In The News
Bechtel and SolFocus deliver renewable power for California agribusiness
Bechtel (Frederick, Md.; www.bechtel.com), SolFocus, Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.; www.solfocus.com) and developer Sol Orchard announced today that a 1-MW high concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) power plant was completed for Nichols Farms, a pistachio farm in Hanford, Calif. The solar plant, which…
A low-energy, belt-based solid- liquid separation technology
Engineers at Algaeventure Systems (Marysville, Ohio; www.algaevs.com) have developed a system for separating liquids from solids and semisolids at very low energies. Originally targeted at harvesting and dewatering microalgae where the technology could remove a major cost barrier, the separation…
BASF to explore new production investment in Brazil and other business news
BASF to explore new production investment in Brazil March 10, 2011 — BASF is exploring opportunities for a new investment in Brazil for the production of acrylic acid, butyl acrylate and superabsorbent polymers (SAP). The feasibility study will be completed…
Supercritical CO2 Brayton-cycle system packs efficiency into small footprint
Electricity generation of 240 kW has been demonstrated in a Brayton-cycle system that uses supercritical carbon dioxide as the working fluid. Developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratory (Albuquerque, N.M.; www.sandia.gov) and built by Barber Nichols Inc. (Arvada, Colo.; www.barber-nichols.com),…
New condenser design for Claus tail gas slashes refrigeration duty
Last month, at the AIChE Spring Meeting in Chicago, Henry Kister, director of Fractionation Technology at Fluor Corp. (Aliso Viejo, Calif.; www.fluor.com) presented a patent pending process (U.S. Patent Application WO/2011/016797) that promises to cut energy demand and capital costs…
Commercial testing set for ‘smooth’ emulsification technology
A new emulsification process, known as Smooth, has been developed by Velocys, Inc. (Columbus, Ohio; www.velocys.com) — a member of the Oxford Catalyst Group Plc. (Abingdon, U.K.) — and is now ready for testing at the commercial scale. Smooth technology…
Shedding Light on Microreactors
Traditionally, most students have learned about chemical reactions in laboratories using test tubes, beakers and flasks. Those who have gone on to discover and develop new products have typically done so using these batchwise techniques. This mind-set has continued through…
A step toward industrial production of perillic acid
Last month, Brain AG (Zwingenberg; www.brain-biotech.de) and Dechema e.V. (Frankfurt am Main, both Germany; www.dechema.de) began a collaboration in the biotechnological production of perillic acid — a patented natural monoterpene owned by Brain, with promising applications as a bioactive compound…
Making a polyester feedstock from coal
Ube Industries, Ltd. (UBE; www. ube-ind.co.jp) and HighChem Co. (both Tokyo; www.highchem.co.jp) will license their technologies for transforming coal-derived synthesis gas (syngas) into manufacturing ethylene glycol (MEG) — a polyester feedstock — to Qianxixian Qianxi Coal Chemical Investment Co. (Guizhou,…
A lower-energy approach to natural gas ‘sweetening’
A new method for removing hydrogen sulfide from natural gas at ambient temperatures could allow significant energy savings compared to the current technique and increase the range of H2S concentrations in natural gas that are economically viable to extract from…