Electrochemically converting carbon dioxide into useful chemicals or fuels is a promising CO2-utilization strategy, but scaling up the process is a challenge. One reason is that the gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) used to facilitate contact between gaseous CO2, solid catalyst and…
Dry reforming of methane (DRM), in which carbon dioxide and methane are combined to form synthesis gas (H2 and CO), is an attractive route to making syngas because it does not require consumption of water and does not produce CO2…
Innovation, intelligence and automation increase precision in weighing equipment for chemical processors Accurate weighing and dosing are critical to the success of any chemical process, because they ensure product quality, safety and resource optimization. Fortunately, innovative technologies, intelligence and automation…
Meeting climate-change goals requires steep reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants and hard-to-abate industry operations. However, the energy required to release captured CO2 from sorbent material is a challenge for the economic viability of these efforts. Also, retrofitting…
One of the main limiting factors in the production of “green” hydrogen via electrochemical water splitting is the relatively slow rate of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the use of very expensive noble metals like iridium to catalyze the…
Sustainable SMR In the pursuit of lowering greenhouse gas emissions, hydrogen has gained much attention as a potentially “clean” energy source. Typically, hydrogen is produced by steam methane reforming (SMR), a process which itself produces greenhouse gases. Efforts to lower…
The demand for “green” methanol as a low-carbon fuel is rising, making it a valuable commodity, as well as a promising avenue for waste-carbon utilization, especially since it can be readily produced from “stranded” carbon sources, such as flare gas.…
A pilot project evaluating the Electro-Ceramic Desalination (ECD) technology developed by Membrion Inc. (Seattle, Wash.; www.membrion.com) successfully recovered clean water from the reject water of a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination process at a commercial manufacturing site. Membrion’s technology uses ceramic…
Bio-based succinic acid has been explored as a renewable building-block for a host of chemicals and polymers, but its production process remains costly due largely to the complicated purification process that generates a large waste stream. Now, researchers at the…
Plant Watch Evonik breaks ground on specialty-amine production plant in Nanjing November 11, 2024 — Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has broken ground on its plant expansion for specialty amines in Nanjing, China. The Nanjing plant specializes in producing…