has raised tens of millions of dollars for charitable organizations at its clubs around the nation. 

Laugh Factory • 8001 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90046 • www.laughfactory.com

Contact: Greg Waskul at gregwaskul@aol.com or (818) 926-0079
or Anne Edmond at pforpublicist@gmail.com or (917) 238-1229

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/laugh-factory-hollwood-to-host-americas-got-talent-comedy-showcase-starring-howie-mandel-on-wednesday-january-28th-302661024.html

SOURCE LAUGH FACTORY

CO280 CDR: A year defined by multi-megatonne contracts, project milestones, and global leadership

VANCOUVER, B.C., Jan. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CO280 Solutions Inc. (CO280), a leading developer of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., has been named on Cleantech Group’s 2026 Global Cleantech 100. This annual list recognizes companies poised to deliver market-ready climate solutions that advance a cleaner, more resilient global future.

For the 17^th edition, Cleantech Group collaborated with over 75 leading investors, corporates, and innovation experts to identify CO280 as one of the most promising companies in cleantech with 10+ projects in development and 4.3+ million tonnes of permanent CDR contracted to date.

2025 Year in Review: How CO280 accelerated the development of durable CDR at scale

CO280 retrofits pulp and paper mills with modular carbon capture units to capture and permanently store biogenic CO2, delivering a method of high-quality, affordable, and scalable CDR called bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Its partnership model boosts pulp and paper industry profitability by generating a new revenue stream, helping to protect forestry jobs in rural areas across North America.

Here is CO280’s 2025 Year in Review:

• 4.3+ Million Tonnes of Total CDR Contracted: Over the past year, CO280 has accelerated pulp and paper BECCS at the multi-megatonne scale—contracting over 4 million tonnes with the market’s leading buyers. At over 4.3 million total tonnes contracted to date, CO280 is one of the top five global suppliers of carbon removal by tonnes sold according to cdr.fyi.
• 10+ Projects in Development: The pulp and paper industry in North America produces over 100 million tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually. CO280 is developing more than 10 carbon capture and removal projects in partnership with North America’s leading pulp and paper companies. Altogether, these projects stand to deliver up to 7 million tonnes per annum of durable CDR.
• 4 Projects in Pre-FEED and FEED: Four CO280 projects have reached the Pre-FEED and FEED stages with anticipated FID from 2026 to 2028. The projects are located at pulp and paper mills located in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Canada, and the resulting CDR credits will be sold to buyers in the voluntary carbon market.
• 1 Successful CDR Field Pilot: Together with SLB Capturi, a leading provider of carbon capture technology, CO280 conducted a carbon capture field pilot in the U.S. Gulf Coast to test the real-world performance of liquid amine carbon capture on biogenic CO2 from pulp and paper mills. The pilot successfully met or exceeded all key performance indicators, from carbon capture rate efficiency to energy consumption, and validated that the technology is ready today for commercial-scale deployment at pulp and paper mills.
• 2X Team Growth: To support the development and deployment of pulp and paper BECCS at scale, CO280 has doubled its team across projects, finance, commercial, and engineering—and is continuing to hire for new positions that will make the global mandate for permanent, high-quality CDR a reality.

Cleantech 100: Unlocking new value across climate and industry

Integration with existing industries and infrastructure is unlocking new, scalable revenue across the cleantech ecosystem. From domestic manufacturing to AI, decarbonization coupled with innovation is set to eliminate supply chain vulnerabilities, strengthen domestic capacity, and accelerate economic benefits.

“This year’s Global Cleantech 100 reflects a market in transition—one that is becoming more disciplined, more discerning, and ultimately more resilient,” said Richard Youngman, CEO at Cleantech Group. “While the adjustment phase has been painful for some parts of the ecosystem, we are also witnessing remarkable bursts of innovation responding to new sources of demand, from AI-driven power needs to critical materials security.”

Across industries like power, materials, paper, and water, cleantech solutions are expanding production capacity and mitigating risk—all while safeguarding jobs in manufacturing. In the U.S. alone, retrofitting pulp and paper mills to capture and sequester biogenic CO2 is a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity for the U.S. forest products industry, which represents approximately 5% of U.S. manufacturing GDP. The pulp and paper industry directly employs over 930,000 workers and supports millions of indirect jobs in rural communities.

“By retrofitting mills to capture and sequester biogenic CO2, we’re delivering millions of tonnes of durable CDR to our customers and transforming the economics of the pulp and paper industry,” said Jonathan Rhone, Co-Founder and CEO of CO280. “CO280 has the potential to invest billions of dollars in a critical North American industry—and help secure jobs for forestry workers for decades to come.”

Looking ahead, cleantech solutions like CO280 CDR will continue to advance systems integration, market development, and business innovation to create scalable, repeatable climate solutions for lasting impact.

“The 2026 Global Cleantech 100 arrives at a pivotal moment,” said Anthony DeOrsey, Research Manager at Cleantech Group. “Around the world, governments and industries are no longer innovating for efficiency alone—they are innovating for durability. This year’s honorees reflect that shift.”

To learn more about how CO280 is leading permanent CDR development in North America, join Co-Founders Jonathan Rhone and Natalie Khtikian at the 2026 Cleantech Forum North America.

About CO280
CO280 is a leading developer of projects that produce high-quality, permanent, and affordable carbon dioxide removal (CDR). In partnership with pulp and paper companies, CO280 is working to capture and store millions of tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually to bring the highest-integrity CDR credits to the market while revitalizing the forest products industry. To learn more, visit: www.co280.com. 

About Cleantech Group
Cleantech® Group is the human intelligence authority on global cleantech innovation. By blending our intelligence, proprietary data, and the global network we’ve cultivated for more than 20 years, we deliver insights you can trust and guidance you can act on.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/co280-recognized-as-a-2026-global-cleantech-100-company-302660304.html

SOURCE CO280

CO280 CDR: A year defined by multi-megatonne contracts, project milestones, and global leadership

VANCOUVER, B.C., Jan. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CO280 Solutions Inc. (CO280), a leading developer of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., has been named on Cleantech Group’s 2026 Global Cleantech 100. This annual list recognizes companies poised to deliver market-ready climate solutions that advance a cleaner, more resilient global future.

For the 17^th edition, Cleantech Group collaborated with over 75 leading investors, corporates, and innovation experts to identify CO280 as one of the most promising companies in cleantech with 10+ projects in development and 4.3+ million tonnes of permanent CDR contracted to date.

2025 Year in Review: How CO280 accelerated the development of durable CDR at scale

CO280 retrofits pulp and paper mills with modular carbon capture units to capture and permanently store biogenic CO2, delivering a method of high-quality, affordable, and scalable CDR called bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Its partnership model boosts pulp and paper industry profitability by generating a new revenue stream, helping to protect forestry jobs in rural areas across North America.

Here is CO280’s 2025 Year in Review:

• 4.3+ Million Tonnes of Total CDR Contracted: Over the past year, CO280 has accelerated pulp and paper BECCS at the multi-megatonne scale—contracting over 4 million tonnes with the market’s leading buyers. At over 4.3 million total tonnes contracted to date, CO280 is one of the top five global suppliers of carbon removal by tonnes sold according to cdr.fyi.
• 10+ Projects in Development: The pulp and paper industry in North America produces over 100 million tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually. CO280 is developing more than 10 carbon capture and removal projects in partnership with North America’s leading pulp and paper companies. Altogether, these projects stand to deliver up to 7 million tonnes per annum of durable CDR.
• 4 Projects in Pre-FEED and FEED: Four CO280 projects have reached the Pre-FEED and FEED stages with anticipated FID from 2026 to 2028. The projects are located at pulp and paper mills located in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Canada, and the resulting CDR credits will be sold to buyers in the voluntary carbon market.
• 1 Successful CDR Field Pilot: Together with SLB Capturi, a leading provider of carbon capture technology, CO280 conducted a carbon capture field pilot in the U.S. Gulf Coast to test the real-world performance of liquid amine carbon capture on biogenic CO2 from pulp and paper mills. The pilot successfully met or exceeded all key performance indicators, from carbon capture rate efficiency to energy consumption, and validated that the technology is ready today for commercial-scale deployment at pulp and paper mills.
• 2X Team Growth: To support the development and deployment of pulp and paper BECCS at scale, CO280 has doubled its team across projects, finance, commercial, and engineering—and is continuing to hire for new positions that will make the global mandate for permanent, high-quality CDR a reality.

Cleantech 100: Unlocking new value across climate and industry

Integration with existing industries and infrastructure is unlocking new, scalable revenue across the cleantech ecosystem. From domestic manufacturing to AI, decarbonization coupled with innovation is set to eliminate supply chain vulnerabilities, strengthen domestic capacity, and accelerate economic benefits.

“This year’s Global Cleantech 100 reflects a market in transition—one that is becoming more disciplined, more discerning, and ultimately more resilient,” said Richard Youngman, CEO at Cleantech Group. “While the adjustment phase has been painful for some parts of the ecosystem, we are also witnessing remarkable bursts of innovation responding to new sources of demand, from AI-driven power needs to critical materials security.”

Across industries like power, materials, paper, and water, cleantech solutions are expanding production capacity and mitigating risk—all while safeguarding jobs in manufacturing. In the U.S. alone, retrofitting pulp and paper mills to capture and sequester biogenic CO2 is a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity for the U.S. forest products industry, which represents approximately 5% of U.S. manufacturing GDP. The pulp and paper industry directly employs over 930,000 workers and supports millions of indirect jobs in rural communities.

“By retrofitting mills to capture and sequester biogenic CO2, we’re delivering millions of tonnes of durable CDR to our customers and transforming the economics of the pulp and paper industry,” said Jonathan Rhone, Co-Founder and CEO of CO280. “CO280 has the potential to invest billions of dollars in a critical North American industry—and help secure jobs for forestry workers for decades to come.”

Looking ahead, cleantech solutions like CO280 CDR will continue to advance systems integration, market development, and business innovation to create scalable, repeatable climate solutions for lasting impact.

“The 2026 Global Cleantech 100 arrives at a pivotal moment,” said Anthony DeOrsey, Research Manager at Cleantech Group. “Around the world, governments and industries are no longer innovating for efficiency alone—they are innovating for durability. This year’s honorees reflect that shift.”

To learn more about how CO280 is leading permanent CDR development in North America, join Co-Founders Jonathan Rhone and Natalie Khtikian at the 2026 Cleantech Forum North America.

About CO280
CO280 is a leading developer of projects that produce high-quality, permanent, and affordable carbon dioxide removal (CDR). In partnership with pulp and paper companies, CO280 is working to capture and store millions of tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually to bring the highest-integrity CDR credits to the market while revitalizing the forest products industry. To learn more, visit: www.co280.com. 

About Cleantech Group
Cleantech® Group is the human intelligence authority on global cleantech innovation. By blending our intelligence, proprietary data, and the global network we’ve cultivated for more than 20 years, we deliver insights you can trust and guidance you can act on.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/co280-recognized-as-a-2026-global-cleantech-100-company-302660304.html

SOURCE CO280

Study focuses on fluidized bed design and the structure and performance of various kinds of oxygen carriers

JEONBUK-DO, South Korea, Jan. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Traditional techniques of converting fossil fuels for heat and power generation and chemical production increase carbon footprint, harming society and environment. To mitigate this problem, carbon capture and storage technologies aimed at lowering carbon dioxide emissions and encompassing renewable energy utilization, circular economy, and green chemical synthesis are promising. Chemical looping is one such innovative technology. These processes—representing efficient technologies for hydrogen and chemical production applications—involve the cyclic oxidation and reduction of metal oxide particles in fluidized bed reactors.

In a recent study, a team of researchers led by Dr. Jester Lih Jie Ling, a post-doctoral researcher at Jeonbuk National University, has comprehensively reviewed the latest innovations in chemical looping. Their insightful findings were made available online on 7 October 2025 and have been published in Volume 256 of the journal Renewable Energy on 1 January 2026.

Dr. Ling highlights the major contributions of their work. “Our work highlights key advancements in fluidized-bed reactors that enhance reforming, gasification, and hydrogenation within chemical looping systems. It also emphasizes enhanced oxygen carrier materials with higher reactivity, durability, and resistance—critical attributes for long-term, stable operation.”

The researchers highlight various bed material criteria for both oxygen carriers and feedstocks in reactors, including oxygen vacancy, fuel/feedstock type, carbon deposition, agglomeration, and economical and environmental considerations. Importantly, the technological advancements in chemical looping in fluidized bed reactors enables the use of liquid and solid feedstocks, in addition to a wide variety of chemical pathways.

This review further suggests that the characteristics of oxygen carriers are significant from a microscopic perspective. They impact the yield and purity of the synthesized chemicals. Therefore, the synthesis method of the oxygen carriers plays a pivotal role in determining the overall performance of the process. Some representative methods include sol-gel, spray-drying, mechanical mixing, impregnation, co-precipitation, and freeze granulation techniques.

Considering the huge importance of oxygen carriers—such as perovskite, spinel, core shell, and Cu, Fe, Ni, and Mn-based carriers in chemical looping fluidized bed reactors, the team elaborates upon their structure and physical properties, as well as their performance during complex multiredox cycles. In this way, they contribute to the development of a physical standard for oxygen carriers in various energy and chemical conversion processes, including hydrogen production via steam reforming and water splitting, ammonia synthesis through nitrogen looping, syngas-derived fuels and chemicals, and light olefins and selective oxidation products.

Furthermore, the present work emphasizes the importance of controlling fluidization regime and constructing particle models that combine thermodynamic properties and hydrodynamic motions for yield optimization in chemical looping processes. It also highlights the loss due to thermal and chemical reaction stresses as an area of interest for future research.

“The implementation of chemical looping processes in fluidized bed reactors is in alignment with the increasing demand for sustainable and low carbon renewable energy technologies, particularly when biomass is used as a feedstock with solar thermal energy for bioenergy carbon capture storage applications. Its benefits encompass low-emission power generation with inherent carbon dioxide separation, carbon footprint reduction in chemical production, particularly hydrogen, and industrial decarbonization. Overall, this review is expected to guide the further development of chemical looping fluidized bed reactors,” concludes Dr. Ling.

Reference
Title of original paper: Recent innovations in chemical looping: Fluidized bed design and oxygen carrier performance
Journal: Renewable Energy
DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.124575

 About Jeonbuk National University 
Website: https://www.jbnu.ac.kr/en/index.do

Contact:
Yoonbeom Kim
82 63 270 4638
407439@email4pr.com

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SOURCE Jeonbuk National University