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…
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…
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…
Demonstration plants to test six processes for producing ethanol from non-food-based biomass will be built with support from the U.S. DOE (edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-543). Between them, the plants will produce more than 130 million gal/yr of ethanol from cellulosic feeds, including agricultural…
A fungus that is said to be more effective than baker's yeast for the conversion of waste to ethanol has been discovered by researchers at Boras University College (Sweden; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-544). The fungus, a saprophyte (of the zygomycetes order of fungi),…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…