The rise of the salty water table in many areas of Australia is threatening a large area of agricultural land. In a two-year research, development and demonstration project, scientists have been looking for ways to solve the problem by producing…
A more efficient process for producing synthesis gas (syngas; hydrogen and carbon monoxide) from natural gas has been developed by JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-541) in cooperation with Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (Osaka, Japan), as part of a national project…
SK Corp. (Seoul, South Korea; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-542) has developed a new process to increase the yield of olefins from the catalytic cracking of paraffinic feeds (paraffins-rich naphtha). The Advanced Catalytic Olefin (ACO) process uses a proprietary zeolite-type granular catalyst in a…
Aspen Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, Mass., edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-544) announced a milestone accomplishment as a result of combining the company's thermophysical and thermochemical property data sets with those maintained by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Gaithersburg, Md.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-545). Through…
Last month, Diversa Corp. (San Diego, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-546) and Celunol Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-547) signed a definitive merger agreement to create what is claimed as a new leader in the emerging cellulose-based ethanol industry. The combined company will be…
P&ID's are often generated using Autodesk, Inc.'s (San Rafael, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-548) AutoCAD software platform and user generated drawing blocks. To better facilitate this wide use, Autodesk launched AutoCAD P&ID 2007 software at daratechPLANT 2007, hinting at a forthcoming suite of…
Last month, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; Beijing; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-549) and Syntroleum Corp. (Tulsa, Okla.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-550) signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint technology-development effort tor advanced natural gas-to-liqquids (GTL) and coal-to-liquids (CTL) technologies. Syntroleum will provide its…
For developing a new technology that traps carbon dioxide and other pollutants so they can be removed, researchers from the University of Bath's Dept. of Chemical Engineering (edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-551) have received the £185,000 Brian Mercer Award for Innovation from the Royal…
TubeMaster, Inc. (Louisville, Ky.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-552) has filed patent applications for a new seal technology used in tubes that have both catalyst and thermocouples. Called ThermoCoupleMaster, the new seal is especially suitable for multi-tubular reactors in petrochemical plants. The device makes…
DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-553) has commercialized a patented process that removes more than 97% of trace levels of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), its homologues and direct precursors meeting the voluntary U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA; Washington, D.C.) 2010/15 PFOA Stewardship program…