Next year, construction will begin on an industrial-scale pilot plant to further develop a new process that decomposes methane into H2 and carbon. The process uses a thermo-catalytic decomposition (TCD) technology developed by Hycamite TCD Technologies Oy (Kokkola, Finland; www.hycamite.com).…
Toxicology testing The world’s first toxicology-testing strategy without animal testing has been approved by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; Paris, France; www.oecd.org). The testing strategy consists of three so-called alternative methods. They can be used to predict…
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards — a program that is sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA; www.epa.gov) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, and co-sponsored by the American Chemical Society…
Global digitalization professionals will convene in Austin, Tex. for the 2021 Connected Plant Conference (www.connectedplantconference.com), which is being held August 30–Sept. 2. The event will cover all aspects of the industrial internet of things (IIoT), and its enabling technologies, including…
Higher-volume production of battery-powered vehicles is driving the development of high-performance polymers with improved properties to meet the needs of electric propulsion The market for battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) has grown rapidly over the past five years. According to a…
Special considerations must be made for loading expensive solid catalyst materials into fixed-bed and tubular reactors Most units in the chemical process industries (CPI) use complex and expensive heterogeneous catalysts aimed at improving reaction performance. Although sometimes overlooked, the solids-handling…
Plant Watch Chemours breaks ground on $93-million mining facility in Florida July 14, 2021 — The Chemours Co. (Wilmington, Del.; www.chemours.com) recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new $93-million mining facility in Clay County, Fla. This site will give…
Detailed plans for handling hazardous materials should be a central part of any chemical plant’s disaster preparedness plan Over the past year, many chemical facilities managed to overcome extreme circumstances. One instance of an extreme event was the winter storm…
This company has introduced what is said to be industry’s first explosion-proof electric-actuated stainless-steel two-piece V-ball packages. They are available in sizes½ to 2 in. NPT. The new M8E700076V36-V6-V9 series electric actuated V-ball valve (photo) is said to offer precise…
Enterprise-level software simplifies data management Last month, this company launched its Plantweb Optics Data Lake (photo), an enterprise-level data-management software solution that helps manufacturers reduce data complexity so that they can fully leverage operations data across a production site or…