A new project in Canada will build a pilot facility to demonstrate a carbon-neutral production strategy for battery-grade graphite materials. Nouveau Monde Graphite (Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Québec, Canada; www.nouveaumonde.ca) has signed an agreement with Olin Corp. (Clayton, Mo.; www.olin.com) to construct two…
DESALINATION The challenge for large-scale desalination is to improve the performance of membranes used for reverse osmosis. One promising method is to introduce artificial water channels (AWCs) into synthetic membranes, to imitate the aquaporins of biological proteins for transporting water.…
The cryptography working group within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF; Fremont, Calif.; www.ieft.org) standards organization has chosen the CPace protocol — developed by Endress + Hauser AG (Reinach, Switzerland; www.endress.com) — as a recommended method for use in internet…
Filtration is being investigated as an alternative to thermal separation methods (such as distillation and evaporation) in many applications because of the potential energy savings, but conventional filtration membranes, such as those used in water desalination, are often not robust…
Drawing inspiration from the enzymatic breakdown of macromolecules in cellular systems, scientists at Ames Laboratory (Ames, Iowa; www.ameslab.gov) have developed a nanostructured catalyst that can break down high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and other polyolefins into a narrow distribution of diesel- and…
In an example of a biologically inspired and nano-engineered catalyst, researchers at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia; www.rmit.edu.au) have developed ceramic catalyst particles with a porous network organized hierarchically, where one chemical reaction takes place within larger pores, while a second…
Researchers from the College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University (Nanjing, China; www.njtech.edu.cn) have developed a new strategy for forming lithium ion-sieve membranes to achieve an efficient recovery of lithium ions from brine or seawater. Spinel lithium manganese oxide ion-sieves…
Magnesia cements have been around for thousands of years, and have been explored extensively over recent decades primarily because of their capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere at ambient temperatures. Until now, however, their use has been limited to…
Nanoscale materials have been added to engine lubricants to enhance performance for some time, but the use of such materials has been limited by their inability to remain suspended in the oils, and by their tendency to darken the color…
Zymergen (Emeryville, Calif.; www.zymergen.com) recently announced $300 million in new investments for the company’s fermentation-based platform technology that generates novel bio-based monomers for specialty products applications. Combining synthetic biology with machine-learning-enhanced automated screening, Zymergen’s technology has demonstrated the capability to…