To reduce dependency on petroleum-based plastics, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Essen, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) has developed a new manufacturing process for producing the biopolymer polylactide (PLA). The company is now building the first commercial plant based on its patented PLA neo…
New process technology from Chemetry (Moss Landing, Calif.; www.chemetrycorp.com) aims to revitalize the chlor-alkali product chain by manufacturing ethylene dichloride (EDC) and caustic using much less power than conventional processes. Through an exclusive licensing and engineering agreement, Technip (Paris, France;…
Phenpropanone monomers can be produced from lignin via an enzymatic process developed by Yukari Ohta and coworkers at the R&D Center for Marine Biosciences, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (Yokosuka City; www.jamstec.go.jp), in collaboration with National Defense Academy,…
A patented, inline absorption system has been developed and field-tested by ExxonMobil (Houston; www.exxonmobil.com), and has just been licensed to Sulzer Chemtech (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzer.com). Because the tradenamed cMIST technology operates inside pipes, it replaces the need for conventional methods…
Cyclohexasilane 3DIcon Corp. (Tulsa, Okla.; www.3dicon.net) has signed a supply agreement with Gelest Inc. (Morrisville, Pa.; www.gelest.com) to produce cyclohexasilane (CHS) at pilot scale using 3DIcon’s newly developed CHS process. 3DIcon’s process (see CE, Sept. 2016, p. 9; www.chemengonline.com/new-process-cyclohexasilane-offers-lower-cost-improved-safety) offers a…
HVAC cooling tower A newly introduced cooling tower for building heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) has both its structural casing and fill made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) resin that contains additives designed to prevent the growth of microorganisms and…
Two Australian companies — Australian Vanadium Ltd. (AVL; www.australianvanadium.com.au) and TNG Ltd. (both Perth; www.tngltd.com.au) — are now able to produce commercial-grade vanadium electrolyte for use in vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRFBs). Those batteries are increasingly gaining favor, primarily for grid-scale…
Researchers from the group of professor Ikuya Yamada at Osaka Prefecture University (Osaka, Japan; www.osakafu-u.ac.jp), in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (Hyogo; www.spring8.or.jp) and Fuji Die Co. (Tokyo; www.fujidie.co.jp), have synthesized for the first…
The release of silver from industrial wastewater has caused serious environmental problems. Many methods have been developed to remove silver ions from industrial wastewater, including chemical precipitation, ion exchange, electrolysis, replacement, membrane and reverse osmosis. Several adsorbents have been used…
A new commercial manufacturing process for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) produces tubes in the range of 1–10 mm in length (5–12-nm dia.), two orders of magnitude longer than currently available CNTs, which typically have lengths from 5–20µm. “Despite attractive mechanical and…