In The News
Heat plus light may boost solar energy efficiency
Photovoltaic cells typically operate at 20% efficiency in converting solar energy to electricity. A new system that could boost the efficiency to as much as 60% by combining the light and heat of solar radiation is being developed at Stanford…
This membrane system extracts hydrogen from mixed gas streams
A metal membrane system developed by Eltron Research and Development (Boulder, Colo., www.eltronresearch.com) separates hydrogen from mixed-gas feed streams that result from gasification, steam reforming and petrochemical processes. Based on a proprietary, dense metal alloy with hydrogen permeability that is…
A promising way to reduce the cost of producing oil from oil sands
Roughly 80% of the heavy oil in Alberta’s oil sands is too deep for open-pit mining, the most common production method at present. Consequently, this oil will have to be recovered by in situ methods, such as steam-assisted gravity drainage…
Food from algae
TNO (Delft; www.tno.nl) and Ingrepro Renewables B.V. (Borculo, both the Netherlands; www.ingrepro.nl) have started a joint-research project to extract food ingredients from algae. Proteins, which account for up to 60 wt.% of algae, could serve as a sustainable alternative to…
Sugar-derived compounds can be model solidifiers for oil spills
Professor George John and graduate student Swapnil Jadhav at the City College of New York (www.ccny.cuny.edu) are lead authors of a paper on a class of compounds, known as phase-selective gelators, that can selectively solidify an oil phase in water.…
September chementator briefs
Worlds largest PDH unit Lummus Technology (Bloomfield, N.J.), a CB&I company (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com), has been awarded a contract by Tianjin Bohua Petrochemical Co. for the license and engineering design of a grassroots propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit to…
Dow Corning considers biomass plant to produce steam and electricity; and more business news
Dow Corning considers biomass plant to produce steam and electricity August 20, 2010 — Dow Corning’s (Midland, Mich.; www.dowcorning.com) Midland manufacturing site is considering the installation of a biomass-powered energy facility to provide a renewable, reliable and cost-effective supply of…
KBR lands contract for LiOH-operation expansion
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) announced that its Downstream business unit has been awarded a contract to provide engineering and procurement services to Chemetall Foote Corp. (www.chemetalllithium.com) — a subsidiary of Rockwood Holdings, Inc. (www.rocksp.com) — for the addition of lithium…
Lonza acquires Vivante GMP Solutions
Lonza (Basel, Switzerland; www.lonza.com) enters the viral based-manufacturing market today with its purchase of Vivante GMP Solutions, Inc. (Houston; www.vivante-gmp.com) The acquisition advances Lonza’s strategy to broaden its biologics custom service offering for the growing viral vaccine and gene therapy…
Axens’ Revivoil technology at PDVSA Intevep
PDVSA Intevep (www.pdvsa.com) — the technological division of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) — has selected Axens’ (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) and Viscolube Revivoil technology for its waste oil re-refining plant to be located in San Juan de los Morros (Guárico…