In The News
Business News: November 2026
Plant Watch MOL Group opens first biomethane plant in Szarvas, Hungary October 14, 2026 — MOL Group Plc. (Budapest, Hungary; molgroup.info) inaugurated its first biomethane plant in Szarvas, Hungary. As a result of the investment of more than HUF 2.7…
Microbial technology is turning end-of-life oilfields into hydrogen-producing bioreactors
Subsurface sources are an area of emerging interest for producing low-carbon hydrogen. A microbiology-forward approach to subsurface hydrogen production developed by Eclipse Energy (Houston; www.eclipseenergy.co) is designed to recover hydrogen from depleted oil reservoirs. The RenovaStrata TM technology is centered…
Layered graphite membrane has internal structure to aid water separation from IPA
Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is a key industrial solvent for the pharmaceuticals, electronics and fine chemicals sectors, among other uses, but methods for making IPA leave water-alcohol mixtures that need to be separated to achieve the purities required for industrial use.…
Protein-binding process supports selective rare-earth element separation
Isolating and purifying rare-earth elements (REEs) is extremely challenging and energy-intensive due to the difficulty in separating chemically similar REE ions. Traditional separation methods require solvent extraction or chelating agents and produce large volumes of hazardous waste, all with little…
Industrial Heat Pumps for Waste-Heat Upgrading
Electrification of industrial processes using heat pumps is moving from niche applications toward the mainstream, but challenges to their implementation remain Decarbonization initiatives have focused attention on the production of process heat for industrial operations without the combustion of fossil…
New plasma-powered process directly converts methane to graphene oxide
Researchers at Texas A&M University (College Station; www.tamu.edu) have developed a fundamentally new route to graphene oxide (GO) synthesis using non-thermal atmospheric plasma — a method that sidesteps the toxic chemicals and scalability limitations that often constrain conventional production approaches.…
Business News: October 2026
Plant Watch Evonik breaks ground on €80-million biotechnology expansion in Slovakia September 14, 2026 — Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has broken ground on a new biotechnology expansion project at its Fermas site in Slovakia, part of the €80-million…
Synthetic enzyme mimicry breaks open new aromatic reaction pathways
Mimicking enzyme-like behavior for synthetic chemistry is a growing field of exploration in sustainable chemical production, unlocking potential new reaction routes that eliminate waste and unwanted byproducts. A team of chemists from Penn State University (State College, Pa.; www.psu.edu) has…
Low-voltage, membrane-free electrolysis produces hydrogen and FDCA
A new approach to the traditional alkaline electrolyzers used to produce “green” hydrogen from water eliminates the membrane and introduces a new reaction mechanism at the anode, enabling the production of a high-value plastic precursor, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). Developed at…
These “self-driving” bioreactor sensors are forging new fermentation frontiers
Ubiquitous in biomanufacturing, fermentation processes are complex and unpredictable when compared to traditional chemical-processing operations. From changing cell-growth rates to drifts in environmental conditions, typical control approaches can only react to predetermined setpoints rather than reliably maximize product output. A…