In The News
U.S. Petroleum Refining: Snapshot 2015
Developments from the 2015 AFPM annual meeting frame a picture of the current state of the U.S. petroleum refining industry On a broad level, the outlook for the U.S. petroleum-refining industry remains bright, despite a recent decline in crude oil…
‘Up-cycling’ perfluorinated polymers
At the end of March, Dyneon GmbH (Burgkirchen, Germany) — a fully owned subsidiary of 3M Co. (www.3m.com) — together with its cooperating partners, the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, the University of Bayreuth and the institute InVerTec, opened the world’s first…
Making bioethanol directly from starch
Today, the cost of enzymes continues to make bioethanol uncompetitive as a fuel. Eliminating the need for amylases, which are used to hydrolyze starch into fermentable sugars, would be a key step toward reducing the operating costs for producing bioethanol.…
Air-capture of CO2 using waste process heat
Carbon-negative technology being commercialized by Global Thermostat LLC (New York, N.Y.; www.globalthermostat.com) removes carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere using low-cost waste process heat from industrial processes. The technology works in a similar fashion to cogeneration approaches and could transform…
A desalination membrane that is resistant to chlorine
The major drawback of existing membranes for desalination plants is that the membranes are not tolerant of oxidizing agents, such as chlorine. To overcome this drawback, a team of researchers from the University of Melbourne (www.unimelb.edu.au) and CSIRO (Melbourne, Australia;…
A pulsation dampener that decreases pump energy consumption
A new pulsation dampener benefits from a design that can reportedly decrease energy usage. The Expulse, a flexible, inline pulsation dampener recently released by Flowrox Inc. (Linthicum, Md; www.flowrox.us), consists of a reinforced outer hose and an expansive inner hose,…
Construction to begin on biomass-to-fuels facility
Construction is set to begin on a biorefinery in Oregon this summer that will manufacture bio-based jet fuel and diesel from forest and sawmill residues. When it begins producing biofuels at the end of 2016, it will be capable of…
New cryogenic technology for cooling superconducting cables
Industrial gases specialist Messer Group GmbH (Bad Soden, Germany; www.messergroup.com) has developed a new cryogenic technology that makes it possible to use liquid nitrogen (LN2) to cool high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables down to –209°C, which is significantly lower than that…
Lanxess starts up EPDM rubber plant in China; and more business news
Plant Watch Roquette launches isosorbide production unit in France April 10, 2015 — Roquette Freres (Lestrem, France; www.roquette.com) has started operations at a new unit for the production of isosorbide at its site in Lestrem. The new unit will produce…
An effective graphene-based desalination membrane
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; www.ornl.gov) have demonstrated an efficient desalination process using a porous graphene-based desalination membrane. While the thinness of the freestanding graphene (roughly 0.3 nm) allows for significantly higher flux than traditional…