Scientists at Kao Corp. (KAO; Tokyo, Japan; chemical.kao.com) have discovered an enzyme that has the potential for producing large quantities of medium-chain (C12) fatty acids (FAs), which are the main components of natural oils, such as palm-kernel and coconut-palm oils.…
Pressure transmitters are widely used throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). Although pressure in and of itself is an important process parameter, differential pressure (DP) measurements enable the inference of other important parameters as well. This article presents a concise…
Reactive chemicals and intermediates are used extensively in the chemical process industries (CPI). Hazardous chemical reactivity can be defined as “any chemical reaction with the potential to exhibit rates of increase in temperature and/or pressure too high to be absorbed…
From plastics and synthetics to fertilizers and fuel, the general public takes for granted so much of what the chemical process industries (CPI) produces, and the risks associated with CPI production facilities are not typically considered. That is, until the…
Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A. (Aubagne, France) welcomes Miriam Monge as director of marketing for integrated solutions. Jose Varela becomes vice president and general manager of the personal safety division of 3M Co. (St. Paul, Minn.). Luis López-Remón is…
NORTH AMERICA American Chemical Soc. — Midwest Regional Meeting. American Chemical Soc. (Washington, D.C.). Phone: 800-227-5558; Web: acs.org Columbia, Mo. November 12–15 International Lubricants & Waxes Conference. AFPM (Washington, D.C.). Phone: 202-457-0480; Web: afpm.org Houston November 13–14 International…
A step closer to bio-based acrylic acid Last month, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com), Cargill (Minneapolis, Minn.; www.cargill.com) and Novozymes (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) achieved another milestone in the joint development of technologies to produce acrylic acid from renewable resources.…
A bioreactor technology for removing organic and inorganic contaminants from industrial wastewater has been commercially launched by developer Honeywell and its subsidiary UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com). The launch is part of a wider initiative by UOP to respond…
A commercial prototype perovskite solar cell that is less expensive than current thin-film solar cells is under development by a team from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore; www.ntu.edu.sg), in collaboration with Dyesol Ltd. (Queanbeyan, NSW, Australia; www.dyesol.com) and professor Michael Grätzel…
Many applications in the chemical process industries (CPI) require filtration — from cleaning the air of dust, to corrosion prevention, to cleaning up incoming process water, to recovering proteins downstream. No matter the application, filtration providers are working to improve…