In The News
This process may produce electricity from low-temperature geothermal resources
The world has vast geothermal resources in the temperature range of 150–250°F, but these temperatures are too low for economical exploitation, using today’s technology. A process that could change the benchmark is being developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL,…
Fast digestion makes better use of municipal sludge
The use of residual sludge from municipal sewage plants as fertilizer in agriculture is controversial (due to heavy metals and other pollutants), and slurry can no longer be disposed of in landfills in many countries. A less expensive alternative to…
Fast digestion makes better use of municipal sludge
The use of residual sludge from municipal sewage plants as fertilizer in agriculture is controversial (due to heavy metals and other pollutants), and slurry can no longer be disposed of in landfills in many countries. A less expensive alternative to…
An activated carbon for picking up heavy metals
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS, Beltsville, Md.; www.ars.usda.gov) has received a patent on a process for producing activated carbon from poultry litter, which consists of bedding materials such as sawdust and peanut shells, along with droppings and feathers. U.S.-grown broiler…
A cost-effective process for recycling wastewater
A wastewater treatment process that consumes less energy, produces less sludge and makes available up to 75% of the water for reuse — including that of potable water quality — has been commercialized by Linde Gases, a division of The…
A protective coating helps fine powders flow, without agglomeration
A team from Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.pharm.monash.edu.au), has developed an approach — a hybrid mixing and milling process — for producing fine (1–20 µm) pharmaceutical powders with good flow and de-agglomeration properties. Team…
Process optimization software allows rapid setup, cost savings
New industrial process-optimization software can be fully operational in seven days — months ahead of existing predictive monitoring systems, according to Slipstream Software (Alpharetta, Ga.; www.slipstreamrpm.com). The company’s proprietary data-modeling tools are responsible for the reduced setup time. By mining…
More efforts to make biofuels from algae, microorganisms
Over the past few weeks there has been a number of announcements on projects aimed to further develop algae-to-fuels technology (see also, “Pond Strength,” CE, September 2008, pp. 22–25). Plankton Power (Wellfleet; www.planktonpower.com) and the Regional Technology Development Corp. of…
… and from microorganisms
Last month, BP Corp. (London; www.bp.com) signed a joint-development agreement with Martek Biosciences Corp. (Columbia, Md.; www.martek.com) to work on the production of microbial oils for biofuels applications. The two companies aim to establish proof of concept for large-scale, cost-effective…
New heating technique improves zeolite membrane performance
Adding a rapid heat-treatment step to the process of making zeolite membranes improves separation performance by eliminating grain boundary defects, according to researchers from the University of Minnesota (UMN; Minneapolis, Minn.; www.umn.edu), who published their study in the July 31…