Jiasi Sun, a PhD student working in Professor Jason He’s lab, noticed something peculiar about two identical reactors processing sewage sludge. “I realized that light was accelerating the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into reactive species. Traditional anaerobic digestion converts sewage sludge into methane biogas, but the process requires expensive generators and may not be economically viable at smaller scales. Their method uses hydrogen peroxide to create oxidative stress that eliminates methane-producing microorganisms called methanogens. ## The Science Behind the SerendipityThe light exposure catalyzes hydrogen peroxide breakdown, generating hydroxyl radicals that are far more toxic to methanogens than hydrogen peroxide alone.