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HM-free passivation

BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-548) and voestalpine Stahl GmbH (Linz, Austria; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-549) have developed a steel passivation compound that is free of chromium and fluoride. Launched at last month’s Hanover Fair (Germany), BASF’s Luglavan was developed for use in conversion…

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Good Times for Refiners

    Improved profitability in the refining industry has brought a wave of investment aimed at raising capacity, boosting product quality and operating flexibility, and increasing refiners’ ability to deal with difficult feedstocks. Greater integration with petrochemical complexes and, in…

Coal-fired power plants should become chemical manufacturers

            Many coal-fired power plants make gypsum and construction materials. But they should also consider manufacturing hydrochloric acid and ethanol. Furthermore, they should consider substituting biomass and waste organics for up to 10% of the…

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Sanctioned ‘cheating’

Business software applications, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) — the broad set of activities that are supported by application software to help companies manage business activities, including product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service…

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Sanctioned ‘cheating’

Business software applications, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) — the broad set of activities that are supported by application software to help companies manage business activities, including product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service…

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Ethanol partnership

Mascoma Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-545) and Royal Nedalco (Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands) have signed a license and joint-development agreement with the goal of commercializing ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. Nedalco has developed modified yeasts that can produce ethanol from all…

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Green glycol

Last month, the Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-546) introduced Propylene Glycol Renewable (PGR), a monopropylene glycol that is made from glycerin generated during the production of biodiesel. Dow is conducting PGR trials with customers and anticipates having limited commercial…

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Tri-generation

Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-547) and FuelCell Energy Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-548) have begun construction on an advanced hydrogen-energy demonstration station. The station, funded in part from the DOE, will demonstrate tri-generation of hydrogen, electric power and heat from…

CO2 activation

Researchers at the Max Plank Institute for Colloids and Interfaces (Potsdam, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-549) have taken a first step towards artificial photosynthesis by developing a metal-free catalyst that could enable CO2 to be used as a reagent in chemical synthesis. The…

Sustainable insulation

Together with four partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT; Pfinztal, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-550) has developed an insulation material that is made entirely from renewable raw materials. The material has nearly the same insulating characteristics as conventional glass wool or…